The Implications Of Heaven, The Soul, And Eternity

[Guest Mr. XC]

Lets start with some definitions:

 

Eternal: Without beginnings or endings. Thus, it is equivalent to the mathematical term infinity.

 

Soul: A nonphysical part of a human that goes to heaven or hell (or for those Christians who do not believe in hell, the soul is discarded if the soul is not sent to heaven). It is possible that the soul is eternal.

 

Heaven: A place that is eternal.

 

Assuming that:

 

A. On Earth, we experience time, which is not eternal.

 

B. A person is judged at the end of their earthly life.

 

C. The outcome of that judgment determines if the soul goes to Heaven or hell/discarded.

 

We now have a contradiction. Something that has no beginning or end cannot be sent from one place to another based on an event that occurs in time. If a soul is sent to Heaven after a judgment on Earth, which has time (beginnings and endings), the the soul technically has a beginning in Heaven, which violates our definitions. You cannot "begin" in the middle Heaven's existence. It has no time. Technically, it is even invalid to say that Heaven has a middle in its existence as that implies a beginning and ending (time.)

 

We have several possibilities:

 

1. I have defined something wrong (help me out here).

 

2. Christianity is a bunch of fiction. There is no God or some other non-Christian religion is true.

 

3. Christians have an inaccurate understanding of Heaven and many other things. Luke 17:20-21 says "... the kingdom of God is within (or among) you." implying that our souls are already in Heaven. Taken into account our definitions above, this could mean that our souls never left Heaven and will never leave Heaven. This also implies that this world is a different plane from Heaven because we would have a Heaven part and a physical part simultaneously. The idea of judgment, hell, and being "saved" would be totally false because they conflict with the above. It is possible that Jesus' teachings were subverted for political purposes (certain groups altered the texts to make the church more powerful when Jesus' original teachings made the church powerless and those groups destroyed all other information that they could get their hands on). This seems to agree with the gnostic texts (early Christian writings) prior to their corruption by the "church" although I am a light reader of that subject.

 

4. Other? Please share.

 

I expect that the truth will find its way to the general public eventually (especially with science, the Internet, and other technological advances), although I am impatient. It would be so nice to see all those Christians to use their brain and find something else to spend there time on within the next 20 years or so. I can dream, I suppose.

[white_raven23]

4. Somewhat of an amendment of point 2.

 

Religion intended to serve the masses holds no truth. There may be a god as yet entirely unknown and undefinable by the "standards" to which we as mortal beings comprehend. Such a supreme being, would doubtless be congnizant of this condition, and so "judgment" as we understand it, is neither reasonable, nor just, and therefore not applicable.

 

I would never claim to have insight or answers regarding either our purpose, or the nature of the After, as above I've somewhat emphasized how little we really know about such a thing when we strip away the religion paradigm imprint on our minds (in which we assume certain "facts" without evidence....aka faith). Because the truth of the matter is honestly unknown, beware the one who claims to know. They have a bridge they'd like to sell you.