The idea of reward and punishment in the afterlife has so many intensely, ludicrously messed-up implications, I could go on for pages and pages and probably a whole book

(starting with, “if heaven and hell exist, then the most ethical course of action is to give up all selfish worries about your own eternal soul and just kill as many innocent people as possible, because then you ensure they don’t risk Temptation and they get into heaven while they’re still innocent”)

And–

as these ideas naturally lead into the question of whether intention matters to the deity choosing our afterlives–

whether for example you could go to heaven for killing babies, if your reason was to save their souls – or go to hell for not killing babies, if your reason was to ensure they got their maximum chance at hell–

(Or, more biblically accurate: whether God will see you as a sinner even if you refrain from adultery, because you wanted to and that means you were “committing adultery in your heart”)

(It’s the same question – whether intention matters as much as effect– but let’s go with the example Jesus actually used, just because)

Anyway.

If you say God believes in thoughtcrime like that… then it naturally creates a contradiction against the common argument (that believing in heaven and hell is important because people behave themselves and follow rules only because of concern about their eternal reward or punishment)

Because, if intention does matter– if you go to heaven for being good only if you truly want to be good–

then, wanting to sin and choosing not to because of the Threat of Hell or the Promise of Heaven? doesn’t actually work. You still go to hell just because you wanted to sin in the first place.

So there’s actually no point in heaven and hell as an anti-sin deterrent.

I mean, I guess there’s a point in telling people about it (really, in any case, “heaven and hell being real” is no more use for changing human behavior than if they are made-up stories)

but even the stories are useless if they talk about about “committing sins in your heart” and how your intentions, which you have no control over, are gonna decide your fate.

Because that just means everyone who could qualify for heaven would live good lives anyway, with or without the promise of heaven and threat of hell. And everyone else goes to hell anyway.

In fact, arguably this means that, if there really IS an afterlife, it’s only one.

It’s a place where doing evil (however God defines that) is literally impossible, and doing good is literally the only option. And for people who deserve heaven that’s heaven. And for people who deserve hell that’s hell.

Simple. Efficient. A perfect God would never make anything requiring more moving parts than that. That’d just be a waste, wouldn’t it?

…But then, so would having any real afterlife (if made-up stories about it would accomplish exactly as much effect on human actions.)

…Or having any real world before the afterlife, for that matter.

Anything that can be accomplished by any of the overcomplicated stuff we have… would be much better accomplished by something simpler, which a truly perfect God would be able to come up with.

In fact, the most perfect God would be one who didn’t even have to exist.

Reverse Descartes argument! Yay.