Heaven- would you really want to live forever?

[Den the God-King]

Personally as an atheist myself I see life like a book or a movie- it might be good or bad but it will always have a start and an end. Even if it was the best book ever do you really want it to last forever? How exciting could it be that it will always keep you interested? How long before you'll start to forget the earlier pages? How long before you'll find yourself just reading the same pages over and over again, how many trillion eternities will pass before every possible combination of words and letters has been used up? All of these questions can be translated to existence of course, how can heaven be so exciting that you will never run out of ways to amuse yourself and never ever reach boredom in this place where there is no conflict. If you're there with your loved ones wouldn't eventually you will run out of things you can do with each one- all the possible conversations and experiences you could ever have, every question that you could ever ask and every answer you could ever give. After all this is an eternity of existence, not a mere hundred million/billion/trillion years.

And if you believe that we simply cannot feel any negative emotions in this afterlife like boredom or frustration then can we really say its still us? Aren't our feelings part of what makes us, us? And if you take that away our judgments and personalities doesn't that just make happiness in heaven just some kind of delusional happiness, like an eternity of being high on LSD?

For me it just seems that individuals who truly want this fear death, since its an ending, however they do not comprehend the length of an eternity. But I could be wrong, so please tell me what you think.

[The Dude]

Heaven would be horrible. The only way it wouldn't be if it was somehow capable of making me feel good the entire time without ever questioning what I'm doing there.

Which raises the question as to why so many Christians are opposed to legalised marijuana.

[Den the God-King]

Heaven would be horrible. The only way it wouldn't be if it was somehow capable of making me feel good the entire time without ever questioning what I'm doing there.

Which raises the question as to why so many Christians are opposed to legalised marijuana.

If only they realized that this is the only life they will ever live then maybe they would be more open to the great things in life like weed.

[Dino Nuggets]

"You shall be forever embracing god's love for all eternity" -a priest once told me.

No offence but that sounds really boring, i would rather take a long, restful nap for all eternity.

[Lazarus]

Also you have to consider what heaven is. I assume that I'm not allowed to sin in heaven - which means I would have to live like a Christian/Catholic/Whoever ends up being right. I mean lets take it to the extreme and assume the Westboro Baptists are right. That means heaven would be populated exclusively by racist homophobic prudes. What reason could I possibly have to spend all of eternity with them? If hell is everything heaven is not, and that is what heaven is like, I'm going to sin again and again and again.

[God]

doesn't that just make happiness in heaven just some kind of delusional happiness, like an eternity of being high on LSD?

Sounds alright to me.

[Den the God-King]

"You shall be forever embracing god's love for all eternity" -a priest once told me.

No offence but that sounds really boring, i would rather take a long, restful nap for all eternity.

Agreed, also raises the question how insecure god actually is if he needs every person worshiping him from the moment they're born to their death and for an infinity after that.

[Den the God-King]

Also you have to consider what heaven is. I assume that I'm not allowed to sin in heaven - which means I would have to live like a Christian/Catholic/Whoever ends up being right. I mean lets take it to the extreme and assume the Westboro Baptists are right. That means heaven would be populated exclusively by racist homophobic prudes. What reason could I possibly have to spend all of eternity with them? If hell is everything heaven is not, and that is what heaven is like, I'm going to sin again and again and again.

True, especially considering how the entire christian religion is based on the bible and if you read it from cover to cover you realise that god isn't an all loving cuddly being at all but rather homophobic, controlling and vengeful (and this is shown in both testaments).

[Den the God-King]

Sounds alright to me.

Still an eternity? Plus for some reason I feel that heaven being like an eternity on LSD seems like that would be far too much fun to appeal to the strict christian types. A party in heaven I imagine would be like a party at a christian youth club- no sex, no alcohol and family friendly christian music thats kept to a reasonably low volume

[Sogdog]

Ya, imagine. Sitting on damn clouds all eternity, playing a frigging harp ( I am tone deaf, pergortory for me!) and kissing the feet of some crazy god who murders children, adults and animals for fun! Happy Days!!!

[AqD]

I can't understand why people fear the ending. Everyday I sleep I wish I wouldn't wake up tomorrow.


BTW I think the heavenly state can easily be achieved by locking one guy on a seat and give him the right amount of marijuana at the right frequency. He'd be able to feel comfortable and heavenly greatness forever.

[I WUB PUGS]

Oh my, a perpetual dream state. Bliss I'd call it.

Really, Jews barely have a heaven, some sects believe in it, others simply have existence with GOD of a sort. They certainly don't have hell.

Christian dogma has created this concept of "eternal worship or returning to GOD" but it is poorly defined. The cartoonish characters are more amusing. St. Peter at a gate with a book checking names? Naughty or nice? GOD sounds a lot like an all-powerful Pope from the middle ages. We're all going to die and just sit there while he talks to us for all eternity.

Personally I believe in GOD but I can't see a reason to put any restrictions on it. My belief in Jesus has slipped substantially over the last few years, mainly because I don't see a reason for him. I've studied enough religions to realize that they're all essentially preaching basic empathy towards your fellow man, and then man perverts them into a way to gain material advantages over their fellow man.

Back to restrictions on GOD. I think that's my biggest turnoff to religion. Every restriction upon GOD has direct parallel to something we see in life. I have a customer that signs off his emails with the following:

"The cost of a big dream, a small dream, or no dream
is exactly the same: Why Not Dream Big!"

MY GOD IS TOO BIG FOR ANY DREAM

I think that's really nice and I wish more we would see it for what it is. Religion confines GOD, the one entity that is supposed to be without end or restriction, yet we restrict GOD by saying "GOD approves of __________" or "GOD disapproves of ___________", like really?

I can't define "heaven" because I can't define "GOD". I don't believe there are any books out there that do anything other than give guidance on being a decent human being.

I think a sort of reincarnation would be cool, like this is a starter world and you get to take all you've done and learned here and build on it in another dimension sort of. But really, who the knows, but the classic Christian "I'm just gonna sit here for all eternity and be in GOD's presence" sounds rather droll.

[Colonel Dax]

So let's get this straight...hanging out with God for eternity, talking about how awesome it is to be celibate, and to abstain from everything fun in the world?

I'll pass, if it's all the same.

[In3x]

Sounds alright to me.

Tell you what, that crack's well moreish.

[Himster]

An infinite existence would be pointless: why do anything if you have an eternity to do it in?
It's the imminence of our deaths that drives much of our actions: fear and hope become obsolete, just vestigial words: to be immortal is nothing like being human and is only slightly different from not existing.

[Lord Zhang Ku]

I believe the upside is supposed to be an eternity of new experiences meeting all of the non-evil people to have ever existed, given the period they lived in.

At least that's my take on heaven.

[nemgod]

I believe the upside is supposed to be an eternity of new experiences meeting all of the non-evil people to have ever existed, given the period they lived in.

At least that's my take on heaven.

But unfortunately that isn't what heaven is about. The most evil person in the world could repent on his death bed, embrace Jesus and he would get a first class ticket to heaven according to Christian dogma. The fact that Hitler was (arguably) a christian actually would put him more at the front of the line than say Ghandi who preached non violent resistance into heaven.

[Moorish guy]

I don't anyone could dislike ascending to the next level of consciousness and being engrossed in eternal bliss, being able to do whatever I want forever, eternity may be a long time but I don't see our human desires, limitations coming with us when our soul leaves our bodies so we probably wont even notice, but who knows?

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

I can't say that I'd like to spend an eternity in heaven, but I would like to live forever. Maybe go into a coma for a few hundred years every now and then so everything is new once more. If I were to die, I'd want it to be temporary.

The human brain is finite, if science give us immortality, we'd eventually forget books, TV shows, movies and songs we once loved. Unless of course science allows us to store more memories. Just because something has been done before, doesn't mean that you'll never enjoy it again. The boredom of eternity doesn't scare me, but the finality of death sometimes does.

[Border Patrol]

Oh my, a perpetual dream state. Bliss I'd call it.

Really, Jews barely have a heaven, some sects believe in it, others simply have existence with GOD of a sort. They certainly don't have hell.

Christian dogma has created this concept of "eternal worship or returning to GOD" but it is poorly defined. The cartoonish characters are more amusing. St. Peter at a gate with a book checking names? Naughty or nice? GOD sounds a lot like an all-powerful Pope from the middle ages. We're all going to die and just sit there while he talks to us for all eternity.

Personally I believe in GOD but I can't see a reason to put any restrictions on it. My belief in Jesus has slipped substantially over the last few years, mainly because I don't see a reason for him. I've studied enough religions to realize that they're all essentially preaching basic empathy towards your fellow man, and then man perverts them into a way to gain material advantages over their fellow man.

Back to restrictions on GOD. I think that's my biggest turnoff to religion. Every restriction upon GOD has direct parallel to something we see in life. I have a customer that signs off his emails with the following:

"The cost of a big dream, a small dream, or no dream
is exactly the same: Why Not Dream Big!"

MY GOD IS TOO BIG FOR ANY DREAM

I think that's really nice and I wish more we would see it for what it is. Religion confines GOD, the one entity that is supposed to be without end or restriction, yet we restrict GOD by saying "GOD approves of __________" or "GOD disapproves of ___________", like really?

I can't define "heaven" because I can't define "GOD". I don't believe there are any books out there that do anything other than give guidance on being a decent human being.

I think a sort of reincarnation would be cool, like this is a starter world and you get to take all you've done and learned here and build on it in another dimension sort of. But really, who the knows, but the classic Christian "I'm just gonna sit here for all eternity and be in GOD's presence" sounds rather droll.

Why do you keep God in all caps?