What will heaven be like?

[Sgt. Pepper]

@Trailblazer, I think you should post your jokes about the Bahá'í in heaven here in your thread. I like those jokes.

 

[Trailblazer]

I certainly did not choose to stay in the living hell I was in while I grew up in an abusive home. I was trapped, and no one helped me. I could have run away, and I did once when I was 14 years old, but I was eventually found hours later and brought back to my living hell prison. I was never punished for running away because the police were involved, and my parents didn't want the police to get suspicious and call CPS if they saw any bruises on me. My parents made up some cockamamie story about how we had argued the night before and I ran away because I was upset about it. I think what also saved my neck is that I went along with their story, pretended to be sorry, apologized, and pretended as if my parents were the best parents in the world and I was their stubborn and rebellious daughter. I had suicidal thoughts when I was a teenager, but I didn't have the nerve to go through with ending my life.

*WINNER*

For some people that is their life, and just because they are adults that does not mean they can get out of the living hell they are in. You were just lucky.
There is no magic wand. There are only kind people like you who have compassion and understanding and are willing to be their friends.

 

[Trailblazer]

@Trailblazer, I think you should post your jokes about the Bahá'í in heaven here in your thread. I like those jokes.

I might do that later since it is very much related to my OP. What will heaven be like?

 

[Trailblazer]

I think it’s sad when people are unhappy. You’re entitled to your belief

If you think it is sad why don't you try to help them?

 

[Trailblazer]

Who said anything about unhappy anyway

You did.
You said: "I think it’s sad when people are unhappy."

 

[Jimmy]

You did.
You said: "I think it’s sad when people are unhappy."

No I didn’t see post 35 and 36

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that because the evidence shows that some people cannot find happiness.

So if you say to those people that they can find happiness that is as much as saying that it is their fault that they are not happy. That is judgmental.
Unless you have walked in their moccasins you cannot understand what another person has gone through or is going through now.

The difference between me and you is that I don't call anything in this life heaven, because it is not heaven, it is earth.
Earthly life cannot be heaven because it is earth.

This is not about impossible-to-reach expectations and then being disappointed. All people do not find happiness in this life, and even if they do, if it is material happiness it is fleeting becaue it is destined to end. If they find spiritual happiness that is different because that does not end.

There is much more to this life than material happiness. Life is a spiritual thing and you can find spiritual happiness even in this fleeting life.

That is not a choice and it is cruel and insensitive to say such a thing, as well as ignorant. People do not choose to be unhappy, that is so short-sighted. A friend of mine lost his wife of 46 years last summer and he also has other struggles in his life, none of which he has any control over. None of this was chosen. To tell a person who is suffering that they can 'choose' to be happy is ludicrous because feelings just are. They can do certain things to try to ameliorate their suffering but that doesn't always work.

People don't choose to be unhappy, you're right. But people can choose to be happy. Not necessarily happy every second of every day, but choose to live in happiness and make the most of life regardless of what has been lost.

The way I interpret those verses is that if we love this life so much that we live only for the things of this world then we lose eternal life, which is nearness to God, because all we think about are the things of this world (eat, drink, and be merry) and we lose sight of God.

That does not literally mean we should hate this life and not enjoy what there is in this life to enjoy, it only means that we should not be so attached to life in this world that we lose sight of God.

I am not telling you that you should hate your life. Unless you believe in God and an afterlife there is no reason why you would choose to live as these verses say.

I would agree that we shouldn't be attached to anything in life, including religion.

 

[Alien826]

Why would a belief cause heaven to be what it will be?

There is no claim of truth in what follows. I sometimes enjoy playing around with ideas.

If the afterlife is a place of some kind of energy, that could very well be true. It may be that the spirit beings can actually shape the energy into a more solid form, each person, or group of people, creating their own version of "heaven". This was set out in What Dreams May Come, the book and the movie. In the movie, the Robin Williams character finds himself in what is a like a huge painting. There's a conversation (I'm doing this from memory) where he asks a visitor something about the environment he is in and the answer is something like "Don't ask me, you created it".

there will be no time as we know it in this world

Do you have any idea what you mean by that? I'm not debating just interested. I hear that lot, but it seems to me that time is needed for anything to happen at all. When we move, for example, we are experiencing a series of changes to the world that need duration to exist. All kinds of variations are possible I suppose, like time moving faster or slower, but it it would not be apparent to the person experiencing it. Any thoughts?

 

[kadzbiz]

And you love to deflect.
How can you have evidence of something that does not exist?

Isn't that what you were doing instead of answering my question? I grew tired of you. Just tell me what evidence you have since that's what you claimed. I'd like to hear about it. The irony in your comment that I can't have evidence, but you can, is nauseating.

 

[Valjean]

Which heaven are we talking about?

 

[Trailblazer]

No I didn’t see post 35 and 36

What will heaven be like?

You cannot prove anything whatsoever. You are living in your own imginery world. I have proof here and now. It does not matter if I have proof. If heaven exists it exists. That is basic logic. Proof does not MAKE anything exist. Proof is just what some people want in order to believe...

www.religiousforums.com

 

[Shaul]

I don't think a lot of time should be spent trying to figure out what heaven will be like since we can't know in this realm. Although I do think it will be superlatively great, the details don't concern me. I trust it will literally be awesome. I think the time is better spent making the best use we can of our limited time in this world.

 

[Jimmy]

When I die I’ll come back here to heaven and live the exact same life I am living now. But it will all be new as I won’t remember this one!

 

[Trailblazer]

There is much more to this life than material happiness. Life is a spiritual thing and you can find spiritual happiness even in this fleeting life.

I agree.

People don't choose to be unhappy, you're right. But people can choose to be happy. Not necessarily happy every second of every day, but choose to live in happiness and make the most of life regardless of what has been lost.

Some people can, some people can't. Most people can make the most of life regardless of what has been lost, but that does not mean they will be happy. People usually adjust to a loss of a loved one slowly over time, and thye find things to be happy about, but it can take a long time.

Do you ever watch true crime shows? That is about all I watch on TV besides Law & Order. Some people never get over the loss of a loved one.
Sure, they have to go on but that doesn't mean they are happy.

I would agree that we shouldn't be attached to anything in life, including religion.

I agree, even about the religion.

 

[Trailblazer]

There is no claim of truth in what follows. I sometimes enjoy playing around with ideas.

If the afterlife is a place of some kind of energy, that could very well be true. It may be that the spirit beings can actually shape the energy into a more solid form, each person, or group of people, creating their own version of "heaven". This was set out in What Dreams May Come, the book and the movie. In the movie, the Robin Williams character finds himself in what is a like a huge painting. There's a conversation (I'm doing this from memory) where he asks a visitor something about the environment he is in and the answer is something like "Don't ask me, you created it".

I think there might be some truth to creating your own heaven wen you are in heaven, from some of the renditions of the afterlife I have read about.

Do you have any idea what you mean by that? I'm not debating just interested. I hear that lot, but it seems to me that time is needed for anything to happen at all. When we move, for example, we are experiencing a series of changes to the world that need duration to exist. All kinds of variations are possible I suppose, like time moving faster or slower, but it it would not be apparent to the person experiencing it. Any thoughts?

I think there will be some kind of time, but it won't be like the time we experience on this earth, as it is measured by the sun.

"A friend asked: “How should one look forward to death?”
‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered: “How does one look forward to the goal of any journey? With hope and with expectation. It is even so with the end of this earthly journey. In the next world, man will find himself freed from many of the disabilities under which he now suffers. Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours; their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call ‘time and place.’ Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation." ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London, pp. 95-96

 

[Trailblazer]

Isn't that what you were doing instead of answering my question? I grew tired of you. Just tell me what evidence you have since that's what you claimed. I'd like to hear about it. The irony in your comment that I can't have evidence, but you can, is nauseating.

I will answer your question, but you should also answer my question.
How can you have evidence for something that doesn't exist?

The evidence for the afterlife is what is in scriptures and also what is written in books about the afterlife which depict mediums who have communicated with spirits in the spiritual world. I know this will not be evidence for you, but it is evidence for me.

The Afterlife Revealed
Private Dowding

 

[Trailblazer]

Which heaven are we talking about?

Is there more than one?

 

[Truthseeker]

Heaven is on Earth, its form is whatever gives you peace of mind and bliss.

It can be on Earth, if you are close to God, in my opinion.

6. O SON OF BEING!
Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.
(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

 

[Truthseeker]

That's because they choose to stay in Hell.

If they choose to be far from God, then yes.

 

[Aupmanyav]

You will have your proof as soon as you die and realize YOU are not dead.

Again, no proof. The usual Abrahamic tactics. Trying to frighten a hard atheist with silly threats. Two silly quotes in bargain.

It's a good thing you are not a counselor.

A counselor who believes in heaven or hell, and God's wrath, will be a disaster.