Manorfire

There are many abundant and varied conceptions of Heaven. Whether you believe it exists or not, what do you perceive the typical day would consist of? Are there certain tasks people must partake and a hierarchy to obey?

I've always imagined Heaven to be a place where I could do anything and everything. You know, acting out daydreams and stuff like that. But that is not what is referenced to in The Bible: Timothy 2:12 "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." So, are we to be so overcome with a God's glory that we can do nothing but worship them forever in some spiritually ecstatic state?

What if we're told "your job is to carry the throne of God around". Can we say "No, thanks. I'm gonna go {insert more entertaining venture here} for the next 4 thousand years". Would an almighty and loving God be a 'my way or the highway' type of ruler?

What about the loved ones you're reunited with? Is the family life you experienced on Earth recaptured in Heaven? Does God play the referee? If you picture Heaven as being a peaceful existence, you might want to think again!

Another thing I wonder: say Heaven is actually whatever we personally desire it to be - we have been sufficiently 'good' on Earth and have thus been duly rewarded with our own Nirvana. From high above, living in bliss, we look down on those we left behind. Generation after generation: you 'sit' with the rest of your family, like you used to around the TV, not missing a thing.

But wait...

Life for your family and friends on Earth has its ups and downs. Perhaps you watch them endure tragedy, helpless to support them or respond to their calls for you. You worry that they are not being 'good' enough and they don't even share your beliefs. When they die, their 'bad' spirits burn in the lake of fire for all eternity. Continually having to watch this happen to those you love would be a personal Hell, surely?

Ourcrazymodern?

Wow and Wow!
(Dorothy may want to see us both in Oz before this is over!)
"In heaven there is no beer, that's why we drink it here..."
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son..."
"So two 'hos and a pimp are meeting St. Peter -"
Eternal life eludes me!

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Seer666

Well, I can't speak for everyone else here, but my heaven involves lots of sex, kick ass music, and chilling with my friends and family. Ozzy might not make it to heaven, but his music sure will!

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Bad spellers of the world untie!!!

I am the one you warned me of

I seem to have misplaced the bullet with your name on it, but I have a whole box addressed to occupant.

FuriousAvatar

Ch'i

Personally, I think the idea of heaven is very narcissistic.

Zyr

Well from what I understand, you basically end up worshiping God for eternity, which is suppose to be a good thing, cause you're with God, and there's nothing more awesome than being with God.

Unless it's all bull. In which case you get nothing, so enjoy your life now.

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"Oh, irony! Oh, no, no, we don't get that here. See, uh, people ski topless here while smoking dope, so irony's not really a high priority. We haven't had any irony here since about, uh, '83 when I was the only practitioner of it, and I stopped because I was tired of being stared at."

Omnia mutantu, nos et mutamur in illis.
All things change, and we change with them.
- Neil Gaiman, Marvel 1602

Ourcrazymodern?

...it was a beautiful day in heaven today. The sky was a rainbow of sounds
and me was happy...

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Seer666

I like that. I might steal that quote.

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Bad spellers of the world untie!!!

I am the one you warned me of

I seem to have misplaced the bullet with your name on it, but I have a whole box addressed to occupant.

tenchi069

I believe in the idea of heaven not as a place where we go when we die, but a place that God and angels live. In this place we will worship Him, and follow the Law of God. In doing so, we eliminate most if not all of the human addition to strife, and I believe God takes care of the stuff we don't have control of, poverty, famine, etc. That is what I believe heaven to be.
On a side note, but directly related, I believe that we can have a piece of this heaven before we leave this existence. Whether you believe in God, another deity, or none at all, there are 10 famous rules, that if everyone without exception lived by them, then the world of humanity would be a completely different, and believe better, place.

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ERROR- PLBSAK
Problem Lies Between Seat and Keyboard.

little_tippler

Why would you assume there is such a thing as time, and days, in heaven?

(I'm an agnostic by the way and am pretty wary of any such place as heaven)

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

Ourcrazymodern?

From somewhere in eternity I realized I was still singing, and my throat wasn't even sore! ...then I remembered where I was...

__________________
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Wilkerson

Heaven involves daily swims in pools of deep dark chocolate followed by meals of cheeseburgers and onion rings. Heaven is a pleasant place where the only people you meet are the ones you like, and if you stop liking someone they just disappear. There is no real work in Heaven, although everyone does something. Depending on whether you are doing something which you really want to or something which you think you are supposed to be doing (i.e. to make others happy) you will either live in a really luxurious home or live in a decent home which has only tepid water in the shower. If you do right, you have whatever you want. Servants, the foods you want, sex when you want and with the persons you want, never any trash to take out,but for those who enjoy collecting trash or sifting through trash, there is always enough...it's almost mystical how it appears when they want it.

Heaven is filled with books which always hold your interest, music that you could listen to for...well, an eternity (but no harps). Heaven also has faucets in each kitchen which serve all the needs. There's one for coffee, one for gin, one for beer, one for Dr.Pepper, oddly there is even one for water and several others which are set up according to resident desires.

In heaven there is no pain and potato chips are never too greasy...or broken.

Ourcrazymodern?

Wilkerson! Hedonism in heaven? Is that part of the dogma?

...skipping down the bright-lit path (I couldn't see the sun),
smiling at even the hydatid tapeworms as if I coudn't stop:
I felt my jaw was breaking though there is no pain in heaven;
when there appeared from nowhere one of many I can't top.

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asaris

As far as heaven goes, I'm convinced of two things: It will be perfect, and we will have bodies. I'm not confident enough in my knowledge of what it means for something to be perfect, nor in what having a body really entails, to make anything other than mere guesses about what heaven is like in any more detail.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Ourcrazymodern?

Wow! You have no body? Shauk (elsewhere) claimed to not be human, in a way. Did you ever read "Jack the Bodiless" by Julian May?

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asaris

I never said I didn't have a body. I just said I didn't know what that entails. Obviously, I can make some guesses. It seems necessary for a body to take up space, for example. But some people have made the inference from 'we will have bodies in heaven' to 'we will have sex in heaven'. I know that having a body in this world means in part being a sexual being, but I don't know that that's essential to having a body. So I'm not willing to make that inference. That's all I meant.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Wilkerson

But, of course. There are also occasional rain showers which refresh and never cause a chill. Not to mention perfect vacations where luggage is packed and arrives at the destination point all on its own...even unpacks on its own. (okay, now I'm being ridiculous)

Ourcrazymodern?

Okay...
Why will we need bodies housing our spirits?
One feels like luggage only in their nightmares.
erutangis retla ot deen neddus a

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asaris

Because humans are essentially embodied, and we are essentially human. If we didn't have bodies, we wouldn't be ourselves.

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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Wilkerson

Without it you'd float untethered and smash into giant oak trees causing the acorns to fall to Earth (much in the same way that meteor showers occur)
Not if you have quality luggage...which as I said, will be packed and unpacked already so it is mainly for appearance, therefore not a nightmare as such.


alter it all you want...we'll still find you and force you to watch Lawrence Welk shows.

Ourcrazymodern?

Individual packaging is all that I have, and I'm willing to work with you....

Please, please...I saw enough Lawrence Welk as a child!

Our individual packaging is all that we, any of us, know for sure that we have, isn't it?
Even a space elevator can't get you to god.

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BE JUST AND FEAR NOT