What do you think Heaven is like?

The bigger the portfolio, the bigger the disconnect there is believing in God. That's probably because mega wealth and God aren't exactly consistent ideologies. The wealthy have a real hard time separating their relationship with the big green dollars and how they achieve it, with a belief in God. The two conflict with each other. and so, green paper buys them piece of mind, or so they think.
God, wads of cash, and greed don't fit together very well. Worship that green....and pour yourself a drink. That's all you really need.

 

Dee, it's clear that if you don't hate religion that you instead hate the practice of religion. There is no way you can even come up with a reasonable defense that states you don't hate religion. You're right, there is no traditional stance of allowing animals in--but to me, Heaven is a place in which I can be with the animals that I have loved as much as my human family. It is my animals that kept me alive a few years ago when I suffered extreme depression, not my human family. If Beau, at least, does not deserve Heaven for what he did for me then, then I'm not certain who does.

You know what upsets me about these threads? The assumptions that atheists make that they can bash other people's faiths without backlash, especially when they toss out casual one-liners intended to troll for responses and then act all indignant when they get them. You want self-centered and egotistical? There it is, right there. You are consistently disrespectful of other people's beliefs and yet you demand respect for your positions. I honestly don't know what to make of you--but you are not exactly the rational atheist that can be good and decent without faith, if you ask me. Rather, I find you to be nasty, cruel, and bitter and nothing but ugly to the people who you want to make as nasty, cruel, and bitter about religion as you are.

 

OK folks lets calm this down somewhat, I coudnt care less if a person believes in a god/s or not all I want and expect is politness and a simple live and let live attitude. As long as you are hurting no one then pray or dont pray but do it in peace

 

Yes, there are religious practices that I find abhorrent. All of them support practices which are antithetical to life. The stoning of women, abuse of children (genital mutilation), the willingness to look over atrocities or support them outright and plenty of others. The Bible condones genocide, sexism and the suppression of human rights. The Torah, the Qu'ran and just about every holy writing does the same in some fashion. The closest thing to a religion that is life affirming is Buddhism and even they consider life as a thing to be suffered through until you get passed it. So, yes, I do consider many aspects of the practice of religion to be horrible.

What was the original question? What do you think heaven is like? The question didn't start with any religious point-of-view singled out and so I posted that I thought being in heaven would be boring. It would be a world without challenge and where there is no knowledge to be gained. This is the definition of boring to me. If you don't think that is boring then that is fine, but my personal opinion is that it would be boring.

You keep talking about disrespecting people and yet you have responded time and time again with insults and assumptions about my nature because I don't agree with most religious doctrine. I haven't insulted religious believers a single time. I have stated my opinion on certain aspect, but like most believers you consider that a personal attack and that is with you. You are more than welcome to believe whatever you want, but you might want to look into why you are so challenged by the beliefs of people that don't agree with you. People have asked questions and I have answered them like you are supposed to do in discussion forums with my opinion. You are the one who keeps jumping on me in response instead of addressing the statements I have made. How about attacking the argument instead of attacking the arguer.

 

Dee, I'm no longer engaging with you. You are not reasonable or respectful in terms of religion and use the excuse of "discussion" to attack other people's beliefs. I have no problem with engaging in energetic debate about religion or politics, but you do not express your position as your opinion. Rather, you express your opinion as fact and attempt to demean others who disagree with you. Yes, you made a single throw-away line to see where it would go, about the nature of Heaven. If you had said "I think Heaven would be boring, because it would not allow for personal growth," that would have been a jumping off point for discussion. "Boring." is just a throw-away insult intended to quash discussion. I know perfectly well how to debate and to discuss. Since you refuse to engage in it, then I won't attempt to engage you in it. I certainly hope that you will not start making outrageous statements aimed at me to see how far you can go before I respond. That would be unfortunate.

 

Nope, no statements about you. If you don't want to discuss with me then I won't discuss with you. However, I won't censor my comments about issues simply to avoid hurting anyone's feelings. If you don't like my statements about things then prove them wrong instead of getting insulted.

This particular conversation, however, is ended.

 

Look this is a emotive subject but people are allowed to express there views now if someone says that they think heaven is boring that is a opinion, if you disagree then come back with a reason as to why you disagree Such statements do not kill a converstion they open it up.
When I was a child I was told heaven was all nice and shiny and that angels sit on clouds all day playing harps and I believed it but do you know something I thought that was boring, now I am a adult I dont know if I believe in the exisistance of heaven or hell, it might well be that we make our own here on planet earth. But I will not deny anyone there right to believe either option
What I will not allow is personal attacks on members or there believes (or lack of same)
Someone saying that god/s, heaven/hell do or do not exist is not a attack it is a point of view

 

I'm sure there are innumerous reasons, with fear being one of them for a small percentage ...nowadays anyway. In the old days it was probably relatively common to enforce obedience of the conqueror's religion(s) instead of the natives. Now though... I'd say fear is far less a reason than belief. My time in churches left me with questions that, when asked, were answered with faith. I needed a real answer and not propaganda...

(me, waving hand in front of pastor's face) "You will give me the answers I am looking for."
(priest): "Why are you doing that?"
(me):"I have a question: How do we know this actually occurred and isn't just a fictional story written by a person or persons?"
(priest): "The Bible was written by many, yes... to teach us how to live our lives and spread the Word. We have faith that it is true."
(me): "But how do you know it's true? Reason tells me it's a story."
(priest): "You must have faith that it is true."
(me): "Why you waving your hand around like that?"

 

Okay, I think that since Heaven is forever it would be horribly boring because there is nothing that doesn't get boring eventually. Endless pleasure sounds more like Hell to me and, as was mentioned above, it doesn't appear that Heaven would provide much in the way of challenges and opportunities for growth. I think that the only way that Heaven could be a reward is if our way of experiencing time and self and other beings changes radically when we assume our spiritual bodies. But we don't seem to be talking about this. I would love to know exactly what believers think they will experience in Heaven. And I don't mean to exclude the Pacoists among us. I'd like to know what Paco has planned for us too. But mainly the Christians since they are kind of the focus here.

 

What is going on with this Paco cult growing here. Are they going to apply for tax exemption. and is it true that baptisms are done nude if you hot and a spash in the face if you not.

 

I don't know about that. It would be a great time to catch up on some reading. And I could finally empty out my Netflix que. And I could probably whittle away a few hundred thousand years just haunting places. But, then again, I tend to be easily amused.

 

I didn't know that you got to haunt places. That kind of changes things.

 

I do not believe that we can even imagine what heaven is like. I think that whatever great things we think about heaven it will be beyond those concepts. I imagine myself as being 6-foot 6-inces tall with a great outside jump shot. HaHa! Seriously, it will be more than what we expect, but one thing I do know, is that there will be no hunger, no wars, no discrimination and everyone will feel loved. Now imagine that.

 

Don't know. I think that this life is a stage of evolution and can only hope that what comes next is better.

 

One of the French writer/philosophers (I can't remember exactly, but I think it was Camus) wrote a play in which hell was an eternal cocktail party with boring people.