Monday, July 14, 2008

The Paradise We Build

In Dante's "Divine Comedy" there are descriptions of hell, purgatory, and heaven. I was struck by how interesting was the inferno and how boring was the paradise. In the inner rings of heaven you find God in the center surrounded by cocentric circles of saints, all facing God and basking in his glory forever. I see this as "the eternal orgasm" model of heaven, but we should note that such an experience is more than sexual. It is the climax of all "chakras" or modes of feeling. It is the sublime thought, the quenched thirst, the perfect meal, et cetera.

But is such a heaven viable? Can we have perpetual climax? I don't think it's possible because we sense things in relation to the past and the future. I.e. "I felt normal before, but compared to that I feel great right now, and compared to that I have this to worry about tomorrow".

With our limited resources throughout history, we might've said that the idea is to maximize pleasure and minimize suffering and frustration. Now that we are approaching great power and malleability, I think we should examine hard what heaven is like. Please, atheists, examine this question as well, for even if heaven does not yet exist, can you argue that it will never be?

I see heaven as the optimization of pleasure and frustration. There is truth in the cliched idea that our suffering makes our happiness possible.

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