Hostages, heaven, hell, and karma

When I read about the plight of hostages, so many questions swirl around my mind.

Will the dead hostages go straight to heaven? Will they still be judged but their terrible fate is going to give them a ride to paradise? Are they going to be seen as martyrs by the Lord?

Now, I know, what I write here isn’t scientific in the slightest and I know it could all be nonsense. My mind tells me it’s nonsense and my intuition tells me to give it a chance. I’m sure many of you know exactly what I mean. These questions tend to flash through my mind, and perhaps your mind, from time to time. Letting your mind wander from time to time is a good exercise.

My take on what happens when we pass on? Either oblivion, lights out forever, or a next chapter in the infinite tapestry of life – written by us or for us (not necessarily asking us for our opinion). Nothing else makes sense to me.

You see, here’s the dilemma. Say you’re a suicide bomber who sincerely believes he is doing God’s work by blowing himself up and killing infidels, heretics, and so on. God obviously knows you’re being sincere in your beliefs. The Lord can of course punish the suicide bomber but punishment is usually for something you know is wrong but you do it anyway. Otherwise, the bomber is going to be confused and angry. ”I did this for you and you’re punishing me? Banishing me to hell? You know I’m not lying!”

Our human level of perception winces at such ”logic.” But God, a self-aware, infinite intellect, surely understands the bomber’s outrage. ”Yes, you’re a martyr, you served me well on Earth. To paradise you shall go.” And that’s it? Then it would mean that the jihadis are right. I believe God, in His infinite wisdom, shows these misguided souls the perspective of their victims/targets as well. The jihadi sees his own take on things and then sees exactly how his victims/target sees it but without all the fanatical lens. Just pure perspective of another while keeping his own perspective intact. This clash of perspectives could well cause a cathartic effect where the jihadi is hit by pangs of guilt so great, he is not just willing, but demands to be punished for his deeds. Same applies not just to the jihadis, of course, but to the dead Russian propagandists, and so on, and so forth.

What if we’re dealing with a psychopath, you ask? Psychopaths know what guilt is, but it’s purely intellectual. They don’t feel it or maybe,  maybe, just a little. Hmm. God could always give the psychopath a conscience. Call it karma, even though the whole idea is flawed, in my opinion, and – understandably – a projection of our desires to punish our enemies by some external, deus ex machina, force.

When I worked in China (Chengdu) in 2016, I went to a psychic/fortune teller/a medium, a mix of all. I was just curious to see what kind of psychological tricks she would use. She could tell that I didn’t believe in her ”powers” and felt offended. She said that I’m going to end up in a different dimension in my next life, the dimension somewhat similar to this one, and incarnate as a Jewish girl with my memories of this life intact. I replied that I don’t accept the idea of some karmic, predetermined, fates, though I found the idea of having my memories intact intriguing, because my current life experience would absolutely clash with the supposed next life and all of its cultural complexities – a dramatically different socialization, smiling and a dramatically different language background (that would depend on the place of incarnation which she didn’t specify, hopefully not China, that would be too big of a culture shock, even if that other China isn’t controlled by the CCP), and self-censorship because ”bad words” would no longer be tolerated nearly as much as they are now.

I couldn’t control my laughter anymore. I laughed in her face. Needless to say, she ended the session and I still couldn’t stop laughing.

I’m grateful, though. Her idiosyncratic (idiotic?) ideas inspired me to start writing a novel that I’ve been polishing over the years, and getting close to the novel-writing finish line.