The Selfishness of Heaven
When we hear about Islamic suicide bombers, the first thing we generally think of is the promise of 72 virgins. While most Americans laugh at this and think to themselves about how ridiculous it is that some people believe that God will give them 72 virgins if they die correctly, I look at this and see the selfishness of the religion. But Islam isn’t the only selfish religion which dangles the carrot and the stick in front of believers.
I always saw religion as a very selfish system of belief. Believers are always taking or avoiding action in hope or fear of their personal afterlife. While some believers claim to do good deeds to please God, we really have to ask, why please God? No matter what way you slice it the answer is almost always Heaven or Hell.
Even when believers are out there trying to convert people, because they love them so much that they don’t want them to spend all eternity being tortured in Hell, there is still the underlining selfish attitude that they are going to Heaven while you are going to Hell. There is a smugness of righteousness which believers try to hide with false modesty.
So why religious people often claim to be take actions to glorify God, it seems to me that they are really only interested in glorifying themselves. Here is a little test; let’s say that God decided that no one goes to Heaven and no one goes to Hell, would a believer still try to “glorify God?” If we take away the carrot and the stick, will theists still pretend to be righteous and holier-than-thou? I bet they would be pretty pissed off at their God if the promise of Heaven and the fear of Hell disappeared. Most would probably become atheists shortly there after.
There would be little need to glorify God if people knew that God had no intention of glorifying them in return. Atheists on the other hand don’t believe in Heaven or Hell, so most of us act selfishly in our lives without the need for false modesty. But we also act compassionately towards other in a more altruistic way too. We do this partially for the selfish reason that it makes us feel good to help others and partially because we identify with that person in some way and feel empathy for them.
While religious people almost certainly act for the same reasons subconsciously, it is their belief in a Heaven and Hell which often times gets in the way of that empathy. Helping others sometimes just becomes a means to helping themselves get their eternal reward and avoiding eternal punishment.
