I remember when I was atheist and I was arguing with an evangelical. I said "Hell is wrong since it is an infinite punishment for finite bad deeds" and she said "yeah well you don't get angry at parents for punishing their kids". It was the stupidest answer to any religious debate I had ever had.
Indeed, that is pretty lame, lol.
But heaven/hell makes sense to me now.
Well yes, to a degree this primitive concept makes sense, but my bone of contention is if it is in fact a useful concept at all. You have to admit it is still the carrot and the stick approach to get people to do what they should be doing already.
How can you be with God when you have denied him?
That is a bit of a no-brainer, really. What the average mortal lump of flesh does not understand is that EVEN if you deny "god", "god" will NEVER deny you. It is pretty drop dead simple to my way of thinking.
It isn't so much as justice as the my opinion that
Life is God's creation, therefore it isn't that bad.
I do like your thinking. I have this silly idea that we are all within God, and the point of life is to realize your part in his cosmic drama. Essentially it amounts to figuring out how to rip the veil of illusion from your own eyes.
it has some essence of God in it, since he created it. And this is a truly beautiful thing, God's creation.
I agree, and I see confirmation of it everyday and in every way. I even see the sparkle of god in the eyes of a raving drunk who is lying by the side of the road. I will admit it takes a lot of vision to see the essential spark in such cases, but nonetheless, ALL beings are capable of discovering their larger identity (aka "god").
Heaven is man's limited way of saying of describing a state of being close to God.
True, but as god creates all we know, you have to admit that it is a tad bit difficult to become separated in the first place. When people stop demanding reality to conform to their little preconception about HOW reality should behave, then slowly, one bit at a time, reality becomes clearer and clearer. Eventually, it is as if you are standing in the Light of the Noon day sun... for the very first time.
Hell is man's limited way of saying of describing a state of being far away from God.
Actually, I reject even this definitely reasonable description although members of the Baha'i faith would most certainly agree. *Winks at Popeyesays* I maintain that this so-called separateness is actually paper-thin and due to people insisting that their preconceptions about reality are in fact reality. What they do not understand is that it is real only for them. The "herd" mentality makes this "truth" a bit harder to discern, but it is still nonetheless true. It is all based on "root assumptions" about reality. About what is real and what is not real, yadda, yadda, yadda.
It's like, an empty void, where no essence of God exists at all. And it's horrible.
Well, the "empty void" would illicite a distinctly different response from Buddhists, lol. Again, you should try to think of people exploring alternative aspects of reality on "god's" (their larger identity) behest. In that respect, if you expand your reasoning, then indeed there is no person that is apart from God... it is just some are like "undercover agents". "God is great" and perhaps we should begin to allow for how great that could possibly be without injecting out own limited understanding into the mix. It is sort of like everyone is speaking in secret code that only makes so much sense.
How can God bring you closer to him when you reject him?
Perhaps he has something different in mind for those who prefer to think differently than yourself. Allow the greatness of god to be great and try not to hobble it down to something that fits within your own preconceptions about HOW reality should behave.
Now that makes a little more sense to me then "you go to hell since not believing in God is akin to murder".
I agree. Your view is a much better explanation than the short-sighted opinion of some. But... their view is relative to their understanding. Depending on how mature their understanding is, one must expect the "babble of babes" on occaision.
PS: I REALLY like your thinking and I hope you understand what I am meaning, by "God is great, so let that greatness show itself in ways you least expect."