Through the eyes of a child...

LqdCrct · Tufted Titmouse Joined: Jul 14, 2006 Posts: 47

When I was six I told my dad (who was a children's minister at the time) that I didn't believe that "evil" really existed. This was my explanation: just like in archery, "sin" means "to miss the mark (of perfection)".

Then I continued...
Light particles exist, but when they don't, we call it darkness.
Heat exists, but when it doesn't we call it cold.
Air exists, but when it doesn't we call it space.

Is the absence of positive (good) really negative (evil)?
Or are we mislabeling the absence of one existence as an opposite existence?

Considering this presented me with several other ideas:

First, even "somewhat good" is still short of perfection and can be called "sin".
Since no one is perfect all the time, we are all "sinners" even if we are "really, really, REALLY good".
So being "good" is not going to exempt you from the consequences of "sin".

There is a verse that says, "the wages of sin is death". I have always read it to mean, "the natural consequence of imperfection is the loss of immortality (an aspect of perfection)". Pretty straightforward if you ask me. Everyone dies so everyone must have "sinned", otherwise we would have immortals walking around all the time. Using the archery analogy, if you miss the mark ("sin"), you won't get a bullseye ("perfection"). Really, it's true.

Second, God doesn't punish anyone for "sinning", but he doesn't get in the way of the natural consequences either. Thus God does allow "bad things to happen" but he didn't cause them, we did. We have sucky aim. Can we really blame God for not stepping in to redirect our arrow after we've already shot it? I might claim that I can ask God for guidance before I release my arrow, just to get it closer to the mark, but I still believe I am imperfect and will therefore miss to some degree. I really believe that all we can do is pray and do our very best to succeed.

When people talk abut heaven and hell, I tend to think that heaven is where all the good stuff comes from and goes back to in the end and hell is just, well, where there is no good stuff. So what we call "bad or evil" kinda gets grouped in that category. Hell is like the cold, dark space that is defined by the absence of good. That doesn't mean that cold, dark and space can't be experienced. But we recognize it because we can compare it to something we know exists elsewhere. I think hell is everything that can be experienced in the absence of "good". God isn't there, perfection isn't there, but the part of us that is imperfect creates that space of absence, of separation from God.

Lastly, I don't think our "souls" can be split, whatever they may be made of. I think our souls are a combination of internalized experiences, attitudes, ideas, beliefs, whatever make us "us". My soul is the part of me that makes me "me". Perhaps like a book that we write. It has a story that changes, develops, and grows until it is finished. But once it is finished, the book must be judged as a whole. If it is imperfect, by definition it must be separate from perfection. Only what is found perfect in entirety can be allowed in heaven, otherwise heaven would not be perfect.

So the perfect and imperfect are separated out and our souls must find homes. How do we get them into heaven? By having our souls judged to be perfect. That I believe is where salvation comes in. The plan of salvation says that God wipes our sin away and makes our souls perfect by merging [his] spirit with ours. This Holy Spirit must be collected back into heaven and so, because our souls cannot be split, we get to tag along. One ticket to heaven.

Well, that was my theory on salvation when I was little and it hasn't changed much since. I still consider myself a Christian but I don't go to church really. I am curious what others think though. Any thoughts on this from anyone?