What's Heaven Like?

[rjung]

@grimpixie

But all Aussies are going to burn in hell anyway, so the point is fairly moot…

How can an Aussie tell if he’s in Hell? Is it cooler there?

@Civil Guy

…and the God of the Christians (at least) is said to be the creator of SEX. If Heaven holds any improvements on sex - oh my.

Yeah, He finally lets you enjoy it without guilt.

[newcomb_being]

@Civil Guy

A few thoughts: Captain Stormfield’s Report from Heaven, by Mark Twain - excellent. Somehow, the new arrivals eventually come to realize that traditional pictures of heaven are, ah, flawed. Harps do not belong in the hands of the untrained.

My sister told me a cute (okay, kind of cheesy) story once - I don’t know where she got it from, but it’s still cute:

Comes the afterlife, everyone is sitting at an endless table filled with all delicacies anyone could desire, endless food and drink. Thing is, everyone has stiff arms, no elbows. (Presumably everyone is held in place at his or her seat, as well.)

Well, there are actually two scenarios that come from this. In the first, since no one can actually reach the food, everyone is starving to death - in the midst of plenty. That’s Hell.

In the second scenario, no one can reach the food for themselves, but everyone is feeding the person next to them. All are feasting and having a great ol’ party, with everyone simply caring for others and trusting the others to keep the noshes coming. That’s Heaven.

Cheesiness aside, I like the idea that Heaven is where we finally come to care for each other the way we really ought to, and that’s what makes it Heaven.

…and the God of the Christians (at least) is said to be the creator of SEX. If Heaven holds any improvements on sex - oh my.

I’ve heard this exact same story, but it was actually a japanese riddle. In hell and in heaven everyone is sitting at this long table, but everyone’s chopsticks are 6 feet long (or so). The people in hell starve to death while the people in heaven don’t. Why? The answer: The people in hell try to feed themselves because they are greedy, and do not succeed. The people in heaven feed each other. (In fact… I think they may have been sitting at a round table, and they fed the person sitting across from them.)

Anyhoo… I believe this must be the original story… since the stiff arms and no elbows thing is kind of a stretch.

The more you know!

[Shalmanese]

The thing is, there are certain human pleasures which rely not so much on you getting them as other people NOT getting them to be pleasurable. Whats the point of winning a race if everyone else wins too? Whats the point of taking a gamble and succeeding if nobody can not suceed. It sounds more like the PC 90’s “everyone gets a medal” than heaven.

The point is not that our imaginations are limited, it’s that humanitys version of utopia seems inherently singular. It’s impossible to envision any kind of world in which 2 people share in a common utopia. Given this, how is it possible to have heaven in which multiple people are supposed to share in a common utopia. It seems to me the only way to do this would be to strip humans of their will to win and that would make us barely even human in my eyes.