If Heaven is real.. then what's the point?

Question

since all things are relative...

how could "heaven" be all angels and glory...eventually we would become bored with perfect because we would have no real thing to compare it to...

if you were happy "all the time" you wouldn't know it?

What are your ideas of "heaven" do you think it is more a state of mind? or do you think it is an actual place with angels and wings and pearly gates?

and if so... again.. what would be the point or purpose in being happy for all eternity? With nothing to make happy relative.. wouldn't it just become... boring?

what do YOU think? oh and please... religious zealots, answer elsewhere.. this is more of a philosophy question so save your PREACHING for church.

Amen

Answer 1

It is my believe that there would really be NO point. Basing that on the fact that life never ends, it's everlasting...it's essentually God's Never-Ending Ever Creating Play-Ground. We just keep doing it over and over and over again. For the sake that we may EXPERIENCE THE HAPPY in the Physical Realm, and the best way to do that would be do allow us something to compare it to. Like say maybe...SAD? So here comes the Dichotomy. Hot/Cold, Tall/'Short, Love/Fear, The Original Sin...
I think The GIft is FREE WILL God doesn't Judge. He observes, we live to ENJOY THE RELATIVE. When we go back, we are etheral. LOVE LIVE AND LET LIVE ! ! ! ! !

Answer 2

Although I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a zealot, I am religious, but also very open minded, which when it comes to those who are religious seems to be an unfortunate rarity.

That being said, the points you make are some that I have thought of myself. If you remember your life on earth, and it was filled with bitterness and contempt, then wouldn't almost anything be better? However if you had a great life, got what you always wanted, had your dream job, spouse, children (or none), and fulfillment, how could it get better? Also what if things didn't go the way you planned, the person you wanted to be with ended up with someone else, and you never found that love for someone again. Would they return to you, or would you have to see them everyday with that person, or would it even matter to you anymore?

There are also have other questions such as, if I die, which is more real, the me that is physical, or the me that is infinite? (Sorry if you've heard this quote before, but I Heart Huckabees is my favorite movie and it is a question I wonder from time to time) So which is it...do you remember your past life, so that is your basis for comparison and staves off the boredom, or was your life on Earth a farce, only serving as entertainment for those already deceased? Or if you forget everything about your past life, then what is there to compare it to? Heaven would get boring.

I don't think heaven is harps and pearly gates and all that nonsense, but rather the feeling of complete contentment and fulfillment. Having everything you could possibly want, need, or desire. I also don't think hell is devils and pitchforks, and molten lava either, I think it is absolute desertion, emptiness and abandonment.

Sorry if you consider the following zealotry, but it is my opinion of heaven and hell, and applicable to your question. I think that when our physical being ceases to be we see the opposite of where we are to go first. So you see the despair, and emptiness, and absolute pain that "hell" is and then you go to heaven and spend eternity with your God or gods, and always have that image of where you are not to keep things from getting "boring" and vice versa, you see the wonder that is heaven, which adds to the torture of hell and being away from the most wonderful place you could have ever known.

Perhaps heaven is a constant improvement also. Maybe when you first get there you say "wow this is pretty cool" Float around, do stuff you couldn't physically do before, etc. and then each "day"- which of course is relative (time flies when you're having fun!) it improves, you discover some new truth to your physical life you always wondered about, but couldn't possibly answer. Excellent question very thought provoking.

Answer 3

It is more a state of mind thing. When you are in the presence of a "perfect day", then you may feel like being in heaven (or when you just come out of the best sex ever). The place with angels circling around a mysterious creature while chanting the glories of "IT" exits for people who can't feel happiness unless they believe in such a fictive place.

By the way, I agree with you on the subject of - what's the point of being happy all the time. The worst of it is, you will be happy until the end of the time. Now that's messed up. I will much rather share different feeling from different people, and express different feelings myself.

Answer 4

I like your question. I think if it is real then our souls would never forget about the physical world so eternal bliss would not get necessarily boring because we would have the past to remember. I do not believe we would just forget no matter how long has passed.

Also, it is impossible for us to really fathom complete happiness. We are tainted with so many distractions created by our habitually selfish ways that no matter how enjoyable our lives are, I don't think we even come close to pure bliss. So if we were to experience that, it would be so overwhelming that we couldn't become tired of it.

Answer 5

***Disclaimer***
I assume you are speaking of the typical Western view of Heaven, largely taken from the Bible and popular culture. So I am going to speak from that standpoint. I mean no slight to other religions, nor am I trying to convert you. I am simply addressing a question, as I interpret it.
***End Disclaimer***

OK, if you take the Biblical approach, our current popular interpretation is not really accurate. The descriptions say things like "The roads were like they were paved with gold" and "The gate was like pearl". This implies that, even according to the prophets who had the visions, not everything was understandable using our Earthly frame of reference. It was a way of saying "Think of a big gate made of pearl. It kind of looked like that."

A lot of our popular stuff is taken from other sources. The lofty clouds of Heaven? Borrowed from Mount Olympus top, and echoed in the Norse legends of Valhalla. Angels playing harps? Also from Greek myth (the lyre was considered a sacred instrument). Our visions of Hell were constructed largely by churches centuries after Christ's death, as a way of frightening people into joining churches.
My point is, everything we say about Heaven is metaphorical. We don't really know. But we can find common threads in all the teachings that may aid our understanding.
Many faiths teach reincarnation as a doctrine. A subject of some isolated, but heated, debate is whether belief in reincarnation contradicts Christianity. Among reincarnationists, this life is viewed as a testing ground. Our natural domain is in "Heaven", or "The Other Side", or whatever you may call it. Over there, our main purpose is to grow and learn, but Heaven is peaceful and full of love in the direct presence of the divine. So growth is a comfortable, but slow process. Conversely, we have the choice of incarnating on the physical realm. We suffer and strive, but we also learn a lot and grow. The end goal in these many of these faiths is for the soul to progress so much that it merges with the divine and attains perfection.
Similiarly, in Christian faith Heaven is often defined as a realm in which we will be joined forever in union with God. Which to me sounds a lot like the same thing.
So basically, I think Heaven is a place where we enjoy love and peace. In this love and peace, we are free to pursue the purpose of learning and allowing the soul to evolve and grow in wisdom and knowledge, and become more like gods and goddesses (notice that I say like gods, not actually becoming gods). I don't think that's a boring prospect at all.

Answer 6

Hey there,

That's a good question and one we can't really answer, but it's worth talking about.

I don't think you can project your normal or worldy views onto what Heaven would be like. I don't think you can so "Oh, I'd get bored of it."

I personally think more along the lines of we all have a soul, and that soul continues on.

Maybe we won't even remember this life. If we come to earth from Heaven and don't remember Heaven...maybe when we go back we don't remember earth?

Anyway, it's a fascinating discussion and you have the rest of your life to think about it. :)

Answer 7

I'm going to try and explain what I believe. We'll see if it makes sense!
I believe that each soul is born into a body, sent here to learn a specific lesson, or lessons. We have a lot to learn, and it isn't all learnt in one lifetime, so we get sent here more than once.
After each of our bodies die, we go back to our Creator, where it is determined whether we've learnt that lesson and can move on to the next one, or if we didn't complete our task and have to try again.
If you look around, it's pretty easy to see who is an advanced soul, and who has a lot to learn. Even by reading some of the answers on this website, it becomes glaringly obvious that some of us have a very long way to go.
Heaven and hell are more earthly concepts to me. Your choices, from this or a past existence, determine whether your time here is heavenly or hellish.
There are plenty of people who will disagree with what I just wrote, but I am happy for them to believe what they believe, just as I will continue to believe what I believe.
As an afterthought, maybe "heaven" is a stage reached by a soul once it has completed all of its lessons here on earth and doesn't need to come back any more.

Answer 8

Let's see..

If you go to heaven not knowing(forget) the life as it is now, then you wouldn't know the meaning of boring. You wouldn't know the meaning of happiness either.

Like you said, there is nothing to compare to. So, if you don't know what is bad, then you won't know what is good.
If there is no excitement, then how do you know what boring feel like.

Heaven is probably the feeling like when you meditate(if you do meditate). It's blank. No thinking. No worry. No planning of what to do the next minute. Go with the flow kind of thing.

Answer 9

Well I beileve that heaven is what you make of it, and you will be happy. As for those of us that want more I also beileve that this life is just a knot in the string of our existence. I beileve that God is just a title and it is something that we ourselves can aspire to. There are many things that I will not find out until I die, but I do know that there is life after death and that on the other side is infinite knowledge. And I have lots of questions.

Answer 10

hi. I do believe that their will be something better after I die. As far as what heaven actually entails, hard to say. ( I'm not ready to find out just yet ) I just want it to be better than here on earth. I think that angels and pearly gates etc. is sort of alot of hoopla.

I believe that we will have the chance to further our minds and to have contact with loved ones. I think that God made such a beautiful earth for us to live, grow and learn on, that He must have something magnificent for us planned when we have done what we need to here.

I enjoyed your question. something I've wondered myself.