Why would anyone want to go to Heaven?

The struggle of life is what makes succeeding so damn rewarding.

Reminds me of the Earthworm Jim episode with kitty heaven.

bluewolf wrote: »

Now I feel the overwhelming urge to belt out the EWJ themesong =(

Well he's such a groovy guy. How can you resist?

A recent report suggests that Muslim martyrs may be in for a real let down. It seems that there may have been some difficulty in the translation or spoken interpretation or the Koran: the 72 "houris" promised to them in heaven may actually be a reference to fruit, particularly grapes, and not virgins.

"72 bunches of grapes? I blew myself up for this?" :rolleyes:

vinchick wrote: »

Well they could make wine of grapes....drink the wine.....and who knows what will happen next?

you don't really understand the whole Muslim thing , do you ?

bluewolf wrote: »

Now I feel the overwhelming urge to belt out the EWJ themesong =(

Through the soil he did crawl....

Comer1 wrote: »

If we all go to heaven, exactly as we are now, won't it just be the very same as life here on earth?

Then it wouldn't be heaven would it?

Comer1 wrote: »

The only way it could work is if we had certain parts of our personality taken away...you know, all the bad parts. So do you think that for Heaven to work, God performs some kind of "spiritual lobotomy" on all souls upon entry through the pearly gates. That means that when I get to heaven, I'll be a completely different person than I am now. Ok, I admit that there are lots of things about myself that could do with changing, none of us are perfect, but the "bad" stuff, the "sinner" in me, is just as important in defining the person that I am as the good stuff.

Imagine if someone called to your door and said they can take you an absolute paradice, where there is no suffering, everybody is happy and content. All you have to do is agree to a small proceedure that will remove certain tendencies from your personality. Would you go or tell him to FO!?

I think heaven will be very different to earth in at least 4 major ways:

1. We won't be subject to temptations to sin (i.e. the devil, the world and the flesh).

2. God will give us full knowledge of the enormity of sin and the wisdom of doing His will. We will become enlightened with God's wisdom.

3. We will see God "face-to-face" in all His glory and in such a perfectly holy environment, sin would be inconceivable.

4. We will become "divinized" in special bond with God similar to the bond Jesus Christ has with God. God's plan for us will be fully realized and we will never want to go back to our sinful ways. We will never want to do anything against God's will.

Of course it's difficult for us to imagine what heaven would be like but I'm sure that the God who created the universe and designed the laws of nature will have no difficulty keeping us blissfully happy eternally. What kind of infinitely good, intelligent, loving and wise God would leave us bored?

Comer1 wrote: »

Sounds like a lobotomy to me. The point I'm making is that for heaven to work, we could no longer be the people we are now. How many of us would be willing to sacrifice our personalities to get into paradise? What's the point of me wanting to go to heaven, so that when I get there, I won't even be me anymore?

Would you really want to hang onto your bad traits and faults? In Heaven you would be yourself but without the bad habits, faults.

I'm pretty sure the majority of things I enjoy might be frowned upon in heaven:

=> playing the guitar, not a problem in principle but my favorite style is blues which is somewhat morally ambiguous

=> bit of a computer and gadget nerd, cant see there being much high speed networking in heavan and I'm friends with God who can do WHATEVER he wants so gadgets are gonna lose their appeal pretty quickly

=> I have a couple of other vices that I'd rather not outline but I dont think I will be allowed do them either

I think I'm left drinking cups of green tea :eek:

ned78 wrote: »

I think hell would be a much more interesting place, parties, drink, orgies - of course both are figments of our imaginations dreamt up by people who had no clue about the world, and believed in talking shrubbery. And unfortunately, while some of humanity has grown up and stopped believing in magical fairy tales, most still do - embarassingly so.

Where do people get the idea that Hell could be a pleasurable place to be? Just because we get away with drunkeness, wild parties and orgies on earth doesn't mean it'll be allowed continue in hell! There will be absolutely no pleasure for the inhabitants of hell but there will be endless remorse of conscience, hate, despair, darkness, hopelessness etc.

I always assumed that in heaven God would use his meta-powerful might to imbue heaven goers with infinite joy and satisfaction. That trumps everything. As many problems as infinite power/knowledge/love can cause in hypotheticals, it can sometimes really simplify things.