The Devil, Evil, Hell, and even Sin

So last night I changed my Facebook profile from the classic view to the timeline view, finally… I found an image of a classic Bukowski quote and made it my ‘cover’ photo:

So I wake this morning to find my born-again-aunt has commented on it:

“That is the description of rebellion. Death is reality. There is no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But they will burn in the Lake of Fire rejecting the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. For all those who oppose the God of the Universe and choose to believe a lie --- will burn in the lake of Fire, where there is torment continually for eternity.”

Jesus… Fucking… Christ… There are just so many things I want to say to this that my dick is fucking hard!  REALLY?  REALLY??  I mean, REALLY???  It’s not even a religious comment.  He’s talking about living life to the fullest, about questioning the man made systems that oppress the soul, the churches, the governments, and the schools that teach us not to step out of line, to follow their rules, their fears, their loss of heart, soul, spirit and rebellion.

From now on, if anyone leaves me a comment like this or Makes a comment like this, no matter who you Think you are in my life, be it my Grandmother, my father, a blood relative, a married-in-aunt, or the mother of a significant other, it is officially ON! And if you choose to anyway, while I’ll respect your daring moment, when you get served, remember it was YOU who opened this door…

So don’t talk to me about ‘Lakes of Fire” And don’t fucking think about sharing with me how you “Know I’m living in Sin.”  I’ve read your bible, cover to cover.  I’ve read your qur’an, cover to cover.  All I see, all I read, all I hear is the oppression and fear.  Words of men creating gods out of better men, betraying them, betraying their messages, betraying their own hearts.  I don’t believe in your devil, your idea of evil, hell or even sin, at least not your simple-minded understanding of these concepts.  I don’t believe in man made gods, not Mohammad, not Buddah, and Not Jesus, of Nazareth… I do not believe in gods of fear, a god who could threaten lakes of fire for the ‘wicked,’ where there is torment continually for eternity.  I Spit in the Mouth of a God like this!  A doG like this deserves nothing less than protest, rebellion and DEFIANCE!  A doG like this is wickedness, manifest.  And like any man on earth who threatens such things, in the name of God or otherwise, is wicked.  This is your God?  Or is this your mother’s God?  And her mother’s God?  And so on and so on… You never questioned it?  Thomas comes to mind…  This doG who whispers into the ears of children, tells them to stay in line, because on either side is that lake of fire, children frighten easily, don’t they?  As do sheep. 

But no man has ever seen these lakes of fire, at least not in anything other than a vision.  I too have had visions.  I’ve seen the center of the Universe.  I’ve seen the nature of our true God.  And I have seen this place you would call hell.  I can tell you this, with certainty, You do Not understand the concepts you attempt to preach.  In the words of Bob Dylan, “In a soldier’s stance I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach, fearing not I’d become my enemy in the moment that I preach.”  And so I choose not to tell others how to live their lives.  You Christians can’t seem to grasp this concept though, can you?  Every time you hear the word God, you equate it with your religion.  You snack on a little piece of knowledge and equate it to wisdom…  Live and let live.  But no, that’s not enough for you Christians, for any of you so self-hypnotized by your organized religion.  You need to save other souls.  You need to stack those rewards for your ‘afterlife.’  You need a seat that much further from fire…

I suppose it’s a path.  I suppose even this path serves a purpose to some souls.  I don’t claim to understand it and so I don’t often try to… It just pisses me off when people come around pushing their ridiculous dogmatic religious crap on me, or others.  Anyone, and I mean Anyone, today or 2000 years ago, who claims to Know more about God, Heaven, Hell, or the Afterlife than anyone else is Full Of Shit, period!  No one knows anything with certainty, No One!  Here’s another good (and related) Bukowski quote:

Look, I believe in Love.  I believe in God, a God that is Love, that is part of each and every one of us, that is part of everything there is, and isn’t.  I believe Jesus was divine, but no more divine than every single one of us.  I don’t believe humanity needs or ever needed a savior.  And I’ll not let a savior define my spirit’s freedom.  I will always Rebel, Defy, and Protest against the person, the organization or the system itself, that wants to cage it.  I believe we pray to the same God but its obvious that our perception of that God is very different.  I can live and let live with this, can you?  This is how humanity can kill war!  This is how we can live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us and God’s light of love will smile upon us.