"authority"

I once asked a friend how a person could go to heaven. His response was no surprise to me. It rolled off his tongue like water, as if it was the most obvious, "by being a good person".

The answer baffles me just as much as it disturbs me. Us humans have a way about us when it comes to things supernatural and divine, don't we? No matter our walk of life, we come to the same point of the "other world". The side not quite seen, yet everywhere. Ninety-five percent of the world admit to a god, gods, God, or a metaphyical existence/entity. Even the atheist must realize his absolute abhorrence of all things religious is a mere reaction to the evil and hardships of life; a mind who made academics his/her god for the sake of explaining that which haunts us all. Evil.

And there it is, evil. Once again we are confronted with a substance we can't claim to be physical. Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in his basement with random body parts stored in freezers, hearts half eaten on a table, and a trail of terrorized, broken family in his wake. Ed Gein was arrested after killing female victims and wearing their skins so he could feel like a woman. Edmund Kemper killed 8 different women so he could have the nerve to kill his mother whom he hated; her corpse he raped and later chopped up and shoved down the garbage disposal. Three men of hundreds whose stories are far worse than those previously mentioned are recorded among the serial killer files. The blatant stench of such wickedness cannot make its way across our conscious without us recognizing something...beyond the physical world. We really aren't alone, are we.....

Yet there is the counterpart that beckons recognition; beauty, nature, life, laughter, memories, children, marriage, sex, love, peace. Although these elements are here among us, mostly tangible at times, they do carry a deep sense of something divine. Here I am talking about the broad spectrum of all things good and bad and I can't help but speculate on the spirituality of it all. It is inescapable. Truth tends to have that effect, but not the "truth" the world spins by. Not truth as in the correct answer for a history test, or the specifics of a life-time warranty, or how many hydrogens are in water. I speak of the most important one, "Truth". The "Why" of all which matters most in this dying world.

"Why do you think that, my friend?"
"Well" he continued, "bad people can't get into heaven. Good people deserve too."

I challenged him by asking him where he got such ideas. I mean, where does one come up with qualifications of how to get into heaven? Or even the notion that a heaven exists? I wondered on what "authority" he derived this knowledge. Where do people decide this? And why should people believe it? If they believe in an eternal soul, should they risk their eternal state under the qualifications made up by society? or by something that "seems" good? When it comes to the important things in life I feel like the authority by which I answer the great questions of all time must be worth resting my faith upon.

How could my friend go through life by handling so carelessly all things divine and eternal, all the while answering questions of their nature as if he actually knows?