The insomnia kicked in again last night so there I was watching some ancient western on the tablet. But what got my attention for whatever reason was when the evil desperado said he was "going to rain hell on earth". Maybe it struck a chord because I hadn't heard it in ages. Who knows? But it got me thinking, first that if you want to see hell on earth come to this world of today. And that's when my brain took took me on one of its late night excursions.
Now before I start lets get something cleared up. I am a Christian, a Catholic to be precise. I read the Bible regularly. Not to quote it chapter and verse like some televangelist but as a guide, an instruction manual of sorts as to how to lead my life. To put it bluntly, I don't need a ton of comments from every self-anointed theologian. This was simply my brain on a middle of the night flight of fancy. A Rod Serling sort of moment.
The world, the entire world is nothing but a powder keg. "Civilization" has never been more uncivilized. And it's getting worse, not better, by the nanosecond. Between "religious fanatics", dictators killing their own citizens who are starving to death from the folly and failure of socialism (who knows, as revolting as it sounds maybe he's feeding them to his army to keep them from revolting), politicians trampling on people's God given rights around the world. Enough... I'm depressing myself.
But what if no one needs to "rain hell on earth" after all because earth is in fact, hell. That's right, we're born into hell and have to earn our way out of it.
And then one morning everyone wakes up and all the folks who've passed the test are gone... Vanished.
Our lives were the test. How we live them didn't determine where we've gone but if we got to go in the first place. Or, are doomed to spend eternity here on earth, a land of savages, poverty, new incurable diseases, never ending starvation, and of course violence. Without end, you never get to die, to end it. You be stuck here!
And the good people? They get transported somewhere else, Heaven. And, of course, all the good folks who've died in the past are joining us for the trip.
It's kind of like the Nicholas Cage flick "Knowing". Transported by the angels to a new, pure place.
I think Rod Serling would have liked this one.
And then my brain said "Back to work. California had another big one!" <sigh>