The problems of belief in nothingness (nihilism) and punishment
The belief in punishment, even within Spiritism (or the Spiritist Movement) and the belief in nothingness lead man into two very complicated situations. Let's see:
When you believe in nothingness, you focus on enjoying the present at any cost. This is what Kardec shows us in Heaven and Hell (FEAL):
Is there anything more desperate than the idea of absolute destruction? Sacred affections, intelligence, progress, knowledge laboriously acquired, all would be undone, all would be lost! What is the need for the effort to become better, to repress passions, to enrich our spirit, if we are not to reap any fruit from it, especially given the idea that tomorrow, perhaps, it will no longer serve us for anything? If that were so, man's lot would be a hundred times worse than that of the savage, who lives entirely in the present, in the satisfaction of his material appetites, without aspirations for the future. A secret intuition tells us that this is not possible.
By believing in nothingness, man inevitably focuses his thoughts on the present life. In fact, there would be no need to worry about a future from which nothing is expected. This exclusive concern with the present naturally leads you to think about yourself before everything else; It is, therefore, the most powerful stimulus to selfishness. The unbeliever is coherent when he reaches the conclusion: “Let us enjoy while we are here, let us enjoy as much as possible, because after us, everything will be over; let us enjoy quickly, because we don’t know how long it will last”, as well as this other one, much more serious for society: “Let us enjoy, no matter at whose expense; every man for himself; Happiness, down here, is the most cunning.” If religious scruple restricts the actions of some, what restraint will there be for those who believe in nothing? For these, human law only reaches fools, and that is why they dedicate their talent to ways of dodging it. If there is a harmful and anti-social doctrine, it is certainly that of neantism ((Doctrine of nothingness, nihilism)), because it breaks the true bonds of solidarity and fraternity, the foundation of social relations.”
KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell, Editora FEAL.
Something diametrically opposed to the nihilistic thinking glorified by Nietzsche:
The discovery of Christian morality is an unparalleled event, a true catastrophe. The sacred pretext of making humanity better appears as the cunning to exhaust life itself, to make it anemic. The concept of the afterlife was invented to devalue the only world that exists - to strip our earthly reality of all purpose, all reason, all purpose! The concept of the soul, of the spirit, and finally of the immortal soul, was invented to despise the body. Finally - and this is the most terrible thing - in the concept of the good man, one sides with everything that is weak, sick, a failure, everything that is passive in itself, everything that must perish - the law of natural selection is contradicted, and an ideal is made out of the opposition to the haughty and successful man, the man who says yes, the man who guarantees and is certain of the future - this now becomes the bad man... And all of this was believed to be moral.
NIETZSCHE, 2008, p. 99-100
On the other hand, when man believes in the idea of the fall through sin or in human life as a way of “paying debts”; in other words: when he believes in the idea of divine punishment, he becomes unable to proactively deal with his problems. A woman who, for example, lives with a bad partner, who attacks her, physically or morally, may believe (and many tell her this) that she is living a “recovery” from past lives. He must, therefore, submit to inhumane conditions, in order, as they say, to “pay off his debts”.
This way of thinking is often taught from a child's earliest days, when they are subjected to punishment instead of being encouraged to develop their own rational autonomy. We've already dealt with this in the article "Punishment irritates and imposes. Don't educate for reason.“
The fanaticism of credulity creates unbelievers, because it answers nothing. It takes the individual out of control of their responsibility: if they do evil, it's the devil's fault; if they do good, it's divine grace.
The fanaticism of unbelief, on the other hand, goes in the same direction and produces the same thing as the first: the individual, whether he does evil or good, is because of his DNA.
Both turn people into automatons who are left with nothing but worldly pleasures and the prospect of nothingness or eternal damnation. The middle way, in its rational excellence, is Rational Spiritualism and Spiritism (in its origin). See this study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCD2_iAQySw.
We recommend the following study to everyone: