Preston, do you know where the notion of "heaven and hell" originally came from? I only learned recently from Ehrman. The earliest christians expected jesus himself to make a second coming, anytime and usher in "god's kingdom"
on earth. People were supposed to be eternally rewarded or punished
here.But decades rolled by without this happening and people were beginning to laugh. So by the end of the first century, christian writers, notably the one who produced the last canonical "gospel of john" generally abandoned the second coming bs and substituted "heaven and hell" for it. The key difference of course, is that "heaven and hell" can't be disproven.
However, I don't entirely dismiss the heaven and hell notions. I envisage a future in which far progressed science, aided, of course, by an activist, progressive State, can solve just about any health issue along with other problems, thus granting us a real world "heaven." But the future can also witness a real world hell--ironically for idiots, including die hard holy joes, who rank their
mythical god over the
real world one--the Great Man, or civilization itself.Jesus was a model Roman citizen
Read modern scholarship, please...Jesus was a jewish apocalypticist, who taught that the present "evil" age, and the powers currently in charge, like Rome, would be overthrown by "god's kingdom" in which he and his disciples would rule. Jesus thought "god" would intervene in history and make him king. That's why Pilate ordered him crucified --it amounted to political rebellion against Rome. Pilate asked jesus if he was the king of the jews. Not inclined to "sin" by lying, jesus didn't deny it but gave a nonanswer which Pilate took as an admission of guilt.