Question on heaven?

[JesusFightClub]

Christians and others,

A question is puzzling me. If heaven exists, what would one do up there?

I know from school people would spend their days praising God, and there would be thrones and crowns for all. But would an eternity of this not, well, pall a bit?

I also know about the marriage supper of the Lamb. So people would alternate their time between having their tea and sitting on thrones saying "God is great"...forever?

Do you think other things would be permitted, like sex, or sleeping, or even something like playing video games? I'm honestly not being facetious.

Christians, does it appeal to you or do you simply just believe it is true? And forever seems an amazing concept. Try as I might I can't work this one out.

Thoughts?

[Sola]

Sounds a bit shite to me JFC.

[Minerva]

I believe fundies believe that arriving in Heaven will change them in such a way that they will enjoy just praising God and whatnot for ever and ever. Kind of like how they believe they will magically understand all the contradictions and unfairness in the Bible and be ok with it all.

I've heard non-fundy Christians (and non-Christians) describe it as rejoining the collective consciousness that is God. At which point I don't think you'd have emotions, but like fundies they believe you'd have infinite knowledge like God has. It's still obviously wishful thinking inspired by a desire to keep one's consciousness after death, but it requires less doublethink than the fundy version.

[maybeizfundie]

I think the descriptions of heaven are by nature exceedingly limited because we are finite and so is human language, but God is infinite and heaven is eternal.

I think it's going to be a pretty amazing place/experience. Not marriage/sex (according to Jesus) but relationships, interaction, work, learning as part of worship and adoration of God (as they are in the temporal world). And again, because are now experiencing a finite life, our concept of what eternity feels like. I don't think it'll pall.

Christianity Today has a (loooong) article on heaven. Don't know if it'll be helpful but that is one view. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/200 ... -51.0.html. I know CS Lewis also had some interesting view on Heaven but unfortunately I don't have a solid reference on hand.

[OkToBeTakei]

I always figured I would get to see all the dead folk I miss. And party.

If it is still praising GOD sounds like same shit different altitude to me. If there is no Angry Birds...I'll be quite happy swerving it.

[wtfrenchtoast]

Okay, my thing is, whenever someone brings up the fact that God could have just made people on Earth sinless, the standard response is he didn't want people to be like robots. Well, how is it going to be any different in heaven? Just constant praise and worship for eternity sounds pretty robotic to me. And not like a lot of fun.

Also, if sleeping and sex aren't allowed, it can't be heaven. Period.

[Minerva]

Okay, my thing is, whenever someone brings up the fact that God could have just made people on Earth sinless, the standard response is he didn't want people to be like robots. Well, how is it going to be any different in heaven? Just constant praise and worship for eternity sounds pretty robotic to me. And not like a lot of fun.

Also, if sleeping and sex aren't allowed, it can't be heaven. Period.

Shit, how is that any different from how fundies want the living to behave?

[Arete]

*tentatively dips her toe in*

OK, my particular form of Christianity describes the after death experience as theosis, which means becoming one with God. Our more esoteric monastics have given descriptions that skate awefully close to "becoming a part of a universal awareness". So on the one hand, I don't really care for the kneeling-in-a-garden-forever-praying descriptions of heaven, and my religious experience didn't include them. On the other hand, it would be awesome to see some of the dead relatives again and laugh. It's also my personal view that if their isn't sex, there'd better be something even better.

[wtfrenchtoast]

I'm reading the Christianity Today link.

"We will complete the very love-works we are meant to do on Earth. There are only six things that never get boring on Earth, six things that never come to an end: knowing and loving yourself, your neighbor, and God. Since persons are subjects and not objects, they are not exhaustible; they are like magic cows that give fresh milk forever."[/quote]

....Excuse me? Magic cows?

[doggie]

Unless god is a real ass he has be be sick of all of the adoration by now.

[holierthanyou]

I assume I will become quite proficient at the harp.

[maybeizfundie]

lol. i thought the magic cows thing was a really weird analogy to make too. :p

[Cran]

I was taught we would spend eternity contemplating God and getting to know God better and better. As there are supposedly no limits to the greatness of God, this is a never-ending process which never gets boring.. in theory.

It seemed fishy to me even then and I had some heated discussion with my professor about it.

[gustava]

I was taught we would spend eternity contemplating God and getting to know God better and better. As there are supposedly no limits to the greatness of God, this is a never-ending process which never gets boring.. in theory.

It seemed fishy to me even then and I had some heated discussion with my professor about it.

Isn't this a tad like Buddhism, except with Buddhism, you get to know the infinite beforeyou die?

[Cran]

No, I do not think so. Nirvana is an entirely different concept that involves no personal God and no knowledge of self. Nirvana is not only the end of suffering, but also the opting-out of the circle of Samsara, which also means recognizing the personal self is a concept that HINDERS reaching Nirvana and has to be given up, while in the Christian context, the integrity of the person is always preserved.

Furhtermore, the contemplation of God in the Christian sense I was taught it is nothing humans could achieve on their own, by practising meditation and such, but, as always only given by the grace of God. Nothing to do with ability or achievement.

[E Street Fan]

I'm reminded of an old Far Side cartoon. People arriving in heaven were given harps, people arriving in hell were given accordions. I always thought the accordion would be a lot more fun to play for eternity.

[Seven Severn]

I don't believe for a second that there's such a place as "heaven", but I do know that if it did exist it would have to have Hüsker Dü. Bob, Grant, and Greg would get along famously and they'd play every day and take requests.

[mirele]

I don't believe for a second that there's such a place as "heaven", but I do know that if it did exist it would have to have Hüsker Dü. Bob, Grant, and Greg would get along famously and they'd play every day and take requests.

Will heaven have Norwegian black metal?

[Little_Eyes]

I read a book once that had pretty cool descriptions of heaven. It said that we spent our afterlife learning and becoming more at one with our true selves. The book also said William Shakespeare directs plays and heaven is physically located three feet in the air, so I would take it as fiction, through I liked reading it.

Erm, my church always said that everyone goes to heaven, unless you're like super super evil, I guess. So I'm hoping that there will be awesome parties a la Feast at the House of Levi. And chocolate cake with no calories. Yeah, in actuality, I think we won't totally be who we are in this life, so while I believe in the soul, I'm not sure that Little_Eyes as she is right now will experience it, though I hope I do, even if it is only a feeling of peace the moment I leave this world. I rather think we'll be busy, whatever we are or become, because I'd hate being lazy.

I hope there are no physical limitations in my afterlife. I also demand that my personal heaven have an arena wherein all my favorite bands play. It would be nice to see some of my relatives again, so maybe I will. The idea of an afterlife is comforting, because of the idea that I will have perspective of my life, a fuller picture, but I remind myself I should work towards that now.

Who knows? In the end, I don't think it matters. I'm not living like a Fundie, hoping that I can be righteous enough to live while millions of good people are cast into hell because they didn't have Jesus. I'm living trying to make the most of every day, and leave the world a better place, maybe having some laughs along the way. That's good enough for me.

[Arete]

Who knows? In the end, I don't think it matters. I'm not living like a Fundie, hoping that I can be righteous enough to live while millions of good people are cast into hell because they didn't have Jesus. I'm living trying to make the most of every day, and leave the world a better place, maybe having some laughs along the way. That's good enough for me.

[Mind UR own uteress]

I'm fascinated with the Bio channel's show, i Survived: Beyond and Back. A lot of the people who "die and come back" describe similar things: hovering over their bodies after dying and being able to look down on them, "knowing" what the people around them were thinking and doing, viewing or re-living parts of their lives, seeing dead loved ones and friends or even "angels", and going down a dark tunnel (which I think might be a black hole, just my opinion based on some of the laws of physics), and ending up in a heaven-type place or different dimension from what we know here (a couple of people went to hell, where they describe being "kept"). The heaven-type place they seem to describe almost sounds like being on morphine, lol. No worries, cares, pain, etc and they feel totally accepted and blissful.

Of course it could all be just a load of crap and when we die nothing happens. No one can really know until we get to that point ourselves, but the stories on the show are fascinating, imo.

[Conuly]

Historically speaking, many people figured the big entertainment in Heaven comes from looking down and laughing at the sinners in Hell. (No, really. Some might still think this.) Christian charity apparently isn't expected for dead folks.

[Cran]

Historically speaking, many people figured the big entertainment in Heaven comes from looking down and laughing at the sinners in Hell. (No, really. Some might still think this.) Christian charity apparently isn't expected for dead folks.

True. And it was no one less than Thomas Aquinas who held this opinion (the joys of heaven stem partly from the satisfaction that the sinners in hell get their just punishment), and with such a prominent theologian spouting it of, it's not surprising you find people today who hold this opinion.

[Peas n carrots]

Even from a young age the heaven was a bit dubious to me. I thought wth am I going to do with all this time on my hands? I much preferred reincarnation...I would like to find out what it would be like to be living in different times and places. Knowing my luck my next life will be as a peasant in medieval Europe during the black death.

My mom said she always imagined that everyone in heaven would look as they did when they were 20, even if they died before that age. I thought to myself how would I recognize my grandparents that way, and wouldnt it be kind of weird?

[OkToBeTakei]

When I was very young I was told Heaven and Hell were big tables and people were eating Chinese food with 3 foot long chopsticks. In hell they were hungry as they could not manage and in Heaven they fed each other TA DA. I was less impressed with the analogy and more interested in what i was going to order.