Christians PONDER this question!!?

Question

We all know that HAPPINESS is the opposite of SADNESS.

Happiness pretty much needs to co-exist with sadness.

A poor person eating out of the trashcan everyday suddenly being served with smoked salmon with mash potatoe would be uttermost happy, while a rich person eating it everyday wouldn't give a damn.

A poor person winning a ten million lottery would be extremely happy, but if someone won lotteries everyday they wouldn't feel anything special.

That means that a constant repetition of an emotion, in this case happiness, renders the emotion voided.

If heaven is a place where there is only happiness and absolutely no sadness, happiness in heaven will be a contant repetition of a linear emotion. This will render the emotion (happiness) void.

Winning a tennis match in heaven won't make you happy, because you always win.
Eating pizzas everyday won't be special since you can have all you want.

If you understand the core of happiness, it can't exist in heaven.

Answer 1

Lets see I bet no matter how much sex you get you are happy. You dont get tired of that happiness do you? Gods love is better than sex. And that is a feeling forever. Peace out.............

Answer 2

Max, if you understood the core of happiness, "void by linear repetition" has nothing to do with the "source" of happiness.

Happiness is internal. Happiness is not an emotion. It is,in it's truest sense, a state of being.

Do you really think that simple repetition to the point of boredom has anything to do with true happiness, no matter how satisfying that activity may be? And if, by "linear repitition", we became bored, we could simply move onto another activity to make us happy,and so on, and so on....

Sounds kinda like what we humans try to do with our lives while we're here on this planet, doesn't it?

You make it sound like everyone is just gonna be "sittin around in heaven, smilin all the time and being happy, thus becoming void of happiness due to repetition and lack of satisfaction."

Again, happiness is only partially based in activity and emotion, at least while we're "here".

Heaven is described as a Park of God (Paradise) Rev 2:7.
What will people do there? Sit around being happy and then becoming bored?

No: Here is a small list of things that we are told will happen there :
__We will see loved ones.
__We will meet other people (millions of other people)
__WE will travel around heaven, but how we do that is yet unclear.
__We will worship God
__We will sing
__We will dance
__We will learn secrets that were hidden from us about the questions we had on this earth.
__We will serve Him
__We will discover hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge far beyond our dreams.
__We will interact with a great multitude of people, who have every skin colour, every language and way of life.
__We will loose all shame and sadness.
__We will have a new, perfect body.
__There will no lonliness, sin, injury, sickness, death, sadness.
__Apparently there will be a beautiful city, and sights to see that will be magnificant to us.
__Most importantly, we will be in the presence of Someone who loves us unconditionally, and who, we are told, will be glorious to behold.
__Eventually, we will be able to travel between heaven and the "new earth". (there's not enough space here to explain that one right now.)

Sounds like enough to keep me happy for a while, and the list above is just a small part of what we DO know about heaven...imagine how much else we don't know....

Answer 3

>>We all know that HAPPINESS is the opposite of SADNESS.<<

Do we? I'll bet you think hot and cold are opposites, too. Human perception looks for and depends upon a very narrow comfort zone. We think 70 deg. F. is a 'perfect' temperature, and think 90 is hot, and 35 is cold. But 35 and 90 are simply two measures of molecular motion, and are very close in the grand scheme of things.

Like hot and cold, happiness and sadness are nothing more than emotional reactions. They are the same sort of mental activity, not so different from one another as you apparently think. What makes me happy would probably bore you out of your mind.

>>Happiness pretty much needs to co-exist with sadness.<<

Again, highly doubtful. The examples you give (smoked salmon, winning the lottery, etc.) are events, not emotions; and a repeated event, while possibly leading to boredom, does not necessarily make one sad. Too many people are content to stay in a rut to make that statement true.

>>That means that a constant repetition of an emotion, in this case happiness, renders the emotion voided.<<

Again, people may get tired of specific repeated events, but actually seek to maintain a rather complacent, comfortable emotional state.

>>Winning a tennis match in heaven won't make you happy, because you always win.<<

Kinda makes me wonder about the opponent. Doesn't someone have to lose?

>>Eating pizzas everyday won't be special since you can have all you want.<<

Wrong again. I used to have a part time job schlepping pies for Pizza Hut. I could eat pizza six days out of seven for at least five years running and not get tired of them! If there is pizza in Heaven, I'll convert first thing in the morning!

>>If you understand the core of happiness, it can't exist in heaven.<<

You have committed a fatal flaw in your reasoning. All of your examples deal in earthly pleasures. You have not addressed a single aspect of the spiritual nature of man at all.

Besides, it is heaven that doesn't exist. Happiness is all around you, there for the taking.

Answer 4

I pondered your question and seeing this great truth I killed two of my best friends. I concluded that without death it must be impossible to appreciate life. I already appreciate them so much more then I did just an hour ago!

On a serious note:
Death is the absence of life.
Cold is the absence of heat.
Sorrow is the absence of joy.


The problem my friend is that happiness is a fix for many who have never felt nor understood the essence of happiness or joy or bliss.

There is a strange saying in early American political writings about a guarantee of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness! Two hundred years ago happiness was a synonym for virtue, the blessedness of a life well lived; not a feel good buzz.

Answer 5

Nice philosophical thoughts you have there. However, there are other possibilities. Sometimes happiness can be the absence of sadness. Sometimes happiness is a content feeling. It's like still loving your senior citizen wife after 40 years. A lot about true happiness, is based on love. As you grow older you find more happiness in your family, than you do in the outside world. Again happiness can be the absence of sadness, and content with what you have.

Still again happiness in heaven is dealing with the infinite nature of God. You know that man can not reach infinity, but he can eternally approach it. You see happiness does not have to be linear, it can be asymptotic to God.

Answer 6

Happiness is a state of mind. Heaven is in a dimension that transcends the very core of what we call happiness. In other words in that dimension only the word happiness and joy being a human understanding, comes into the realm of human interpretation of what heaven is like, but in reality is nothing to what we can describe here in our own vocabulary because it transcends the minds ability to interpret it.

If you look at the biblical version of heaven it clearly states in Rev. 21:4.

"then God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, NOR SORROW, nor crying, there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away".

Answer 7

On a human level, you make a point, but, the dynamics change in the metaphysical realm. Happiness, as you pointed out, is based on events happening or emotions, that is not the main component of a believer, joy is. They are not synonymous. Joy is not based on events, emotions, or how we feel. Joy is that inner peace and contentment, that knowledge that God is totally sovereign, that our salvation is secure, that God will be with us no matter what happens to us, and that He is working all things out for our good. That joy will not diminish in Heaven, it will increase and never grow old. The physical realm is far different then the spiritual realm, so the rules that apply here, don't necessarily apply there. I know I will have joy for eternity, and I know I will never be unhappy in Heaven.

Answer 8

I suppose that is true. Technically its nt happiness without sadness so in Heaven I guess you will feel nothing. Sort of like (I believe it was Hindu beliefs but I could be wrong) that belief in that after you go through many reincarnations and you've done all the good deeds and made it to the top in the caste system, you don't have to go back to Earth, your sould goes to Nirvana and just lives a neither sad or happyexistence, just pure peace. I think that was hw it went and I know I'm now just rambling but I do get that statement. It's like there is no life without death or sickness without health, it is just nothing. Yup.

Answer 9

The reason you are wrong is because the negative emotions should never have come into play, just the positive. I agree that in this world we would not know good without evil, but we will be different types of creatures. We will be happy without bouncing it off of sad. What you are stating is what I believe the purpose of this existence is all about. the bible says no sin will enter heaven. Adam didn't have this knowledge until he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and I assume he was happy.

Answer 10

To me (my opinion only), heaven is simply being in the continual presence of God without the constraints put upon me by my physical body. Walking with God while here on earth has brought me to a state of contentment even under difficult circumstances. That contentment can not be described as "happiness" in the sense you mean it. I can still be very sad over a loss just as you would be...or angry at injustice...but the inner peace or contentment I speak of remains constant. I know that you will not be able to understand this without having the experience yourself, but this explanation is the best I can do. Your concept of heaven would indeed be very boring.

Answer 11

those who suffer are usually more thankful and recognize the little miracles from God. Jesus once told a parable about a rich man who wanted to know how he could get into heaven and Jesus said sell all your things and follow me. The rich man turned away. Jesus told the crowd, that it will be easier for a rich man to pass through the eye of a needle than to get into heaven. Happiness isn't a linear emotion that will become void. Rather it is eternal knowledge of security and knowing that we are loved.