My co-worker, who is a devout evangelical Christian, said to me...."So, if you don't believe in God and Jesus Christ then you don't believe in the Devil and Hell either"?...I looked directly into her pleading eyes and stated very matter of factly..."No I don't". She then went into a panic mode and said..."but if you don't believe then do you know what will happen when you die"?...."Yip", I said," my heart stops beating, my blood stops pumping, my brain shuts down, I have no more thoughts and no more vision and I no longer feel anyting. If left in that state and position long enough I will eventually rot away and become part of the Earth just like all other creatures that die."
Jump in the fire with me if you dare you unbelievers.....
"But...but God has created heaven so that when we all die we can go there and enjoy eternal bliss and life forever in his kingdom...with streets of Gold...and so much more", she said smiling.
I repeated all of that back so that she could hear it coming from my lips also. That pissed her off because I was a bit more antagonistic I guess. She began shaking her finger at me and telling me that she felt sorry for people like me who will be left behind and forgotten when the end finally comes.
My first wondering was which end?....my eventual end?...or that Big big end that they have started to predict because the savior and king George W Bush is now the leader where he destroys the world and we all have to line up and beg St. Peter to allow us to walk through the gates...and St. Peter has a book with all of our names...Billions of names and he glances down at that book and when I walk up he pulls a lever and I do a head first nose dive towards a place called Hell.....mainly because I didn't believe the bullshit...even if I gave my entire life to making things better for those who will come after me. When I made certain that I was a true conserver of nature, and when I fought for good wages and benefits as a union steward...and when my two kids asked me if serving their country by joining the Army was a good idea. The fact that I spent much of my life making music and sharing it freely to anyone and everyone. And that I would have given the shirt off my back or every cent I had to a person who needed them more than I.
But because I didn't join the club of absolute insanity I and everything I have done and will do is for not in their stupid way of thinking.
Here's the facts as I know it. Life is here and now. If all I ever did was live every single moment worried like hell that I was going to be nose dived into hell and not walk the shiny Golden streets of his majesty's mansion in the skies then all my efforts would go to doing one thing...what ever the big church boys told me will get me in there. (these days the teachings of Jesus don't count no more because he was way too Liberal a thinker and his ideal logy had to be covered up in order to support Bush,Cheney and the Karl Rove experience.)
If your a Christian please just ignore this rant...because you simply haven't gone down my road yet. I've been down your road....and it's full of very selfish people these days. All they care about is living forever and not about today's poor people or those who really need help here and now.