wouldn't heaven feel kinda fake?

[echo]

if an after life exists, i better not be working

[Doubting Thomas]

Yeah, I would think that too, i figure one day everyone in heaven just sits there kinda bored and gods like "c'mon guys, lets party - yeah we beat satan!!" and everyone just falls asleep.

Actually I think it would be more like, "C'mon guys, we just beat Satan. Come kiss my ass some more and tell me how great I am!"

[John V]

How can work be fruitful if it's unnecessary? God can do anything that needs to be done with no effort (because of omnipotence)

This isn't the Biblical view.

so all work is only what God leaves the inhabitants of heaven to keep them busy and engaged. It's all busy work. God already knows the answers the scientists are looking for, he's just witholding the knowledge so they can have the satisfaction of learning it themselves.

Yes, people will have that satisfaction. You act as if this is a bad thing.

Here is a better explanation for why people will be happy in heaven (given heaven being a real thing): spiritual lobotomy. Same reason it won't bother them that many of their loved ones are writhing in eternal torment. In heaven, God just makes sure no one is able to be unhappy.

I go with this: when the idea of heaven was first formulated, most people engaged in back-breaking labor their whole lives. A world in which they could rest in luxury was about the best thing they could imagine. The idea of needing rewarding work to be fulfilled only became common as more people had a choice in how to earn their livings (whether your career is fulfilling enough is pretty much the poster boy for first world problems). So, to modern people in developed countries, the traditional descriptions of heaven sound really...boring. So for many people, heaven now includes career paths.

Lucky thing for Christians then that the Biblical writers thought to put in passages such as those mentioned.

[Mister Agenda]

How can work be fruitful if it's unnecessary? God can do anything that needs to be done with no effort (because of omnipotence)

This isn't the Biblical view.

I happen to agree with you on this point, the Bible depicts a God that has to rest after a hard week of creating and that can be surprised at what people do. Glad to see someone who can be satisfied with a God who is 'merely' powerful to create the universe, flood the world, make the sun stand still, resurrect the dead, and the like; without having to multiply by infinity to make sure other people's gods can't compete.

Yes, people will have that satisfaction. You act as if this is a bad thing.

Unless it occurs to them that they're not discovering anything new, there's someone with the answers already who is just giving them something to do.

Lucky thing for Christians then that the Biblical writers thought to put in passages such as those mentioned.

Funny thing that those passages (I must have missed you citing them, sorry, all I saw was that Jesus is working, which makes sense if there are things he still has to do for judgment day) were ignored until people started becoming dissatisfied with the promise of heaven. It wasn't a factor in my deconversion, but as a child I was struck at the vapidness of descriptions of heaven from the pulpit compared to descriptions of hell.

[leodeo]

from my time in church/youth ministry, they always made it seem like heaven would be a 24/7 nonstop worship session. (verses in revelations talk about it like this too) (i could barley stand our 15 minute sessions, not that i disrespected them, I just hated standing there listening to music while 14 year olds around me were pretending to pass out.)

After this crappy life, if we have to work in heaven, I'm filing for disability.


edit: hmm....but then again i think if we didn't have to work, it would also get boring fast....maybe they can make 'work' fun, maybe work in heaven is different from work here :S i feel liek they would need something to give life in heaven 'purpose', something to look forward to each day....i just want to have sex with my angel girlfriend everyday all day.

[Raven]

Hmmm, I was always told that angels were without gender. So I don't think that you'll have much fun there....

But even the Islamic idea we keep hearing about in the newspapers that these "martyrs" are going to get 72 virgins to party with after they blow themselves up doesn't sound like much actually...
I mean, after you've boffed 'em all senseless enough times, wouldn't that get boring also?
For heaven to be all that, you know, heavenly - it could not be any particular way for everybody. I mean, what would be heavenly about that? What might be heavenly for me might be anything but for you.

For my part, in keeping with my Swedish heritage, I'll opt for the old Viking notion of training for the final battle all day and partying my brains out with the Valkyries all night until Ragnarok. Beats singing to harp music.

Once around the block is all we are going to get anyway, so it's of no matter anyway. People are just afraid of dying, so they need to make up little fairy stories to convince themselves there really is nothing to worry about after all.

[c172]

been thinking about this lately, for example, in heaven god just gives u a nice house, car, girlfriend etc...and i wonder if it will just feel fake or something...

where as in this life, u gotta work hard, have a little luck, and when it all comes together, you may or may not find that special lady or get that awesome job, but if you do it makes it worth EVERYTHING.

so thats why i sometimes think i dont even want to go to heaven because it will just feel fake, and everyone will have everything so there will be no value to anything really. but i guess its better than hell, but i dont believe in hell.

It's been years and years since I read the Bible. But I remember as a kid thinking Heaven was where you got everything you ever wanted.

The thing is, my wants and desires seem to change every ten minutes. Now, I might want to live in a 14th century Austrian castle. And at 5:31pm, that might change to a bungalow on a beach in New Zealand.

Frankly, if God can cater to all this for me in Heaven, I'm likely going to lose it with all the instability of the surroundings I create with my mind's eye.

As for hanging out at God's right hand forever? Well, how creepy!

[T.J.]

i just want to have sex with my angel girlfriend everyday all day.

She'll incinerate you.[/joke]

[Napoléon]

been thinking about this lately, for example, in heaven god just gives u a nice house, car, girlfriend etc...

Wait he fucking does!??!?

WHY THE FUCK DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS SOONER.




Time to go to church.

[Bob Kelso]

Heaven is fake.