Religious ideas.

Men are admitted into Heaven not because they have curbed & govern'd their Passions or have No Passions, but because they have Cultivated their Understandings. The Treasures of Heaven are not Negations of Passion, but Realities of Intellect, from which all the Passions Emanate Uncurbed in their Eternal Glory- William Blake.



I have been thinking recently about religion, and this passage by William Blake seems to truly speak to me. I don't understand why most religions of the world ask you to eliminate all earthly pleasures from your life. Truly, they can corrupt a man very easily and they often lead to dark places, but wouldn't it be wiser to instead teach understanding of such activities? To teach a man that sex is not disgusting before marriage, that it can be truly beautiful even in the most frowned upon circumstances, but that if you wait, it can be even more beautiful. I just don't think that God, in whatever form, would ask us to abstain from these things. I think, however, that before anyone experiences such things as sex, or money, or power, they should truly understand them. For once you reach an undertanding about something it is all but impossible to let it corrupt you. Teach people that sex is beautiful, but that it is more than a feeling. Teach them that money can give you many wonderful things, but that its not what is truly important, teach them that power  makes one feel wonderful, but that the test of a who you are is how you use it. Blake said that the body is an extension of the soul derived from the senses, and so if you deny yourself bodily pleasures, you are denying your soul. Don't take me wrong, I'm not a advocate of mindless self indulgence , and neither was Blake, he just thought that it was wrong to deny such natural things. Would you call a dog evil because it had sex with another dog? You might argue that Humans are not at all like dogs, but you're wrong. You can say that we have souls, to that I would reply that the soul is the reason we feel love, and can not wolves feel love? what of the unity and loyalty of pack life? Once again do not take me wrong, I am not trying to reduce humans to the level of animals, for we are different, but not completely.What is truly wrong with sex before marriage is you truly love the individual, if you know the implications, the repercussions, and accept them? Why is that not a beautiful thing? Why is it wrong to seek power, if you truly understand it, if you want to use it selflessly, to better the world? Are these things truly wrong in the eyes of God?

Or is it as Blake says? That Heaven is not the negation of passion but rather knowing the realities of such passion, and accepting them, letting them be free and righteous in all of their glory.

Just some thoughts.

Tell me what you think. : )