Do you believe in a heaven and a hell?
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I believe in Heaven and Hell.
But neither one is how most of us have been taught to think about them. Heaven is not some boring place where we all dreamily float around strumming on harps in some sort of drug-induced euphoria and hell is not a sadistic torture chamber where an angry divine being pacifies its anger by torturing people.
Heaven and hell are choices we make in this life. Heaven is simple unity with Life/Love and Hell is separation from this. God is life and, consequently, outside of Him, death exists. Death is simply the absence of life - a nothingness of existence where nothing lives, no love, no joy, no anything....NOTHING. God does not want anyone going into this "nothingness of existence" because of His love for us but he also wants us to be free and exercise our freewill as we choose too.
We were created in the Image of God which means, basically, that we are just like God except finite in our abilities (we are "chips off the old block" if you will). We were created to love - to be love just as God is love - and to enjoy life, REAL LIFE. We, however, choose to depart from life and embrace non-life; we choose to quite being the image of God so that we could chase and pursue our own lusts,pleasures and desires. Consequently, we fell into a form of non-existence; a sort of "fake" existence that can seem so difficult and futile at times (and, at times, very good, beautiful and fulfilling).
Anyway, not to belabor the point, Heaven is simply a metaphor for having true life while Hell is a metaphor for experiencing non-life, non-existence - which is called death.
But neither one is how most of us have been taught to think about them. Heaven is not some boring place where we all dreamily float around strumming on harps in some sort of drug-induced euphoria and hell is not a sadistic torture chamber where an angry divine being pacifies its anger by torturing people.
Heaven and hell are choices we make in this life. Heaven is simple unity with Life/Love and Hell is separation from this. God is life and, consequently, outside of Him, death exists. Death is simply the absence of life - a nothingness of existence where nothing lives, no love, no joy, no anything....NOTHING. God does not want anyone going into this "nothingness of existence" because of His love for us but he also wants us to be free and exercise our freewill as we choose too.
We were created in the Image of God which means, basically, that we are just like God except finite in our abilities (we are "chips off the old block" if you will). We were created to love - to be love just as God is love - and to enjoy life, REAL LIFE. We, however, choose to depart from life and embrace non-life; we choose to quite being the image of God so that we could chase and pursue our own lusts,pleasures and desires. Consequently, we fell into a form of non-existence; a sort of "fake" existence that can seem so difficult and futile at times (and, at times, very good, beautiful and fulfilling).
Anyway, not to belabor the point, Heaven is simply a metaphor for having true life while Hell is a metaphor for experiencing non-life, non-existence - which is called death.
If you want to read an interesting Eastern Orthodox perspective on this, Google "River of Fire" (without the " " ) and click on the first link that comes up (it should be an address given to some Orthodox youth but it is a very interesting read, IMO).
I tried to put the link in a post but I guess we are not allowed because it would not post? I am not sure but I tried...
I tried to put the link in a post but I guess we are not allowed because it would not post? I am not sure but I tried...
Do I believe in them?
Well, I believe that they're good analogies for how blissful our miserable our experiences of existence can be, but I don't believe they are actual places.
Also, I've always been puzzled by the "burning in hell" reference. How can we burn without a body?
I was raised to be Catholic, and I suppose I always raised an internal eyebrow at the idea of hell. It sounded absolutely terrible and horrendous to me. Sometimes it sounded contradictory, like how could God be so terrible as to condemn people to hell? And at other times it just seemed very ridiculous and unbelievable, usually because the former didn't make sense to me. I just didn't buy into it as a child, and I am glad for that. I have heard stories of former Catholics and Christians feeling afraid to let go of their beliefs in favour of something that made more sense to them, because they were afraid of the possibility of burning in hell for eternity, or in facing God's wrath. I admit I felt a twinge of that, but I was able to quickly dismiss it. What a horrible, horrible idea to propose to people and threaten them with (the idea of hell). I believe that if a conscious energy exists, such as God, and it is one that Loves unconditionally, then it would not engage in sending people to hell. And I choose, or try to choose, to believe in a benevolent force when I turn to thoughts of a divine consciousness; I'm not going to spend my time trying to believe in horrors and terrors.
I hope the universe is a benevolent one. If a divine energy does exist, then I hope that it is one that is centred around love, rather than based on chance and impersonal possibilities. And I hope heaven is a sense of our ability to tune into that energy, which would make hell our disconnection from it.
Like anything, I understand these as concepts that one can use in whatever way they wish. If they enable a more meaningful and fulfilling life, then that's great. If not believing in them offers more security and sense, then that's great as well. Whatever floats the boat, as the saying goes.
Well, I believe that they're good analogies for how blissful our miserable our experiences of existence can be, but I don't believe they are actual places.
Also, I've always been puzzled by the "burning in hell" reference. How can we burn without a body?
I was raised to be Catholic, and I suppose I always raised an internal eyebrow at the idea of hell. It sounded absolutely terrible and horrendous to me. Sometimes it sounded contradictory, like how could God be so terrible as to condemn people to hell? And at other times it just seemed very ridiculous and unbelievable, usually because the former didn't make sense to me. I just didn't buy into it as a child, and I am glad for that. I have heard stories of former Catholics and Christians feeling afraid to let go of their beliefs in favour of something that made more sense to them, because they were afraid of the possibility of burning in hell for eternity, or in facing God's wrath. I admit I felt a twinge of that, but I was able to quickly dismiss it. What a horrible, horrible idea to propose to people and threaten them with (the idea of hell). I believe that if a conscious energy exists, such as God, and it is one that Loves unconditionally, then it would not engage in sending people to hell. And I choose, or try to choose, to believe in a benevolent force when I turn to thoughts of a divine consciousness; I'm not going to spend my time trying to believe in horrors and terrors.
I hope the universe is a benevolent one. If a divine energy does exist, then I hope that it is one that is centred around love, rather than based on chance and impersonal possibilities. And I hope heaven is a sense of our ability to tune into that energy, which would make hell our disconnection from it.
Like anything, I understand these as concepts that one can use in whatever way they wish. If they enable a more meaningful and fulfilling life, then that's great. If not believing in them offers more security and sense, then that's great as well. Whatever floats the boat, as the saying goes.
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I googled your link. That is how I pictured hell. A 'fiery gehenna' -- such is the inner fire. A burning bitterness that never consumes. "When 'the books are opened,' it will become clear that the roots of all vices lie in the human soul. A sinner: There was an inclination to sin in the soul, and that sin was sweet to the soul, and if the soul has not freed itself from it, it will come to the Last Judgment also with the same desire for sin. It will never satisfy that desire and in that soul there will be the suffering of hatred. It will accuse everyone and everything in its tortured condition, it will hate everyone and everything. 'There will be gnashing of teeth' of powerless malice and the unquenchable fire of hatred.
So in your opinion, Hell is where atheists go, and heaven is where Christians go?
I apologize, I have not learned how to post/reply correctly so I get the person's question yet but this is in response to Billy's question below:
No person can judge and say where a human being goes once they depart this life - it is not for us to judge or decide. There are bad "Christians" and there are good "atheists", every persons deeds will manifest what was deeply inside them. Just because a person labels themselves as something, does not mean that is what they really were - their works, there way of life and the type of person they are say who they really are.
What God cares about, IMO, is how much we love one another, not how much dogma we know or how much scripture we can quote. Those who are kind and merciful, will be shown mercy and kindness.
So, in my opinion, I cannot say who goes where - that is not for any person to say. I am only saying that Heaven and Hell exist and the words we use to describe them are only metaphors to describe the difference between life and death, between existence and non-existence, between being and non-being, between receiving love and not receiving love and the path we choose in this life sets us on the trajectory for our own existence.
No person can judge and say where a human being goes once they depart this life - it is not for us to judge or decide. There are bad "Christians" and there are good "atheists", every persons deeds will manifest what was deeply inside them. Just because a person labels themselves as something, does not mean that is what they really were - their works, there way of life and the type of person they are say who they really are.
What God cares about, IMO, is how much we love one another, not how much dogma we know or how much scripture we can quote. Those who are kind and merciful, will be shown mercy and kindness.
So, in my opinion, I cannot say who goes where - that is not for any person to say. I am only saying that Heaven and Hell exist and the words we use to describe them are only metaphors to describe the difference between life and death, between existence and non-existence, between being and non-being, between receiving love and not receiving love and the path we choose in this life sets us on the trajectory for our own existence.
I do not believe in heaven or hell. These are Christian concepts and I am not a Christian.
Jgirl, "they are ideas formed in the human mind. "
So you're suggesting that mathematics exists only in our minds and isn't descriptive of real things? I disagree.
I think consciousness may survive death. (epiphenomenalism is looking pretty shaky to me) The Bible, for those who refer to it generally seems to talk about resurrection, and I think a lot of the ideas of heaven are subsequently developed theology. Personally I think a Preterist interpretation of eschatology suggests heaven is meant to be created on earth... eg, God's kingdom is here, and it's now, and it's at 'war' with all world evil such as sickness, starvation, sociopathy, even in psychology we try to help individuals become more open and kind... and empathy and such can be physiologically influenced, even aging and death seem to be on the radar, I would imagine that it's only a matter of time until we develop the technology to defeat aging since it's in some sense only an issue of engineering. All in all, the only thing that's still far off science fiction is resurrection... but ethically I don't think we would want resurrection into today's world anyway.
So you're suggesting that mathematics exists only in our minds and isn't descriptive of real things? I disagree.
I think consciousness may survive death. (epiphenomenalism is looking pretty shaky to me) The Bible, for those who refer to it generally seems to talk about resurrection, and I think a lot of the ideas of heaven are subsequently developed theology. Personally I think a Preterist interpretation of eschatology suggests heaven is meant to be created on earth... eg, God's kingdom is here, and it's now, and it's at 'war' with all world evil such as sickness, starvation, sociopathy, even in psychology we try to help individuals become more open and kind... and empathy and such can be physiologically influenced, even aging and death seem to be on the radar, I would imagine that it's only a matter of time until we develop the technology to defeat aging since it's in some sense only an issue of engineering. All in all, the only thing that's still far off science fiction is resurrection... but ethically I don't think we would want resurrection into today's world anyway.
I don't believe in heaven and hell, but I do believe in an afterlife or that we have immortal souls. It's difficult to describe, but think of it this way: "birds of a feather flock together." I believe that we are judged based on our duty to mankind, not on whether we have attended church every Sunday. I believe in a personal relationship with God or the Universe. He/It/She knows your heart, your motives and intentions. I like to think of it as "life after life" as I believe our souls continue to evolve.
I think that being a good or bad person does things to your spirit or state of mind. I can't say for sure what happens after we die, and I wouldn't discount the Christian versions of heaven and hell as being impossible. I'm more inclined to believing in reincarnation rather than hell, so that we can get another chance or something. I'm also more inclined to believe that there is only heaven and no hell, because I'd rather think positively and not worry about something that I'll never know about for sure until I die, and idgaf because it's not like I'm a bad person anyway so it probably doesn't apply to me. I think it's just as likely we will rot in the ground when we die.
I agree with Jgirl that heaven and hell are actually concepts from our minds. But the catch is this; the human mind is actually capable of bringing about what didnt exist before - ask Wayne Dyer....... so human beings can create heaven or hell or anything in-between for themselves
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In a sense. For me, heaven represents freedom on death. I should just like to find freedom from myself and my own inner struggle in this life. Beyond that I don't know and don't dwell.
I think it would be nice to believe in such things, a simple dichotomy – a resting place for those good and evil in spirit… an afterlife. What I’ve seen/experienced leads me to believe othwerise, but that isn’t final -> I keep most of my beliefs pretty open (i.e. they can change).
So no, I currently do not believe in a heaven or hell.
So no, I currently do not believe in a heaven or hell.
