“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
(The Tempest,
William Shakespeare 1611)
Religion
has always served a purpose. It primarily allows human beings to have hope that
they will see their loved ones again. Life is eternal and so are they. It
doesn’t matter what your Faith is, people cling to the chance that they might one
day reunite with the dead and live forever. Believing you will see the deceased
in some other place and/or time is a cultural expectation just like
immortality. The ideology itself has evolved from a sacred base. People have always believed there was more to this
life than mere living. Sometimes the idea of heavenly resurrection was the only
thing that carried a person through their grief and struggle. It still does in
many cases. Religion has pacified death. This has allowed almost anyone with an
opinion about it to have a voice which they have no problem sharing. The
computer age has allowed for expression and therefore convolution. Death itself
has always remained the same.
It’s
strange how when someone dies we automatically think of them in terms of
heaven. It is rare that we imagine the deceased in terms of hell. We don’t send
people to fire and brimstone, we picture them floating on clouds and listening
to Mozart or Elvis. We don’t stop to think. We rarely engage the thought. When
we do recognize it, it is a frightful thing. Death is hard enough to deal with
without the constant call of religious chaos. There is no real way we can ever know
what happens when we die. Only one person I can think of ever seemed to return after
they were definitely dead (so I have been told). As a NDE experiencer, it is
hard to ignore the fact. If you are here and now, if you still breathe and
exist, then you did not die. Where you end up after life apparently depends
entirely on what other people who think like you think.
You would
think that the death of my maternal Great-Grandfather Pascuzzo, or my favoured
pet Charlotte, would constitute as my most influential encounters with early questions
regarding the afterlife but they were not. The mouse was a simple lesson from
life. While Giuseppe passed away and was
buried in 1975, a few years before I was exposed to death in print. In the
spring of 1973, when Gwen Stacey died in The
Amazing Spider-Man issue #121 and #122, I was beside myself. I did not
understand why she would no longer appear with Peter Parker or in any Marvel
comic book title. She was dead and the implications were hard to ignore. My religious upbringing
determined where this fictional persona was destined. She may
have been a cartoon character but from her death began my speculation. I
had to know if what my family and my Church preached was true. Where was Gwen
Stacey?
Early on,
comic books taught me a lot about alternate realities and the multiverse. Years
before the scientific notions regarding this new dimensional awareness became forefront,
I imagined poor Gwen tossed into the construct called hell because she wasn’t a
Christian. I knew she wasn’t an actual person but, as a child, I hoped that the world of superheroes was at
least possible, some otherland, somewhere in another place and another time. It is here that I learnt to distinguish
between true reality and imagination. Gwen’s comic book death brought questions
that a 7 year old shouldn’t really have to consider. I paid attention to
everything and eventually realized there is a difference between mythos and
legend and actuality.
Despite the
dichotomy in my thinking, I continued to fear, and somewhat follow, the
implications my religious foundation claimed as true. As an adult, I found it
difficult to consider anything but what I had been conditioned to believe.
Although my parental influences were much more ecumenical in their approach than
more extreme Christian points of view, I still believed what I had been told
was fact not fiction. Regardless of a benevolent deity, almost every time I
turned around someone else was being thrown into “the Pit,” including myself. People
have little trouble casting someone else
into such a place. Hell was as real for me as any hero or mutant might have once
been. Unfortunately, we don’t really stop to think about who just might “dwell”
in this place of suffering. Like coins in a fountain, it can seem rather random
and irrelevant, pick and choose. God doesn’t have to consider, he doesn’t even
have to think about it. Apparently, its not up to Him but rather his followers
and the scripture they adhere to.
In the 1999
animated film, South Park
Kenny goes to hell @
One Hell of a party @
Watching
the image of Princess Diana laughing with Chairman Mao sent shivers through me. It was true and I
knew it. According to scripture she most certainly was burning in hell, or at
least partying in it. Gandhi was not a Christian and therefore the promises
assured in scripture did not apply to him. In the end, I was remarkably moved
by this brutally honest piece of animation. It was not only the examples that
made me stop and think but also the implication for the rest of us. The point
of the mockery was clear and effectively opened my eyes to the idea that
perhaps the God of Christianity wasn’t all He was cracked up to be. If these
things were true, if damnation really existed, I no longer wanted any part of this
God. Only a human being could be such an asshole.
"I'll go to
Heaven for the climate and Hell for the company."
(Mark Twain, American author)
Scripture,
no matter the source, is more literature than it is reality. All along,
collecting comic books taught me more about religion than any ancient treatise or
tale of divine manifestation. The characters in comic books are not real. The
stories told do not conform to modern science nor do they represent the essence
of anything beyond a human projection. Most comic books represent the battle
between good and evil, light and darkness. Comic books are a fictional account
of something not meant to be considered as real. Comic book stories are more
about the message rather than just the messenger. Comic books contain the fundamental
ideas that contribute to a better society and a more just one at that. Comic
books are one expression of who we are as a people. They represent the mortal
struggle and the challenges met in the world they represent.
The history
of hell is as diverse as the history of Jesus or even Spiderman, for that
matter. The concept has evolved from an ancient garbage pit into a “literal”
place of fire and eternal suffering. Along the way, mankind has not struggled
with the idea of hell. We embraced it rather easily considering its
implications. Divine punishment was really the only justice man has ever known,
at least in his own mind.. Hell gave mankind a place to send those who failed
to live up to the standards of the society in which they lived. It isn’t just
the demagogues or murders who find themselves cast into the fire. Anyone,
according to the New Testament, who
does not proclaim Jesus is Lord and believe He is God cannot, will not, enter
the kingdom of heaven
A few are the Elect, the rest are doomed.
My father
is in his mid-80s and has been a practicing Christian for most of his life. He
outlived my mother by much more than a decade. I hate watching him go. Some old
timers go quickly, like my Mom, and some linger like my Dad. Their exit can be
long and hard and painful. Life is unfair, especially at the end. I can imagine how he feels waiting to join his spouse in heavenly bliss. If I regard Christian
scripture, she is not waiting for him in Glory but rather in clouds of
brimstone and hopelessness. She is definitely not part of the Elect. If one
measures by biblical standard, my father has little to concern himself with
other than his own eternal peril. I don’t think Jesus would let him in either.
Don’t mention the afterlife to my Dad. He doesn’t want to think about it and he
doesn’t want to talk about it. I think he knows. After all the years of
standing with Jesus he has started to stand for himself. It is my guess he
would rather spend eternity with his true love in hell than forever alone in
heaven without her. At least, it’s a dry heat.
Time has demonstrated
the importance of questioning accepted social ideals, as it is the only manner
by which new knowledge can be produced. As a child, I think I knew something
was amiss regarding hell but my youth and Jesus confused me. I see things
clearer now. It is very interesting to watch the spiritual conflict within an
omniscient God who is also very much human. In the end, you kinda get stuck
with what you’re given. Whether from the Bible,
a comic book or a cartoon set in Hades,
you always find exactly what you’re looking for. You can even make the claim that
God is high fiction. If there is one thing I have learned on my own journey,
sometimes the God we do worship is more monster than messiah. Be careful what
you wish for.
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