Thursday, November 19, 1998
Sinners’ company in Hell a more tempting heaven
RELIGION: Christianity’s hypocrisy makes Devil’s realm more
welcoming
By Bao D. Nguyen
A little over a week ago, I was buying a Vietnamese dessert
called che. The total amount came out to about $5, and I gave the
clerk a $100 bill, since I did not have anything smaller. This has
happened many times in my life: the clerk gave me too much change –
in this case, $10 too much. It took me a second to glance at my
change and realize that I had been given too much, but it took me
at least five seconds to decide to give it back. The clerk just
took it and didn’t thank me.
I remember one of the first times something like this had ever
happened to me. I was about 13 years old and I was in a bowling
alley. There was a $10 bill on the counter in front of me. I don’t
know why it was there, but there was no one around. I could have
taken it and no one would have ever known. I didn’t take it. I
called someone over and he simply put the money in the register. He
didn’t even thank me.
About eight years after that, I finally decided why I never keep
the money. This is what I tell people: I might feel bad for a few
days about not doing something that I could easily get away with,
but doing something wrong would become a part of who I am
forever.
I guess lately I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am.
One of the big questions in life is the one about religion, and
whether there is a God or not. If so, what form should he or she
take? I have not answered all my questions, but I have eliminated
at least one big possibility. I have decided that either the
Christian God is false, or if he is true, then I reject him
entirely.
I think that the big thing with Christianity is the belief in
Heaven and Hell, and who belongs where. So, the way I understand
it, we are all sinners and are doomed to go to Hell. Jesus came to
Earth 2,000 years ago to give his life for our sins. We must accept
that he has paid for our sins in order to go to Heaven. We must
accept Jesus as our savior. How easy is that?
Of course, the Christians will tell you that if you truly
believe, then your acts will show it; so, being a Christian is not
so easy. In my experience, that’s mostly a bunch of bull. I’ve met
plenty of people who do bad things and live messed up lives, yet
they still walk around damming people to Hell. Then the Christians
will tell you that those are not real Christians. To me, anyone who
says they accept Jesus as their savior is a Christian. No Christian
has a right to say that another is not a Christian. That’s
un-Christian!
So I’ll assume that Heaven and Hell are just like the Christians
say. Those who accept Jesus as their savior go to Heaven, and the
rest go to Hell. The reason you go to Heaven is to be close to God.
The reason you don’t want to go to Hell is that you would spend
eternity away from God and his infinite love. With these basic
assumptions, it’s very easy for me to choose Hell.
First, I don’t believe sins to be bad. Here’s what I think sins
are: greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, pride and sloth. To me,
these are basic instincts. It’s the actions that arise from these
sins that are bad. The reason it takes me five seconds to return
what is not mine is that I’m greedy, but I still return the money.
I lust after all these beautiful women here at UCLA, but I do a
good job of not touching them. Way too good, actually. I overeat
all the time, and have to do a little extra exercise for it. You
good people can fill in the rest.
At some point in my life, I became mature enough to take
responsibility for all my sins. I don’t need Jesus to pay for any
of them. Thanks anyway though.
It amazes me sometimes as I go through life how I constantly
meet people who are so unable to take responsibility for their
sins, people who cannot control themselves. Sometimes it really
bothers me that there is such a total lack of decency within some
people, an inability to treat others with kindness and respect.
So what does being a Christian have to do with good and evil?
Are all Christians good and all non-believers evil? I have no
reason to believe this. Though I have met and know Christians who
are good, I have also met many who are just plain evil. I would
like to think that all the people I choose to be close to are good.
Most of them are non-Christian. My mother is not Christian, and my
father and ancestors were not Christian. As far as I know, they are
not evil.
So it seems that God does not separate according to good and
evil, unless you define things that are of God to be good and
things that are not of God to be evil. I know at least one person
who does this. If good and evil are what I think they are, then
there are lots of good people in Hell and lots of evil people in
Heaven. All I know is that the people I love are either already in
Hell or they are going to Hell. So why in the world would I want to
go to Heaven? To save myself? I won’t be so selfish. I would suffer
more in Heaven away from my loved ones than I would in Hell.
A really strange concept to me is this picture of Hell that we
have. So it’s this really hot place and the devil has red leathery
skin. All the people are being tortured and there are constant
screams of agony. Who’s doing the torturing? Is this really an
accurate description of Hell? Has anyone really thought about what
happens in Hell? Maybe Hell is just like Heaven, except different
people go there.
I don’t understand why Satan would want to torture people for
not accepting Jesus as their savior. From what I understand, Satan
and God had a falling out. Who’s to say which one of them was the
bad guy? I don’t know if the Bible is a fair document. It is, after
all, inspired by God. Does Satan have a say in it? Maybe the food
in Heaven was not spicy enough or something.
I don’t see why Hell would be a bad place. It was founded by
Satan, whom we really know nothing about. It’s filled with all my
ancestors and at least 4,000 years of Vietnamese people, among
others. It’s filled with sinners, just like this world. Unlike
Heaven, all the people in Hell don’t owe Jesus an eternal debt.
If I am to go to Hell, then there are others like me there
already, people who make the same choices as I do, and value the
same things. Most of them probably have moral stories to tell, just
like me. I’m sure they also speak of good and evil, right and
wrong. So I’ve made my choice. I will be with my loved ones and my
ancestors. I will eat spicy food.Nguyen is a graduate student in
applied math.
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