Are we all going to Hell?

Posted on May 8, 2011 Are We All Going To Hell? This blog arises as a result of debates started in various fora by people who think that their religion or their path is the only path. They believe that everybody else is going to hell. BTW, there are some terrific carved stone panels on hell in Angkor. 32 different levels of hell are described, in contrast, heaven only possesses 14 levels. This problem of Hell and Heaven arises primarily with the followers of monotheistic faiths. The followers of the Dharma faiths believe that they will reincarnate, some believe that Hell and Heaven actually exist here on earth. For the purposes of this discussion I will therefore confine myself to the monotheistic faiths. The followers of Christianity believe that only through the body of Jesus can you actually go to heaven. This belief did not arise de novo in the followers, it arises from within Christianity itself, in fact, it is the heart and soul of that particular religion. The theology which underlies this concept is quite easy to understand, however it also presents certain difficulties which cannot be glossed over. A similar belief is held by Muslims, although the belief here is held in Allah (The God) and his messenger, the prophet Mohammed. Once you give the burden of your sins or karmas or whatever to a third party, in the case of Christianity it is Jesus, you believe that you are free of all your problems. And of course, a good Christian might even want to spare Jesus the trouble of carrying his burden for him. After all, if you truly love somebody then you wouldnt want them to suffer on your behalf, would you? So, this bit is quite easy to understand. What is however, not so easy to understand is the vehemence of many Christians that everybody else is going to hell. There is a basic problem with this construct. The first problem is that the person belonging to a particular religion believes that only those who belong to his or her particular creed can go to Heaven. According to them, everybody else will go to Hell, just because they did not or indeed could not belong to that particular religion. Here, please note that I speak not just about those who will not convert to the One true Faith but also of those who were never given the opportunity to do so. I wonder whose fault it was if 200 years ago, the poor Eskimos in Alaska could not meet a Christian preacher dedicated enough to go to those freezing climes to spread the gospel of the

Son of God? Was it Gods fault, was it Jesuss fault, the fault of the Christian mission or indeed was it the fault of the Eskimo himself? So was God condemning certain groups of people, especially those people, who were at the peripheries of geography or in extreme climes? Or were certain religions doing this to manufacture a climate of fear? And what about those poor Hindus, Buddhists and Jains who sat down for hours everyday to meditate on God, dedicating in many many cases, their whole lives to God rather than just pay lip service to Him? Or indeed what about the 70 year old Muslim who prayed 5 times for many hours a day for a lifetime and who actually fasted forty days in Ramadan, every year for the last 60 years? He founded an orphanage you do say! and he worked with 500 children in his lifetime. Small consequence say the followers of the other monotheistic faiths. What religion did he belong to? 500 small lives who owed their all to him but that wasnt enough for the monotheistic belief in other faiths. Oh, they all went to hell, you dont say? And did you also see them there or is this just a matter of your belief? Lets switch sides for a moment and turn to Islamic doctrine. To resolve the matter of who will go to Heaven and who will go to Hell, it is the Haddiths which are of importance. Here we see that the same bias applies. If you are a Muslim, then you will somehow reach Heaven, three fourths of which is reserved for this creed. In fact, a further clarification is available: Even a bad Muslim will reach Heaven, but a good follower from other faiths will find it virtually impossible. Here the example of the uncle of the prophet, who did not convert to Islam is given PBUH, who Is experiencing Hell. Never mind any of the good deeds which were done by him. I am afraid, even with the utmost regard that I have for the Prophet, I find it extremely difficult to accept these statements. The problem of judging whether somebody else will go to Hell or Heaven is even harder than judging whether a woman has indeed had an orgasm or is just faking it to please you. You cannot really see these things with your eyes so why bother with judging them. In judging them of course you also run the singular risk of putting an idea, which has no basis in fact, into the heads of poor believers in God. An idea which may ruin what little happiness they get from small things in life, saddling them with a guilt from which they will escape only when much older. I ask you: Is God so foolish? Can He cannot judge the capability of His followers, that He would base decisions about who would go to Hell and who to Heaven on such obvious drivel.

I further asked myself about the illogical statements made in various religions such as God only speaks in Sanskrit, or Arabic or Latin or whatever language. Or even X language is more preferential and dear to God At this point it strikes me as I am sure it strikes a lot of logical minded people that God isnt about to speak to you, ie. Give you a revelation in a language which you cannot understand. After all if God truly spoke to you, then He would give you a revelation which would have to be perfectly understood by you in order that you would be able to communicate it to others. As Arjun did not speak Arabic, God as Krishna did not give him the revelation of the Bhagwad Gita in Arabic, it was given in Sanskrit. Equally, as the prophet Mohammed did not speak or understand Sanskrit, there would have been no point in giving him a revelation in that language. If the only language you can speak is, for example, German. There is no use giving you a revelation in English because you will not understand it. The base component of all languages is sound itself, if you believe that sound was created by God, then this sound has been in existence for millions of years, the sound produced by volcanoes and earthquakes, or even by birds is just one example. This sound predates religion and its revelations. So sound makes up the basic building blocks of all speech. The majority of languages of modern mainstream religions only originated a few thousand years ago. Sound obviously predated those languages. Creation of power structures is perhaps the most important reason for such claims of exclusivity. God is not a politician that He requires more followers.