Talk:Unanswered Questions in Abrahamic Paradigm

By Vishal Agarwal

The theory of resurrection is riddled with several inconsistencies and leads to more questions than solving any.

First, it does not answer the question—Why did God create the Universe? Hinduism provides an answer and says that this Universe is only one in a beginning-less and endless cycle of creation and destruction and was created so that the souls can bear the fruits of their ‘unripe’ actions in the previous creation.

The Lord Created the Sun, the Moon, the skies, the earth, and the Heavens in this creation just as he had created in previous cycles of creation. Rigveda 10.190.3

Second, where were the souls before the individual was born? Christians and Muslims cannot answer this question satisfactorily. Sometimes, Christians say that God created souls out of nothing. But that begs the question – what was the purpose of creating these souls? Hinduism, on the other hand, answers that souls are birth-less and beginning-less and pass through a continuous cycle of birth and death till they attain salvation. The soul is never born, nor does it ever die. And neither does it cease to exist after having come into existence. The soul is unborn, eternal, changeless, and ancient. It does not get killed when the body is slain. Gita 2.20

Third, since right belief is central to salvation, what happens to babies who are aborted, or die at birth, or at a young age, and to people in remote parts of the world who have never heard of Christ or Muhammad? And what will happen to all the people in the world who died before Christ and Muhammad were born? Will they go to heaven or hell? St. Augustine, one of the greatest Christians who ever lived, said only the word of Jesus can lead us to heaven. He dared to declare, that therefore, all infants who die and all those who have not heard the salvific word of Christ will go to Hell. In Islam, too, numerous Hadiths from the mouth of Muhammad imply that all those who died in Jahiliya (‘the age of ignorance’) are burning in Hellfire. Modern psychologists will term such thoughts as sadistic. Hinduism, on the other hand, grants the opportunity of future lives to these unfortunate people wherein they can work their way to salvation.

Fourth, since bodies are resurrected and reunited with souls on the Day of Judgment, what will happen to those individuals whose graves have been destroyed? If God can still bring together their scattered remains, then why waste land by burying the dead at all? The atoms that constitute the body of Abdul become a part of the environment when Abdul dies and is buried. In a few years, these atoms will become a part of the body of Peter. When the Day of Judgment comes, will the Abrahamic God assign these atoms to the resurrected body of Abdul or of Peter? A Hindu parable explains the futility of tying our identity to anything physical because matter is being recycled constantly-

When Karna died from the arrows shot by Arjuna, Krishna blessed the former for his generosity and other good qualities and offered to perform his funeral. Karna requested that his cremation be performed at a pristine spot in the world – a spot where no funeral had ever been performed, and which was not tainted with the remains of any creature that had lived in the past. Krishna told Karna that this was not possible because every spec on this earth had been once a part of the body of some creature or the other. Billions of creatures have lived on this earth, and they have lived tens of thousands of lifetimes, having been reborn and assuming different bodies. Their eternal souls have recycled different clumps of matter repeatedly from one life to another. In the Sikh tradition too, Guru Nanak mocked the Abrahamic belief in the resurrection of the body by stating that the earthly remains of the body of a dead Muslim cried out when a potter collected clay from a graveyard, made pots from them, and then baked them in a kiln.

Fifth, what are the souls of the dead doing till the Day of Judgment? Have they been put to sleep or are they getting bored or are they tormenting the living in the form of ghosts?

Sixth, is it not unfair that the soul of the person who died in, say 100 AD, will have to wait longer in nervous anxiety than someone who died today, especially since no one knows whether he will go to Heaven or Hell.

Seventh, when will the Day of Judgment dawn? Both Christians and Muslims declare that it will come all of a sudden. This uncertainty over the exact timing has well been utilized by Christian priests to terrorize the masses using fear psychology and has even given birth to bizarre sects like the Moonies of Korea. Such cultists believe that the end of the world is close, say within 5 years. Consequently, they abandon all secular activity and close themselves in rooms to chant the name of Jesus, waiting for the D-Day. Due to adherence to such false ideologies, such people often commit suicide in frustration and disappointment when they find that the expected Day of Judgment has not arrived. In addition, the laity generally depends upon the Church for the interpretation of scriptures. The uncertainty over the time of the Day of Judgment has often tempted the Christian clergy to fleece poor Christians since uncertainty breeds a fear psychosis. For instance, Medieval Popes sold ‘Letters of Indulgence" to rich Christians at huge amounts of money and falsely promised them palaces, chariots, etc. in Heaven in lieu thereto. The Muslims go a step further. Their texts declare that Archangel Gabriel will sound a Trumpet from Heaven to herald the start of the Day of Judgment. One wonders how that sound will reach the Earth since their interstellar space is largely a vacuum and sound waves need a medium to travel.

Eighth, we observe that some people shine as child prodigies (E.g. Shankaracharya, Joan of Arc). Two twins, who are born in the same household and are brought up in the same environment show different behaviors. Why should this happen? Christians and Muslims can only blame God for such phenomena while Hinduism will point to the deeds done in previous lives. Hinduism states that each action of ours creates some mental impressions (samskaras) and we carry these from one life to the next. Due to these samskaras, people show different inclinations, behaviors, likes, dislikes, etc. naturally.

Ninth, the Theory of Resurrection often presupposes that our earthly bodies are resurrected on the Day of Judgment. But what if someone lived his life with a physical or some other imperfection, like skin blemishes or undeveloped limbs? It would be cruel to expect these individuals to dwell eternally in heaven or hell in the same defective body that they had while they lived their earthly lives.

Tenth, suicide bombers or victims of violence by others often do not die with their bodies intact. It is often impossible to retrieve their entire bodies for burial in a single grave. What kind of a body will these individuals obtain on the Day of Judgment? It is often seen that Islamist suicide bombers place a metal cup over their private parts so that at least their organs will be intact in heaven, allowing them to have unlimited sex with the heavenly beauties even if their other body parts have been dismembered.

Eleventh, saints in Christianity and martyrs (and religious warriors) in both Islam and Christianity do not have to wait for the Day of Judgment to enter heaven. They enter heaven as soon as they die. But we see that their bodies still lie buried in the graves and have not been resurrected. So if their bodies do not have to be resurrected to enable them to enter heaven in a physical form, why should it be necessary for others to bury their corpses for resurrection? Couldn’t God use the same mechanism to create bodies for lay Christians and Muslims the same way he does for martyrs, religious warriors, and saints?

Twelfth, what clothing will the resurrected individuals wear upon resurrection because the clothing on their corpse deteriorates within a short time?

Thirteenth, what about individuals whose graves get destroyed? For the expansion of the Ka’ba in Mecca and to build other facilities for pilgrims, the Saudi authorities destroyed even the graves of the companions of Muhammad. Likewise, it is an open secret that graves are often ‘turned over’ every few years because only finite space is available for burials. In other words, every few years, the decomposed remains are exhumed from graves, mixed with those from another grave, and then buried in a common put. The presence of catacombs in Rome, Lima, and other places where Roman Catholicism has been the dominant faith is visible proof of this phenomenon. So will these individuals be denied resurrection for no fault of theirs?

Fourteenth, the Abrahamic heaven has a staff of attendants, Houris, handsome boys, and so on to serve those who enter this abode. But till the Day of Resurrection, most of them must be sit idle because they will have very few people to serve. Or are they created by God just before the entry of the believers after the Day of Judgment?

Fifteenth, we are in a Space Age currently. There is a significant possibility that sometime in the future, people might move to other planets or even live their entire lives on spaceships or space stations. What happens to those who die while away from Earth and whose bodies cannot be retrieved for burial on our planet? Will they be denied resurrection and subsequent stages?