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Original poster

Do you believe in Heaven ?

307 replies

Sunbliss · 16/02/2020 19:51

Just that. Do you believe in Heaven? If so what do you think it’s like. Im not religious but do believe there is a Heaven or would like to believe there some place we will see loved ones again and find peace ourselves.

OP posts:
Whoopsmahoot · 20/02/2020 22:47

No

pigsDOfly · 21/02/2020 00:00

@TheSandman Yes, the gettng all lumped together in a loving, harmonious melting pot is something I find puzzling.

Many people will have 'loved ones' who know nothing of other 'loved ones' they might have.

For instance, I know someone who found out, when their father died, that he had a whole other family who he'd been living with, the whole time he'd been living with them; adult children of similar ages in both families.

How does that work, once we're all 'reunited with our loved ones'?

It's all very simplistic and black and white. Life isn't like that, and neither are relationships; as you say, it not an endless Disney film.

MrsBrentford · 21/02/2020 00:03

I sort of do.

I am an atheist but was brought up with two very deeply religious grandparents and went to church schools so it feels a bit ingrained, the religion.

I adored my grandmother and she believed in it completely and I kind of hope it’s true even though I know it isn’t as she would be there waiting for me when it’s my time.

pigsDOfly · 21/02/2020 00:08

Sorry TheSandman don't know where that 'it not' came from, it should have just been: as you say, an endless Disney film.

Mummyzzz044 · 21/02/2020 08:19

I'm not religious, not really believed in heaven but still in hope there is something, so I can see loved ones. So I can watch my children live their lives.
But i know ghost are real? I've experienced this so there must be something

CanIHaveATiaraPlease · 21/02/2020 09:16

Maybe it’s a bit like the film Coco - that you are reunited with your loved ones till the last person living remembers you. I still remember my great gran but my younger siblings don’t. She had so much love for us but died when I was quite young but it’s weird that I can still remember the enveloping love & her telling me stories.

LastTrainEast · 21/02/2020 09:57

I've been told by Christians in the past that you will be happy in heaven because you will be changed so that you are unable to be unhappy.

I found that more scary than a hell full of fire and pitchforks.

OutwiththeOutCrowd · 21/02/2020 10:03

Unremitting bliss would become tedious but I'd like to continue in some way after death to experience and learn more. One lifetime is very limiting.

Not that I get to dictate the ways of the universe!

LastTrainEast · 21/02/2020 11:03

Even if I believed heaven never sounded inviting to me.

I remember a line from a book from way back. Someone was asked what they'd like to see when they died and their reply went something like this.

"I want to wake up in a huge hall with a kindly man lifting a helmet off my head and removing a tape from the machine beside me.

He'd say "well that was life as a woman in 20th century Europe"

He'd point to millions of racks of tapes stretching into the distance and say "would you like to try another time or perhaps another planet next?"

Onetwothreeeee · 21/02/2020 11:07

These are not stars, these are galaxies that contain billions of stars in them. This is why I don’t believe in god or heaven. We are a speck of dust in the universe. God didn’t create us, the universe did.

Do you believe in Heaven ?
NewLevelsOfTiredness · 21/02/2020 11:11

Not really. I find it easier to be focused on being a good person without the thought. Knowing that the closest to 'immortality' I can achieve is the ongoing effect of every kindness and good action I manage here before I die, instead of trying to substantiate how much I need to do to 'earn' a rewards afterwards.

Won't be complaining if it turns out I'm wrong, obviously.

What I absolutely don't believe, and can never believe, is that there's a 'closed club' heaven where you have to worship a specific deity to get in - any divine being that was narcissistic enough to demand that wouldn't be nice enough to create or administer a true utopia anyway.

Dividingthementalload · 21/02/2020 11:12

No. Nor fairies, witches or monsters.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 21/02/2020 11:13

No, I really hope there is something else but I don't think there is. Although I do believe in ghosts. The thought of dying and that's the end has really started to terrify me lately. I didn't worry about it until a couple of years ago and the reality of my own mortality hit me very hard.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 21/02/2020 11:19

Also, the thought of seeing loved ones when we die confuses me. What if someones spouse dies after happy years together, then they meet someone else and live the rest of their lives happily. Which partner will they be going to meet when they're dead?

TheSandman · 21/02/2020 15:11

What if someones spouse dies after happy years together, then they meet someone else and live the rest of their lives happily. Which partner will they be going to meet when they're dead?

Maybe heaven is just one big orgy.

Iminaglasscaseofemotion · 21/02/2020 19:37

Maybe heaven is just one big orgy.

😂 I'm not sure I'm up for that.

Lifeisgenerallyfun · 22/02/2020 08:06

@TheSandman heaven is one big orgy???? I’m going to start going to church to get on the right side of St Peter! If the cofe started letting people know about this it would be standing room only on a sunday😂.

thecatneuterer · 22/02/2020 10:23

Maybe heaven is just one big orgy

That sounds more like hell to me Grin

moondance19 · 22/02/2020 15:04

What if someones spouse dies after happy years together, then they meet someone else and live the rest of their lives happily. Which partner will they be going to meet when they're dead

“In my Father’s house there are many mansions”
I don’t think in heaven people will have partners like on earth. All our earthly ways will be gone.

moondance19 · 22/02/2020 15:09

These are not stars, these are galaxies that contain billions of stars in them. This is why I don’t believe in god or heaven. We are a speck of dust in the universe. God didn’t create us, the universe did.

That’s why I believe. It HAD to have been designed/created.....If I ever start to doubt my faith it is the awesomeness of the universe that reaffirms my belief.

SpokeTooSoon · 22/02/2020 15:19

Why are atheists so negative? Always reminding people that they will one day rot away and everything is without meaning and pointless. Heaven is a comforting thing to believe in for a lot of people. They might be right as well. Have positive beliefs rather than doing down others. What’s the worst that can happen?

SpokeTooSoon · 22/02/2020 15:22

These are not stars, these are galaxies that contain billions of stars in them. This is why I don’t believe in god or heaven. We are a speck of dust in the universe. God didn’t create us, the universe did

Funny, I take a very different view based on the same image. It’s awe-inspiring and makes me believe very strongly that there is something else at play that our minds cannot comprehend. I think we will find out one day.

I often think of heaven as a state of mind rather than an actual place. I believe the soul lives on in some way that I don’t have the capacity to know yet.

Dozer · 22/02/2020 15:23

It’s not “negative” not to believe in heaven, and whether or not posters believe is the topic of the thread.

We’re here now, only now, for one life. That’s not a negative mindset IMO.

And part of the point of atheism is that there is no evidence that believers in heaven are right. Sadly.

moondance19 · 22/02/2020 15:27

The universe had a start - what caused it?

Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described agnostic, stated, "The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion...The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen."9

Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics, said at the moment of this explosion, "the universe was about a hundred thousands million degrees Centigrade...and the universe was filled with light."10

The universe has not always existed. It had a start...what caused that? Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter.

Lifeisgenerallyfun · 22/02/2020 16:38

But even if there was some kind of a creator figure that caused the “Big Bang” there’s no evidence that it was the Abrahamic God. If fact evidence would point to it not being this God as many culture which predate the concept of this god and the associated afterlife had their own god(s), stories of the beginning and end of times and afterlife.

Heaven and the Abrahamic god is a social construction. This does not necessarily discount the possibility of a higher power and an afterlife. It just would not be in the form that it is set out in the Abrahamic faiths. It makes no sense, given relatively short period this concept has been in place when the history of mankind is viewed as a whole.