Big Think

sara crouch on February 4, 2008, 12:27 AM

I’d like to rephrase the term ‘heaven.’ I’d prefer ‘afterlife.’

Edward C on February 4, 2008, 12:52 AM

Nothing, please see my Idea on “What do we do in Heaven?”

Josh Friedman on February 4, 2008, 8:54 AM

Negative. Every moment spent thinking about things to come is a moment that could have been spent thinking about things right now

Schuyler Kelley on February 4, 2008, 10:05 AM

Heaven is a very comforting concept, for me. I am a relatively religious person, but that is not entirely the reason.. I’d settle for any form of afterlife, that isn’t Hell.

Although I am religious, I am very afraid that there is nothing after we die. I am afraid of becoming nothing, Non-being. I cannot say why, I fully realize that if I am unaware at that point, I won’t be around to care… That just scares me more.

I sort of have to believe in an afterlife of some sort, in order to get by.

Thilina B on February 4, 2008, 9:12 PM

Makes no real difference…….live you life like theirs no afterlife and if their is one consider it a bonus.

sara crouch on February 5, 2008, 2:12 AM

I tend to agree with Nameless and Absurdist. I see nothing positive about an eternal afterlife. ThKng- I would agree with you, but I wouldn’t consider it a bonus. Zalethon- I guess I’m most intrigued by this comment because I don’t understand your point of view. Althoug, maybe our beliefs are shaped around the same thing- fear. I fear eternity, you fear non-existence. Therefore maybe I don’t believe in a deity because I DON’T want one to exist, and perhaps you believe in a deity, simply because you DO want one to exist. But with all due respect I still think there’s a severe lack of evidence supporting the possibility of a deity, so disregarding the philosophic aspect of the conversation, I think that my nonbelief is based on many other truths, although I accept one of those is fear.

Randall Menser on February 7, 2008, 3:08 AM

forgoing eternity at the expense of your existense seems to go against human nature. Sure, it may make phillisophical sense, but I would definitely have to side with Zalethon on this one… survival is a genetic imperative. We may all be, according to the second law of thermal dynamics, heading towards a state of entropy, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

and if one never spends time thinking of things to come they will be blindsided and possibly forced to think of things right now in a negative way.

sara crouch on February 7, 2008, 4:15 AM

A genetic imperative? Our theoretical souls have nothing to do with a genetic imperative. Once we’ve died, obviously our biological survival instinct is irrelevant. I’m unsure about what you’re trying to say. For the moment I’ll assume you’re saying if you choose not to believe in a conscious afterlife, and then you die and find yourself in a form of heaven/hell, then that is going to blindside you? I think we cannot anticipate what will happen, and we’ll all be blindsided, or we won’t exist to know the difference.