Wednesday, October 12, 2005

He Doesn't Want to go to Heaven

This is absolutely heartbreaking. And incidentally, why are so many religious officials caught doing homosexual things? I mean, the one profession that totally forbids gays seems to attract so many of them! But I digress...

Darren L. Moore, a Sunday School teacher, was sentenced to 20 years in prison recently for forcible oral sodomy of a 7 year old boy. Jesus Christ! What the fuck is wrong with these people? Looking back at my youth, I'm starting to think that I was lucky to have not been molested by anybody at my church.

Now here's the kicker. Here is where it ties in with the afterlife:

The mother of the victim told the court, in a pre-sentence report, that her son didn't want to go to heaven because that's where Moore told him he was going and he wouldn't feel safe with Moore there.


Emphasis mine.

I'm speechless. This is a smart kid, in my opinion. It also brings up all kinds of theological issues. Let's assume that Mr. Moore will get in to Heaven. I mean, why wouldn't he? He will surely repent and be forgiven by Jesus while in prison. And what if this kid stays Christian all his life, but doesn't want to go to Heaven? What if he is saved, and deserving of Heaven, but doesn't want it?

Think about the craziness of having a criminal and the victim both end up in Heaven. What kind of Heaven would that be? Forcible oral sodomy won't bar you from salvation. And if the victim is faithful to Jesus his whole life, does he have any choice of destination other than Heaven when he dies? Would he choose Hell? Would he choose "non-existence"? Would these options even be available? What if the victim requested that Moore be cast in to Hell, but Moore was already saved and forgiven and in Heaven? Is a Heaven even really Heaven if the victim has to be in the presence of the bastard who forced him to provide oral sodomy at 7 years of age?

Are there too many question marks in this post? Will you tell me so in my comments?

Credit goes to Bobo's World for informing me of this story. By the way, if you don't read Bobo's World every day, you should start.

12 comments:

LBBP said...

Well you know what they say about forbidden fruit (no pun intended).

I think a theist could probably argue that once you got to heaven "you would be so filled with God's love, you would forget your earthly worries". Besides if ~I Am's~ analysis is correct you will be too busy "serving God" to worry about a former child molester.

Going back to relativism, the only way heaven could truly be heaven for everyone, would be if it were specific to each individual. Or at least their perception of it. So in the little boy's heaven Moore would either never appear or he would be tortured or something. Moore's heaven would probably involve lots of cherubs I suppose.

If heaven is not relative, and everyone experiences the same "heaven", then what would be the point of this interim existence with free will and individualism? Why suffer through a medicre life, where at least you have autonomy, only to have all freedom stripped away for a mindless zombie like euphoria?

Heaven makes no sense. That's why all we can have is questions about it.

Aaron Kinney said...

Well said.

Anonymous said...

I always thought that one of the more salient points against the Heaven/Hell scenario was how could ever enjoy Heaven, if they went to heaven and all there friends and family went to hell? How could one ever be happy if they knew that those they care about are burning for all eternity in unquenchable fire and being infinitely porked in the ass by demons? Only a completely self-absorbed person would be attracted to such a situation, if you ask me.

Aaron Kinney said...

I think the child made an incredibly relevant and damning point. This innocent simple child put 2 and 2 together and then exposed a big vulnerability in the whole "afterlife" concept with Chrsitanity, or even any other religion with a "heaven/afterlife" destination.

Delta said...

God damn, why would anyone want to molest a 7-year old boy? Even if I thought I was going to be forgiven for it and could lose all guilt, why why why would you want to? I guess your mind has to be poisoned first.

Anonymous said...

http://img17.imagevenue.com/img.php?loc=loc70ℑ=bc8_49.JPG

Behold HIS glory!

Aaron Kinney said...

Delta, I really dont know. I think its one of those sexual perversion things, akin to scat-lovers and stuff like that.

But I think that there is some kind of correlation between people with sexual issues, their attempted repression of it, and their joining the clergy, and then acting out.

I think that abstinence leads to compulsion, to borrow a phrase from Anton LaVey. Trying to repress something only makes you act out on it in extreme and perverse ways.

Not to mention that if these clergy are molesting kids and its being reported finally, imagine -just imagine- how much consentual gay sex occurs between preachers that never gets reported!! Have you seen the Philadelphia DA's report on clergy abuse in that city? SICK SICK SICK! There was one report of a child waking up in a bed to find a preacher giving him oral sex while three other preachers observed and masturbated! UGH!

I cant fathom just how fucked up these peoples heads are to want to engage in this kind of behavior.

Michael Bains said...

...and we don't even have to point to a book as our reason for not doing this

That's beautiful NR!

Just a reminder about Heaven & Hell: whether we like it or not, our species still has yet to overcome the necessity of Survival of the Fittest. Personally and objectively I have been inundated with this unavoidable fact alot lately.

Heaven & Hell on Earth are inevitable. In myths they are our ultimate options but, in reality, they are day to day occurences we each have to choose how to approach and/or avoid. Our choice.

The reason my creator (dad: and a whole other topic for another time) thinks I'm a "devout atheist", the thoughts I express that he interprets to mean I am such, is that I refuse to be intellectually bullied into making those choices for my life. Of course I prefer Heaven. Of course I've chosen the hours of Hell I've experienced.

I'm only Human, as are the purveyors of religious nutterdumb. The difference is that I would only EVER compell someone to go against their own nature if I was immediately threatened with Death - not just Hell - by the effects of their nature.

Anonymous said...

If I could, I would tell the boy, "there are many mansions in heaven." He wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with his attacker.

Anonymous said...

AK,
This doesn't really belong in this spot, but I thought I should post it where you could see it. I ran into one of your comments at goosing the antithesis from 10-4. I read it today as a COTG post [10-16]. I cant speak for all readers, but keeping with the copernican view [there is nothing extra ordinary about my position in the universe] I consider myself average. I read several athiest blogs primarily for the intellectual discourse. I post infrequently as I have nothing to add. I am usually nodding my head in agreement with the bloger, but I have nothing earth shattering to say. This doesn't mean that i don't appreciate their work. So take it from MR. average, you are providing many of us great pleasure.
thanks,
euclidschild

tm said...

I think a theist could probably argue that once you got to heaven "you would be so filled with God's love, you would forget your earthly worries".

Isn't that arguably worse! Picture heaven as a party - before hand, you realize that the person that did awful thing X to you will be there. A friend notes that you'll be so messed up on ecstasy, you won't even think of the bad stuff when you're hanging out with him, or he's giving you a massage, or whatever.

That's deeply creepy.

Anonymous said...

Let's make this clear:

there's no heaven. No hell, no god(s), angels, demons, satan, spirits, spiritguides, afterlife, spiritworld or anything.

There's absolutely nothing else but this one life, and when it end, it's game over.

Personally, i would be extremely horrified to find out after my death that there's afterlife.

From my point of view, it is better to find final from oblivion, rather than live forever in a place where i don't even want to go.