Imagine There's no Heaven by Salman Rushdie - Essay Example

Prof’s Imagine There’s no Heaven – Logic of Salman Rushdie “Imagine There’s no Heaven,” an important work by Salman Rushdie, is addressed to a purely theoretical person: the 6 billionth person on the planet. He attempts to pass along some fatherly guidance, but the main thrust of his argument is that impure human knowledge is the only access to truth we have, and that any attempt at accessing “true” knowledge is inherently futile. The basic fundamental of Rushdie’s arguments are essentially solid: humans have only an imperfect knowledge of the world, and that is what one should work with.

As he says, “ancient wisdoms are modern nonsenses [sic],” which reminds the reader of the constant reversal of scientific thought, and how everything we currently know to be “true” will almost certainly not be true in the future. He tells the reader to “live in their own time,” and to ignore whatever sacred books they might be exposed to. This is a compelling argument: why should humanity be bound to the dictates of our ancient ancestors, and why should we believe their stories as more true than our own?

While this is a compelling argument, there is one fundamental flaw in it. Religion’s continued popularity, and the continued popularity of the “sacred books” that Rushdie so abhors, could hold some fundamental truths about humanity. Maybe humans need to believe, and that, not the literal meaning, is what is important about religion and god. Salman Rushdie makes a mistake in refusing to acknowledge that, though religious teaching might not be literally true, there might still be value in it.

Works CitedRushdie, Slamon. “Imagine There’s No Heaven”