At the heart of much speculative fiction (and fiction in general) is a question. What if? On Tuesdays I like to throw one out there and see what you make of it. Do with it as you please. If a for-instance is not specified, feel free to interpret that instance as you wish. And if you find this becomes a novel-length answer, I'd appreciate a thank you in the acknowledgements ;)
Everyone has a different belief as to what happens after we die. One belief system talks of reincarnation--the idea that we live different lives as different people. Another talks of if you're a good person you go to heaven, but if you're a bad person, you go to hell.
But what if we meshed the two...?
What if "hell" is just being reincarnated into a terrible era, such as the dark ages?
very thought provoking
ReplyDeleteThanks
DeleteThat would suck, Just coming back at all would be punishment.
ReplyDeleteThere unanswered question on this. And I'll try to keep this short.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe a loving "god/dess" would only give us only one chance. We come to be both student and teacher of our own life"
But I do believe we are a loud rest between lives.
I also believe good gives something such a conscientious to Judge our self on what right or wrong.
The thought of going to so called Pearly gate and standing there to see who will let who in...If this all true there most be a good size line there. I bet George Washington is still standing in line....Coffee is on
opps good should be god/dess
DeleteGood point.
DeleteI think I would want to make sure I did whatever I had to in order to get into heaven!
ReplyDeletebetty
What if "heaven" is just a very good era?
DeleteI believe there is a Heaven and a Hell. It is my religious upbringing and I haven't found anything yet to prove it right or wrong. I wonder what will happen when I die. I hope I go to heaven. And I hope all the 'good' people are there. My belief is that hell is here on earth. And we are being tested as we find our way though this life.
ReplyDeleteI think both schools of thought consider Earth a testing/learning place.
DeleteThere are some eras I wouldn't want to go back to. And if it was a form of hell, you could be certain to be reincarnated into someone who gets executed, or suffers a disease, or ends up in a filthy prison to starve to death. That really would be a punishment.
ReplyDeleteWell yes, there is that, too. I didn't want to offend anyone, so I kept the question pretty general.
DeleteI like believing in the philosophy that we keep coming back to right the "wrongs" of our past life to attain something even higher. Maybe we come back and make our own hell. Have you ever met someone who is always very negative and can't see anything positive? They have to bring other people down. This could be their own hell regardless which era they are in. I wouldn't like the dark ages but the people who lived during that time may not have thought that way.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's true. We do make our own heaven or hell.
DeleteI love your posts like this lol Always gets me thinking. There are some eras I would not want to go back to!
ReplyDeleteThe question came about when I was watching something on the dark ages and the horrible conditions.
DeleteI am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this idea. I think coming back again in any age with any memory of a previous life would be terrible. And without a memory of a previous life, how could you improve. I'm glad it doesn't work that way. And I can't stand it, I have to say that no one is truly good, no not one. No one would go to Heaven if it were not for Christ's payment for our sins and victory over death, hell and the grave. Everyone is invited to Heaven, but few accept the invitation.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, blogging at Life & Faith in Caneyhead
Perhaps this life is but "Boot Camp," training us for what lies beyond this stage of our existence? :-)
ReplyDeletePossibly
DeleteThat is an interesting question! And what if you were reincarnated into an earlier time period then remembered your former life that was in the future???????? =O
ReplyDeleteWhat if we have had "past" lives in the future?
DeleteVery thought provoking! I like the idea of coming back as a pampered house pet. My spouse says I already am one in many ways.
ReplyDelete:)
Would that be heaven or hell?
DeleteThere's a great Sartre play about hell called No Exit. He says that "hell is other people". I sort of agree.
ReplyDeleteDepends on the other people.
DeleteThat would suck. I don't want to be reincarnated into "hell". :( The bigger question is: what does heaven/hell look like to those that are reincarnated? … And no, I don't want to answer that. I imagine it would or could be different for everyone.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting question...
DeleteI've been thinking a lot recently about the Holocaust (read a memoir and part of a nonfiction story based on events of World War II) and I would never want to think that anyone who ended up in the concentration camps of World War II (just as one example) got there because they were bad people in a previous life. Or worse, their purpose there was so their suffering could right past wrongs. Having known concentration camp survivors growing up (my best friend's mother was one), the concept just seems so wrong. Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteThere's a reason why I specified the dark ages. I would never even want to hint that the Holocaust was some sort of... Yeah, I'm not even going to type the words.
Delete