Heaven is the place the worthy go to after death, rather than to hell. Heaven is a land of eternal pleasure and happiness, hell is eternal agony and fear.
Of course ‘worthy’ is open to interpretation. It often just means faithful, a true believer. Any amount of bad behaviour can be atoned if you really believe. More importantly you can’t get into heaven by being good on its own. A selfless life is but a ‘filthy rag’ in God’s eye if it isn’t accompanied by blind faith. No matter how kind and compassionate you are, you won’t get through heaven's gate if you don’t believe in it.
Whether I like it or not, my idea of heaven is intricate and complex. Something I categorically do not believe-in is rich in detail. It’s the result of being raised in a culture steeped in Christianity. While I can’t pretend to be greatly influenced by it I still resent the fact that such patent nonsense holds such a prominent position in my worldview.
Many otherwise shrewd people become uncomfortable at this point, and try to deflect the argument onto one of definitions: It all depends what you mean by heaven. Can’t heaven be a place on earth?...and so on, so for clarity I’ll pose it this way – Is there any evidence to suggest that another world follows this one, be it a western heaven or eastern reincarnation?
The answer of course is no. There’s far more evidence to suggest that our sentience dies along with our bodies, sometimes sooner. A product of the flesh, it rots with the flesh. Senility is the precise analogue of bodily decay, the mind following in the body’s wake. Far from eternal our sense-of-self is very much an earth-bound entity, with but a short time to live. There really isn’t much else to account for, certainly no grounds to wheel-in an afterlife.
So then the question of heaven becomes purely pragmatic: Is there any earthly justification for perpetuating myths about an afterlife? Clearly some think so. Some argue that the heaven myth provides strength and comfort to the living, notably the bereaved. People derive comfort from the idea that loved ones are alive and well in another dimension, possibly to be reacquainted upon death.
But of course this cuts both ways. Just because some derive comfort doesn’t mean all do. Perhaps some feel angry and indignant that their God took their child or lover away, rather than sad chance. Perhaps others worry the loved one didn’t make it into heaven at all, or might even return to haunt them – hardly comforting beliefs.
Moreover is it always a good thing to be comforted? While heaven might help some to get back to the business of living, presumably other recoveries are retarded by it. Perhaps some feel such loyalty to the spirit of the dead that they forego seeking a new lover or new child. While they dream opportunity slips by.
After comfort, the next defence is the supposed moral usefulness of heaven: Even if heaven and hell don’t exist we still need to believe in them if we are to act morally on Earth. Without the threat of hellfire, and the reward of heaven, we would will rape and pillage and invade each others countries.
But of course these things do happen and heaven-believers are often the worst culprits. As with comfort, there isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest that those who believe in hellfire are less likely to create it on Earth, and reams of examples to the contrary.
There is no reason to assume the net effect of heaven belief is an increase in human happiness. There is no reason to believe it is a force for good in general. When you look at all the things your mind has to sacrifice in order to believe in heaven its value seems dubious in any sense.
Part II in progress...
