God has prepared a place in hell

I was studying philosophy in the seminary in the 1970s. In one of our classes, our philosophy professor, a Spanish father, was discussing man’s freewill and God’s pre-determination. God being pure act there is nothing in potency in Him. He knows everything past and future; it is not simply that He knows them, but things happen because He knows them. I asked the learned priest: “since God determines everything, do we have to try hard to avoid sin and obey the commandments using our Free Will? Whatever we will be and how we will do a thing is already known to God and hence every single deed is decided in Him for all eternity.” 

The priest was obviously not pleased. He thought about it for some time. He tried to evade the issue saying that everyone has the freedom to do what he pleases and that God does not interfere with the free will of man. But I persisted: “Is there any potency in God? Can anyone change something He knows for all times?

The priest was getting annoyed and he replied quoting St. Augustine: “For those who want to know more, God has prepared a place in hell." The whole class fell silent as there was a vague threat in his statement. After all most of the aspirants for priesthood were from very poor families and they could not afford to go out of the seminary. Priesthood was a good career and a respectable means of livelihood. The stand simply showed the attitude of the Church and its representatives. I replied:  “I will, in that case, go to hell and suffer as God wants me to.”

God knows from all eternity who all will go to hell or heaven. He knows too who all will commit adultery, kill, steal, cheat and who all will do good, help others, pray and go to heaven. Then what is the need for all these –churches, sermons, worshipping statues, praying? Can anyone change the Almighty’s determination or knowledge?  Looks funny, eh? 

Sun qualifies to be the only god

The sun created the earth from its womb; it parented the saplings, enabled it to stand on its own leg,  ensured its well-being by guiding it to a harmonious orbit and ordained its fruitful destiny for billions of years. More than any god we have been told about, the sun has been very kind to us; It kept us  at an optimum distance so that adequate but not more energy (unlike the other distant frozen planets the earth is warm but not scorching like the smaller ones nearer to the sun)) reaches the earth , its size has been made optimum  again so that there is an atmosphere  with hydrogen, oxygen, water vapor and an abundance of elements which later, using the energy  supplied by the parent resulted in the evolution of life.  The unicellular organisms evolved with the warmth supplied by the sun and diversified into myriad life-forms and the earth is now the home of a very advanced civilization.  The sun has loved us beyond even the wildest fantasy of any god or goddess.

Gods we have come across are found only in the thinking of man or in the books written by those who lived long back who never understood the workings of nature and the solar system, let alone this infinite universe. There is no tangible evidence of any good thing any god has so far done. If we analyze these gods we will find they have germinated and grown in the imagination of certain spiritually inclined people who believed in the inevitability of the existence of gods.  Any religious book has miracles and they happened only when the author was alive and not later.  Man’s quest for immortality, his helplessness before death circumscribed the continuance of the belief in such gods although he knows in his heart of hearts these are all the product of his own fragments of imagination. That could be the reason why half the world population does not believe in any god any more.  There is no need to believe in the sun (you believe something which is not there); you understand him, he is so very real, concrete, living and the true cause of every breath you take.  

  

The sun is tangible, all-powerful, and it lives almost eternal  (for more than 7 billion years!) compared to our existence here. He made the earth, the sky, created day, night,  light all living things and each one of us. He is not an angry god like some of those we know who punish their creations, but a benevolent one who gives out everything he has to his creations.  He is sacrificing his life and will end up as soon as his energy reserves are burnt up to keep us alive. In Hinduism, Surya (sun) is worshipped as a god and I do feel  man is obliged to sun and sun alone for his life on this planet. When we die we will merge into the energy that makes the sun burn and shine for billions of years again to bring forth billions of others and sustain them.   

Is believing good or bad?

 There is a very strong belief that those who are religious are good and the others bad. In our place those who don’t believe are despised and found fault with. Hence it would be appropriate to check into the related facts around the world. It is known to one and all that China is an atheistic country but fast advancing. It will be soon the super power in the world (133 crore people one in six of the world population do not believe in God at all) Previous USSR, and the former soviet communist nations followed atheism as their state religion. Even today Cuba follows the same line although some others have been liberalized. Let us take a picture of the developed world where people are more educated, more enterprising, more technically and educationally advanced.

Only 9% of Americans in a 2008 poll said religion was the most important thing in their life, compared with 45% who said family was paramount in their life and 17% who said money and their career was paramount. More than one in three (36 per cent) do not believe in any god in Canada today. A 2006 poll published by Le Monde of France in January 2007[12] found that 51% of the French population are  Catholics (and only half of them  believe in god.  In other worlds  50% of the Catholics (by birth) are atheists. Of the general population 31% of are atheists, In Germany 36% openly declare they don’t believe in a god. 40% of the UK population, 53% of the Swedish,  41% of the Fins,   47% of the Norwegians,  49% of Denmark ,39% of the Swiss, do not believe in any god. In the former communist countries like Estonia, Czech republic and Poland, above 50% do not believe in any god at all. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_EuropeIn) The pattern is in similar lines in all the developed countries and they are less corrupt, willing to help fellow men more and much more advanced. In India we have a different picture. Almost 100% believe in God and we are less educated, a lot more poorer(one in 3 lives in abject poverty; almost one in two is illiterate and among children one in two is malnourished, stunted or sick). India is one of the most corrupt nations of the world. The leaders and politicians, unlike in the advanced nations, are more interested in their own selfish motives than in the development of the nation. Does believing go more easily with illiteracy, poverty, suffering, dishonesty and selfishness?

A boy's doubts on his faith

Being born to pious parents from a predominantly Catholic area, I was made to believe everything the Church taught. Everyone spoke about God's love but I could find only suffering all around me. The poor suffered more although they prayed and obeyed His laws more.  A few friends of mine died when they were 10 or12 and I began to wonder why did God create them at all. How could they know, love or follow his commandments if they died before they could use their free will? If God took them to heaven why doesn't He take all of us without any test? Why should there be a hell with all the fire, dragons and snakes? How can He give eternal punishment for a sin done in this short life? Could God be unjust or even like a demon? My imagination was running wild. By the time I was in grade X I knew more children who died before the age of 10 than those who survived. In the 19th and 20th centuries more children survived infancy and childhood due to man's advancement in medicine and science. Natural calamities, plagues, famines, hurricanes were all making man's life miserable especially in the poor regions. Was God partial or does He not care at all?  Knowing that the First Parents would fail, why did God permit that foolish test?  To put us all in pain and misery? How can He punish us for the sins of our fore-fathers? How can we be responsible for what was done by those who lived 4000 years back? None could give me proper answers to these questions.
Jesus Was born a Jew, lived a Jew and died a Jew. Even now Jews live with the expectation of the God-promised redeemer-king. But this new religion turned against them and  he cursed them and prophesied the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem! A pious Jew would never do that.  Did someone else put words into his mouth? If God loved the world so much why did he make the first parents commit that blunder? Why did God make his poor son suffer ignominiously? One word of His was enough. If He is pure act and there is nothing in potency in Him, everything is predetermined and there is no use in trying to avoid sin or in trying to do good. He knows from all eternity whether you and I will go to heaven or hell and things would happen as He knows them. It was then obvious that Judas was a pawn in His hands who did what was determined in God. Why should we detest him? If anyone goes to hell (all the billions who died  before Jesus redeemed us through his death on the cross, were thrown into hell, we were told) it happens so because God wants it.  I used to raise these questions in the catechism classes and one day a very learned priest, as he could not answer me properly, replied quoting St. Augustine: "God has prepared a place in hell for those who want to know more."  'Then I will have to be there in any case,' I replied and sat down.