It’s probably safe to say that we all have, at best, an
incomplete picture of what heaven might be like. Perhaps this is due simply to
an honest mistake, or the (obvious) fact that we have not been there ourselves.
But I would argue that our view of heaven might be most radically flawed when
we project our deepest personal and societal desires onto the concept of the
afterlife.
In class a few weeks ago, Eryn brought up the story of The Last of the Mohicans. For the Mohicans in the story, the afterlife consisted of “the
happy hunting grounds.” While this might just be an Indianism coined by Cooper,[1] the point remains the
same: The afterlife is meant to be an idealization of the good life, as envisioned
by the Mohicans in the story.
That brings up a question that is relevant for us: Do we
believe what we believe because we want to believe it? And is that really a
good reason to believe anything, ever? To be more specific, are our beliefs
about heaven shaped by rational thought, or do we merely create a
self-medicating idea that makes us feel better?
Like I said in a previous post, we can’t really escape
our background beliefs, and that is not exactly a bad thing. But we should at
least try to understand them, and only accept them if the evidence justifies
that we do. Contemplating heaven should be no different. Heaven might very well
contain elements that we deeply desire, but that is in no way dependent on what
we want. To state the obvious, whatever heaven is like is what heaven is like. Whatever is, is.
I believe that God’s vision for our future, and indeed
the future of all of creation, is far grander than making us happy or
comfortable. It reaches far beyond our personal wants and the happiness society
peddles. While happiness and comfort might very well be results in our true
final state, it would be a grave misunderstanding to assume that they are our
ultimate end.
[1] http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2094/did-native-americans-really-believe-in-the-happy-hunting-grounds
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