do you believe in heaven?

[NormanPorkinson]

Nah, death is the end the idea of an amazing heaven for the good who follow a religion and the horrible hell for the non followers just doesn't wash with me! seems too much like a method to control the 'simple' folk in the old days, whereas now we are all more clued up you can see religion for the fake controlling system it really is.

This and this

I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and with the awareness and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature. (Albert Einstein, The World as I See It)

 

[Hatter The Mad]

The thing is though... (apparently) God will forgive all your sins, so regardless of whether you believe or not, he should always take you in (apparently)...

It depends which Abramahmic you listen to.

Did you also know that by using a red teacup every day, your sins will be forgiven and you'll go to heaven? Why don't you just do that? I just made that up on the spot, but it is exactly as credible as anything to do with Christianity or any other deity religion.

 

[Glaucus]

No and the concept sounds like hell.

Sure it'll be fun for the first millennium. At some point you will get bored and then living for eternity would suck.

Or your brain would have to change so much to have fun for eternity, that I wouldn't be me.

 

[Le_Petit_Lapin]

I just don't worry about it. I'll find out when I die.

In the meantime I'll just carry on generally being a good person. I'll sure I'll end up alright if there is a Heaven.

If I wind up in Hell, even though I havent done anything majorly worng, well then in that case God's a complete *******, and the vast majority of people will be chillin in Hell with me, so we could have like an OCUK reunion or something.

Its not worth worrying about unless you're a mass murderer or a rapist or something.

 

[sanaxe1]

Thinking about it more it probably stems back to the beginning of man when the Males would take what they want. I can imagine a young child being raped by her father / some Alpha male and her mother telling her everything is going to be ok there is a place where everything is perfect etc. This is how the notion of heaven was born an escape for the people who have it worse. It was then passed down from the girl which was raped to her daughter etc who tells people and like a myth it spreads promising a better place. Later on it would evolve into the basis of modern day religions either for control or just because it is such a widespread notion stemming from the beginning of man that people take it as fact not to different from people thinking myths like " people laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round " etc.

 

[steve-h]

why on earth would you believe in heaven?

 

[Mucky_Pup]

The thing is though... (apparently) God will forgive all your sins, so regardless of whether you believe or not, he should always take you in (apparently)...

Can't wait to rub shoulders with Hitler, gonna ask him about what he thought was the best fighter plane of the war, over a few beers.

 

[Rainmaker]

No and the concept sounds like hell.

Sure it'll be fun for the first millennium. At some point you will get bored and then living for eternity would suck.

Or your brain would have to change so much to have fun for eternity, that I wouldn't be me.

Or maybe you decide that instead of floating around on a proverbial cloud forever, you could come back to the school of life as an incarnate soul for all those potential 'new experiences'. As such you forget where you are truly from each time you reincarnate on Earth, so that you can spend time in GD telling everyone that your wooden box is the end.

 

[LeftfieldTilt]

No.

 

[Vonhelmet]

The thing is though... (apparently) God will forgive all your sins, so regardless of whether you believe or not, he should always take you in (apparently)...

Not sure where you're getting that from.

And in the end of it all, it is God's fault... He (apparently) made us and thus he made me a non believer and thus cast me aside to an afterlife in hell (apparently) which is not very nice

big meanie!

Only if you believe in predestination.

 

[doofer]

There is no Heaven as Religions would have you think of it as there is(are) no god(s), anyone who thinks otherwise has simply been brainwashed from childhood by a Religion through their families for that particular belief system.

Some who have been brainwashed are less gullible than others and manage to choose with their own free-will what they want to believe in free from family and peer pressure, the weaker ones will never realise, the weaker they are the stronger they fall under the Religious propaganda, nothing you can say or do will convince them otherwise.

 

[Glaucus]

You've been brainwashed into thinking all religious people are brain washed. This is simply is not the case. Many thousands seek it out latter in life.

You can say the same for argeists they have been brainwashed by school and media in to it. They often don't understand the first thing about religion or science.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

You've been brainwashed into thinking all religious people are brain washed. This is simply is not the case. Many thousands seek it out latter in life.

It is at least the product of other people being brainwashed (convinced into believing that some stories made up by people were real and are real).

 

[Glaucus]

Believing in it does not equal brain washed.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

Believing in it does not equal brain washed.

It involves some form of indoctrination

 

[Glaucus]

It involves some form of indoctrination

Not at all

Many people who do not believe inthe big religions, still believe there is a higher being.

Same as many people who belive in the bible do not believe in any of the religions based on it.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

Not at all

The bible is a propaganda tool, written in an attempt to indoctrinate its readers. Same with the Qur'an The priest and preacher try to scare/tempt but ultimately brainwash you into believing what is essentially make-believe.

 

[Glaucus]

Again not at all, you are confusing big religions and the bible.
The bible actually teaches to rebel and think for yourself. Which is why it was heated and restricted in the past.

 

[Hatter The Mad]

Again not at all, you are confusing big religions and the bible.

I'm not confusing them, I am linking the two. It might not line up with what you think, but it is something which does not have a black and white answer.

If you think that Christianity and the Bible are independent, then I disagree.

I am more than happy for you to disagree, but don't accuse me of confusing things.. when I am not

 

[Glaucus]

Of course they are linked, but they are not one and the same.

You are blanketing many believes with one statement. That all are brainwashed or indoctrinated. Which just holds no truth at all.