Eternal Damnation

Damn you Jonathan Edwards. Or, rather, may it be said we are the ones damned per that sermon for the ages by preacher Edwards on July 8,1741 (click: Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God). He would not finish it. The New England (Enfield, Connecticut) congregation, described as without particular readiness nor even polite attentiveness, was transformed until the crying and weeping became so overwhelming that Edwards was forced to discontinue the sermon and allow the pastors to join the people and pray with them.

I was not in attendance for that sermon but might just as well have been for this sixth grader bore witness to a graphic depiction of that very sermon prominently displayed in the back of Sunday school class. Every week, there it was, souls pictured as nothing but loathsome spiders literally hanging by a thread over the cauldron of hell, to be dropped but for the grace of God. And this, mind you, was Presbyterian-lite.

May we devote one hour of our busy lives to ponder . . . . . eternity . . . . that is, share in this Securus Locus forum the way our everyday thoughts, actions, and attitudes may be shaped, if at all, by thoughts of what happens after we shuffle off this mortal coil. After all, we’ve had a lifetime to think about it.

A perfectly acceptable response is that such matters, like life or the universe itself, are ineffable i.e. simply too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words – you know, like the dad in Woody Allen’s Hannah And Her Sisters shouting how the hell should he know about these things as he doesn’t even know how a can opener works.

But if we, mere mortals, view ourselves as somehow inadequate, why should any other mortal, including Jonathan Edwards, presume to speak as or for God with such ecclesiastical certainty? Perhaps nobody can. Other mortals weigh in to suggest the idea of eternal damnation to be neither biblically, philosophically nor morally justified (Opinion, NYT, Why Do People Believe In Hell?).

Perhaps we should take some inspiration from the various philosophical reckonings we’ve discussed over the previous eight years e.g. Scottish philosopher David Hume (MM 10/1/18 Hume The Humane) who faced the very end of his long (age 65) life “quite free from anxiety, impatience, or low spirits, and passing his time very well with the assistance of amusing books.” We’ll mutually ordain one another into membership in this First Order Of The MM.

Whence then comes that terror of the infinite night? We might address this in terms of a rather straightforward discussion hypothesis. Suppose, just suppose, we each develop a mental construct from the very start, before we are even assigned a name, some sense of a separate self that allows us to successfully navigate the world. We essentially become lords of our respective skull-sized kingdoms.

All good until it isn’t i.e. when that sense of self refuses to accept its impermanence (MM 12/6/21 Ego Is The Enemy). The ego is thus predisposed to embrace conjured notions of permanence, come hell or high water, enabling a mere mortal like Jonathan Edwards to pound the pulpit with a vision of eternal damnation. Some takes here, in no particular order, characterization, or post-mortem intensity:

Christianity: damnation is viewed as eternal separation from God with punishment in hell for unrepentant sinners; damnation is often seen as the consequence of rejecting God’s salvation through Jesus Christ; some believe damnation occurs immediately after death, while others believe it happens after the Final Judgment;

Islam: damnation involves punishment in Jahannam (hell) for those who reject Allah or commit major sins without repentance; both faith and righteous deeds are considered important for salvation; some Islamic scholars argue that hell may not be eternal for all sinners;

Judaism: traditional Judaism does not have a strong concept of eternal damnation; some believe in a temporary period of purification after death called Gehinnom; the focus is more on righteous living in this world than punishment in the next;

Hinduism: Hinduism teaches karma and reincarnation rather than eternal damnation; negative karma can lead to rebirth in lower realms or forms of existence; the ultimate goal is moksha (liberation from the cycle of rebirth), not avoiding hell;

Buddhism: Buddhism also focuses on karma and rebirth rather than eternal punishment; negative actions can lead to rebirth in temporary hell realms; the goal is to achieve enlightenment and escape the cycle of rebirth entirely.

What thinkest Thou?, you dangling spider.