Hell Tempted Me ...

Hell tempted me … but the temptation was overridden by fear. Fear of the forces of good rather than the tentacles of evil. A voice inside me whispered that Heaven was the desired option, but maybe Heaven and Hell were the same – just viewed from a different perspective. If you were a sinful person, then a place filled with goodness would surely be hell. Could this make my quandary immaterial?

Good and evil – two sides of the same coin. To be a good person, you had to quell the malevolence inside yourself. To be wicked, you had to stop the purity of your soul emerging. All mankind have both driving forces inside us – to create a balance, you have to experience conflict. At least, it appears logical to assume so. Does that mean we can apply the reasoning that the odd deviation from the path of righteousness would be forgiven?

However to make a decision on such a life-changing scenario was terrifying. Was it right to spend your life worrying about your death or more precisely your afterlife? Was it safer to keep your options open and lead a moralistic and exemplary life … to hedge your bets? But then that was surely gambling and in religion, gambling is a vice severely frowned upon. To embark on a course of behaviour in the hope that the end result would be beneficial, is surely cheating. Also, from a moral viewpoint, the behaviour wouldn’t be genuine, but falsely intentioned.

All the infinites – what was the right path?

I blinked. As I lay stretched out on the ground, my eyes were so close to the blades of grass that I could see the glistening drops of dew obscuring my vision. I blinked again and shook my head slightly to clear the fog of my wandering mind. I had spent enough time pondering the possibilities. I had to take action soon – make that decision … good or evil, murder or pro-life. I could hear voices in the distance. It was now or never. Time was running out. I tightened the muscles in my hand and squeezed thumb and forefinger together – then smiled with satisfaction as I heard the dull thud. I hastily glanced around. Had anyone noticed? Had anyone heard?

Quickly I jumped up, brushed the mud from my knees and went to join the rest of my Sunday school group. Whatever the outcome for my eternal soul, for the moment, I was satisfied. Temptation had won … I had squashed that snail.