Published by The fear of death is a terrible thing. For some people, the fear is so powerful, so overwhelming, that rather than deal with the fact that they will one day die, they believe that their soul will live on forever in a place called Heaven. By believing certain things or doing certain acts, one can save themselves from eternal death and damnation, right?
Let’s assume that Heaven does exist for the moment (though it most likely doesn’t). Even if a place such as Heaven existed, it would not be paradise. It would be torture. Here are three points to consider:
Conflicts Among People Would Always Exist
There are always people that we can’t stand; people who push the limits of our patience and bring out our most negative emotions. What if you and someone you thoroughly disliked spent eternity together? You and that other person (or people) in Heaven together, and you were both the exact same people you were on earth. Chances are, there would be some conflict. Even a minimal conflict would ruin the ”eternal paradise” for everyone. Perhaps when we go to Heaven we aren’t the same people. But then again, what kind of Heaven would force us to change who we are?
There Would Always Be People In Hell
Do you know any Atheists? How about anyone with a different religion than your own? If you are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, you probably believe in a Hell, where all the unforgiven will be punished for eternity. Let’s say that someone you loved went to Hell, whether it was your mother, father, spouse, child, or a friend. How could anyone live in eternal bliss when they know there are people they love suffering tremendously? The knowledge of other people suffering would destroy one’s eternal happiness, and thus destroy the concept of paradise.
Eternity Would Be Torture
The human mind is not equipped to comprehend infinity. We simply cannot wrap our minds around something lasting forever. Here’s one way to picture it: Imagine a planet, roughly the size of earth. Now, imagine that once every 100 years, a bird flies by this planet and just barely scrapes the side of it. The time it takes the bird to reduce the planet down to the size of an atom is only the first few seconds of eternity. Faced with this knowledge, would anyone want to live forever? It would be torture, knowing that your life will never, ever end.
When faced with these three arguments, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to go to a place like Heaven. Thankfully, no such place exists, and I can sleep peacefully at night knowing that one day, my life will end, and I won’t have to spend eternity in this made up fantasy.
Question for the readers: Do you believe in Heaven, and if so, do you truly take comfort in the thought that you will go there?
My biggest problem with heaven is that after a while it would become really boring. Conflict and flaws may be troublesome but they also make life interesting so without them you would really just be killing time for eternity.
Heaven exists. God exists. Right now we are not able to comprehend what eternity is. Our existance in heaven will be totally different than on earth. There will be no crying in heaven, no worries, no bad thoughts or actions. That John Doe we didnt get along with on earth….we will have no bad memories of our encounters. We will meet family, praise God and his Son, Jesus. A wise man once said… For believers no proof is necessary, for non-believers, no proof is enough. Wouldnt you rather believe that there is life after death, and if youre wrong, no harm no foul..you dont exist anyway..than not to believe, and find out you were wrong and end up in hell, a place you didnt believe existed?
Wouldnt you you rather sacrifice a goat to zeus just in case to make sure you never get struck by lightning.
Chuck
If our memories and personalities had been modified we wouldn’t be the same person now would we? Personally I’d like to have conflict in my (after)life, occasionally I need a good cry, it makes things more interesting. Denying me that is denying me heaven.
ps. Don’t bring up pascals wager around atheists. I can’t speak for all of us, but personally it’s starting to piss me off.
Chuck
If our memories and personalities had been modified we wouldn\’t be the same person now would we? Personally I\’d like to have conflict in my (after)life, occasionally I need a good cry, it makes things more interesting. Denying me that is denying me heaven.
ps. Don\’t bring up pascals wager around atheists. I can\’t speak for all of us, but personally it\’s starting to piss me off.
This is going to sound very crazy to all of you…but please just hear me out. Look in to the Catholic Church. It is the LAST place I thought I would be when I started my spiritual journey as agnostic. And it was quite a journey…I read my way into the church. Read Thomas Aquinas and any of the absolute brilliant authors and thinkers of the church. Do google searches on atheists turned Catholic with an open mind. There is so much out there. Read, Read, Read.
Conversion Diary is a blog by atheist turned Catholic. Now at first glance you probably have little in common with her as she is a young mother of four, but she is very bright and many atheists leave comments on her posts. There is much back and forth. Look on the left side below her picture for links to her conversion story and further down for links on atheists. I would start there, as well as searching her archived posts. Her current posts are the results of growth in the Catholic faith and may leave you scratching your head at what can sound like a foreign language (at least it did to me).
You seem like you are searching as was I. After searching every religion except Christianity, the joke was finally on me. Christian does not equal fundamentalist crazy, that is what was most surprising to me. It is logical, rational. You can always debunk it if you must. See where it goes and good luck!
***I can’t help but add in reference to your above post (good questions!!!) that the Catholic doctrine on Heaven/Hell is nothing of what you describe. You may be pleasantly surprised, check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Briefly, Heaven is not simply Earth as we know it eternally. Likewise, there will be no surprises in Hell. Those who go have freely chosen it. No one can estimate God’s infinite mercy and Catholics never condemn any person or group to hell.***
Oh…I should have said “attempt” to debunk. I have yet to see any logical arguments that have done that. And I have gone looking!
I agree with Stacy above. It sounds like this article is basically treating heaven as an extension of earth. I respect your opinions, but it seems a little too presumptuous to say that these are reasons that heaven \’cant\’ exist because you are having a hard time wrapping your mind around something.
The bible speaks quite clearly of the glory of God, and how in heaven his pure glory lights up the whole place. Plus, heaven is more of a state anyway than a physical place, although it has several physical qualities. If it stands to reason that God created man to be in fellowship with him, and the closer we get to God, the more blissful and complete we feel, then there is no greater satisfaction than basking in his glory in heaven.
As for conflicts, they would not happen. For starters, the book of revelation says that in those days the devil, the beast, and the false prophet, those who were responsible for tempting people and leading them into evil, are done away with by the time we all get to heaven. There is no longer any temptation. I am guessing the conflicts you have been engaged in happened because somebody was in the wrong; after all that is what a conflict is, right? Remove that element and there is nothing to fight over.
In a state where you are literally fulfilled in every cell of your body, and you are face to face with the source of glory, eternity would not seem so bad. In fact, it would be true fulfillment.
How about a Heaven that is unique for each soul? So Jane Smith’s heaven is completely different than Billy Bob’s. Jane Smith won’t have to spend eternity with people she didn’t like because they don’t exist in her HEAVEN. Heaven could tailor made for each soul.
I personally don’t believe this. I think we are all avatars of a universal consciousness (like the Brahma concept). This super consciousness can split itself into an almost infinite number of “souls” or in my view we are something like “roles” in a screenplay and live out unlimited series of existences.