Racoon Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 This has always perplexed me. :hyper: The goal of Judeo-Christian and Islamic beliefs is to be good and get into heaven.With Christianity and Catholicism, the only way to get into heaven is to believe in Jesus Christ. Which never really made logical sense to me. You could be a great person, and help millions, but if you didn't accept J.C. as your lord and savior,... well then its Dante's Inferno for you pal. 800 degrees of hot with no water to quench your thirst. :hihi: But if you killed a few dozen people, hack and slash style, but prayed for forgiveness and accepted Christ into your heart, then Heaven will be your final destination. :Alien: So, with Hubble Telescope turning 16, [hint, Jay-qu's latest news article]and much of our Universe seen for quite a few lightyears, Where IS Heaven?? Where is the place we all want to be in the end? The Bible talks about it. People talk about it. Its your motivation to be good and accept many religious doctrines.What,When, and Why have been answered. so now it's Where? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteNow Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 Where IS Heaven??It's in your mind, right now. I could offer you latitude and longitude and GPS tracking, but I'd first need to put a transponder on you. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tormod Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 I don't know but we have a place in Norway called "Hell". True! :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteNow Posted April 25, 2006 Report Share Posted April 25, 2006 I don't know but we have a place in Norway called "Hell". True! :confused: "Honey, where are you going?""I'm going to hell." "I could've told ya that." :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boerseun Posted April 26, 2006 Report Share Posted April 26, 2006 In South Africa, too! True story! They found this place in the Cape Mountains in the 60s, and found the weirdest inbred people staying there, speaking some form of Dutch never before encountered! Turns out these guys quit the Cape Colony in the 1800's to escape the British, and they ended up in this valley surrounded by harsh cliffs. They could get their wagons in, but not out again, and those few brave sould who made it out on their own either died, or never came back. This place was like in completely off the map, in the middle of nowhere! So the government decided to build a road there, seeing as there's people staying there! And the moment the road was built, everybody in "The Hell" packed up and left. That was what they were waiting for for close on 200 years. So now you can still go and visit "The Hell", driving on a dangerous mountain pass that can take only one vehicle in one direction at a time for about 60kms - you have to radio to find out if there's anybody there. It's happened a few times that two cars filled with tourists meet mid-way, and someone has to reverse for 30kms! And the valley is still filled with their houses (now empty, obviously) and farm sheds and tools and stuff - but the inbred freaks moved out and disappeared. They're probably living in some other valley now! Think about it - the last these guys saw of the world was in the early 1800's, and for years they saw these funny things fly over their valley - they missed the invention of electricity, the airplane, cars, all of those things! They were plunged into society from 1800 to 1960 overnight! That must have been one hell of a shock! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southtown Posted April 30, 2006 Report Share Posted April 30, 2006 Where IS Heaven??You are faced with the same two choices as the rest of the world, research it or make it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saitia Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Racoon in the room, This has always perplexed me. :hihi: The goal of Judeo-Christian and Islamic beliefs is to be good and get into heaven.With Christianity and Catholicism, the only way to get into heaven is to believe in Jesus Christ. Which never really made logical sense to me. It doesn't make sense because it is one of a number of things that Christianity, as a religion, misunderstands; :doh: they misunderstand what Jesus meant when he said: "No man goes to the Father except through me. All who find the Father, first find me. If you know me, you know the way to the Father." This was his way of speaking to common fishermen. All men and women who believe in God will find Jesus as the Son of God in the next world, no matter what any human being thinks of Jesus in this life in terms of their particular religious path; their chance of personal survival is not directly affected by their lack of knowledge of, or belief in, Jesus. Jesus does not torture for eternity those who never heard his name, or otherwise cannot discover Jesus, or those who practice some other approach to finding God. Jesus brought a revelation of God; those who know and serve him by serving others accept a gift of eternal life. To survive this life puts you into the next world, a spiritual world created to transition those who have survived this life in the flesh; there is one spiritual universe, and the path from this world through death leads to only one next place, a world in a universe created by Jesus the Son of God. Quite literally then, no man who goes to the Father will get there without first journeying through the universe creation of God's Son, Jesus. You could be a great person, and help millions, but if you didn't accept J.C. as your lord and savior,... well then its Dante's Inferno for you pal. 800 degrees of hot with no water to quench your thirst. :eek: Hell is another one of those things. :evil: :doh: How reasonable is it to believe God is all-merciful, but cross a certain line and he's willing to torture you for eternity. The ghastly notion of Hell might have scared a few pagans into the fold, but it does not intimidate a son of God who takes salvation for granted, and knows a God of love and divine mercy would create no such evil place. Those unfortunate creatures whose life is so conducted as to not evolve an immortal soul that survives death, have thereby chosen to cease to exist; physical life is temporal, the rejection of the spirit world and eternal life is a freewill choice; such persons are the architect of their own destiny just as every other being is.:hyper: Where is the place we all want to be in the end? The end of what? If you mean the end of this life, and the Christian idea that they are somehow magically catapulted into a spiritual status of perfection— then that's yet another of those things. :doh: You'd think after a rather consistent lesson in this life that refining personal growth to high levels of even human maturity is a continual round of experience working towards various types of personal mastery— or not. Odd they would just assume God changes the rules of experience and freewill just because they survived the initial life in the flesh. The journey to Paradise is going to take a long, long time. Our trek through the universe, which some have noticed is incomprehensibly vast, is one of ever ascending levels of personal growth through experience, but it's not handed to us like a diploma for having finished kindergarden. The spiritual growth necessary to stand in the presence of an Infinite Being is not going to be thrust upon every Tom, Dick, or Habeeb who decides to drink the coolaid or flies a jet into a building for Allah; You pick up over there right where you leave off down here. :eek2: What,When, and Why have been answered. By whom? so now it's Where? Many religions refer to this location as Paradise, but since Christianitygenerally have such a meager idea of what Paradise is like, the termheaven, referring to someplace above the sky, has become adequate shorthand.:D Do you believe there could be a geographical center of infinity?If you do, you may also be equipped to imagine that is where God,the first source and center of all things and beings, chooses to reside.Paradise is the geographic center of infinity, and as such it is not a part of universal creation, existing outside of time and space; the "central Isle" belongs to the divine universe; Paradise is an eternal and exlusive existence, as well as an eternal and exclusive place.:ip: If you had the time and means, were spiritually qualified, and had the necessary guidance, "you could be piloted through universe upon universe and from circuit to circuit, ever journeying inward through the starry realms, until at last you would stand before the central shining of the spiritual glory of the Universal Father." In other words, it's just as possible to find the personal presence of God at the center of all things as to find a distant city on our planet. :) Keep on truckin', —Saitia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleAl Posted May 8, 2006 Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Heaven is on the other side of the Big Bang. All your metaphysical, epistomological, logical, and empirical problems are now solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racoon Posted May 8, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2006 Heaven is on the other side of the Big Bang. All your metaphysical, epistomological, logical, and empirical problems are now solved. Thanks Uncle Al.:confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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