[Vision2020] I like to think there really is a Heaven . . .

[Art Deco]

Here is a classic read on the subject:  [Not for the tender minded!!!!]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Illusion-Immortality-Corliss-Lamont/dp/0804463778

Another thought:  Do we get to choose who we hang around with in heaven?
Or are we obliged to be with all the horse's asses we've known?

w.



On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 4:15 PM, Sue Hovey <suehovey at moscow.com> wrote:

>   Interesting how our religious ideas change with the passage of time.  I
> don’t mean to say that we all change in the same direction, but for me
> growing up in a Southern Baptist culture with a firm belief in heaven and
> hell (with a lot of Bible study to support me, and Donovan you know where
> you were going, according to us) to being perfectly comfortable shedding a
> belief in an eternal life in whatever domicile one gets assigned, is where
> I now fit, both emotionally and intellectually.  It was Socrates who said
> if death is nothing more than a nice long sleep, that works for me.  Well,
> it works for me, too.  As a Christian, for many years I believed that we
> were headed for heaven (some of us) and everyone else was assigned
> somewhere else.  Every time  I read Elie Wiesel’s *Night, *the paradox is
> further proof  that should I believe I am headed for heaven, and a Jew with
> a faith much stronger than mine would ever be, is not, no longer works.
>
> I might not be quite so put off if religions were not by nature sexist.
> The OT, with only one exception of which I can think, defines females, not
> by their intellect, but by their anatomy and biological function, which is
> always subordinate to males.
>
> I no longer have to deal with religious dissonance...that’s very nice;
> only political and human conundrums take up my time, and that’s plenty for
> me.  Of course all my relatives have me on their prayer lists...but Doug
> Wilson’s posturing is irrelevant.
>
> Sue H.
>
>  *From:* Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, September 09, 2013 11:41 AM
> *To:* Nielsen, Ralph <nielsen at uidaho.edu> ; vision2020 at moscow.com
> *Subject:* Re: [Vision2020] I like to think there really is a Heaven . . .
>
>  Ralph,
>
> If nobody goes to Heaven or Hell it would be because it doesn't exist. I
> believe Jesus died on a Cross so I could enter a "place" with God despite
> my countless personal flaws. Although I have no evidence to present this
> case to others, so it can only be presented as a personal belief.
>
>
> I know many people who continue to do good even though they are long dead.
> If God didn't allow people to do good at any point, he would be stopping
> good from happening, which would make a good God a contradiction. So I
> would not honor such a God, even if it meant he smite me with a
> thunderbolt. There is no such thing as time outside this Universe.  So once
> we "have" existed, we will always "exist" in the spiritual sense.
>
>
> Donovan J. Arnold
>   *From:* "Nielsen, Ralph" <nielsen at uidaho.edu>
> *To:* "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> *Cc:* Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>; Tom Hansen <
> thansen at moscow.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, September 9, 2013 10:59 AM
> *Subject:* I like to think there really is a Heaven . . .
>
>  Beautiful thoughts, Donovan and Tom. But don't count on them coming true.
>
> In the Hebrew religion, in the Old Testament/Hebew Bible, nobody goes to
> heaven because God does not want people to go to heaven and live forever
> with him. In fact, he doesn't want people to live forever at all. That is
> why Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden before they would
> find the tree of life, eat of it and live forever (Genesis 3:19-24).
>
> In the entire Old Testament/Hebew Bible only two people went to heaven:
> Enoch and Elijah. They were taken up alive because when we die we cease to
> exist.
>
> This means that any good we want to do we have to do now, while we are
> alive.
>
> Ralph Nielsen
> ______________________________________
>
> Me too. For me it would be  to meet again and talk to all the people I have ever taken care of without a disability, advanced age or dementia being in the way of our conversation, and to see them happy and healthy with God and their loved ones.   Donovan J. Arnold
>
> ________________________________
>
>
> The things one thinks of at 3 in the morning, such as . . .
>
> I like to think that there really is a Heaven that you enter upon your passing and it begins with the happiest day of your life.
>
> For me . . . I would be sitting with friends at a table at "My Brother's Place" (a tavern in Newport, Rhode Island) in March of 1973.  I would ask that attractive redhead sitting at the next table to dance . . . and it would start all over again.
>
> And you?  What would Heaven be to you?
>
> Tom Hansen
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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