Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: December 20, 2024, 7:21 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
#21
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(May 31, 2017 at 12:18 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Maybe because the alternative is really really unpleasant :-)

The alternative is just as much a fairy tale.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Reply
#22
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(June 2, 2017 at 10:08 am)vorlon13 Wrote: What Christian that has ever read my posts here would ever want to go to a Hell where I could very likely be a consultant regarding their eternal torments ??

Vorlon, the postmodern Dante.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.

I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
Reply
#23
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
. . . or inflicting them . . .
 The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it. 




Reply
#24
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(June 2, 2017 at 10:39 am)Rhondazvous Wrote:
(June 1, 2017 at 3:13 pm)Drich Wrote: mis-quoted me douche'

He misquoted your douche? How is that done precisely?

not my words, but under quote tag with my name on it.
Reply
#25
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(June 2, 2017 at 10:39 am)Rhondazvous Wrote:
(June 1, 2017 at 3:13 pm)Drich Wrote: mis-quoted me douche'

He misquoted your douche? How is that done precisely?

And why is he talking like a pirate?
"The last superstition of the human mind is the superstition that religion in itself is a good thing."  - Samuel Porter Putnam
 
           

Reply
#26
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(June 2, 2017 at 11:29 am)Drich Wrote:
(June 2, 2017 at 10:39 am)Rhondazvous Wrote: He misquoted your douche? How is that done precisely?

not my words, but under quote tag with my name on it.

He under quoted your douche? Don't let Vorlon get hold of you. He'll have a ball in every sense of the word.Big Grin
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.

I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
Reply
#27
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(May 31, 2017 at 9:38 am)Drich Wrote:
(May 31, 2017 at 4:00 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Really why do Christians desire so much to go to Heaven?
To be with God.

Quote: Aside from disturbing nature of God whom they always rationalize to be actually good and ignore his crimes.
Such as? (meaning from what authority can one subject God to a law)

Quote:I mean if you take Bible as an authority then really why would anyone in their right mind want to go there when Bible describes it as loathsome and messed up?
Because the bible describes Heaven as a pretty swell place as well. One where there is not Hell fire and gnashing of teeth.

Quote:For instance Revelation 12:7 says there was war in heaven.
Ah, no. It describes a comming war where lucifer and the demons are cast out from God and sent here effectivly making Earth Satan's domain. Why? to answer question like this and to shore up any doubt in your mind wh is indeed the greater evil. All of this so people like you can regain proper perspective.

Quote: If a war occurs there it's not a a perfect place and if it happened before why couldn't it occur again?
You do know we are not to actually live in Heaven with God right? And you do know this heaven and this earth will pass away and a new heaven and a new earth will be our eternal 'perfect' home?

Quote:More over, why would anyone seek to enter a realm in which war is a possibility, when that is what nearly all people are trying to avoid?
They wouldn't that is what this heaven and earth s about. sifting those who would cause problems from those who want to simply live with God.

Quote: If war is possible in heaven, why wouldn't all other nefarious activities be equally plausible? After all, it would be hard to imagine a war without lying, stealing, cheating, brutality, killing, inhumanity, and all the other activities we have all grown so accustomed to in bad parts of this world.
Because in this life we are pledging to give up sin and adopt God's will as our own. In essence what you call free will (aka sin) is removed.

Then it goes on in Revelation 19:14 says, The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Again, we have the incongruity of war in heaven. Matthew 11:12 says, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Suffering and violence in what Christian patriarch here call a perfect place?

Then in Matthew Heaven is described as place of inequality and levels of status. Read it for yourself Matthew 11:11 He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. or many other places Revelation 22:12 My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be This rewarding certainly doesn't occur here, since this world is not the locale, and there is no biblical basis for an intermediate stage, such as purgatory.
Apparently it occurs in heaven. If so, does that mean some people in heaven will have six Cadillacs while others will have a Yugo?

Then Matthew 16:19 describes Heaven as a totalitarian place: I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
How could people be bound or restrained in a perfect place of freedom? But, then again, perhaps it isn't that free?

Then Jesus says that Heaven is not going to last very long Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Heaven will pass away? Why seek a place that will eventually vanish and how can one spend eternity there? It's certainly not utopia when it is compared to leaven like in Matthew and Luke which goes The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. I mean if you know Bible you know leaven is used as nefarious addition, a pollutant, a corruption, and for heaven to be compared to leaven diminishes its attraction immensely. Luke 12:1 He began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy or 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Also the last nail of any credibility that Heaven can be a good place comes from a a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 that demonstrates that heaven is the antithesis of justice in action. In the parable estate owner went out and hired some workers for his field for one denarius per day. Three, six, nine, and eleven hours later he hired additional workers. Yet everyone received the same amount of money that evening. Those who worked the entire day protested. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?' If that is heaven, Christians are pursuing the kind of environment that's all too prevalent on earth today.

All these question seem to stem from a basic lack of understnding of what the book of Revelations actually says.. almost like you took or read a very biased commentary to heart and just assume all christians are as stupid as your commentary makes them out to be.

What you don't seem to get is after the reign of man/After we are dead. after the war/Armageddon Satan is locked up for 1000 years.

Then Satan is let loose one again to test those under God, then once again is allowed to putgotether another army this time made up of souls of the dead that number like sand on the sea shore.

God obliterates them and locks satan away forever. Then God initiates the final resurrection and judgement placing the righteous in the new earth/new heaven.

Chapters 20 and 21

All of your trivia goes away with a simple read through of revelation, so why not read through it yourself?
[/quote]

(May 31, 2017 at 9:38 am)Drich Wrote:
(May 31, 2017 at 4:00 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Really why do Christians desire so much to go to Heaven?
To be with God.

Quote: Aside from disturbing nature of God whom they always rationalize to be actually good and ignore his crimes.
Such as? (meaning from what authority can one subject God to a law)

Quote:I mean if you take Bible as an authority then really why would anyone in their right mind want to go there when Bible describes it as loathsome and messed up?
Because the bible describes Heaven as a pretty swell place as well. One where there is not Hell fire and gnashing of teeth.

Quote:For instance Revelation 12:7 says there was war in heaven.
Ah, no. It describes a comming war where lucifer and the demons are cast out from God and sent here effectivly making Earth Satan's domain. Why? to answer question like this and to shore up any doubt in your mind wh is indeed the greater evil. All of this so people like you can regain proper perspective.

Quote: If a war occurs there it's not a a perfect place and if it happened before why couldn't it occur again?
You do know we are not to actually live in Heaven with God right? And you do know this heaven and this earth will pass away and a new heaven and a new earth will be our eternal 'perfect' home?

Quote:More over, why would anyone seek to enter a realm in which war is a possibility, when that is what nearly all people are trying to avoid?
They wouldn't that is what this heaven and earth s about. sifting those who would cause problems from those who want to simply live with God.

Quote: If war is possible in heaven, why wouldn't all other nefarious activities be equally plausible? After all, it would be hard to imagine a war without lying, stealing, cheating, brutality, killing, inhumanity, and all the other activities we have all grown so accustomed to in bad parts of this world.
Because in this life we are pledging to give up sin and adopt God's will as our own. In essence what you call free will (aka sin) is removed.

Then it goes on in Revelation 19:14 says, The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Again, we have the incongruity of war in heaven. Matthew 11:12 says, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Suffering and violence in what Christian patriarch here call a perfect place?

Then in Matthew Heaven is described as place of inequality and levels of status. Read it for yourself Matthew 11:11 He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. or many other places Revelation 22:12 My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be This rewarding certainly doesn't occur here, since this world is not the locale, and there is no biblical basis for an intermediate stage, such as purgatory.
Apparently it occurs in heaven. If so, does that mean some people in heaven will have six Cadillacs while others will have a Yugo?

Then Matthew 16:19 describes Heaven as a totalitarian place: I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
How could people be bound or restrained in a perfect place of freedom? But, then again, perhaps it isn't that free?

Then Jesus says that Heaven is not going to last very long Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Heaven will pass away? Why seek a place that will eventually vanish and how can one spend eternity there? It's certainly not utopia when it is compared to leaven like in Matthew and Luke which goes The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. I mean if you know Bible you know leaven is used as nefarious addition, a pollutant, a corruption, and for heaven to be compared to leaven diminishes its attraction immensely. Luke 12:1 He began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy or 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Also the last nail of any credibility that Heaven can be a good place comes from a a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 that demonstrates that heaven is the antithesis of justice in action. In the parable estate owner went out and hired some workers for his field for one denarius per day. Three, six, nine, and eleven hours later he hired additional workers. Yet everyone received the same amount of money that evening. Those who worked the entire day protested. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?' If that is heaven, Christians are pursuing the kind of environment that's all too prevalent on earth today.

All these question seem to stem from a basic lack of understnding of what the book of Revelations actually says.. almost like you took or read a very biased commentary to heart and just assume all christians are as stupid as your commentary makes them out to be.

What you don't seem to get is after the reign of man/After we are dead. after the war/Armageddon Satan is locked up for 1000 years.

Then Satan is let loose one again to test those under God, then once again is allowed to putgotether another army this time made up of souls of the dead that number like sand on the sea shore.

God obliterates them and locks satan away forever. Then God initiates the final resurrection and judgement placing the righteous in the new earth/new heaven.

Chapters 20 and 21

All of your trivia goes away with a simple read through of revelation, so why not read through it yourself?
[/quote]

(June 3, 2017 at 5:49 pm)Akat4891 I have a collorary query/comment.  Why does anyone want to live forever?  So many people are just bored with their everyday existences and they want to live forever? What do they envision that forever to be?  Sitting around on a cloud smiling inanely?  Worshiping their god ad infinitum in fear that it might change its mind and wreak its wrath upon them?  Do they have any concept of what forever means?  I have been around enough dying people to know there comes a time for many when the end welcomed. Wrote:
(May 31, 2017 at 9:38 am)Drich Wrote: To be with God.

Such as? (meaning from what authority can one subject God to a law)

Because the bible describes Heaven as a pretty swell place as well. One where there is not Hell fire and gnashing of teeth.

Ah, no. It describes a comming war where lucifer and the demons are cast out from God and sent here effectivly making Earth Satan's domain. Why? to answer question like this and to shore up any doubt in your mind wh is indeed the greater evil. All of this so people like you can regain proper perspective.

You do know we are not to actually live in Heaven with God right? And you do know this heaven and this earth will pass away and a new heaven and a new earth will be our eternal 'perfect' home?

They wouldn't that is what this heaven and earth s about. sifting those who would cause problems from those who want to simply live with God.

Because in this life we are pledging to give up sin and adopt God's will as our own. In essence what you call free will (aka sin) is removed.

Then it goes on in Revelation 19:14 says, The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Again, we have the incongruity of war in heaven. Matthew 11:12 says, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Suffering and violence in what Christian patriarch here call a perfect place?

Then in Matthew Heaven is described as place of inequality and levels of status. Read it for yourself Matthew 11:11 He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. or many other places Revelation 22:12 My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be This rewarding certainly doesn't occur here, since this world is not the locale, and there is no biblical basis for an intermediate stage, such as purgatory.
Apparently it occurs in heaven. If so, does that mean some people in heaven will have six Cadillacs while others will have a Yugo?

Then Matthew 16:19 describes Heaven as a totalitarian place: I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
How could people be bound or restrained in a perfect place of freedom? But, then again, perhaps it isn't that free?

Then Jesus says that Heaven is not going to last very long Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Heaven will pass away? Why seek a place that will eventually vanish and how can one spend eternity there? It's certainly not utopia when it is compared to leaven like in Matthew and Luke which goes The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. I mean if you know Bible you know leaven is used as nefarious addition, a pollutant, a corruption, and for heaven to be compared to leaven diminishes its attraction immensely. Luke 12:1 He began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy or 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Also the last nail of any credibility that Heaven can be a good place comes from a a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 that demonstrates that heaven is the antithesis of justice in action. In the parable estate owner went out and hired some workers for his field for one denarius per day. Three, six, nine, and eleven hours later he hired additional workers. Yet everyone received the same amount of money that evening. Those who worked the entire day protested. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?' If that is heaven, Christians are pursuing the kind of environment that's all too prevalent on earth today.

All these question seem to stem from a basic lack of understnding of what the book of Revelations actually says.. almost like you took or read a very biased commentary to heart and just assume all christians are as stupid as your commentary makes them out to be.

What you don't seem to get is after the reign of man/After we are dead. after the war/Armageddon Satan is locked up for 1000 years.

Then Satan is let loose one again to test those under God, then once again is allowed to putgotether another army this time made up of souls of the dead that number like sand on the sea shore.

God obliterates them and locks satan away forever. Then God initiates the final resurrection and judgement placing the righteous in the new earth/new heaven.

Chapters 20 and 21

All of your trivia goes away with a simple read through of revelation, so why not read through it yourself?

(May 31, 2017 at 9:38 am)Drich Wrote: To be with God.

Such as? (meaning from what authority can one subject God to a law)

Because the bible describes Heaven as a pretty swell place as well. One where there is not Hell fire and gnashing of teeth.

Ah, no. It describes a comming war where lucifer and the demons are cast out from God and sent here effectivly making Earth Satan's domain. Why? to answer question like this and to shore up any doubt in your mind wh is indeed the greater evil. All of this so people like you can regain proper perspective.

You do know we are not to actually live in Heaven with God right? And you do know this heaven and this earth will pass away and a new heaven and a new earth will be our eternal 'perfect' home?

They wouldn't that is what this heaven and earth s about. sifting those who would cause problems from those who want to simply live with God.

Because in this life we are pledging to give up sin and adopt God's will as our own. In essence what you call free will (aka sin) is removed.

Then it goes on in Revelation 19:14 says, The armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Again, we have the incongruity of war in heaven. Matthew 11:12 says, From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Suffering and violence in what Christian patriarch here call a perfect place?

Then in Matthew Heaven is described as place of inequality and levels of status. Read it for yourself Matthew 11:11 He that is least in the Kingdom of heaven is greater than he. or many other places Revelation 22:12 My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be This rewarding certainly doesn't occur here, since this world is not the locale, and there is no biblical basis for an intermediate stage, such as purgatory.
Apparently it occurs in heaven. If so, does that mean some people in heaven will have six Cadillacs while others will have a Yugo?

Then Matthew 16:19 describes Heaven as a totalitarian place: I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.
How could people be bound or restrained in a perfect place of freedom? But, then again, perhaps it isn't that free?

Then Jesus says that Heaven is not going to last very long Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Heaven will pass away? Why seek a place that will eventually vanish and how can one spend eternity there? It's certainly not utopia when it is compared to leaven like in Matthew and Luke which goes The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. I mean if you know Bible you know leaven is used as nefarious addition, a pollutant, a corruption, and for heaven to be compared to leaven diminishes its attraction immensely. Luke 12:1 He began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy or 1 Corinthians 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

Also the last nail of any credibility that Heaven can be a good place comes from a a parable in Matthew 20:1-16 that demonstrates that heaven is the antithesis of justice in action. In the parable estate owner went out and hired some workers for his field for one denarius per day. Three, six, nine, and eleven hours later he hired additional workers. Yet everyone received the same amount of money that evening. Those who worked the entire day protested. But he replied to one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you, and go; I choose to give to this last as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?' If that is heaven, Christians are pursuing the kind of environment that's all too prevalent on earth today.

All these question seem to stem from a basic lack of understnding of what the book of Revelations actually says.. almost like you took or read a very biased commentary to heart and just assume all christians are as stupid as your commentary makes them out to be.

What you don't seem to get is after the reign of man/After we are dead. after the war/Armageddon Satan is locked up for 1000 years.

Then Satan is let loose one again to test those under God, then once again is allowed to putgotether another army this time made up of souls of the dead that number like sand on the sea shore.

God obliterates them and locks satan away forever. Then God initiates the final resurrection and judgement placing the righteous in the new earth/new heaven.

Chapters 20 and 21

All of your trivia goes away with a simple read through of revelation, so why not read through it yourself?
[/quote]
[/quote]
Reply
#28
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
The bible speaks of angels who left heaven to marry human women. We are told that they are now chained up in fire.

Ask yourself what it was about their heavenly experience that was so dissatisfying they preferred to be with women at the cost of eternal damnation. That's like siitting down to a filet mignon and having a Big Mac attack.

Not to mention the angels who rebelled with Satan. If the beings who lived there weren't happy, what makes humans think they'll be happy in a place they've never been?
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.

I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire

Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
Reply
#29
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
(June 3, 2017 at 6:54 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: The bible speaks of angels who left heaven to marry human women. We are told that they are now chained up in fire.

Ask yourself what it was about their heavenly experience that was so dissatisfying they preferred to be with women at the cost of eternal damnation. That's like siitting down to a filet mignon and having a Big Mac attack.

Not to mention the angels who rebelled with Satan. If the beings who lived there weren't happy, what makes humans think they'll be happy in a place they've never been?

That was always a little odd for me. If heaven is so great, why would anyone want to leave? Oh wait, because of the guy in charge.
Poe's Law: "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."

10 Christ-like figures that predate Jesus. Link shortened to Chris ate Jesus for some reason...
http://listverse.com/2009/04/13/10-chris...ate-jesus/

Good video to watch, if you want to know how common the Jesus story really is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88GTUXvp-50

A list of biblical contradictions from the infallible word of Yahweh.
http://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_m...tions.html

Reply
#30
RE: Why do Christians want to go to Heaven?
Quote:[url=https://atheistforums.org/post-1560998.html#pid1560998][/url]Maybe because the alternative is really really unpleasant :-)

Both sound equally horrifying. hell the whole concept of life after death is about a nightmarish a concept as I can imagine . And even if heaven were pleasant I would not want to go there the price is too high . And the reward is not worth it.
Seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.

Inuit Proverb

Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  [Serious] For former Christians only, why did you leave your faith? Jehanne 159 18812 January 16, 2023 at 7:36 am
Last Post: h4ym4n
  Is there free will in Heaven? zwanzig 54 6229 April 12, 2021 at 1:35 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Christians vs Christians (yec) Fake Messiah 52 10366 January 31, 2019 at 2:08 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Why are Christians so full of hate? I_am_not_mafia 183 23922 October 18, 2018 at 7:50 am
Last Post: Fake Messiah
  Another reason why Christians go to church Alexmahone 40 6006 August 20, 2018 at 10:35 am
Last Post: Cod
  Christians: Can you see why atheists don't buy this stuff? vulcanlogician 49 5257 August 19, 2018 at 8:03 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  Eternity in Heaven - Scary? JairCrawford 47 7281 July 26, 2018 at 2:43 pm
Last Post: The Valkyrie
  Christians: Why does the answer have to be god? IanHulett 67 16872 April 5, 2018 at 3:33 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Why does my family want me to be christian so much? Der/die AtheistIn 17 3401 March 29, 2018 at 7:12 pm
Last Post: Succubus
  Pope Francis -- dogs go to Heaven! Jehanne 34 6607 October 19, 2017 at 3:46 am
Last Post: ignoramus



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)