# Athiests, a question about the concept of Eternal Paradise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191 "2010-03-12T01:43:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/21 "2010-03-12T04:39:50Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Oops, sorry. It’s alright, a failing of the medium more than anything else. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/22 "2010-03-12T05:25:38Z")
One man’s paradise is another man’s hell. Sorry, I’ll setting for this one life, and that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/23 "2010-03-12T07:35:16Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > you can’t imagine how you might feel if you got sucked into a SpongeBob Squarepants cartoon? I’m pretty sure I’d be astonished, surprised, suspect I’d lost my mind, and eventually try to make the bets of the situation, all while wondering if I’m actually a drooling loon in a mental asylum. You mean like Squidward? SB-129 ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/24 "2010-03-12T07:39:30Z")
Oh c’mon, I’d definitely be overjoyed if I got to go to a legit version of paradise. Especially if it’s _ **my** _ paradise. I can think of many, many joyous things. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/25 "2010-03-12T09:45:41Z")
I can’t imagine, much less contemplate, anything like eternity or timelessness (and I’m pretty sure nobody can), so how could I answer this question? ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/26 "2010-03-12T10:19:53Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > I can’t imagine, much less contemplate, anything like eternity or timelessness (and I’m pretty sure nobody can), so how could I answer this question? That would be the “I don’t know what I’d think” option. ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/27 "2010-03-12T12:37:59Z")
Overjoyed of course. We’re comparing paradise with DEATH here, how bad could it possibly be?! ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/28 "2010-03-12T12:46:45Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > My definition of being an atheist is that I have no soul and when I die I become a bag of fertilizer: end of story. None of your options apply to me, sorry. Come now. I can’t fly and I can’t turn invisible, but there have been plenty of threads that ask things like “If you could fly…” I would assume this OP is in the same spirit. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/29 "2010-03-12T12:48:15Z")
This sounds like the clever ruse that religidiots use to try to get atheists to say something nice about Jesus. “Just imagine, hypothetically, that Jesus died for your sins… wouldn’t you say that is an incredible selfless gift of love?” Uh, yeah, your fairytale sounds nice, but my quibble isn’t how nice it sounds, it’s the fact that it’s a load of crap that you use to try to control other people’s minds and meddle in their lives. Question for the OP - If I told you that Jesus was a child-raping crack-smoking drunk-driving Enron executive who didn’t actually die on the cross, just hypothetically speaking here, wouldn’t that mean He was pretty much a fraud the most awful person imaginable? I mean, just hypothetical-like, you have no choice but to admit that Jesus was a fraud and and awful person. Hypothetically. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/30 "2010-03-12T12:54:40Z")
And my answer to the OP is yes, of course I’d love eternity in paradise, if it’s MY paradise with a neverending supply of hot naked women, beer, buffalo wings, and overstuffed duffel bags full of magic cocaine that doesn’t make you feel crashy the next day. But I don’t think that paradise is really what you had in mind, is it? ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/31 "2010-03-12T12:59:36Z")
Umm… It’d be pretty nifty. Especially if paradise were exactly like spending eternity in a holodeck with an infinite number of programs to choose from. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/32 "2010-03-12T13:30:21Z")
I would be overjoyed but also will assume my paradise can change whenever I want it to. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/33 "2010-03-12T13:50:45Z")
If I were convinced that that I do have a soul, and after I die I will spend eternity in paradise, then I wouldn’t be an atheist, now would I? But in the realm of fantasy, shit, yeah, I’d love to spend eternity not worrying about anything. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/34 "2010-03-12T14:18:00Z")
> [@Cosmic Relief](#): > > Question for the OP - If I told you that Jesus was a child-raping crack-smoking drunk-driving Enron executive who didn’t actually die on the cross, just hypothetically speaking here, wouldn’t that mean He was pretty much a fraud the most awful person imaginable? I mean, just hypothetical-like, you have no choice but to admit that Jesus was a fraud and and awful person. Hypothetically. I could just read your posts all day. As for me, I always have had a kind of…fear?..of ‘eternity’. If the paradise was one in which I didn’t realize I was there for ETERNITY… and maybe I could have my memory wiped every so often or something, then yeah. Otherwise, just enough already. Put me to sleep. Just let me go. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/35 "2010-03-12T14:19:25Z")
It is hard to imagine being an atheist AND, at the same time, know that there is an afterlife. But, yeah, if I dropped dead and awoke to find myself in a fantastic new place I would be guardedly optimistic; it’s better than being dead. If I find put Pat Robertson or one of his ilk is there then I’ll know I’m out of the frying pan and into the fire. That would suck hard. I should add - in my paradise I am god, so that could mess up others idea of paradise. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/36 "2010-03-12T15:36:17Z")
By the way, if \*\*Cosmic Relief’s \*\*version paradise turned out to be true, I’d sign up for the priesthood today! ---
**Author:** ![CircleofWillis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/54ee81/32.png) [@CircleofWillis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CircleofWillis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/37 "2010-03-12T15:45:28Z")
I’d prolly go with the Steve Martin perspective… “What if you died and went to…heaven? If there were clouds and angels with wings? Wouldn’t you feel stupid? In college they said this was all bullshit” ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/38 "2010-03-12T15:47:29Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > you can’t imagine how you might feel if you got sucked into a SpongeBob Squarepants cartoon? I’m pretty sure I’d be astonished, surprised, suspect I’d lost my mind, and eventually try to make the bets of the situation, all while wondering if I’m actually a drooling loon in a mental asylum. Haven’t you noticed by now that whenever someone poses a hypothetical question, Diogenes makes it his job to declare “THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!!” even though everybody already knows it’s impossible, and is speculating on their reaction to something that we’re all aware cannot be? ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/39 "2010-03-12T15:50:04Z")
If paradise was spending eternity with my family (regardless of their religious beliefs), without watching them suffer illness, without the endless struggle to get bills paid…just enjoying LIFE and the world around us and we can enjoy the pleasures of life like delicious food and dancing and puppies and newborns, sure, paradise for eternity sounds like a rockin place. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191/40 "2010-03-12T16:08:47Z")
I’m not really terrified of death. Yet. I mean, I don’t want to die tomorrow, and I might like an extra 100 years or something, but eventually, I kind of do want to have the answer. Even if it is just, as I believe, nothingness. So I don’t really want paradise for eternity, no. Maybe for a thousand years. In Hindu mythology there is a concept called moksha; which is basically liberation from all material wants and cares. I’ll take some of that, please. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/athiests-a-question-about-the-concept-of-eternal-paradise/532191.md?page=3)