The other Judgment Day

As a boy, I heard plenty of sermons about Judgment Day. Preachers did not like to be accused of scrimping on the hell, fire and damnation, so I got my share early.

Judgment Day, as the preachers presented it, is a future event. I was in college before I heard about the other Judgment Day.

Socrates told about it, as recorded by Plato in Gorgias. Socrates said that in the days of Kronos and even in the early rule of Zeus, people knew the day they would die, just as they knew the day they were born. On the last day, a person would be judged — by living judges.

With a lot at stake, people in the dock tended to dress up as if they were going to church. They also brought out their best possessions, hoping that the judges might be confused about the difference between a richperson and a good one.

Eventually, Pluto, god of Hades, and his top staff came up to complain about the officiating — just too many blown calls. 

Zeus looked into it and saw that Judgment Day was a disaster. The whole concept had to be overhauled.

Socrates told the story as a warning that human beings tend to judge by appearances. That’s one of the reasons I’m reluctant to make any claims of knowledge about a Judgment Day in the future.

Some people claim to be good at foreseeing the future, but I’m not. I suppose I judge too much by appearances, but I was sure the St. Louis Cardinals would finish at the top of the standings last season, instead of at the bottom. I tend to be wrong so often in my predictions about trivial things that I’d hate to bet the farm on something important.

But I do wish that more people knew something of the history of the concept and could provide, especially if they feel called upon to preach, some perspectives on lessons learned from past mistakes.

I think the best part of Zeus’ Plan B was a provision for a court of appeals.

• Source: The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns; Princeton University Press, 1978, pp. 305-6.