Heaven, hell, whatever you like...

[standing_on_one_foot]

If you could design an afterlife, determine who gets in, stays out, gets to visit, etc., what would it be like? How would it work, where would it be, and so on? Serious or silly as you want, really.

I think if it were up to me, I'd have it so that when you get to the afterlife, you get to understand what you did and the consequences of your actions. I mean really understand, no excuses to yourself, no pretending, no hiding, just the TRUTH, as it were. I figure that, if you were good or mostly good, it wouldn't be too bad a thing to know that forever, and if you'd been bad, well, it seems to me that it would be something of a fair punishment to have to know *exactly* what you did forever. Mind, this is assuming that everyone is, however deep down (sometimes *very* deep) a decent person. Or was to start off with, anyway. I mean, to have to judge yourself, and judge fairly at that, and live (in a manner of speaking) with that...well, I don't know, it seems fair. There are problems with it, of course, but overall, I'm fond of the idea. And while we're at it, I'd kinda like to understand the universe too...

 

[Sunstone]

I'm surprised! From time to time, I've thought of Heaven and Hell in precisely the same way, Standing-on-One-Foot! No doubt we're both geniuses!

 

[Feathers in Hair]

My favorite version of the afterlife (well, the way to the afterlife) is in Terry Pratchetts' Discworld. In some of the books, a dead person winds up in a vast desert and Death (the anthromorphic personification thereof) tells them that they must walk through it. "What's at the end?" they invariably ask. They're usually told that they'll find out once they've crossed the desert.

In the time of the desert, the person first believes that they're alone, and then comes to the frightening conclusion that they're not. They have themselves as company, and the dark light of the desert does not allow anyone to delude themselves about the rightness or wrongness of their actions in life. If they can make it through the desert, it is only by facing their life and actions without the falsehoods of wishful thinking deluding them. Some people seem to never make it out of this dark desert, horrified by the cruelties they've inflicted on others. Some people whistle through, content in themselves fully. And still others (such as in "Small Gods") help those who're struggling through the desert, because they are simply that kind.

We've never found out what lies at the other end of the desert. And it's just as well to me, because I love the idea of the beauty of what might lie beyond.

 

[Mister Emu]

Hmmm, I don't know that I would make heaven any different from what I believe it will be.

Hell on the other hand, You eternally are on the verge of sneezng, but you never can

 

[meogi]

standing_on_one_foot, that's a lot like what my mother thinks happens to you after death. Except that you experience the exact pain and suffering you've caused upon anyone. This gives you repentance and then you are allowed into heaven, or something like that.

But if I could invent my own afterlife? I wouldn't so much make an 'afterlife' as a continuation of your current conciousness... kinda like a ghost, you now what you knew while you were alive, but you now have the freedom to navigate the universe at will, and obtain whatever knowledge you want. The biggest thing is that time doesn't stop, so you can still see the progress of mankind/other races through to the end of the universe (if it ever ends). That's one of the only things I think I would look foreward to in an afterlife... being able to see what happens to our species, and/or other one's. Of course if you didn't care, you could just go chill on a beautiful planet for the rest of non-existance (be kinda like heaven I guess).

 

[Lightkeeper]

If you could design an afterlife, determine who gets in, stays out, gets to visit, etc., what would it be like? How would it work, where would it be, and so on? Serious or silly as you want, really.

I think if it were up to me, I'd have it so that when you get to the afterlife, you get to understand what you did and the consequences of your actions. I mean really understand, no excuses to yourself, no pretending, no hiding, just the TRUTH, as it were. I figure that, if you were good or mostly good, it wouldn't be too bad a thing to know that forever, and if you'd been bad, well, it seems to me that it would be something of a fair punishment to have to know *exactly* what you did forever. Mind, this is assuming that everyone is, however deep down (sometimes *very* deep) a decent person. Or was to start off with, anyway. I mean, to have to judge yourself, and judge fairly at that, and live (in a manner of speaking) with that...well, I don't know, it seems fair. There are problems with it, of course, but overall, I'm fond of the idea. And while we're at it, I'd kinda like to understand the universe too...

I think it should be a goal to have this understanding while your are still alive and to accept your humanness. It would add so much depth to life. Life and afterlife should be fun. I would love an afterlife of being in nature and having the ability to explore the whole Universe.

 

[Scott1]

After earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone. . . . In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself. St. Thérèse of Lisieux

 

[Jaymes]

If it was up to me, heaven would be a place where you recharge, contemplate your past life, and know the answer ONE question before coming back to earth. Why one? Because if it's only one, you have to pick very, very carefully.

And hell... well, I don't believe in a permanent hell. So just a really dreary place where the worst of the worst get prodded at until they realize that they did Bad Stuff, then get reborn into a fitting body.

Heaven would be on a realm above human perception. Hell.. that would be in a nasty damp cave in... er, wherever they have a lot of nasty damp caves.