unluckyknight-21

[unluckyknight-21]

i've decided that the Good Place is real.

I finally know the answer to the question that has been asked since the dawn of man or at least since Greek philosophers have been making people think about stuff. ("Plato", f**king nerd).

The question in question is: "What happens when we die?".

The answer is: It's on Netflix in the form of a series called: "The Good Place".

For those who don't know, 'The Good Place' is a hit American comedy-fantasy series created by Michael Schur, It aired between 2018 to 2020 on NBC.

(⚠️SPOILER WARING⚠️: For those who haven't watched 'The Good Place')

The show revolves around 4 humans who've died and went onto the "Good Place" or so they think, they soon find out that they're actually in the "Bad Place" and they've actually been partnered together by a demon in a perfectly designed experimental 'hell' so that they can torture and make each other miserable for eternity.

But to the surprise of everyone in the Bad Place, the 4 humans actually helped each other be better than they ever were on earth, the demon in charge of them would try to wipe their memories and restart the experiment but the 4 humans would always find each other, become better by helping each other and outsmart the demons.

It became such an inconvenience that the main demon eventually gives up and teams up with the humans to try and get them into the real Good Place but then we find out that there is something wrong with the system of how people are judged when they die.

THAT'S where my religious girlfriend (God bless her or whoever is up there) got kind of sketchy about the show because her religious worldview couldn't accept that "Heaven" was flawed.

And I can understand that because most religious people, no matter what religion, would find it hard to believe that there is something wrong with the afterlife, the very thing that they've been told their entire lives they will go to after they die.

First of, the afterlife is the most mysterious thing that humans believe in because no one knows where or what it is, even Shakespeare made a whole speech thing about it because being a white guy during the 1500's he had the privilege of thinking about death while others were too busy being either poor or slaves and I have a feeling that they didn't enjoy it.

And secondly, Being humans, we couldn't handle not understanding something, so we created different versions of the afterlife using religions, but every religion had the same rules: Follow a certain way of life and be good so that when you die, you will be granted eternal happiness.

And that was the flaw in 'The Good Place', the protagonists in the show discovered that the rules to get into heaven were too broad, life on earth became too complicated because when you try to do good, you are setting off a chain of events that causes misery for others without even knowing it and that makes it impossible to earn enough "afterlife good points".

And so what do our protagonists do? They fix the afterlife, they make it so that no matter how you live your life on earth, when you die, you will get into a specifically designed hell that will test you until you become the best version of you and, only then, will you get into the 'Good Place'.

And it doesn't stop there, after you've had your eternity of fun, pleasurable bliss and you finally feel at peace, you actually have the choice to leave paradise and become one with the universe.

That to me is the definition of a perfect afterlife and is the reason why I've decided that the Good Place's version of the afterlife is what will actually happen when I die.

Now you might be thinking: "Wow, that is denial on a whole new level, I can't believe this guy is not just handsome but is he is also so scared of not knowing what happens when we die that he chooses to believe that the made up heaven of some tv show is the real heaven AND he's also handsome".

Well, I say to you, thank you, I am handsome but also, just like what my college professor told the dean why he has liking all the bikini pictures of my female classmate on Instagram: "Let me explain".

You have to remember one thing: All versions of heaven are made up.

That's the point I've been trying to make since the start, humans couldn't handle not knowing what happens when we die so we created religions, created rules into getting to heaven.

AND to a horrible extent, some of us created cults so that people will give them money to tell them that they're getting into heaven and that is simply despicable.

I'm not pointing fingers at any religion, although, when I mentioned money-grabbing cults what was the first one you thought of? And why was it 'Scientology'?

And if you're filipino, just like me, you know which one I am thinking of.

That is my problem with religion, they instill fear and guilt to their followers to keep them subservient and they wage war to anyone who thinks otherwise, but enough about christianity.

Meanwhile, in the "rules" of the Good Place, you simply need to do one thing to get into heaven: Be Good.

Be good to yourself, be good to others and put out good into the world. No subscription or body count needed.

I'm not saying that other religions scriptures/bibles/teachings tell their followers otherwise, I truly believe that they are no bad religions, just bad people. True good people, use their religion to impart good onto others and I believe that even without they're religion they will still be good. Good people are just that.

And then comes along this little comedy show, tells me that I need only to be good to get into heaven? Umm...yes please!

But if you think: "Then that means you're just being good because you want to get into heaven!", then what do you think religious people are doing? They're told to be good to get into heaven and if they don't? Eternal damnation. I don't know about you but that will definitely motivate me to be good.

But keep in mind that I don't really believe that the heaven in 'The Good Place' is real. Of course it isn't! it's just some comedy show that a white guy made, another Shakespeare situation if I ever saw one.

But I CHOOSE to believe it, just like any other religious person chose to believe their religion, because we're all scared of not knowing what will happen when we die so we cling to a belief that makes us feel safe.

Religion can be beautiful, I love seeing people become passionate about being good, I love when they dance and sing in choirs about how you should love others and spread happiness. God knows, I want to join in with Whoopi Goldberg and the other nuns in Sister Act when they were singing their hearts out, THAT is what heaven is all about.

But religion is flawed due to human error, divinity was defined by a humans a few thousand years ago and we've been suffering from it ever since. You want to tell me that God is perfect? Homer wrote in the Odyssey that Zeus turns into a swan to have sex with women. That's not perfect, that's means Homer had a furry kink.

The Good Place, isn't perfect either, especially in season 4 when some episodes definitely felt like they were just trying to run out the clock but it's message is, to not focus on what happens when we die.

My personal view on the afterlife is to not think about it too much. We spend so much of our lives trying to mold our life and our choices to align with the views of our designated religion or belief so that we get to be rewarded in the next life, when what we need to do is focus on the here and now.

To live your life on earth, the way you want it BUT also remember not to hurt others and even to put out some good out there in the world. Sounds unfair? It is.

But no matter how evil the world is, it's up to us to make it a little bit better for others and hope, just HOPE, that others will do the same thing.

And you might be saying: "Well, that's not how the world works" and the sad thing is you're right (Wow, bummer much?).

People will be bad, they will be selfish and they will choose to feel pleasure rather than suffer so that others would be happy, some greater than others, but yes, everyone will do that.

...I genuinely don't know what to write next.

I can't tell you things will be better when you do good because all of human history is against me, we try to do good, we wage wars, people die, the one's in charge learn a lesson, impose that others should be good, everyone forgets and then the cycle repeats.

"But what about technology, no more slaves and Captain Marvel movies?"

No, there's still slavery, human trafficking, sexual harassment, global warming and bad marvel movies. There will always be evil.

But there will also be good.

The cycle repeats not because people are always bad people but because there are always good people. And what 'The Good Place' also teaches us is that YOU can always be one of the good ones, as long as you try.

So why don't you get your phone (that was made by a child in some Chinese sweatshop), subscribe to Netflix (a streaming service owned by a billionaire) and watch the Good Place (a pretty forking good show) now.