What if in heaven...

[PDH]

We only went to Episcopalian (Anglican) church as kids.

The sermons were mostly like:
Ok, people should do good things, and remember to do them to other people.
It is nice when folks are nice, mmmkay?
Gosh, doesn't all this stuff make you feel good.
Jesus was ok, he liked us all.  Even the people who you might not like.
Amen.

[Ed Anger]

Yuck.

[PDH]

You're damn right.

[DontSayBanana]

As a staunch atheist... that there actually is a heaven.

[Razgovory]

Actually the concept of heaven scares me.

[Josephus]

For me, it would completely suck if I found out that Catholics had it mostly right, and because I didn't stick to that path, I'm now going somewhere not so pleasant as heaven.

But we do, so it's a moot point. Sorry.

[Barrister]

Heaven sounds pretty dull.

I guess I don't think of heaven in the same way as Valmy and you seem to. It's not, to me, playing harps while sitting on clouds. Rather, it's a place of absolute knowledge and joy, however you may see that.

Absolute knowledge sounds awful. Spending eternity without anything new to learn seems boring to the extreme.

I don't think that in heaven you become omniscient - that you automatically know all things.

Rather, think of it as... in heaven it becomes possible to know anything you want.  You're curious what happened behind the grassy knoll in Dallas?  You can go and 'research' and find out.  You want to know what the ancient hittites were really like?  You can go ask one.

I, of course, have no idea what heaven is really like.  But I can certainly imagine a place where I could enjoy spending all of eternity in.

[DontSayBanana]

Actually the concept of heaven scares me.

I wouldn't say it scares me, per se, but I would definitely say I find the concept anathema.  I'm far too individualistic for it to hold any appeal whatsoever.

[Neil]

The problem with heaven is that it means that all the evil things that men have ever done in its name were justified.

[Barrister]

The problem with heaven is that it means that all the evil things that men have ever done in its name were justified.

I don't see how that follows.

[Neil]

Assuming that they got there and they were right about the difficulty of getting there.

Myself, I just don't believe in those sorts of things.

[Barrister]

Assuming that they got there and they were right about the difficulty of getting there.

Those are fairly big assumptions.

Me - I find there's no downside to believing in heaven, and some sense of psychic upside.  So I choose to believe.  If I'm wrong, you can all laugh at my corpse, but I guess I won't care at that point.

[Neil]

You really won't.  And, in fact, belief in a heaven that you have to earn is good for society.

[Valmy]

I don't want Valmy to get angry again.

Fear my wrath heathens!

[HVC]

An eternity would get very boring eventually, I would have to assume.