Heaven and Retirement
Heaven and Retirement
April 2002
In the old days life was difficult, a constant struggle just to stay alive. Hunting and gathering developed into herding and farming and life became a little more predictable. Humans continued to battle the forces of nature. Survival involved constant work. There was very little time to rest, only one day out of every seven, and almost no time to play. People worked hard all their lives until the day they died. In the old days most people did not live very long. In the old days the only thing people had to look forward to was the afterlife and a chance to go to heaven. Heaven was envisioned as a paradise beyond all the struggles of this earth. Heaven was a place of peaceful rest and eternal bliss. To get to heaven you had to believe in the God of heaven. You had to work hard on earth and follow all the rules and laws created by God. If you did not live according to God’s way of life, then you would be sent to hell when you died. Your afterlife would be eternal misery. People were afraid to go to hell and tried very hard to please God and earn their way to heaven. In the old days, heaven was the goal and reward for all the hard work and constant worries here on earth.
The old days changed into the new days with the coming of the industrial revolution and the development of the information age. Life on earth was transformed by the scientific economy. Physical labor slowly evolved into mental work. Scientific inventions made human life easier in many ways. Science tamed and domesticated nature. The power of nature no longer dominated humans. The scientific economy grew to become the dominating force in peoples’ lives. Science made the claim there was no evidence or proof for the existence of God or heaven. Science could only see the existence of matter and claimed that the spirit died when the brain and body died. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, dead is dead. The scientific economy created a new way of living with its own laws and ruling power.
In modern times the scientific economy created a five-day workweek devoted to earning money and a two-day weekend devoted to spending money. In spite of all the modern wonders of science, life continues to be hard work with constant worries about making and spending money. There is very little time to rest and almost no time to waste. Time is money. With no God or no heaven and hell, people have become consumed by the material world of the scientific economy. Science set people free from the spiritual.
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These days people look forward to retirement. The afterlife of heavenly paradise has been replaced by the golden years of retirement, but only if you work hard all your working years serving the scientific economic system and follow all its rules. People must constantly worry about how they spend and save their time and money and what investments they make to be able to afford a comfortable retirement.
Retirement is the reward everyone dreams of and works hard for. Many cannot afford to retire and must continue to work, at least part-time. Many drop dead before reaching retirement, working themselves to death. Many die shortly after retiring, unable to adapt to a non-worker identity. Most retire at a poverty level income and must constantly worry about money.
And then there are many of the lucky few who are rich enough to retire without economic worries but find themselves unable to enjoy their freedom from worrying about money. Their lives have no value beyond money. They do not know how to be free from making money, spending money, or investing money. Too many of these people live their retirement years just trying to kill time. For some the heaven of retirement becomes their final hell.
Of those who do make it to retirement heaven, most have old and frail bodies vulnerable to illness and disease. Their bodies are full of worries. Money, modern science, and insurance can only save them from death for a short time.
Does science really know all there is to know about life and death? Does the scientific economy have the final word about who we are? Who can dare say otherwise? Who can challenge the authority of the facts and figures of science and money? Is there anything left that is still sacred? Has the spiritual been sacrificed by science for the sake of the economy? Can a new God resurrect from the dead and reveal a new vision of the spiritual that can save us from the dangers, injustice, imbalance, and emptiness of the scientific economy? Is there, at least, a new God who can save my poor soul?