Is There Any Logic Behind Heaven?

Written by Confusion support on September 26, 2008 – 11:25 am -

I consider myself religious, in that when you look up the definition, I fit it. But as most thinking religious people do, I at times question the logic-ness of there being a heaven.

Especially for those on the edge of questioning the value or belief of religion at all, one of the most mind-numbing and confusing things you can think about is heaven, and if there is one what it could possibly consist of! Others simply chose the copout, “you must have faith, and only god knows what the plans are,” etc., and go on with their lives. The rest of us prefer to torture ourselves contemplating the logical believe in some of these traditional religious ideas.

Let’s think of the logic behind heaven.

Maybe heaven is just eternal rest in the ground with not a care in the world. Only…once the body is dead there is no capacity to think anymore, so what would be the mechanism for being able to think after death. If you can’t think, how can you experience any kind of pleasure (or pain?) Many people consider this the prime logical reason there can’t be a “heaven” as is commonly mentioned in religious works, although that may be a weak argument which needs more meat to it.

If heaven was a place where you meet up with your long gone family and have a great time talking to each other it would make little logical sense. In fact being able to talk and think in heaven can’t possibly be true because any time creatures such as us are allowed to do that we eventually have disagreements. Obviously there would not be any arguments in heaven. If speaking would not be possible, then what would be the point (or pleasure) of seeing your family and merely being able to wave to them or pass them by. So we have to rule this type of heaven out.

Let’s say heaven is a place where you don’t see your family but you get to live in a pleasant place near God who rules over you and takes care of all the problems. You don’t get to speak to anyone or even think (because thinking would eventually cause problems as well, just like it does in life). But you get to have a peaceful existence the rest of eternity. Since you can’t think you would be simply wondering around in mindless glory, not a care in the world. This sounds lovely but would it be so thrilling to be classified as heaven! What would these souls be doing all day and night?

What if you take something on Earth that you find extremely pleasurable like getting a massage and imagine that is what heaven is, perhaps a continuous massage for all time. A massage of which you never tire, like you might here in life. Could that be it, would it be that simple? Still you wouldn’t be allowed to think because your mind would start to wonder and eventually you would think of things like sex, drugs or rock and roll. Since there is little point to a heaven like this, we have to rule it out.

So what could heaven be that would make any logical sense? The bible indicates in places that heaven is more like waiting around after death until Jesus comes back and raises all the good people up to live in a perfect world with him. This makes little sense as well because it indicates that the bad people simply would not get the privilege of being raised from the dead. So what? Who would care about that since you aren’t going to know if you are dead, and still in the ground, or not? Punishment can’t simply be the absence of winning a prize. And it’s not like you are going to be sitting around in a closed glass booth eternally jealous of all the others who got to be raised onto a new perfect world, while you are stuck with the bad people in this little room forever.

It doesn’t get any more confusing in life than thinking about what heaven is. It really makes little logical sense if you think too much about it…it’s almost easier to conjure up what hell might be…