Activist appears on a tortilla in mexico god

Yesterday, while attending a poetry slam session in a Nairobi suburb, it dawned upon me that a central theme in the Christian belief goes against my morality. I find it interesting, because non-believers are often lead to believe that their morals are inherited from Christian doctrine. Appearently, not so. I suppose it's a relief to me, which is why I feel like sharing. An apology for posting this here is due being wanton off-topic, but rest assured that the word "science" does appear. For the record, the title of this piece was inspired by a friend who said, "I honestly don't even think I believe in God more than like some levelling force of good in the universe, I don't believe in this activist appears on a tortilla in mexico god". I'm not personally seeing much of this levelling force and not very compelled to spirituality in general, but the rest of the remark does make for a good title.

Spirituality is strong in Kenya and most of the poems recited in the session carried religious messages. I took note of one piece in particular, which had a female poet ask her would-be suitor if "He was your king, your leader" (he would then ask her the same). This lead me to think about the concept of judgment, e.g. the notion that after we pass away, divine judgment awaits (protecting the kingdom of heaven). Another poet introduced his piece by reminding the audience that "scientists should stick to formulas". While a fair proposition, I hope it does not exclude me from employing logic, because I will need it in the following.

You'll recall that in Christian doctrine, Purgatory is the station just before Heaven and Hell (there's a notion of being in "limbo" as well, but that's irrelevant here). I've always thought that eternal damnation was an odd concept, but I've been lead to believe that it's a scarecrow idea that will never materialize (surely if it did, it would undermine the entire foundation of Christian morality, being such as cruel punishment). As such, we all go to Heaven eventually. What's important is that we don't know this while down here and so there's still this judgment awaiting us which could prove detrimental.

I call this morality of Purgatory "The Carrot or the Chariot", inspired by Malcolm X's speech "The Ballot or The Bullet", which in 1964 warns the United States government that if African-Americans are not given full equality, armed struggle will ensue. Mine is a pun on the obvious flaw of using Heaven as a carrot, while Hell is the actual destination should anything go wrong. The opposite of a carrot must be neutral, else it's no carrot.

We must believe in reform and morality while down here and we cannot instill this using fear for divine judgment. The carrot is the joy of living a moral life with all in which entails of honesty, modesty, humility, and so forth. With the morality of divine judgment comes reasoning that leads us to such cruelties as capital punishment (the secular counterpart to eternal damnation).

Further, if Purgatory is merely a scarecrow institution, we must question whether Heaven is even possible. Can such a state of being truly be different from that which we experience here below? The same petty thiefs, thugs and defilers will dwell there, too, demanding justice.

To observe this belief of happiness in living a life in morality and accepting happiness as a carrot is thus to reject the existance of Purgatory, Heaven and Hell, all of which are central to Christian morality.