Why would Anyone Want to go to Heaven?

[rhonjonParticipant]

Paul tells us Heaven will be a glorious place. But he has never been there.

 

yet, the bible tells us about angels who had been created there and were so miserable that they left when they saw human women. That’s like sitting at a table with a filet mignon on your plate and having a Big Mac attack. This was the ancient world. Before Ivory soap. Before Right Guard. Before tampons. They had to deal with the human body in the raw. Yet, they preferred that to whatever they were dealing with in Heaven.

 

I think it’s not so much these women as the freedom the women represented that the angels wanted. Remember Jesus said God judges us not just for our actions but also for our thoughts and feelings. If a man lusts after another man’s wife, he is committing adultery in his heart even if he never touches her. Remember also that God knows our thoughts before we think them.

 

My ancestors who were slaves in the south were freer than that. They couldn’t do and say what they wanted to, but they had the freedom and privacy of their own thoughts and feelings. In Heaven, we won’t even have that.

 

So, these angels abandoned Heaven and risked certain eternal punishment just to experience a brief moment of freedom.

[jakelafortParticipant]

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

Might be a fun place to visit for a day.

Abrahamic religion is an unabashed balderdash we ought to trash.
Gotta control every aspect of life and require its victims to NEED its services. Historically it is shackles on the body, shackles on the mind. For slaves just work and work not for yourself or your family but so that you are not punished or murdered. And the great equalizer will insure equal treatment in the eternity to come. And yet a historical orb that ought to cause all descendants of slaves (women also and LGBT too) to eschew Christianity still has power over so many.

How sick is it to be judged not simply for behavior but for thoughts? Biology be damned. You sinners!

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Believing in an afterlife helps to sustain people, especially those who are enfeebled by religion. How so many humans still believe that they will become immortal is an embarrassment to our race. It is all about addressing the fear of death.  The atavistic notion that we have a soul is difficult to do away with.  The duality of mind and body will linger for a long time yet. The mind is just the manifestation of what one bodily organ does. When the body stops functioning we become a bug feast.

Terror Management Theory (TMT)  is an interesting topic and we should dig a bit deeper into it.

“faith allows an evasion of those difficulties which the atheist confronts honestly [while] the believer derives a sense of great superiority from this very cowardice itself” – Simone de Beauvoir.

[_Robert_Participant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Believing in an afterlife helps to sustain people, especially those who are enfeebled by religion. How so many humans still believe that they will become immortal is an embarrassment to our race. It is all about addressing the fear of death. The atavistic notion that we have a soul is difficult to do away with. The duality of mind and body will linger for a long time yet. The mind is just the manifestation of what one bodily organ does. When the body stops functioning we become a bug feast. Terror Management Theory (TMT) is an interesting topic and we should dig a bit deeper into it. “faith allows an evasion of those difficulties which the atheist confronts honestly [while] the believer derives a sense of great superiority from this very cowardice itself” – Simone de Beauvoir.

Once I realized that heaven is a carrot tied to a stick, oddly enough I felt a sense of relief. Keeping score on my sins and up to date on confessions and prayers is a real chore. There was the fear of that fire pit as well. That shit weighs heavy on a 7-year-old. And well, heaven simply makes no sense. Without sorrow there is no joy. Without dark there is no light.

 

[RichRaelianParticipant]

Hi! I want to go to the eternal life planet.

[_Robert_Participant]

RichRaelian wrote:

Hi! I want to go to the eternal life planet.

Post us a message when you get there.

[rhonjonParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

I realized that heaven is a carrot tied to a stick, oddly enough I felt a sense of relief. Keeping score on my sins and up to date on confessions and prayers is a real chore. There was the fear of that fire pit as well. That shit weighs heavy on a 7-year-old. And well, heaven simply makes no sense. Without sorrow there is no joy. Without dark there is no light.

 

Could anything be more shameful than scaring a seven year old child with visions of hell. At least the boogieman and Santa Clause couldn’t hurt me as long as I stayed under the covers.  It’s odd that many children who grow up being told about Santa Claus don’t stop to think that maybe their parents lied to them about God, too.

[rhonjonParticipant]

RichRaelian wrote:

Hi! I want to go to the eternal life planet.

 

That would be Neptune. It’s so cold there your body would go into deep freeze and you’d never die.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Whenever I hear the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon and he sings ‘imagine there’s no Heaven’, I always think he got the lyric wrong. It should be ‘imagine there is a Heaven’. That is the default position. That is what the religious people do. They imagine that there is such a place. If it was real you would not need to use your imagination! It is part of the delusion.

[rhonjonParticipant]

Have you read “Billions and Billions” by Carl Sagan? This was his last book before he died of a sudden, yet lingering illness. Near the end of the book is where he is diagnosed with this illness and with his trademark eloquence, he shares his thoughts. I can’t tell you what he said without spoiling the ending. But if you’re a Saganphile, like me, you’ll love what he had to say and how he said it.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

I have always liked Carl Sagan. I also like the Jim Morrison slant on it (more than the John Lennon idea!)

They are waiting to take us into the severed garden
Do you know how pale and wanton thrillful
Comes death on a strange hour?
Unannounced, unplanned for
Like a scaring over-friendly guest you’ve brought to bed
Death makes angels of us all
And gives us wings
Where we had shoulders
Smooth as raven’s claws

No more money, no more fancy dress
This other kingdom seems by far the best
Until its other jaw reveals incest
And loose obedience to a vegetable law

I will not go
Prefer a Feast of Friends
To the Giant Family

[rhonjonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

I have always liked Carl Sagan. I also like the Jim Morrison slant on it (more than the John Lennon idea!) They are waiting to take us into the severed garden Do you know how pale and wanton thrillful Comes death on a strange hour? Unannounced, unplanned for Like a scaring over-friendly guest you’ve brought to bed Death makes angels of us all And gives us wings Where we had shoulders Smooth as raven’s claws No more money, no more fancy dress This other kingdom seems by far the best Until its other jaw reveals incest And loose obedience to a vegetable law I will not go Prefer a Feast of Friends To the Giant Family

 

Loose obedience to a vegetable law? I’ll have to sleep on that one.

 

Yes, Christians love to point out that death comes like a thief in the night. We are supposed to scorn this life in favor of the glories of heaven. Give up the bird in hand in favor of two birds in the bush that’s around the corner. What makes it so ill is  the bible actually says only Jesus is immortal. He dwells in the light that no man had ever seen nor can see. (1 Timothy 6:14-16)

 

Live until you die

Laugh until you cry

When your number’s up

Fill your cup

That day, no man can spy

 

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

Carl Sagan said: “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”

If the stars did not explode and send the debris of atoms around the Universe we would not be here.  We can credit our creation to the death of stars and the molecules and amino acids they produce.

I have a tattoo of a protein chain of amino acids, extending from an exploding star on my right arm. If you decode this protein chain it reads “I am star stuff”.  Our recycled molecules and atoms are as close to immortality as we will ever get.

[UnseenParticipant]

I was told that in Heaven the “saved” praise God constantly.

Sounds like fun(?).

No thanks. I’ll take extinction over that.

[rhonjonParticipant]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Carl Sagan said: “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” If the stars did not explode and send the debris of atoms around the Universe we would not be here. We can credit our creation to the death of stars and the molecules and amino acids they produce. I have a tattoo of a protein chain of amino acids, extending from an exploding star on my right arm. If you decode this protein chain it reads “I am star stuff”. Our recycled molecules and atoms are as close to immortality as we will ever get.

 

Oh wow! The universe isn’t run by a god but by a HOLLYWOOD con man. “I’m going to make you a star, baby!”

[Author]

Posts