Opening the Can

THE YOUNG LADY who made the remark to me was very attractive, granted, but that only goes so far. She was also very religious, and very married. But two strikes is not an out. She said: "You'll find out when you die."... OK,so I'll find out when I die. At least I'll find out, although I certainly wouldn't mind expediting the process a bit. I am, after all, extremely curious. What, precisely did she assert with such great confidence, will I finally, at long last find out? Essentially, she was saying that when I die, I will suddenly, perhaps painfully become aware, or be made aware, of the salient fact that the Christian religion is true, the Christian, biblical god is real, that Jesus Christ is, or was, or could have been, my savior, or potential savior, and that, because I failed or refused to reognize and accept all this during all my live long days, I am now experiencing, shall we say, a very rude awakening. Presumably this sudden awareness will be mine as I reawaken and notice that I am in a very hot place, with a lot of fire all around me and the smell of brimstione hanging the air. An eternity of suffering in hell all because I did not fall to my knees, or whatever you do, an accept and proclaim that Jesus Christ is my personal lord and savior. That, incredibly, is precisely what she meant. This "argument" is fundamental to evangelism. I have come to discover, with a little research, that many devout people have made this exact "promise", or "threat" to many unsaved, and still do. My question is: when they do they do this, do they actually think that they have won teh argument? do they think that they have administered the intelletual knock out blow, and have decisively defeated any hope of effective counter response with a lazer like bolt of logic? They probably do, or they wouldn't keep using it. It is almost certain that they haven't the slightest notion that what they have actually done is to render unto the poor listener a very hateful, vicious, but hollow threat, based on nothing but hate and resentment, and on an unreasoning, aggressive urge to dominate and control other people. An urge to reinforce one's own dark, primitive religious beliefs by imposing them on other people in the most frightening, unpleasant manner possible, a threat of eternal nightmares. What this vaguely worded threat really does is to relieve the devotee of any responsibility or hope of actually winning the argument or prevailing in the discussion with logic, reason, proof, and solid, emperical evidence, by precluding any possibility of so doing. I can't prove to you now that my religious beliefs are the only true religion and that everybody else should embrace my beliefs,but I don't have to; you'll find out for yourself when you die. Jeez, talk about finding an easy way out. In one little six word declarative statement, avoiding the responsibility of proving that what you say and believe is true, while providing the other person with a seemingly rock solid means of findng out for himself, later. When I die, who knows what I'll find out? Maybe I will find myself in the glorious presence of the creator of the universe, and we will share a good laugh at the incredibly distorted, utterly innacurate visions of reality which not merely one but all the many religions invented by the human mind hath unveiled and foisted upon humanity. Who knows? I guess I'll find out when I die.