<p>So hell is bad. Fire, demons, pitchforks, sure. People bring that up often. But what's heaven like? Floating clouds and harps? Nothingness? Same thing as now?</p>
<p>What's your take?</p>
<p>Heaven is a state of consciousness. As is hell.</p>
<p>...and this state of consciousness carries over into the next incarnation. Life is continuous, punctuated by earthly lifetimes as well as lifetimes in other dimensions. As Edgar Cayce said, one does not 'go' to heaven; one 'grows' to heaven! Heaven is a state of LOVE and has nothing to do with religion, although it has everything to do with spirituality.</p>
<p>If heaven were just sitting on a cloud playing a harp forEVER, don't you think that would get boring? And fire and pitchforks...how cheesy. Really, there is plenty of suffering right here on this planet. I cannot fathom a Being capable of creating the universe getting any sort of delight by making people burn in a fiery place for all of eternity. That sounds like a fairy tale. (No offense to anyone who believes that. This is just my take, for what it's worth.)</p>
<p>I don't believe in the existence of either.</p>
<p>God is pure love, and Heaven is the Eternal Kingdom that He has prepared for His friends -- those who truly love Him and, thus, believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and follow His Word. Heaven is, to quote the Dixie Chicks, perpetual bliss.</p>
<p>I sure wouldn't want to spend all of eternity with an angry God who thinks war is ok and who would deny entrance to said heaven to my neighbor next door who is a Buddhist.</p>
<p>So, in short, heaven is unknowable - you just have to believe it's there and that it is good?</p>
<p>Buddhism espouses the same concept - happiness without thought, just without all the politics that the middle-eastern religions infuse into it.</p>
<p>"I sure wouldn't want to spend all of eternity with an angry God who thinks war is ok and who would deny entrance to said heaven to my neighbor next door who is a Buddhist."</p>
<p>Don't then. Jesus Christ did not come to earth merely to add another "path" to Heaven. He came to save souls.</p>
<p>Ah, so you agree that the Buddhist has no chance of getting into your 'heaven?'</p>
<p>I can't make that assertion. Only God knows for sure who enters Heaven. But the words of Christ do suggest that non-Christians don't have much of a chance.</p>
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But the words of Christ do suggest that non-Christians don't have much of a chance.
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<p>Interesting statement Fides, although a bit ironic.</p>
<p>Not really, if you consider the fact that Jesus is God Incarnate to Christians. He wasn't a mere Jewish man.</p>
<p>Christ says only the Christians will go to heaven. The Quran seems pretty clear that only Muslims go to paradise. Jews don't really concern themselves much. Hindus say we'll be reincarnated until we get it right.</p>
<p>Now to choose one...</p>
<p>What is the Jewish view anyway? I've heard talk of the Book of Life or such, but I never got a clear sense of it.</p>
<p>What is the Jewish view anyway? I've heard talk of the Book of Life or such, but I never got a clear sense of it.</p>
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Ah, so you agree that the Buddhist has no chance of getting into your 'heaven?'
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<p>Well, your argument isn't very valid, Buddhists don't believe in heaven in the idea that Christians do. They believe in reincarnation until you reach enlightment: pure happiness. </p>
<p>Yes, some buddhists have identified a type of heaven, but it isn't where you spend the rest of your afterlife with god, rather it is just another rebirth in a very large cycle of reincartnation. </p>
<p>p.s. Fides, I love your example with the dixie chicks!</p>
<p>"God is pure love, and Heaven is the Eternal Kingdom that He has prepared for His friends -- those who truly love Him and, thus, believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and follow His Word. Heaven is, to quote the Dixie Chicks, perpetual bliss."</p>
<p>hmmm... guess i'm excluded.</p>
<p>to add onto smallz description of buddhism: buddhists believe that you will be reicarnated and occupy the six different worlds on the wheel of life, which you get reincarnated into based on previous karma that carries over into your different lifetimes, until you attain nirvana, in which case you will be freed from the wheel of life. but the buddhist sense of nirvana isn't the equivalent to heaven.</p>
<p>thank you, cowtipper, that was explained much better then my previous post.</p>
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Now to choose one...
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<p>Lol. Nice.</p>
<p>Now I have an interesting question. Fides will hopefully have the right answer....</p>
<p>Consider a 9th century A.D. Japanese man who has never heard the word of Christ. As he has not accepted the "one true God," is he burning in hell for not worshipping a man he had never heard of?</p>
<p>I don't believe in a heaven or hell :D . </p>
<p>Just the thought of eternal life-after-death drives me crazy. I don't want to exist forever.</p>