(June 24, 2017 at 6:55 am)Adventurer Wrote: I'm using imagination to conceive 'heaven' that is built on advanced technology, architectural design and operates independently of the universe, defying the limits the physical nature has on humans, their design and civilisation in illustrated novels. Heaven that is entirely artificial and consists of worlds, cities and infrastructure interconnected through alternative systems of gravity, space and atomic structure.
What? The firmament? Don't we have enough of that from the people with primitive mindset that are now called Jews, Christians and others who prescribe to Bible that describes Earth being flat with a firmament above it?
![[Image: JqrBin5b.jpg]](https://i.imgbox.com/JqrBin5b.jpg)
I mean all I'm saying is you don't have to imagine it just read some books from the time when Christianity was invented because guys like Paul belived that there were actually seven spherical layers of heaven above the firmament (which extended from the earth to the moon): Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, (not always in that order), and above them all, the sphere of the stars. Each was filled with all manner of physical things: trees, gardens, rivers, palaces - everything you could find on earth you could find in heaven. In fact, everything on earth was merely the imperfect copy and shadow of the real things in the heavens, and as you ascended from heaven to higher heaven, the more real and perfect things became, the closer you drew to God.
For instance you could read a book "Testament of Abraham" which follows Abraham who finds all kinds of structures in heaven, such as gates, roads, halls and thrones as well as items like tables, linens, books with ink and quill, and so on. Or "Life of Adam and Eve" where it is described how Adam was buried in the Heaven by angels.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"