Dante explained that Hell is in nine layers, with the pain increasing as one descends. Heaven, he believed, was similarly arranged, with joy increasing as one moved upwards.
Catholic Fundamentalism considers that we, who live on earth, at any given time are, ourselves, similarly arranged in “layers”. Each layer reflects where we are in our relationship with God. We, on earth, use our free will. We freely choose to either ascend through levels of truth or descend through levels of lies.
Level 9. “I’m going to spend more time trying to convince people to become Catholics.”
Level 8. “If they became Catholics, they could be forgiven for their sins and get to Heaven.”
Level 7. “If they believed that God was a God of truth, they would not bear false witness.”
Level 6. While realizing: “If they believed in God, they would not bear false witness.”
Level 5. And, understand: “The poor things have chosen to spend their lives lying.”
Level 4. We ask: “Why do they lie all the time?”
Level 3. We frequently find ourselves saying, “If they only knew, they would tell the truth.”
Level 2. We begin to see “People are lying to get money and votes from their neighbors.”
Level 1. “I pretty much think the government is here to help people.”
Level 0. We begin. We have not yet been able to reason or decide more complicated issues. We will go up or down.
Level -1. “We have to get more people thinking, saying, and doing what we want.”
Level -2. “We need to purge those who won’t help us.”
Level -3. “We must eliminate anyone who even wants to disagree.”
Level -4. “Only our enemies prefer truth that may impoverish to lies that will enrich.”
Level -5. “Only fools would spend their lives seeking for and telling the truth.”
Level -6. “Believing in God encourages them to love the truth.”
Level -7. “We have to do everything we can to get them to stop believing in God and truth.”
Level -8. “The Catholics have the biggest, oldest structure for getting people closer to God.”
Level -9. “We must do everything we can to destroy the Roman Catholic Church.”
We can look at that, and we can, with amazing accuracy, pinpoint where we are. It’s surprising how many on the left drop to -8 and -9 so quickly. By the time they’ve gotten there, they are too blind to see, too dim to understand, that The Loving Programmer has written and downloaded the vast Creation Program in which they have chosen to elevate their own pitiful programming abilities to be on a par with His. This, the deadliest idol-worship of all, confuses self with God. Not smart.
