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A Brainwave about God, Satan, Heaven and Hell

By Lateef Oladeji of Gem Business Ventures

A Brainwave about God, Satan, Heaven and Hell.

A lot of mysteries surround God, Satan, heaven and hell – indeed, the Creator and His creations. Claims and counter claims have been made over these mysteries. While the pure religionists (Christians, Muslims, etc.), acting on faith, hold virtually the same view concerning this matter, there are markedly different opinions held by certain individuals and groups, influenced by various factors including science, fiction, unbelief and “discovered” facts.

The pure religionists’ belief system essentially goes thus: there is only one God, who is all-powerful, Alpha and Omega, omniscient and omnipresent, loving and kind, fair and just. God had created His angels, including Satan, who were all resident in heaven with Him. Then, He decided to create Adam, and asked all angels to bow to him. While the other angels obeyed, Satan refused (Qur'an, S.2:V.34) and rebelled against God, whereupon he was cursed and cast out of heaven into hell. In retaliation, Satan vowed to mislead and turn Adam and his descendants against God. God conceded the vow to Satan, with the proviso that he (Satan) would only have power over those that do not follow His ways, and that such infidels would equally join Satan in hell when they die, while those who follow God’s ways will have their abode in heaven.

Some puzzles and/or fallacies emerge from the foregoing “facts”, viz:
Ø Why would a fair and just God ask the angels to bow to a human, freshly created from the dust in the presence of the angels, who are of a higher creation status?
Ø It is held that God forbids any of His creatures to bow to any other entity than Him. Why would the same God contradict Himself by requesting His angels to bow to a lower entity?
Ø Why would a kind and loving God grant Satan a permission or power to influence the minds of His loved humans, knowing full well in advance that humans would not be able to resist the power of Satan?
Ø Was God forced to succumb to Satan’s request as a result of a power–sharing deal between them, since God is too loving to willingly set the devil (Satan) on the loose against His beloved humans?
Ø Would an all-powerful God be hampered by any power-sharing deal with Satan?
Ø Would an omniscient God not have known in advance the implications of leaving such an awesome amount of power in the hands of the wicked Satan, particularly in view of the fact that God saves only those He wills?

The puzzles and contradictions highlighted above have led some people and groups to seek alternative “facts” about God and His creations. At the extreme end are the atheists, who do not believe in God at all, not to talk of believing in any Satan, heaven or hell. Most evolutionists fall in this category. Expectedly, the atheists are relatively few in the whole world because it is difficult not to acknowledge the existence of “a powerful entity that created things”. There are liberal believers who believe in only those things they feel are believable and shun others that run contrary to their logic. The so-called “free thinkers” form part of this group. Also in this group are liberal religionists, who have refused to be bothered by certain dogmas held by their religions. In this sub-group will be found some Christians who engage in polygamy and Muslims who drink alcohol.

The one particular doctrine or theory that seems to have solved all or some of the puzzles highlighted earlier is reincarnation. According to the believers in this doctrine, humans will oscillate between life and death, or keep dying and coming back to live again, until a time will come that they will reach a certain level of perfection, at which point they will remain in heaven and not come back to this world again. Thus, reincarnation is the provision made by God for humans to atone for their sins here on earth until they reach a perfection level high enough to reside in heaven.

Within the context of reincarnation, it is easier to unravel some of the puzzles generated by the dogmatic belief systems of the pure religionists. For instance, it is easier to see why Satan has been set loose - to inflict hellish torture and temptation on us humans on earth so that only those who overcome the drills, through constantly submitting to the will of God, will graduate to heaven on death. Whoever fails the “tests” will keep coming back to face his “resits”. One big conclusion from this analysis is that hell is here on earth, where the devil (Satan) presides while heaven is there, where God reigns supreme.

The conclusion about hell/heaven is in harmony with some of the facts claimed by pure religionists. The devil (Satan) was claimed to have been cast into hell. If the hell was such a place of intense fire and torture, Satan would not have the capacity or power to wreak any havoc on humans, who are still living here on earth. For him to have such great power and influence on humans, he is most likely to be here with us – in hell indeed. It is only by this wonderful system or provision of reincarnation that God has shown us how loving, merciful and kind He is to us. Reincarnation is a rare opportunity given to us to attain perfection and eventually make heaven.

The reincarnation/hell theory also gains huge support from the various reports of people with near-death experiences (NDEs). Virtually all of the recorded near-death experiences include conditions or perceptions or feelings of peace and comfort, beautiful places and flowers, pervasive feeling of love, beings of light and their emphasis on love, intense desire to remain there, etc. Hardly does any one of them mention anything pertaining to torture or any undesirable experiences.

Finally, it is necessary to mention that there are claims that reincarnation was a prominent part of the Bible of old, but that deliberate efforts were made by the religious establishments to remove its traces from the holy book, albeit without total success. There is the need, therefore, to investigate this claim further, and the motive behind the removal. In the meantime, I suppose that the religious establishments had good intentions, one of which could be the need to instill fear in people so that an awareness about reincarnation and its less severe implications would not make humans treat sins with levity. A mysterious world indeed!

Contributor's Note

I strongly believe in God and His Commandments. However, the multiplicity of and rivalry among religions, contradicting teachings, violence for God, etc. kept me wondering if all religions were actually referring to the same God. Then, I started on the search for the truth or, at least, something more logical. Now, I've got the feeling and conviction that religions are man-made, hence the discrepancies, but that God's ways and commandments have always remained unchanged.

The main problem with the "God theory" is that there is no evidence of such a being. It's backwards logic to say that because the universe exists, some being must have created it.
The world has about 2.5 billion Christians, 1.1 billion Muslims, 1 billion nonbelievers and 900 million Hindus. Atheism is not as rare as you think. Buddhists do not believe in gods either. Atheism is simply accepting reality as it appears to be. To believe in deities requires the acceptance of unproven ideas. Imaginary characters can neither be proven to exist nor disproven; therefore the conundrum of the believer. Fairies, elves and leprechauns are in the same realm as God, Allah, and Brahma. You can't prove they exist. You can't prove they don't exist. You're correct; humans invented religion. It's like politics and money... not part of the natural universe.

I vehemently disagree with the opinion that "...there is no evidence of such a being" in reference to God. Humans and all other creatures could not have just happened without a force making them happen. It does not matter what name we give to that "force" - God, Allah, god(s), etc.- that force is real. That one has not seen something does not mean that it does not exist. No man can see beyond what God has granted him in capability. Has anybody seen air before? No. Then, why do we believe that air exists - because we feel it? Yes. The same logic holds for God. When something terryfying happens suddenly, we all instinctively exclaim the name of a being. That being is the supreme force that has power over all creation. To most people, including myself, it would be more plausible to claim that there were many Gods/gods than to say that there was none at all!

Concerning the size of atheists, I used the words "relatively few", and didn't mention that they were rare. If the figure of 1 billion nonbelievers is correct, then it will not be out of place to regard them as relatively few in a global population of over 6 billion.

Finally, I concede that the issues concerning God and creation generally cannot be subjected to the fixed thinking or ideas of anybody or group. They are issues that will remain controversial till eternity. However, some thinking and ideas are more reasonable or plausible than others. At any rate, all the comments are well appreciated.

What's true is true, regardless of what anyone thinks. While neither of us knows 100% for sure... I don't understand that it can make sense to you that an omniscient, omnipresent being exists yet refuses to interact with us in any way as a test of faith. I think the main reason anyone believes in religious deities is because the majority of their society does. It's popular. Fear is another reason, "just in case" the story of hell is true. The theory of evolution is a sensible and logical illustration of how and why things exist, without having to have been created by some intelligent being. Plant a garden, flowers grow. Who created them? Nobody. It's a natural process, a universal law of nature. I would agree that "God" is the universe; that they are one and the same. I can't agree on any of the Biblical or religious descriptions, however; they are absurd.

Thank you, good friend. I respect other people's opinion, especially on this type of controversial topic. I hope other readers will see how much your comments have enriched and balanced my article.

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