Mega Hyper Double Religion Post 1: Heaven and Hell

I was watching television the other day and the Keanu Reeves thriller "Constantine" was on. In it, Hell is depicted as a roughened version of Earth, with something resembling a catastrophically destroyed city as the basic landscape. The terrain is rough, the wind is howling, and there are burning fires and embers everywhere. Freakish humanoid creatures lurk about, chasing the protagonist.

Imagery of Heaven and Hell as places inhabited by dead humans always seems a bit too literal for me, I've resolved that my soul does not resemble this two-legged hairless ape in which it resides; whatever it is that comprises my Id, Ego, and Superego is a formless thing that cannot be described.

Further, my study of Christianity (and readings of C.S. Lewis) leads me to believe that Heaven is not "Earth on a sunny day", nor is it a place where I have not one, but two Ferrari's. It is a place where my soul, whatever form it may be, will be absorbed into the pure love that is God and I will know nothing but the sensations of happiness and fulfillment.

Anyway, it bugs me when Hell is depicted as a fiery version of New York City. That might be an awful place for a human being to suffer, but really, wind and fire are no threat to a soul that has no body to be consumed by the heat.

For me, the best way to consider Heaven and Hell from a non-human point of view is to imagine Heaven as water and Hell as oil. Pour them both into a beaker, and you've got the Afterlife. Souls that are judged and found worthy are dropped into the beaker and find they mix with the water. Souls that are found wanting are dropped into the beaker and join the oil. The water, of course, is the sweet embrace of God's Love. The oil is simply the lack of it. No amount of stirring can mix the water and oil, they re-separate as soon as the stirring rod is removed.

I can think of few things worse than being infinitely close to something wnderful but denied it. That, to me, would be Hell: to be nestled right up against the overwhelming power of God's everlasting love, but be unable to feel it at all. And be stuck that way for eternity.

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