The title of this image comes from the phrase “saving your own bacon” – meaning self-preservation at all costs. The false effigy of Christ, the “bacon saviour”, represents the common Christian viewpoint of eternal life, which is usually interpreted as meaning life after death. The concept of an after-life serves as an incentive to be good, but also undermines the concept of a ‘selfless act’ by giving it a selfish motivation. If the will to do the right thing springs not from the enlightened conscience but from the desire for self-preservation, then it ceases to have any spiritual value.
I suspect that the original meaning of ‘eternal life’ was something quite different. When one transcends the ego a death of the ‘self’ occurs and the individual is reborn in a new state of being. The crucifixion itself is just a metaphor for this death and re-birth of self, and one that occurs across many civilisations that pre-date Christianity. Once the death of the self occurs, the body becomes regarded as a mere transitory vessel, which exists only in order to carry the spirit (by spirit I mean the actual experience of being alive, of sentience, self-awareness, the sensation of thought). It’s an idea summed up nicely by Joseph Campbell, who described it as the realisation that “we are the light, not the bulb”. From this enlightened perspective the spirit can perceive of itself as a part of the greater whole, identical to all other living things; though our experiences and our personalities may differ, these things are only transient, like our bodies, and will inevitably die. Once you’ve come to terms with this notion and made peace with it, then all you are left with is the ‘eternal’. Thus the phrase ‘eternal life’ does not refer to an after-life at all, but rather refers to the here and now, viewed in terms of what is infinite and constant.