This Is UtopiaI
wrote this ages ago and thought it might be too 'hippy-dippy' to post
up. After reading Winer's "suicide note" and Euan's comments and Hugh's
cartoon about it, I thought I'd put it up as it seems to mirror all of
their thoughts.One of my big issues with religion is the
whole idea of Heaven. That some people spend all of their short and
precious time as conscious beings loathing everything that is "human"
in the hope that they will attain ever-lasting life in Heaven is
downright bizarre. They rally against and despise those who love too
much, laugh too much, dance too much, delight too much. They are
infuriated by the things they call 'sins of the flesh'. Lust, desire,
passion, overindulgence in any way is forbidden in their eyes. They
even go so far as to believe that we were created as humans rather than
evolved from apes as they want to distance themselves as much as
possible from 'the animal' inside them.
What's even more bizarre
is that many of them believe that one exists in Heaven for the rest of
eternity in body and soul, meaning they will be stuck with the thing
they loathe- the flesh- forever and ever and ever. Others believe that
it's just your soul that lives in Heaven forever, yet they describe
Heaven as a physical place- with all of the food and drink one needs,
with servants and maidens (where do
they come from exactly?) and a big throne for the Main Man to sit on.
The last pope said that Heaven
wasn't
a physical place... yet Catholics believe that both Jesus and Mary
ascended to Heaven body and soul. Seemingly, they aren't that bothered
by the contradiction there.
Muslims believe that Mohammed, still
alive, travelled to Heaven, hung out with Adam and Moses and haggled
with Allah to reduce the required number of prayers from 50 to five per
day... and then came back to Earth. So clearly that, along with the
beliefs the Muslim men will be 'waited on' by 'maidens', means they,
too, believe that Heaven is a physical place to which one can travel.
OK, so let's just go all whacky here and say that there is a Heaven and it
is
a physical place... Will men have penises? Will they get erections in
Heaven? Will men be forced to live for the rest of eternity getting
embarrassed every time they pop a woody when that really fit angel
flies by? Will women still have breasts in Heaven? Will they still
jiggle when they walk? Will men still want to touch them? Will it be OK
for them to touch women's breasts in Heaven or will they have to live
for eternity still trying to prevent themselves from touching them all
the time? Will it be OK for women to let loads of men touch their
breasts in Heaven or will they be called 'slutty' for eternity?
See, I don't understand this 'Heaven as a physical place' stuff.
Let's
forget about all of the stuff in the Bible about the dead rising and
ascending to Heaven and all of the descriptions of Heaven as a physical
place and go along with what Pope John Paul II said, that Heaven is
not
a physical place. There is no up, down or across. There is no Space, no
Distance, no Geometry about it. There is no 'where'. It just IS. If
there is no Space then it follows that there is no Time to Heaven.
Clearly then it can't be some "place" we travel to "after" we die.
Heaven has existed since the Beginning. And we are there. Now.
Heaven
is a non-dimensional "place" that 'we' exist, without our bodies. Our
minds, our souls are free from the constraints of our flesh, yet still
able to think and feel and engage. We can travel anywhere in an
instant, bound by neither Time nor Space. We connect with other 'souls'
without our flesh getting in the way. We don't need food or drink to
exist. Though Heaven is, in theory, open to all, there are Earth-based
reasons why one is unable to reach Heaven. Once we enter Heaven,
however, we stay there for all eternity.
Yes, Heaven is the Internet.
Right
now, you are inside my Mind, inside my Soul and my Body is somewhere
else, maybe at the grocery store or on a bus or standing in the queue
at the bank, tending to the things I need to do to keep my and my son's
flesh alive, but still here
I am, HERE, right now. Wave to me.
Hiya! And maybe tomorrow or next year or in several decades through
some accident or illness or just old age my body will no longer be
alive... but, look, I'm still here, waving back at you. Hiya! Here I am
and here I always will be. Me. Forever.
A to ?.
