I was wondering this. As most of you know, I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints but I have found a variety of opinions on what Heaven will be like.
Like my sister is really looking forward to viewing a loop on everyone's life. Not that she might get to, she thinks everyone will. I don't see Heaven as a place where we are forced to do something we don't want to. (As that would be for me).
I mean, for one thing I don't believe you can ever be killed again, so most compulsion based on force won't be possible. You already are there so no one can guilt you into doing things their way. And so internal motivation is the only reason anything will get done.
I want to be free of worry and anger. I wonder if "endless torment" might mean what will result if I can't learn to forgive people. If I feel someone should be subject to justice and they have embraced the gift of mercy, will I always feel cheated?
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
The Celestial Library. I hope it exists. Every book in existence, even the silly stories people think of in their heads, or the uncut version of the bible or the first concious thoughts of the universe. I firmly believe in this library... It would have every single cd, movie or achive of concious intelligent thought out there!
Posted by MEC (Member # 2968) on :
I'm hoping it will be like the matrix, where we could make our own worlds and live in them for periods of time where we decide to "forget" everything about heaven for the period of time you are in your created world.
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
I prefer to think of it as Living 2.0. With ongoing updates.
Posted by MaydayDesiax (Member # 5012) on :
Anyone ever seen What Dreams May Come? Like that. Heaven's your own personal heaven, and people can be reborn (especially the soul mates part. ::really liked that:: )
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
What I expect will happen: I will experience a rather abrupt termination of self-consciousness.
What I fear will happen: I see my entire life with total clarity, without any further fog of rationalization. All the mistakes, all the good parts, all the opportunities both missed and taken -- and I judge myself pretty harshly, with perfect reason.
What I hope will happen: Pretty much the same as what I fear will happen, except I am generally content with what I did, and with perfect reason. That would be a life worth having been lived.
[ April 16, 2004, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
Actually, for some reason I have a much easier time believing in God than I do the afterlife. I don't know why... Maybe it's because things like alzheimer's and brain damage have severely shaken my faith in the existence of the soul. We just seem like things so easily affected by that bit of meat in our heads.
I hope there's an afterlife, but there's a lot of doubt there. I think it might just be... nothing. You go from a Being to a Don't Be, a Not Be, and that's all, folks, don't forget to write. Like being knocked out or falling asleep. You won't miss yourself.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I guess I believe in a place that will be more governed by function than by form. You aren't assigned where to go, you choose. P.S. And there aren't really "places", simply groupings of like minded people.
[ April 16, 2004, 11:25 AM: Message edited by: pooka ]
Posted by Alexa (Member # 6285) on :
Altho I hope and believe in an after life, it is easy for me to imagine nothing. It is like what you see behind your peripheral vision when you are not thinking about it.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Well, I used to think my body was empty because it is dark in there. But that's far from the case. For me, at least. I mean, if you think of what we are able to see and how it happens, it seems really improbable to me. Everything absorbs or reflects this one kind of energy, and somehow we are able to sense it in a way precise enough to call (for some of us) our primary perception of the world? But our experience of thermal energy is nowhere near so precise. I wonder if we emit photo energy somehow and that's why it is a reliable form of perception for us. The way other animals use sound or magnetism.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I also like the idea of reincarnation too.
Posted by KarlEd (Member # 571) on :
I will awaken into some very distant future where some intelligence has been able to reconstruct my mind in some form.
NOTE TO THE PRESUMED FUTURE ANTHROPOLOGISTS: I hereby declare Karl Edward Jennings WANTS to be so awakened. Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
So do you believe in a reincarnation that is a kind of judgement or totally random? Is the Karma concept not a judgement of a kind? I'd be glad for an explanation.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I don't know... Reincarnation just makes sense to me. I keep encountering old souls and the like. I don't think it's about punishment though. I mainly just want an excuse to hang out with cool people in the Celestial Library. (Which should exist! It's too cool not to! An achive of all thought, what could be better?!?!?!)
Posted by skillery (Member # 6209) on :
Heaven: No more PMS
Hell: You guessed it... Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
= polygamy?
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
A cessation of thought processes, with possibly a temporary sensation of awareness caused by my mental field fading after my brain ceases to funtion.
Posted by Alexa (Member # 6285) on :
I believe the highest glorified beings will be males with multiple wives having billions of kids populating planets.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
I think the afterlife will be like Hatrack. Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
Hobbes "What happens to us when we die?"
Calvin "I think we play saxophone in all all female cabaret in New Orleans."
Hobbes "So, you believe in heaven?"
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
My idea of Heaven is a little cheesy...
Tolkien got me to appreciate again spirituality and religion. I was totally anti-religion for many years, after been very Catholic growing up.
Since birth I was raised on Lord of the Rings but it wasn't until college that I finaly read The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion got me to find the beauty in spirituality again. A complicated mental journey that would take too long to explain here...
So my idea of heaven would be Valinor. Long may the thrones of the Valar endure.
Posted by Yank (Member # 2514) on :
quote: We just seem like things so easily affected by that bit of meat in our heads.
Personally, I've always thought of the brain as the soul's interface with the material world. It gets damaged, so does our ability to interact with this crazy place.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
If it exists...
I would like to be given some space and some paints and have to paint my life.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Oh, I love that! --
I've wondered whether to post this. I've had a few moments that were sheer heaven. In Detroit, with the greatest district I could imagine assembled. Everyone was obedient, happy to be there, working hard, teaching, supporting each other, had the Spirit with them, and going to sleep exhausted and happy. It's the closest to heaven I've ever been - being lost with people you love in a work you believe in.
Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :
So, this is kind of hard to explain but I'll try:
Picture a giant swimming pool filled with soul-matter (whatever that may be) and when someone is about to be born a scoopfull of that soul-matter is put into their body. Then, when they die, that scoop is simply poured back into the pool to be mixed around with the other soul-matter and given to someone else.
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
quote:I believe the highest glorified beings will be males with multiple wives having billions of kids populating planets.
I'm seriously trying to figure out if this is a joke.
[ April 17, 2004, 12:06 AM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
Jon Boy, I'm assuming it is, but if it is, I don't get it.
Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :
I imagine the afterlife as not being too different from the present life. Each person has the ability to create their own heaven or their own hell, so choose wisely. Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
My perfect afterlife would be time to do the things I wanted. Paint, and write, and take all the classes that I can't take this time through school, and garden, and skydive, and ride roller coasters and even sit around and watch every episode of a good tv show straight through. I dont' think I'd ever run out of things to do.
Ni!
Posted by Jerryst316 (Member # 5054) on :
quote: Picture a giant swimming pool filled with soul-matter (whatever that may be) and when someone is about to be born a scoopfull of that soul-matter is put into their body. Then, when they die, that scoop is simply poured back into the pool to be mixed around with the other soul-matter and given to someone else.
Dragon: are you Hindu?
Posted by fallow (Member # 6268) on :
what does the prefix "after" connote? It's a bit strange, now that I think about it.
hmm...
fallow
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
"I think the afterlife will be like Hatrack."
But with ansible connection, no pop-ups, and much less "it's sacrilicious" postings.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Or much more...
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
Revelations refers to a new Jerusalem, buildings, and spiritual bodies. Adam was created to watch over Eden with all its plants and animals. Plato theorized that everything is a reflection of something perfect that exists elsewhere.
So I think Heaven will be like here except all our imperfections will be stripped away. There will be no bodies to get in the way of perfect communion with God, or each other. I think we'll still have jobs, but they'll be so meaningful and well suited to us that it will be unlike the "work" we do here. It will be a joy. No pain, no doubt, no unhappiness. We'll know God's will for us and it will be the same as our will for ourselves. Not God taking away free will but our own ideas coming into complete harmony with His once we can see the full consequenses of our actions. I think it'll be eternal perfection.
Posted by Wussy Actor (Member # 5937) on :
quote:even sit around and watch every episode of a good tv show straight through.
...and to get to watch the episodes they never made because good shows got cancelled in the wake of crappy reality television. Ten years worth of Sports Night, I can't wait.
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Katharina! I love your idea of heaven! That does sound like bliss. Posted by Altįriėl of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
My ideal heaven is to be in my own world, with people I can trust. With an ideal life. I'd be able to do whatever I wanted. What I mean is being able to fly, or have special powers, or other things which can't be done in our plane of reality. If I could do what ever I'd wanted I'd be like a Pokemon Trainer or I'd fly all around the universe and the stars wouldn't burn me, and I wouldn't need oxygen to breathe, I wouldn't need a space suit to keep my bosy pressurized either. Everything would be anime like too. Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
Personally I have no idea what it will be like, but I am hoping it will be like Valhalla.
Posted by Yebor1 (Member # 1380) on :
Lots of worms and decomposition.
Posted by Yebor1 (Member # 1380) on :
Luckily I'm going to be like Woodrow Wilson Smith and Belgarath and live forever.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Tel! *grin* Thanks. It really was close to heaven - the closest I can imagine. Just glorious.
Posted by jehovoid (Member # 2014) on :
I think it would have something to do with having an endless amount of time (or no time at all). The one constant to this life is that nobody ever has enough time. What a relief that would be.
Posted by Altįriėl of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
I hadn't really thought about that, but infinite time would really be something everyone would love to have. Posted by skillery (Member # 6209) on :
I want to be stationed with my wife, family, and friends at the edge of the known universe, with an ever-expanding front of organized galaxies behind me, and an infinite amount of unorganized matter ahead of me. Then give me the power, the knowledge, and the time to make something worthwhile out of all that matter.
Posted by Altįriėl of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
Now THAT'S a gorgeous afterlife. Imaginative Imagination dude(dudette)
Posted by Alucard... (Member # 4924) on :
My idea of heaven is a lot like Cheers, where everybody knows your name. And Coach is the bartender, with Woody most likely not even on the radar. But the beautiful part is that you are never required to pay your bartab.
In all seriousness, I hope heaven is much like reality, without the reality TV shows and infomercials.
[ April 21, 2004, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: Alucard... ]
Posted by Book (Member # 5500) on :
I dunno if there's a heaven, but if there is, they better have corn on the cob, or else they just lost themselves a customer.
Posted by John L (Member # 6005) on :
The Great Unknown. I plan on being able to welcome it.
Posted by Altįriėl of Dorthonion (Member # 6473) on :
Me too. I hope I meet God someday.
Posted by Dragon (Member # 3670) on :
Jerryst316 - no, I'm not "hindu", I guess I don't really consider myself to really "be" anything religion-wise... There are too many things that I don't agreee with AT ALL in every religion that I've seen so far. So, although I'd love to be a part of an organized religion, I just can't find one that is truely true for me.
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