Hello, it’s your sporadic poster again. I know I haven’t been posting much of anything, but I don’t get inspiration from heaven that much (bad joke, I know, but bear with me). I got especially depressed when the contents of my HDD was mysteriously wiped by Wondows 8 (I still detest Wondows, but now, I have more passion in my hatred of it) as I was copying files from it, and accidentally moved the USB cable, and was then suddenly enlightened (not), and decided to write this post (I use ‘and’ a lot). While I’m aware that these threats of eternal damnation were actually meant as a deterrent for crimes, most people still do commit them. I wonder why.

So many religions prey on the fears of the people and what happens after death. For now, we will focus on eternal damnation as it seems to be the most popular. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, a person ends up in Hell and gets to be tortured eternally. How would that function? Would it not be redundant after, say, perhaps a hundred year of the same kind of torture? It is within human nature to adapt, and the mind is far stronger than anything.

So long as the mind remains intact (in order for the punishment be effective), the punishment will become useless after a period of time. Then what? Change in method will only produce the same effect, pain at first, then normal, boring routine afterwards.

If, let’s say, the mind was broken, the punishments would then be even more useless, as the recipient doesn’t even know what’s happening anymore. Somehow, eternal damnation sounds more boring than it is morbid now, doesn’t it? Since, the punished soul is supposedly immor(t)al, they cannot die, only feel pain. Though, the same argument could be used for eternal happiness.

What is “happiness”? According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Eleventh Edition), the word “happy” could mean:

1. feeling or showing pleasure or contentment -> willing to do or accept something
2. fortunate or convenient
3. [in combination] informal inclined to use a specified thing excessively or at random

I get the feeling that what people mean is the first meaning. Still, the same thing. You feel happy, you want more, you become happier, but for how long? Even with the infinite sources of Heaven (or Paradise, or Garden of Eden, or whatever else it’s called, take your pick), you will, eventually get bored (why do you think God forbade humans from eating from the Tree of Life?). It might take a thousand years, it may take a million years, but you will get bored, start to learn all the knowledge in all the worlds (I love them parallel universes, can’t get enough of them), then get bored again as you will have nothing to do. Unless human mechanics change when we die and stuff, these arguments (might) hold true.

The main reason (I think), that we are able to live on as human beings (whatever that is), is because we can die, and that short life is all that we know of, and that we have (some form of) control over, and as we work hard, we forget, we enjoy, we hurt, we laugh, we cry, we love, we live.

Though, in the end, when we die, no one knows for sure what happens, we can only hope and pray in whatever belief we may hold.