We are strange animals, we really are. I remember a poll taken sometime in the past about how people felt about themselves and other people they know concerning everyone’s chance of going straight to heaven after they die. An overwhelming majority of people thought that they were certainly going to heaven, but their family members and neighbors were most likely not.
I am sure in the face of our upcoming election for the presidency, the list would be much larger, and would now have political overtones as a deciding factor. If you are a Democrat, anyone showing signs of being republican are certainly going to hell. If you are a Republican, anyone with democratic leanings is certainly suspect, and most will probably go to hell also.
The heaven/hell thinking also pervades religious beliefs. No matter what religion one is and no matter what tolerance that religious belief promotes, most people are sure others that are not of their particular blend of religion are going to have a tough time finding those pearly gates. With the tens of thousands of flavors of Christianity, not to mention other major religions and their thousands of subsets, it looks like everyones vision of heaven is going to be a pretty empty place to live after we pass on.
As I get older, I have more friends and acquaintances develop some serious medical issues. Of course it is easy to determine the cause. They obviously eat wrong, do not exercise, drink, or do none of those things, and that is the problem. Likely they did drugs when they were young, and smoked different types inhaled products. There is no doubt why they became so ill, anyone can see that.
Of course in my case, my body was born in perfect condition, any probability of a future medical condition is non existent. I also have spent my life doing all the things I should do, and none of the those things which may have an influence on my health in a negative way. By golly it is quite a shock the first time something does not work as expected!
As I am sure most people do, I looked for someone or something to blame. Something they put in food, or something I breathed in when visiting some big polluted city. It was probably caused by eating some unwashed fruit, or consumed fish that had DDT, or mercury in its body.
Once I went through that list, it is on to the spiritual side of why something is not right. God is punishing me, and until I figure it out and made it right, I will remain ill. Once I figure out what it was I did that was wrong, my health will be restored, and everything will be good again with my body.
If I went through all my memories and can not find anything, then it must be God has forgotten about me. I did not actively practice my religion by going to church often enough. Or maybe I have too many differing views that stray to far away from the mainline concepts of my faith of choice. Once I get back in line with the mainstream majority with my faith, my health problems will go away.
If that does not work, there is the other side of religion. The Devil, or Satan if you will has been allowed to torment me by God. I am the modern day version of Job, and the devil has decided to get right down to it and attack my physical health in an attempt to make my spirit weak. I can not believe this was allowed to happen, but now that I have figured it out, I know all I have to do is wait and continue living a righteous life, and everything will be restored, just as it was for Job.
Finally reality starts to creep in, and the truth becomes apparent. Stuff happens with our bodies. We have one tens of millions of cells from disparate body parts all trying to function and reproduce, and sometimes a cell gets it wrong. It is nobody’s fault and there is no spiritual connection. It just happens….
