... on 15 Topics about Heaven (43 QQ overall)

43 Questions About Heaven
The Atheist Voice | 25.VII.2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjSMrsfpp1c

I

1) 0:21 whether you died at 5 or 95, you will probably be anatomically the age of Jesus, the perfect age, 33 years old, once you resurrect.

2) it seems I already answered that one too.

3) Once God assures that the adult we see in heaven is the lost baby, no problem.

9) Disabilities don't exist in heaven. Someone with Downs who was baptised probably still has three chromosomes 21, but it is fixed so this is no longer working out biologically as a disability. Similarily for those of them who die without baptism and go to limbo.

I have heard of deaf who don't want cochlear implants, I have not heard of deaf who will absolutely refuse to get normal ears, if offered, and that is what heaven would offer them.

10) so God fixes their hearing and it will not be against their will.

II

4) Unborn children miss out on baptism and will probably (like babies of pagans) be in limbo. Not heaven, and also not Hell as classically thought of. More like "natural happiness" which seems to be the atheist dream, plus some lesser love for God than the one enjoyed by those in Heaven.

They are neither rewarded with supernatural bliss, nor punished for sth not their fault.

Btw, the decision is not always the mother's it can be the grandparents if the mother is a teen or the mother's shrinks, if she's locked up.

Those are two categories other than unwilling mothers to do infanticide these days.

III

5) Even in limbo, the "partially formed" as you put it babies are grown up to say 33.

Nothing is "littered" with the remains of any man at resurrection, it is only up to then that some mass graves are and some other things (like where certain hospitals put their murder victims.

IV

6) No, jealousy does not exist in Heaven.

No sins do.

The only way to do that is most certainly NOT to make everyone in Heaven equal.

Suppose Little St Theresa (the nun in Lisieux Carmel) is a smaller saint than Great St Theresa (the nun in Ávila), it is certain she will not be jealous of Great St Theresa having more of God's glory.

It is a Communist (or perhaps Capitalist) myth that only way to avoid jealousy against superiority is to make everyone equal.

Variety is the spice of life in Heaven too and uniformity is definitely not the norm in heaven.

Every saint is different, St Bridget of Kildare who said if she were a king, she would offer Christ a swimming pool full of beer and St Bridget of Vadstena who put five red spots on the nuns' headdresses to remind of the five wounds of Christ on Calvary are also very different.

V

7) In Heaven, we do not need to eat food, but we are offered to eat of the tree of life, same tree Adam and Eve did NOT eat of (but they could have before eating of the other tree, it was not forbidden).

I don't think carnivorousness is an option in Heaven any more than it was in Eden, no.

All the first 2242 years of mankind, up to Flood, men were supposed to be vegetarian.

Only Genesis 9:2 after the Flood was carnivorousness generally allowed.

But probably some people transgressed that before the Flood.

I am in disagreement with Robert Carter on whether Neanderthals were pre- or post-Flood, he thinks post-Babel, I think pre-Flood. Neanderthals of Spain, according to analyses of dental plaque, were mainly vegetarian. Those of Belgium were eating woolly rhinos and other men.

And dead animals don't get to heaven.

8) spiders and sarcopts are blissfully absent from heaven, like intestinal worms ....

VI

11) If the person who killed you got to Heaven, and you run into him, first thing he'll say to you is "sorry".

And as you cannot die up there, you will have nothing to worry about, unlike with a murderer released from prison to relatives of victim.

12) If a family member is not bad enough to get to Hell, you will probably be committing a sin if you "really" don't want to see them again.

But as there is infinite eternity to enjoy, perhaps you'll have some thousand years of getting over the traumatism before you run into them. Just kidding, in heaven traumatisms do not remain.

And yes, wilfully rejecting Christ excludes you from this perspective.

Btw, going to Hell to join a loved one is not a solution.

13) so, you'd be happy for not making same mistake.

And whatever you loved in the loved one, you'd find again in God, who is the source of everything which is loveable, while the person in Hell would not retain loveability.

39) No, but whoever is in heaven can watch their loved ones whenever they want or whenever God tells them something is up. And some who have many things to watch are probably experiencing a time much longer subjectively to them, than the timeframe on earth.

40) Some cases of adoption, birth parents were prevented from keeping you.

41) If you have watched your grandson get a son after you died, or a daughter, wouldn't you enjoy it?

Genealogy probably is a great thing (with answers easily accessible) up there.

VII

14) No, you don't have sex in heaven.

15) probably no incapacity as such, but also no desire to use the potential and therefore 16) no need of privacy.

C. S. Lewis once compared wondering about sex in heaven to a child hearing about sex and asking "do you eat chocolate in bed" or "do you make mudcakes on the beach in bed".

17) Answered in the answer that you'd be 33.

18) Islamic views of heaven are anyway not relevant to the topic. Islam is a paganism or a heresy, therefore a false religion and a false view of certain things.

19) answered in previous.

20) answered in previous.

Btw, the fact that people who were widowed and remarried may get to heaven or even some who divorced "remarried" and repented is a reason why there is no sex in heaven.

21) I think you nailed one difficulty in Islam ...

VIII

22 & 23) Giving the word to Christ:

"In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you."
[John 14:2]

IX

24 & 25) Don't know.

Probably sleep will not be needed, adoring God is sufficient rest, but if wanted would not be forbidden or denied.

Before resurrection, you also don't have a body that can sleep. Or it's sleeping all the time in the grave.

X

26 & 27) Not sure you'll want to drive a Tesla in heaven, if you want speed, jumping between stars might be more exciting.

XI

28) Understanding things we did not understand on earth is definitely a thing, and depends both on getting info from the omniscient and on actually being smart fulltime as opposed to stupid most of the time for the first time.

If you don't get tired, if you don't have to delay things because of making stupid decisions or bc someone else does, you definitely can understand things.

Plus, as said, God is available, omniscient and knowledge (some of which is simply the missing key piece of the jig saw puzzle) is available from Him as much as you want. As in heaven you cannot sin, your wanting any knowledge will not be sinful and therefore not refused.

As two people who were raptured and are getting back to earth had millennia to learn any languages they wanted, I absolutely cannot imagine Henoch and Elijah would provide their message (if they were here) with automatic google translate, especially as in heaven they would have learned google translate doesn't translate and so doesn't always work accurately as translation service. I saw one video with such a message and a button offering automated translation, if it were them, why didn't they just write it down in every separate language which has speakers able to read it? Learning a language (unless you are prevented from getting full sleep) doesn't take all that long time even on earth.

So, if Henoch had more than 5000 years and Elijah more than 2000 years, probably close to 6000 and definitely close to 3000 years in Heaven, they will not need to make a document in English only and offer just google translate for those better in Italian or Spanish or German or Swedish. Or Hindi or Maharasthri.

29) Playing piano and proving mathematical theorems (that are correct and correctly formulated) will definitely be on the infinite possibilities list, if seriously wanted.

36) if most interesting stuff involves different opinions, it is partly because most interesting stuff is mystery.

In heaven, God will be fully available, and also the big mystery.

Since I already said one has time to enjoy other tings than the prayer only, actually learning the truth about all mysteries that intrigued you on earth will probably be on the to do list.

When definite truth is available, agreement is too.

XII

30) weather will be to everyone's wishes.

31) individualised weather is one possibility, or uniform taste in weather another one.

XIII

32) yes, in heaven one is happy all the time.

Not necessarily "having fun" all the time, that is more like limbo, but definitely happy.

And getting tired of being happy is already not being happy, therefore, it is not sth which happens in heaven.

[About his example of eating pizza:]

I am obviously not saying we will be eating all the time!

On earth we need breaks from happiness, because our condition is not perfectly happy and happiness is therefore not as appropriate a response as sadness always.

Those who die with a "mixed bag" but still making it to heaven will first be sad in purgatory for their sins and for how little they did for God, and then after a little while (ending Doomsday at latest) eternally happy for God saving them after all.

33) in heaven you have no temple, Christ is your temple.

34) bliss in heaven certainly means worshipping God for all eternity, but not so as to be incapable of enjoying other things, when wanted, but unlike on earth, after Adam sinned, that enjoyment does not stop us from worshipping God more.

If Church is boring, it is because one is inattentive.

If Protestant Church is boring, it is because it isn't even legitimately Church.

Also, eating breakfast before going to Church is a bad deal, like studying also praying is not best done with a full stomach.

In the Catholic Church, if you receive Communion, it is even illegal to eat breakfast first (or was to the time of Pius XII) or to drink anything but water. That's part of why going to Church Sunday evening was not a big thing up to some decades ago, unless it was for another service, Vespers.

35) If you try to avoid Christians who can't stop talking right now, it may partly be your fault, for not at all relating to God, which if you get to heaven, you will be able to avoid, partly their fault for talking badly.

By the way, have you tried Catholics who prefer using the God centred attention to talking to God?

In heaven, they will often be too busy praying to be talkative all the time.

37) Some of the types of music people listen to here probably aren't there.

I abstain from giving what I think my examples are, since some of the music I enjoy might itself be on the no-list.

38) And while weather is perhaps individualised, music arguably is only available if shared.

XIV

42) Most of the things you enumerated to those who would call your concerns strawmen are things which as a Catholic I reject.

If you have bad memories, they will heal, but not by amnesia. They will heal because you will be eternally safe.

You may think of people with bad memories that don't heal even when they are safe.

But part of the reason is, on earth we are no where near eternally safe. There is always at least some theoretic possibility some jerk or his double will start fucking around with you again.

Jews who survived harrassment as youngsters in Auschwitz still don't feel quite safe. Do I think a Nazi resurgence is a likely threat to their wellbeing? No. Do I think some such threat (perhaps where they weren't counting on one) is at least theoretically possible? Yes.

In heaven there is no even theoretical possibility of ever getting harrassed again in a way you don't like.

So, I most definitely think "your mind will be a clean slate" is heresy, for one of the worse things you enumerated as bad answers.

XV

43) No, we can't.

You are reconstructing the genesis of an idea, and one problem is, there is a history which suggests the idea had quite another genesis.

Someone came down from Heaven and told us about it. His name was Jesus, born in Bethlehem, but Nazareth was His hometown.

If "he" hadn't known what "he" talked about, "he" wouldn't have performed the miracles for the sake of which we believe His testimony on many things, including Heaven.

Not saying all I stated previous questions is His testimony, some is my personal favourite where people have guessed different ways.

Actually, the courage for martyrdom is very much needed to make this life worthwhile.

Too many atheists with too little hope being too easily intimidated by the bullies that society has is one reason why ending XXth and beginning XXIst CC are less worthwhile than some other centuries I could think of.

And no, "the real party in the basement" won't be as fun as some guys hope.

Devils in eternal pain and misery will take the one joy they still can have, heaping pain and misery on the ones they seduced. NOT my idea of "real party".