Continuing with my personal philosophies of life and stuff. Today it's going to be my version of what heaven and hell means to me.
To me, an afterlife doesn't exist. A heaven and hell in the afterlife is a good way to try to keep the masses from doing evil and to encourage them to be good, but I don't think it's so effective in making people do good or make people encourage others to do good. To be good would be to not to do anything bad. To do good would be to help others for example. To encourage others to do good, that would be to encourage other people to do good things for others.
That's not to say that I don't believe that heaven and hell exist at all. For me, heaven and hell exist in the now, within us and maybe around us. I expect good people to be happier and that good things may come to them easier or at least the ability to appreciate things would be greater, ultimately they're happier. Bad people, even though they may not consciously bear any feelings of guilt will feel unhappy.
That's not a very elaborate description of the idea, but that's all there is to it. The simpler the better.
That's not a very elaborate description of the idea, but that's all there is to it. The simpler the better.
10 comments:
Shaggy,
Now that you're reflecting back on your -- in my opinion -- unique path as an Iraqi blogger, I wonder if you think that your bi-cultural upbringing has colored your basic philosophies of life. You seem to live a kind of in-between life, mixing your knowledge about life from your time in England and your experiences and understanding of how life works in Iraq. I don't know if living an in-between life is a good thing or a bad thing, an advantage or disadvantage. Anyway, a lot of your entries are fused with that lurking double-vision.
Any thoughts?
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I agree with you about Heaven and Hell, but I don't think good people are necessarily happy. Indeed, the point of being good is that you do good things without any expectation of reward, either now or later.
Not that many of us are as saintly as that.
Jeffrey,
Too many confused thoughts to try to type them down. I've been typing and deleting a lot to try to answer and I give up.
Don,
I don't live up to my ideals either. I'd still suggest that if a society did more good, then they'd be happier. The point being that it's not something to think of on just an individual level.
I agree with you about societies as a whole. Each person being good (which I define as "kind and honest") will make the others happier - but not necessarily himself.
If the others are good too, we can party. ;-)
thank u........................................
Shaggy,
Being confused by living between two cultures is understandable. As a teacher of both foreign students and recent immigrants here in the US, I see examples of that confusion every day. Touta has recently gone back to England, and she too is trying adjust (again) to the differences.
Beyond your position between the two cultures, your candor and humor make your writing unpredictable and fun to read. Thanks.
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Shaggy it gives me almost a sense of panic that you are going to stop blogging. It is so hard to explain. A part of my daily routine for years - check on Shaggy - but that's my problem and not yours. Godspeed.
Don't almost panic just yet. It's just that for the past couple of months I've been slowly packing and tidying away my stuff that I thought that I might do so with the blog too.
"Check on Shaggy"! Should I be worried that I'm a source of worry for others?
I guess the "check on Shaggy" is part of a new phenom - a weird relationship in the digital age- but yes, I worry about you. If you stop blogging, I will always wonder what happened to you. And (I admit) strangely, I care. Lots.
Anonymous,
That's a good one. Check on Shaggy.
Here's mine. Every few days I would find myself thinking, "Hey, I wonder what's up with Shaggy today." Then I click on over to Shaggy's place to see what Shaggy, Nahida, Od, Fozzy, Maz and the others were doing.
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