I wrote a long post a few days ago about Jesus' death — how if he had died happily in his sleep of old age, or of an accident, or an illness, or of something like actually being shoved off that cliff, no one would have believed in the Resurrection. For example, if he had died of appendicitis, everyone who saw him after his Resurrection would have said, "Oh, I guess he really wasn't all that sick."

Jesus had to die in the most public way possible, and his enemies had to agree that he was "really most sincerely dead." That, I believe, is the meaning of the Crucifixion — not some b.s. about how Adam and Eve, created by Godde to be "very good," transformed themselves into something inherently evil, so Jesus had to die to satisfy Godde's bloodlust. Puh-leez! (A&E transforming themselves? Imagine taking a beautiful pie out of the oven, turning your back for a moment, and voila, the pie has transformed itself into bird droppings. Just exactly how could the pie, or A&E, do it?)

I believe that if Godde exists in the first place, then many of the things that we believe about Godde must be true — that Godde is omnipresent in particular. That there is no place, no time, no idea in which Godde is absent. (With the arguable exception of sin and evil.)

If it is true that Godde is omnipresent, then when we die, either (a) our souls dissolve into nothingness, or (b) our souls go somewhere, heaven, hell, New Jersey (did I just repeat myself?), whatever. We know from the Resurrection that (a) is not the case. That leaves (b).

But if Godde is everywhere and everywhen, where/when would our souls go where Godde is absent? It's just plain impossible! — That's why I also don't believe in the traditional view of Hell, which besides is a misinterpretation of passages like Mark 9:42-48. (In modern English, that passage would reflect what Jesus actually said — that if you interfere between another living soul and Godde, you're worth only the garbage dump where pagans had offered human sacrifices before King Josiah put a stop to the practice.)

I think that St. Paul was right, that Heaven will be the ability to "see" Godde as if face to face. I think that if we spend all our time here on Earth shutting our spiritual eyes to Godde — worshipping money, or power, or glory, or hatred, or whatever — then we "blind" ourselves to Godde, so that when we die, all we can perceive is what we spent our lifetime worshipping in Godde's place.

And I believe that Godde's mercy being infinite, Godde will not let the hells we create for ourselves be eternal. I believe that after a few million, billion, trillion, gazillion years, people like Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer will eventually say, "Oh, now I understand why what I did was wrong. I'm sorry, Godde!" And in that instant, the sufferer will be in Heaven.

Of course, if Godde does not exist, then the Resurrection was a colossal hoax on billions of us, life is meaningless, when we die we die "all over," and we might as well just kill ourselves right now, and forget all the joy that we get from Godde's love — it's a delusion.

Yeah, right!