Even if emotion and willpower could literally change anything about reality outside of one's mind, they could not alter the laws of logic, since they are intrinsically necessary truths. Just willing for a stone to hover or a sensory experience to vanish, though, reveal just how futile human desire and emotion really are when it comes to even lesser aspects of reality that do not have the self-necessitating truth of reason. Contentment and fear are ultimately subjective, but everyone is either content or fearful of these contingent things that humans nonetheless have little to no real control over, depending on the thing in question. It is easy for non-rationalists to intentionally or passively bury themselves in the deep neglect of anything grander than their immediate sensory experiences, and yet they still cannot, as far as any sort of evidence suggests, change even the direction of the wind or the feel of sunlight by their own will.
This is also the case with Christianity. If Christianity is true, it does not matter if someone wishes it was false, and vice versa. They would have to be God to have the power to change some of these things. However, there are certain parts of Christian philosophy that are true by logical necessity regardless of whether the rest is and can thus be known by sheer logical proof. The Biblical idea of an uncaused cause without which there would be no matter or contingent beings (Genesis 1:1) and the idea of mind-body dualism (James 2:26) are among these. For the rest of Christian theology, from its moral obligations to its afterlife to its host of supernatural beings besides God, the evidence for the veracity of the Biblical religion serves as a great support. Whether there is an afterlife--or if it is pleasant, horrific, eternal, temporary, universal, or only for some individuals--is not knowable with human limitations, but the immense amount of evidence for Christianity means there that the Christian afterlife is very likely to be true with all that it entails.
What does it truly entail? Denied by many Christians and non-Christians as it might be, the Bible contrasts the eternal life after death offered by Jesus (John 5:24-29) with the permanent death of the soul (John 3:16, Matthew 10:28, Ezekiel 18:4). Whether or not this death is preceded by finite torment as implied by Luke 12:47-48, cessation of consciousness is the grand penalty of Yahweh's justice. All but seemingly demonic beings (Revelation 20:10, Matthew 25:41) and perhaps those who take the so-called "mark of the beast" (Revelation 14:9-11) are promised the oblivion of death, the ultimate wages of sin (Romans 6:23). This is not a distortion of Biblical theology driven by emotionalism; this is what the text says over and over as absolutely plainly as it could. No entrenched tradition or assumption has any metaphysical or epistemological relevance here. Just as torture is always very narrow in its forms and inflexibly restricted by very maximum boundaries in Mosaic Law (like with lashes in Deuteronomy 25:1-3), the torments of hell are not for all the unsaved to experience without end.
There is much to find comfort in about this, for out of all the logically possible afterlives that could have been true (or at least probable), the one that the evidence suggests is reality is one of either eternal bliss or eventual oblivion! It is either life unburdened by sin in paradise or nonexistence of one's mind. It is possible to believe in anything, even the logical axioms that are the heart of all things or the existence of the uncaused cause, because of emotion. There might be some who think the Bible teaches annihilationism because it brings comfort to them. As a rationalistic Christian, I am not one of them. The words of the Bible convey as clearly as language can that God's mortal enemies are to fade like plants (Psalm 37:20) or like dreams after one wakes (Psalm 73:20). What a relief it could be, though the experience of relief is subjective, to find that the only afterlife for which there is any evidence does not involve some inevitable, unending torment for the vast majority of humankind!
In some ways, the eternal loss of beings created in God's image is just as worthy of weeping and desperation as eternal conscious torment. Life itself is the great reward, the chance to celebrate reason, God, morality, human relationships, and (likely) all nonsinful pleasures of the mind and body forever. Death is the enemy, as Paul says (1 Corinthians 15:26). It has sprung up because of sin, and yet it is the just and loving consequence of rejecting the only being whose very nature could ground morality, meaning, and beauty. Just as various sensory evidences point towards the truth of Christianity, the Bible points wholly at annihilation of the soul being the destiny of the wicked. It is irrational and also unbiblical to embrace annihilationism for its personal emotional appeal, but, for many people, what the Bible actually teaches about hell is liberating indeed. Finding emotional relief and gratitude in the Biblical doctrine of annihilationism is not a betrayal of either reason (the laws of logic) or Biblical Christianity.
No comments:
Post a Comment