Danny ChaiSo here’s one thing I don’t get about Islam. And I know virtually nothing about Islam so it might be completely uninformed. But it’s been said a lot that a reward for the faithful in Islam is a bunch of virgins in heaven who provide sexual delight. Again, maybe misrepresenting it, but that’s just the impression people give about it.
What I don’t get is if you present something as good in heaven, something to strive for, how the heck people are supposed to refrain from it down here. If the promise is sexual whatever, won’t people want that down here? Shouldn’t they, if it’s something used to motivate? So won’t like sexual promiscuity be a problem? Or is it not a bad thing in Islam? I dunno. Just the disconnect between offering something as a reward in heaven but saying it’s not good on earth, I don’t get how that works.
It’s not just with Islam. Like in Christianity, there are passages and songs that talk about having a gold mansion in heaven with silver lining. I dunno, maybe that’s supposed to be symbolic, but I have no idea. At the very least, the songs don’t make it clear at all. And I don’t get how that works, how we’re supposed to want gold and silver in heaven but not want it down here. How it’s good up there but not good down here. How does that work? Riches keep us from God down here, but how does it not do the same up there? What makes it different? I dunno, it’s just weird to me, is all. I dunno how you can really get people to reject riches down here if you’re offering it up there as motivation, unless you explain that it’s qualitatively different, and more crucially, what that qualitative difference is. I dunno, just how I feel about it.