Sometimes I like to go through the search terms that people use and end up on my blog. It’s interesting, useful, and sometimes hilarious. I’m not really sure how “teach my wife to blow me” ended up finding a link to SR…
Anyhoodle, the title of this post is a search term that caught my eye. What if Heaven doesn’t exist?
I’m going to take this from a position of someone who isn’t an expert in theology (though I’ve studied it quite a bit) or a philosopher (there are some experts here at SkepticINK), but from just me. Let’s start with some defining questions.
What would it mean for a random person’s life if heaven didn’t exist? Well, honestly probably not a whole heck of a lot. Heaven is that invisible carrot. It’s the treat at the end of a long, painful life. It’s telling a 6-year-old that he’d better be good or Santa won’t come… in January. It’s a totally nebulous concept. We have stories, but we have no stories about what heaven is like from anyone who has claimed to have been there, much less any evidence.
In my experience, most people have some idea of what heaven is like. It’s what they WANT heaven to be like. Some people want an end to suffering. Some want to watch sinners burn in hell. Some want mansions (John 14:2 KJV). Some want diamond cities and streets of gold (Revelations). Some, just want to see their loved ones again.
But what does heaven mean for us that are still alive? Absolutely nothing. The only way to heaven is to be dead. Even the Bible only talks of one person who went to heaven without being dead (and it wasn’t Jesus). So heaven really doesn’t have an effect on us here in the living world. Except as it is a nebulous promise, with no support. The Nigerian bank scams have the same relative worth and at least we know that Nigeria exists.
What does it mean for the dead Christians? Well, first, there are lots of groups of Christians and several of them have pretty strict requirements on how to get into heaven. So, the requirements are pretty vague and/or arbitrary. So, there may even be some Christians to whom heaven is meaningless even after death.
What does it mean for those who get into heaven? Who knows? Again, there are no reports of what it’s actually like. My own religious upbringing talked about 24/7 singing praises to god. Well, given my voice, that would be pure hell for those around me. My upbringing also talked about no sin, no suffering, no pain. Well, that’s interesting, because (I’ve said this before) that’s what makes us human. If there is a heaven and my grandfather sees me as an atheist, is he sad? Or can he just not see me at all and has forgotten about me? I guarantee you, my grandfather would have preferred to remember me in hell than forget me in heaven. Honestly, my grandfather was better than heaven deserves.
Do people just forget their spouses, children, parents who don’t get into heaven? That would make them less than who they were. They aren’t/can’t be themselves anymore. They would be just mindless praising robots. God could have made that easily enough, why give us even the semblance of free will, given that the ultimate reward is becoming less than what we are.
Finally, heaven is the ultimate in discriminatory cliques. It’s the greatest fraternity/sorority ever. Almost everyone wants in, but Rush lasts your entire life and you really don’t know if you’re going to get in until you’re dead.
So what if heaven doesn’t exist?
It doesn’t mean that you should be a immoral, unethical jerk. It just means that this life is the only one you have, live it. Treating people as you would want them to treat you is a pretty good philosophy to live by (and it was around long before the authors of the Bible stole it).
Humans (and other animals) have empathy. It’s an evolutionary result. It means that we can act as if others have feelings and that others can be important to us. We have a society that sets rules about what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t. If there’s no heaven, it doesn’t mean that those rules still aren’t a good idea.
But it’s not heaven that sets those rules. It’s not God or Thor or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It’s just us. We set the rules and as we develop as a culture and a species, those rules change.
It’s not heaven that tells us killing other humans is wrong. It’s biology. Killing other members of one’s species is a quick way to extinction (with some variation for species that generally have massive harems). We have empathy for fellow humans to keep our species alive.
All those things that people think come from god, don’t. They come from us. Heaven isn’t a treat at the end of life. It really doesn’t exist. So enjoy your life. Be kind to your fellow organisms on this tiny little ball of dirt (except for mosquitoes, you can hate mosquitoes all you want). Do things that would make your children and your neighbors proud to be associated with you.
