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Heaven

12:45 / 25.11.03

What would your personal version of Heaven be like? How should a perfect world or universe look and function? What would you want to be doing, experiencing etc for eternity? Would it be rolling about with nymphs and shepherds in lovely scenery, a big new universe to explore, a magnificent project that you never complete, or a never ending supply of booze, fags and Pringles in front of a big telly with all your favourite programmes on?

Or does the very idea of Heaven and an eternal life in it put the willies up you something chronic?

13:30 / 25.11.03

I recently received a cd-r from a friend that had the Talking Heads song "Heaven" on it. The chorus goes: "Heaven is a place/Where nothing ever happens." That's as accurate a definition as I've heard.

I tend to believe more in reincarnation, though.

Cheap. Easy. Cruel.

13:44 / 25.11.03

Heaven, for me, would not be any one specific thing. If it is unchanging, it is stagnant. It would be a place where I was surrounded by my friends and loved ones, with plenty to do, and a constant supply of airplanes. Definitely the airplanes. They have to be the big, slow-moving, cargo type with big doors that I can jump out of. Oh, and curvy winding roads that never have any traffic on them. And a big shop, filled with the latest in CNC metal working tools, and a never ending supply of billet steel and aluminum. That about sums it up.

13:46 / 25.11.03

It popped into my head while I was on the tube once, after I saw a strange reflection of something in the glass. Everyone I have ever cared about would be there, and everything would be okay again between us, and we'd be glad to see each other.

I guess it would almost be like Geoff Ryman's Lust, but not as hollow and empty as that, they'd be more like the real versions of the people.

15:19 / 25.11.03

Or does the very idea of Heaven and an eternal life in it put the willies up you something chronic?

bingo

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

13:21 / 26.11.03

Bingo as in : your heaven involves willes up you?

14:57 / 26.11.03

wow, I missed that one.

um, bingo.

15:37 / 26.11.03

Putting "what is Heaven like" into google brings up some great stuff:

"You might ask why are there vehicles in heaven? It is quite a ways from the throne area of God our Father in the center of the city of Zion, out to any one of the twelve gates of the city. So, if you need to go to places in paradise, it is an extensive distance and the transportation vehicles get you there in a timely manner."

Scroll to the end of this one for an actual bible description of the Christian version (though I'm guessing probably not the definitive one): it's a big city covered in fancy jewels. Has anybody got any links to descriptions of other religions' Heavens?

Steelwelder:

"Heaven, for me, would not be any one specific thing. If it is unchanging, it is stagnant."

Yeah, it's very difficult to imagine a perfect world that isn't incredibly boring. I think my ideal Heaven would also have to be one that changed, one with problems to be solved, things to be built. But problems that could be put off for a thousand years or so, I wouldn't want there to be too much urgency about it. Even then, I'd hate knowing that it was all going on in a big safe bubble, in a world that had been set up for me by some higher authority. I'd love to shape our world in such a way that we could spend all our time dicking about, doing stuff we enjoyed, but I'd hate to be placed in one with a guaranteed future, however much I was able to change it. I'd feel like an adult in a nursery.

bitchiekittie:

"bingo"

Why is that, bk?

16:04 / 26.11.03

I'm not sure how to say this without being offensive, so I'll just blurt it out, rude bk style: I see the thought of heaven and all the accompanying religious business as more than a little ridiculous, silly even.

so, say I go about attempting to separate myself from that bias to answer your question, and truly imagine heaven as a real place where all the good people go. I was taught (in private school) that people like my parents, who lived together before they were married, would go to hell (a teacher actually told me this, and another childs mother said it in my presence). I was taught that many things that friends, and that I personally have done since, would send us to hell. so, looking at heaven as the place I was taught, as a child, that it would be, and finding that I had for some strange reason ended up there...it seems like it would be full of assholes that I wouldn't want to be around when I was alive, and hardly anyone that I knew. it's run by this turd who lets - or causes - really horrible things happen to real live people every day, and has really fucked up views on the way people should behave. and I'm supposed to spend eternity licking this guys bum and playing nice with these goody goody jackasses?

hence, the willies.

16:16 / 26.11.03

and, I think it should be admitted, as it's fairly obvious in my above post, that I'm pretty goddamned angry about the smug righteousness that just about all extremely religious people seem to carry about (and I think it's fair to say that only "extremely religious people" honestly think they're going to spend eternity frolicking in the heavenly gardens of god). I'm sick to death of the way that many people, especially in this country, use god and religion as a way to justify their prejudices, and always have. if you don't buy the whole peace and love bit, down to your core, for absolutely everyone, I don't think you should be allowed the luxury of carte blanche respect, respectability and virtue that folks here in the states seem to get when they tout their devotion to and love of god.

not that you asked about all that, mind. I’m just unable to imagine such frolicking with a calm and level head, is what I'm saying

16:22 / 26.11.03

I don't want to go to heaven. I like it here, despite everything.

19:48 / 26.11.03

...I was just about to post that. My heaven is infinite reincarnation.

18:07 / 27.11.03

Bingo.

That is, heaven is right here.

With willies up you.