Imagine there's no heaven...

In an earlier post we looked at modernity vs. post-modernity.  Modernity had its roots in Rationalism: The Age of Reason or “Enlightenment”.  Simultaneously with the scientific revolution, which started in the late 17^th century, western thinkers began to celebrate the human mind as the apex of evolution. Earlier philosophers like René Descartes (“I think, therefore I am”) had already led the way.  As modern man became enthralled by his own mental capacity, he began to imagine that he was autonomous. Consequently, God was seen as a primitive invention to explain those things that people could not comprehend. Through the advancement of science, the “god idea” –so was reasoned- should soon be proved redundant.  Nevertheless, it did not happen quite this way.  Western culture held on to biblical values, even while it rejected the underlying truth. While modern scientists cleverly argued for the non-existence of their own creator, most people continued their religious traditions and convictions.  Neither western academia nor eastern communism seemed able to divorce humanity from God.

And yet, while apparently the basic ‘belief in God’ was retained, over the generations it was gradually divorced from its essential content.  It was hard to notice at first, for many people continued to “believe in God”.  Yet, most of them no longer knew God from personal experience, so , over time, they lost a sense of God’s control over -or impact on- their daily lives.  Sure, most continued to follow their denominational behavior codes, but for the rest God was effectively removed from daily life.  The dominant worldview had become demythologized or secularized, so that people only thought and talked about God on special days (Sundays, Christmas) or with special events (birth, marriage, death). 

I recall that one of my teachers suggested that Luther’s song “A mighty fortress” reflects the primitive, medieval idea that we are surrounded by angels and/or demons.  My students were convinced that Pharaoh’s ‘wise men’, who copied Moses’ miracles, used “magic tricks”, which the students thought to mean: deceptive illusions.  Even today, most westerners are convinced that tribal medicine doctors’ knowledge about medicinal plants and their powers stems from an oral tradition, accumulated through many generations of experimentation.  This sounds very scientific, but tribal people themselves invariably claim that their “experts” are witch doctors, who receive specific instructions from the spirit world.  Yet, modern man cannot deal with such an answer, for he “just knows that gods and angels, spirits and demons don’t exist”.

The public perspective, even among Christians, had become secularized*, until God used Pentecostalism to bring a renewed awareness of the supernatural reality and the spiritual battle in and around us.  Up to that time it was mostly the missionaries -working in other cultures- that were forced to admit that demonic powers are a present reality that we cannot afford to ignore.

During the 20^th century, Europe experienced a dual shift. First, the vestiges of the Christian worldview were systematically demolished. For a long time there existed a form of ‘practical atheism’.  Apparently this is still common in the U.S., where millions may claim to be Christians, while many or most of them see little or no connection with -or implications for- their daily lives.  In Europe, the youngest generations have dismissed such a lifestyle as hypocritical, and indeed Christianity had often become a social veneer, where the churches continued the good old tradition while they lost the powerful presence of God.

It is in such a vacuum that people begin to search for other gods.  In The Netherlands I noticed how, during the sixties and seventies, many people left the church to invest time and energy in other areas, such as nature conservation, politics, or community work.  A sense of freedom filled the air where tradition, law and discipline (typical for the old church) no longer dominated life.  For those who yearned for a more spiritual experience, new opportunities were offered in eastern religions.  These seemed to offer genuine experiences of peace and love and harmony with nature, rather than the dusty church experiences of ‘men societies’ and consistory meetings. This trend has continued: today you can see Buddhist images popping up all over the country.

At a social gathering with a group of Dutch friends, one of them shared the anecdote how an American tourist visited an old church (building!) in Holland, where he was shocked to learn that humans were actually buried underneath the church stone floor.  Supposedly, he replied, “I see, it’s pretty dead in the church!” (‘t is maar een dode boel in de kerk, haha!)  I wanted to reply that the true church is the fellowship of the Living God, the resurrected Christ.  But I had to agree that most of the churches (in Europe) today have lost the life and excitement that should be central to their lives.

It was in the late sixties that a lot of changes happened all at once. In this context it is interesting that in 1971, (The Beatles’) John Lennon wrote the song “Imagine”. 

Imagine there's no heaven,   It's easy if you try
No hell below us,  Above us only sky
Imagine all the people,   Living for today…

Today we are told not to focus on our destination, but rather on the journey itself.  I find this message in a movie like “Moon” (1990). The impression is given that “Heaven” and “God” are just preprogrammed on our minds to keep us going in the drudgery of daily life.  There is no real “home, out there” to which we could return; there is no “loving Father” who wants his rebellious children to return to Him.  These are just illusions that keep us from quitting this life of vanity and threatening insanity.

Lennon’s message seemed to be, “Let’s face it: there’s no God!  Be honest, you already live like atheists.  Therefore, “It’s easy if you try”. 

Imagine there's no countries,   It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for,  And no religion too
Imagine all the people,  Living life in peace…

You may say I'm a dreamer,   but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us,  And the world will live as one

The problem is: we all need something worth dying for!  Without it, we no longer have anything truly worth living for.  In fact, the very thing we consider worth dying for, this is our god.  John Lennon promotes the myth that religion is a major cause for war.**  Therefore, he suggests we ought to abolish religion altogether.  In this way we could experience true unity as “brotherhood of man”.

A few years earlier, the Beatles had visited India in search of ‘true enlightenment’.  So, Lennon did not really seek to abandon “heaven, god, or religion”, but mainly the biblical truth these terms originally referred to.  Soon, he and Yoko Ono introduced us to eastern religion, with its own (impersonal) “god”, and a different kind of heaven.  This “new” religion supposedly embraces all humans as it claims to respect all gods. “For all gods are one and the world is one…”  So, today, there is a world-wide “Oneness-movement”, which hosts conferences where attendees are taught how to access cosmic powers and how to experience the god within, and how this is united with the awesome universe.  And, before the disciples return home -to their mission fields-, they dance around the room. Hand in hand, they sing a hymn of global unity while they experience an amazing spiritual presence: the peace and harmony of the New Age!  Those who return to European countries find the fields there ripe for the harvest. 

* Zeb Bradford Long and Douglas McMurray, The Collapse of the Brass Heaven: Rebuilding Our Worldview to Embrace the Power of God

** Vinoth Ramachandra, Subverting Global Myths: Myths of religious Violence

Related posts:   The blind men and the elephant

                         Signs of the times: modernity and postmodernity