Just Asking

Eternal Knowledge

Here’s one for all the philosophers out there. Is all the knowledge and wisdom gained in this lifetime carried over into the next lifetime? If so, wouldn’t it be in our best interest to learn as much as we can now, so as to be better prepared (and ahead of the curve, sort to speak) in whatever we must do in the next? If that were true, then we must study, examine, and experience as much as we can while we are here. We wouldn’t want to be the “Johnny-come-lately” of the afterlife-- would we?

Imagine arriving in the next life and being told that you must immediately set up and demonstrate the concept of a suspension bridge to be built tomorrow because of the expected arrival of 30,000 people that will die tonight in an earthquake in some part of the other, corporeal, world. Well, did you study? Do you know how to get the job done?

Will we remember the people that had come into our lives—their names, their associations to us—or will we forever cease to know the people who were so close to us? And, if we did remember and retain our knowledge, wouldn’t it be as if we never died at all?

The alternative to this is knowledge earned through study or experience is of no value whatsoever once we leave this world behind. All of our efforts, desires, knowledge, perseverance, religious observances and storytelling are of absolutely no value except to placate ourselves against the unknown, against the dark.

If this is so, if we remember nothing, then we will not remember God; we will not remember good and evil—because they will have ceased to exist the moment we do, and we will not remember the good we’ve done (denying us our eternal reward) or of the transgressions from which we’ve feared eternal reprisals. We will have, in some way, lived a futile life; we had nothing, we kept nothing, we took nothing. It would be as if we never existed. Our lives would not have had any meaning other than the perpetuation of the species—the same as an amoeba self-multiplies and perpetuates. We would be passing our genes to the next generation for the sake of blindly passing genes.

So, the question remains; Does the knowledge we possess here, on this earthly plane, transfer with us to the next?

Hard at Work

The New Religion

(The Chosen Ones)

1. “Do as I say or God will kill you by my hand.”

2. “What! You’re going to kill me and blame another for doing it?”

1. “Yes, God told me that I must go forth and punish all that do not believe as I do. I am to instruct all in the doctrine He has revealed to me in the desert.”

2. “Why were you in the desert? You know that none from our tribe are to go there, there is danger and wild beasts.”

1. “I became lost in thought, thinking of the hard life I have; my nagging wife and the 27 children who never seem to stop eating. After some time, I became aware of the desert, and I looked around to see only sand.”

2. “What did you do? You must have been terrified.”

1. “I was.”

2. “How did you survive? You were gone almost seven days.”

1. “After the first day I was very tired and very thirsty. I could not find shade and there was no food for me to eat. The sun was relentless and there was no shade for me anywhere. During the cold desert nights I slept by hugging a small boulder that had kept the sun’s warmth from the earlier day. After that, I tried to walk out of the desert. First I walked as far as I could in one direction. Then I would try another direction. Soon, I was tired and weary—I couldn’t go any further—and I believed that I would die without food or water. Often, I would see water in the distance and I would rush to drink it, but when I got there I found only more sand. I did, however, find some small plants with red berries, and I feasted upon them. After eating, I lay down in the soft sand and dreamed I was in my own bed, hugging my warm wife. I saw many colors and many shapes, and I knew I could fly—yes, I was a beautiful bird, and I was free to fly wherever I wished. I flew through the clouds and even sat on top of them. I thought about freedom, and I thought about my rock-hard wife and my little plant children…”

2. “Wait a minute. You ate some plants or berries or whatever, and suddenly you were flying?”

1. “Not suddenly. At first my stomach hurt because it had been empty for days. Then I threw up and began to feel cold and I began to shake. That’s when I lay down to fly.”

2. “Okay. What about this God guy who told you things in the desert—that only you saw and only you talked to?”

1. “It was real! Don’t you, or anyone else, dare question the word of God.”

2. “Well, what did God tell you?”

1.” He told me to leave my wife and children, and to gather around me others who also left their wives and children, and to travel about the region convincing others to give their wealth to us so that we can all the more give thanks to God. We are to believe that God wants us to do this to show our love for Him, and the only way they can do that is to do what I say.”

2. “And if they refuse to show their “love” by giving you their wealth, or by doing what you say, you get to kill them?”

1. “Yes. They are of no use to God.”

2. “I see. But what are we to do about the abandoned women and children? What does God want you to do about them?”

1. “Others will care for them. They are a wearisome lot. Maybe I’ll set up some charities so that my generosity will be known—thanks be to God.”

2. “I think that I, too, want to go to the desert and eat some berries. I’m tired of my wife and children. And I’m tired of cleaning the stables, too.

1. “Say, I know, why don’t you become one of my “disciples”? The two of us can certainly earn much more than one alone. Here’s what you do: Get another person to give you wealth--let’s call it “alms” or “tithing”—and you get to keep some and you also give some to me. Understand? In this way we will always have something with which to appear generous and charitable to people, and we do so with their money. We can’t lose.”

2. “What happens if people see through this? What if they protest? I mean, there could be repercussions.”

1. “We will kill them, or we will threaten them in some way. After all (ha ha ha) we are only doing God’s work.”

2. “Well okay. But I want a title so people will know that I’m important now, and not just a stable hand.”

1. “Okay, you can be called my “Popemullarabbi”, no one will know what that is, but you can tell everyone that you are important to God’s work.”

2. “Okay.”

2. “Hey, you there, come here. You have to do what I say or God will kill you by my hand—blessed be God. Are you a believer? If not you must believe immediately. God has spoken to us in the desert; I am his Popemullarabbi….”