A quote and a thought
I was just reading an online interview of Tom Robbins and I came across a quote from him I found very interesting.
What at this point, for Tom Robbins, is the ultimate goal?
Actually, what I’m interested in right now is the idea of having some kind of moratorium on the belief in an afterlife. Much of the world believing in an afterlife leads to much of the world’s primary ills. An ending to this belief would increase the quality and sanctity in the life we already know we have. Nobody has proven that any of the ideas of an afterlife are true. No one knows for sure. Therefore, as long as you believe in an afterlife, you’ll be willing to accept suppression, repression in this life. It would be much quicker to press the red button. I think that’s one of the problems.
It does seem that some people treat “life” as a dress rehersal. This seems very sad when to the best of my knowledge this very likely is all we get. If God came down today and told everyone, “There is no heaven or hell. You have 60, 70, maybe 80 years and then it’s over”. Would people be making the same life choices? Certainly some people would continue on their path, but I think a lot of people would have to take a hard look at their life.
Well that is just something to think about. I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween!
hoboboobies.wordpress.com 
Sunday, November 2 at 4:56 pm
I know what he means. It seems much more probable that this dress rehersal is all we have to live. As far as I’m concerned there is no big show going on after this one, yet everyone seems to be sitting on the sidelines saying this is nothing just wait and it will get better. Well people, you are taking a shit on my heaven and its not cool.
Sunday, November 2 at 7:57 pm
If you guys had your choice, would you prefer that heaven/hell did exist?
I think I prefer the no afterlife version that I think we have. Hell sounds terrible, and I am not sure I could get into heaven. Not worth the risk.
Monday, November 3 at 12:29 pm
I would prefer it exists if it was something I was able to believe in, then I would be OK with it. If God came down and told me that Heaven existed, I would say to him “thanks, I’ll see you up there. In the mean time, what can I do for you?”. And then I would annoy you guys by handing out bibles/qurans/tom cruise pictures/poisoned Kool-aid or whatever it was He wanted for the rest of my life. Although it seems the odd are against that though.
For awhile there I was subscribing to Pascal’s Wager thinking that it isnt a good idea to bet that there isnt a hell because there’s too much on the line. So I went along saying I was assuming heaven/hell did exist. Not too long ago I realized that my fake belief in hell is probably more of a slap in the face to the big G than what I am currently doing – taking in all the evidence that He has (presumably) been trying to get to me throughout my life and coming up with honest and sincere scepticism that He exists. He obviously doesn’t want me to believe in him for some reason and who am I to question God’s plan? Like the Streets said in that song, you can’t control what you really believe. I think you can lie to yourself fairly easy, but if He/She does exist, they are omnipotent and not going to be fooled by my mind games.
Oh and our first Hoboboobies book should be a Tom Robbins book. I didn’t completely love the first one I read, but I catch myself thinking about it more than other books I have since read. I think it may have something to do with how many of the themes he writes about make me very uncomfortable.
Wednesday, November 5 at 12:34 pm
Tom Robbins or…….. Brisingr?