# Regarding "heaven is for real" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 29, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472 "2011-11-29T18:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GeddyClaypoolBurton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ce7236/32.png) [@GeddyClaypoolBurton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GeddyClaypoolBurton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/1 "2011-11-29T18:27:12Z")
What do you all think of that “Heaven is for Real” book about that little kid’s supposed journey into the Christian afterlife? Personally, when I found out that his father is an evangelical pastor, I thought that that was suspicious, and was even more alarmed when I saw that it was co-written with Sarah Palin’s ghost writer. As a rationalist, I am concerned that so many people bought into this book even though the only evidence it offers is anecdotal claims by the father (“how could he have known that if we never told him, he must have gone to Heaven!”). Any ideas? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/2 "2011-11-29T18:31:57Z")
Never heard of it, but the title is factually incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/3 "2011-11-29T18:36:47Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Never heard of it, but the title is factually incorrect. It’s been on the NYT Best Seller list for some time. Or it was, if it isn’t still. To me, it just looks like part of the whole “angels” fad, and a matter of faith, not of science. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/4 "2011-11-29T18:37:43Z")
I don’t have children, but my experience is that whenever someone says ‘a mere child couldn’t have imagined this’ - usually in support of a supernatural experience or past life or some kind of nonsense like that - they’re underestimating children. And I don’t think you can use things people imagine as support for anything. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/5 "2011-11-29T18:39:01Z")
I hadn’t heard of it either, but I think it’s _adorable_\*. \*Italicized “adorable” always means “retarded”. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/6 "2011-11-29T19:22:05Z")
My mother gave it to my wife to read. My wife, to her credit, cringed at the thought of it. (NB: we’re all Christian). I don’t know why she didn’t give it to me to read, but I’m grateful. I think I scared her off with the Rob Bell book I gave her last summer (_Love Wins_). My wife half-jokingly gave it to my 15 year-old neice and asked her to give her a “book report” on it so she wouldn’t have to read it herself. Our neice found it just weird – I don’t think she finished it. It sounds like cheap sentimentality wrapped up in lazy theology. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/7 "2011-11-29T19:25:30Z")
The kid claims that the Holy Spirit is blue. Everyone knows he’s green! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/8 "2011-11-29T19:27:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The kid claims that the Holy Spirit is blue. Everyone knows he’s green! Infidel! ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/9 "2011-11-29T19:40:42Z")
I’ll confess, I read it on the flight to Istanbul. I also took an Ambien but finished the book before that kicked in. It’s a really short read. That said… It’s a complete and utter load of crap. From what I remember: 1. Right out of the gate in the prologue is my favorite eye rolling quote from the author “Now, as a pastor, I’m not a believer in superstition”. 2. The boy in question didn’t have a near death experience. He didn’t die under the operating table even for a second. From what I know about Christianity, one doesn’t go to heaven when they’re not dead. 3. The boy’s father is a pastor. At first, I thought the story was a bit made up and fictionalized and sensationalized and was a bit kumbaya. Then the more I read, the sadder I became to see a child be so heavily indoctrinated into the tenets of Christianity and claim that he had experienced all of these things and knew all about heaven. 4. Continuing on point 3, the boy had WAY too huge of an experience to be even worth mentioning as the book went on, the boy “remembered” more and more things about his trip to heaven. For instance, suddenly the boy became an expert on Revelations and the coming apocalypse. 5. The timeline was too long for all of the stories to have come out. And the boy surely heard or overheard these stories and had re-relayed them back as flashbacks to his father (or that he never relayed them at all and that some are complete bunk). ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/10 "2011-11-29T19:45:19Z")
When i was a very small child I had an operation to remove a cancerous growth on my foot. While under I had a vivid dream of heaven with clouds, a big golden gate, etc. Things I had been exposed to on tv and heard from the bible being read to me of course, and my relatives who were dead but that I knew from pictures were there. I told Grandma about it, and she smiled and told me that it was nice, but just a dream. Grandma is awesome. Haven’t heard of the book but it sounds like dreadful crap. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/11 "2011-11-29T19:48:05Z")
The family was on the Today Show this morning (the first I have ever heard of them) and I have to admit that the kid was _super_ creepy. Like, he had rehearsed what he was going to say to a T creepy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/12 "2011-11-29T20:23:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > To me, it just looks like part of the whole “angels” fad . . . The most insipid creatures of **any** mythology. How did America get so fascinated with them?! ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/13 "2011-11-29T20:24:35Z")
> [@rogerbox](#): > > I told Grandma about it, and she smiled and told me that it was nice, but just a dream. Grandma is awesome. Haven’t heard of the book but it sounds like dreadful crap. Grandma’s not awesome. Grandma screwed you. If she’d thought to monopolize on your dream, you could be still living on NYTs bestseller money right now. But its not like no one has ever done well with a similar concept before > [@](#): > > Midway upon the journey of our life > I found myself within a forest dark, > For the straightforward pathway had been lost… ---
**Author:** ![rogerbox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/76d3ee/32.png) [@rogerbox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rogerbox)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/14 "2011-11-29T20:36:31Z")
I want summa that heaven munneh! :mad::mad: ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/15 "2011-11-29T20:40:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The kid claims that the Holy Spirit is blue. Everyone knows he’s green! “Holy Spirit **smash** heretics!” ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/16 "2011-11-29T21:49:10Z")
If the Holy Spirit is _blue_, this means He would reflect or emmit electromagnetic radiation at a wavelength around 450 nm and be visible to the naked eye. Keep your eyes peeled everyone! He might be hiding in a teardrop or a rainbow! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/17 "2011-11-29T22:14:05Z")
If the kid went to Heaven, does this mean we can arrest his father on suspicion of murder? ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/18 "2011-11-29T22:52:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The kid claims that the Holy Spirit is blue. Everyone knows he’s green! Evidence indicates the Holy Spirt is chameleon-like, able to shift his color to accomodate any flavor his followers want.😉 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/19 "2011-11-29T22:57:22Z")
> [@Esox\_Lucius](#): > > Evidence indicates the Holy Spirt is chameleon-like, able to shift his color to accomodate any flavor his followers want.😉 No, no . . . the Holy Spirit has a very definite and unusual [colour.](http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cs.asp) ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2011, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472/20 "2011-11-29T23:29:54Z")
My dad just gave me this book. It’s sitting on my end table right now. I haven’t started reading it and I’m kind of scared to. He gave it to me because he thought it would “reassure me” about the miscarriage I had many years ago, that recently became much more upsetting to me as I realized that was the last child I’d ever have (my husband has had a vasectomy and we aren’t having more kids. Plus I’m nearly 40.) Anyway, my dad–who is ultra, ultra, ultra right wing religious-into-nutjob-territory Christian, wants me to read this book. I’m going to try. But I’m kind of scared. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-heaven-is-for-real/604472.md?page=2)