A sky for every culture

Roberto da Silva Rocha, university professor and political scientist

A sky for every culture

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The Muslims' version of heaven is a place with 40 virgins for every man; the version for evangelicals is a place with milk and honey, singing all day and worshiping the Lord nonstop, with angels in white with little wings on their backs playing harps; for the poor of Brazil and Russia, heaven is a kitchen full of dishes to wash in a Miami restaurant, and a used Honda Civic in the garage; everyone has their heaven they deserve.

For the middle class, heaven can be the paradisiacal beaches of the Caribbean, nights in Paris on the Champs Elisee, drinking Dom Perignon champagne, strolling along the Boulevard or the Louvre Museum; The USP Sociology professor's heaven is to be at MIT in the USA working with Noam Chomsky on a theory of minimalism of the oppressive neurolanguage of the capitalist ruling class.

When Paul, or Matheus, or Luke, or Apollos, or Peter introduced the doctrine of eternal punishment in hell, the devil and heaven in the old gospel and in the apostolic letters that ended up in the new testament, they passed over all tradition. of Tanak and of Moses and Abraham and of all the prophets of the old testament who never considered the existence of life after death, and invented or assimilated the doctrines of the Pharisees of the resurrection and eternity of such a soul that does not belong to the old doctrine of Moses, nor Jesus who died a Jew.

So each one has a sky that he thinks is up to him.

Roberto da Silva Rocha, professor universitário e cientista político