You can't go to heaven!
From Not My God
I have missed this blog! Between winter holidays, Andy getting badly injured, planning a wedding and miscellaneous happenstances, I haven’t posted in a while, though I religiously (heh, heh) have posted every Thursday.
It’s no secret that I have big love for the HBO series Big Love, which I discussed in my posts about Mormonism. The opening credits end with Bill, the husband, meeting each of his three wives in heaven. (Do they get every third night with him in heaven, too, or how does that work?) Maybe it’s because I’m getting married, but recently I paid attention to that part and it choked me up a little.
Big Love Intro
All right, so Andy and I won’t meet in heaven. That may not really be a loss for me, as I don’t remember ever believing in heaven. Jewish theology doesn’t discuss the afterlife much, and in any case, there is no hell in Judasim. (Hell is other Jewish people.) This is another point in favor of Judaism: no hell. Thanks, guys!
Many atheists tell me that atheism is a positive thing– they don’t need to feel “watched” and judged all the time. They won’t be punished in the hereafter. Still, there are quite a few who tell me that they lament the loss of a loving god and not going to heaven. They are sad that this life is all they will get and that they won’t get to join their loved ones after they die. It is indeed a rude shock to think that you’ll spend an eternity in paradise only to conclude that such a place doesn’t exist.
Skeptic extraordinaire Michael Shermer’s stock response to his feelings on life after death is “I’m for it.” Many people may want an afterlife, but I suspect these people haven’t really thought it through. I would rather die tomorrow than be forced to live forever. Would you really want to go on forever and ever (and ever and ever) after the earth ends, the universe ends, and you’re just floating in nothingness, with nothing to occupy you but your thoughts?
What do you think? Do you miss the idea of an afterlife, including an eternity in the Celestial Kingdom with your spouse (or spouses)? Are you glad you’re not going to hell? Are you glad you’re not going to heaven? Did Christians ever portray a really compelling heaven, for that matter?
I have missed this blog! Between winter holidays, Andy getting badly injured, planning a wedding and miscellaneous happenstances, I haven’t posted in a while, though I religiously (heh, heh) have posted every Thursday.
It’s no secret that I have big love for the HBO series Big Love, which I discussed in my posts about Mormonism. The opening credits end with Bill, the husband, meeting each of his three wives in heaven. (Do they get every third night with him in heaven, too, or how does that work?) Maybe it’s because I’m getting married, but recently I paid attention to that part and it choked me up a little.
Big Love Intro
All right, so Andy and I won’t meet in heaven. That may not really be a loss for me, as I don’t remember ever believing in heaven. Jewish theology doesn’t discuss the afterlife much, and in any case, there is no hell in Judasim. (Hell is other Jewish people.) This is another point in favor of Judaism: no hell. Thanks, guys!
Many atheists tell me that atheism is a positive thing– they don’t need to feel “watched” and judged all the time. They won’t be punished in the hereafter. Still, there are quite a few who tell me that they lament the loss of a loving god and not going to heaven. They are sad that this life is all they will get and that they won’t get to join their loved ones after they die. It is indeed a rude shock to think that you’ll spend an eternity in paradise only to conclude that such a place doesn’t exist.
Skeptic extraordinaire Michael Shermer’s stock response to his feelings on life after death is “I’m for it.” Many people may want an afterlife, but I suspect these people haven’t really thought it through. I would rather die tomorrow than be forced to live forever. Would you really want to go on forever and ever (and ever and ever) after the earth ends, the universe ends, and you’re just floating in nothingness, with nothing to occupy you but your thoughts?
What do you think? Do you miss the idea of an afterlife, including an eternity in the Celestial Kingdom with your spouse (or spouses)? Are you glad you’re not going to hell? Are you glad you’re not going to heaven? Did Christians ever portray a really compelling heaven, for that matter?
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Comment by Christine Vyrnon on January 14, 2010 at 12:45pm -
Yes - to compelling heaven. My mom's, and hence my favorite description of heaven came from the LW&W C.S Lewis series. There is a passage where all of them meet up in a new world - (can't remember the exact passage or book) and Aslan is with them. It is a joyous, peaceful reunion - a beautiful description of (infinite) love and happiness - where every hill they go over, their joy and happiness increases. I'll try to look up the exact passage.
What bothered me about heaven - was that among born-againers - anyone who made a personal commitment to Christ and sincerely asked for forgiveness would go to heaven. It bothered me that a lot of assholes were going to heaven, but if you believed in Grace and not Works - which I did - it meant that i would be surrounded by sinners in heaven. I actually wrote a poem about it - will try to dig that out too. I struggled with it to be sure - and worked on coming to peace with it. Part of me was in awe of a God who would accept ANYONE based on the intervention of his love for his Son.
One of my first impressions about heaven was to realize that if I didn't believe in Christ I would be eternally separated from my family. That is the last thing I wanted to happen. My faith definitely matured beyond that, but that first impression of the possible separation from my family who I loved more than anything thing in the world was absolutely devastating.
I'm at peace with knowing that the body decays and as far as science is aware, there is nothing beyond the life of the body. I do wonder if the energy of the body (don't know the exact term to use) dissipates or disperses at different rates - but until Science is willing to seriously explore death and the very Idea of the afterlife - we will be in the dark. I would like to see Science be willing to not just dismiss all ideas of spirituality but use it as cues towards studying Life and Death.
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Comment by Gaytor on January 14, 2010 at 1:00pm -
Not for me. You could start with the childish, can I bring my dog(s)? If I became Christian tomorrow and died the next day can my wife come with me? Do you have to continue to please God after you get through the gates or can you be your real self? If you have to please God, is he still reading your thoughts and harboring the fear of Hell over you? if you don't have to please God, can I get drunk, have a big orgy, or do other things that I didn't allow myself to experience or even think about? Some of us live for competition. if there is a heaven, who will lose?
It's a silly selfish concept.
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Comment by Apple on January 14, 2010 at 3:26pm -
@Gaytor
You hit the nail on the head. You could keep popping these questions for hours.
If you have family or friends who are of a different (or no) religion can you truly be happy knowing that they are suffering eternal torture? Are you really okay with complete dirt bags of human beings going to heaven just because they say a few prayers on their death bed, all while perfectly good people must suffer for eternity just because they were born into a non-christian culture? Will god erase our knowledge of this so that we can enjoy our happiness? Then he's just fooling us by hiding the truth from us, and that certainly isn't "all loving." Not everyone likes living in a plalace or sitting on grassy hills etc. What about people who love risk? (Rock climbers, etc) If there is no chance for failure then they will not be able to truly enjoy their favorite activities. If the people in heaven asked for it, would god allow satan into heaven for an arm wrestling match?
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Comment by Sarah Trachtenberg on January 20, 2010 at 10:27pm
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Even many believing Xians-- let alone me-- have trouble with the idea that bad people can go to heaven as long as they accept Jesus, and no one who doesn't accept Jesus can go to heaven even if they're good. That seems to defeat the purpose of religion making us behave well, at the very least.
@ Christine-- thanks for more compelling images of heaven. I'm glad you made amends re: separation from your family.
There are so many questions about heaven that come from believers and critics alike. One of mine: when you go to heaven, do you look like how you did when you died? (Not according to the Big Love intro, I guess)
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