What do you wish that your own Heaven or afterlife looked like?

[KlinkyCoder]

What would you like your own personal vision of Heaven or the afterlife to be like? I grew up Christian, but I couldn't relate to the "conventional" Christian vision that Heaven was a place where your only feeling and desire was worshiping God for eternity. Not because God shouldn't be loved or worshiped - he should. But is this all God can do for us?

Anyway, I'd like to vision it as similar to down here, but in a more positive direction. Most concepts and institutions created by man will still exist (except for murdering and other graphical or sexual kinds of violence and non-consensualism), positions and institutions of people like different countries, leaders, are still a thing, but if you don't like living in one community you are free to move to another like how it's supposed to be in theory down here. There are still going to be rich/poor people, those of different social statuses, etc. the difference is that we will all mutually love God and neighbor above all else.

That's my personal idea of what I'd like anyway.

[call_me_scar]

I would be back in high school but I'd only take classes I personally find interesting like history, archery or art. Of course I wouldn't be single in this fantasy and anything i would want would be free but if I so choose I could jump out of that world and jump into any scenario I would want

[Anonymous]

I'm atheist now, but I was born in a Christian family and I was interested in Islam for sometime, according to quran, if you (men) reach heaven (jannat), they will receive big breated virgins to have sex with for eternity and never ending wine.
https://quran. com/78/31Verses 31 to 40 talks about the heaven.

[Opinion Owner]

So I don't have any ideas of heaven because I believe such a place doesn't exist.

[HighlyVolatile]

The conventional ideas of paradise actually horrify me. If there's such a thing I would want it to be filled with challenges and goals and struggles, like Valhalla.

[KlinkyCoder]

I don't believe in Valhalla but I'd be interested in learning about the concept.

[HighlyVolatile]

I also lack much knowledge about Norse mythology but to my basic understanding, it's like eternal training and fighting and feasting.

I've always been a bit of an oddball type but I'm a bit allergic to the most conventional forms of relaxation. It's something I have to compromise a bit with my wife on vacations since she might want to sunbathe and relax at a swimming pool while I want to play sports or do something exhilarating and challenging. That's actually more my idea of a vacation and even paradise.

[HighlyVolatile]

I tend to find the deepest of meanings though in struggles. So an existence absent struggles and any form of suffering is one I'd find meaningless rather than meaningful. It frightens me to imagine such an existence.

[HighlyVolatile]

I'm not religious though although my mother tried to raise me a Christian. I think I was the oddest kid around though in that the idea of paradise almost frightened me as much as the idea of hell.

[KlinkyCoder]

I wouldn't say "frightened" for me, but still not very motivatingly exciting. All I heard about was the mushy stories of streets made of silver and gold, getting to see everyone you miss who died previously, enjoying God's prescience, but that was pretty much it. You get the equivalent of receiving a holy lobotomy for the rest of eternity. Why can't God just say "Okay, since you desire X, you get X" without any hesitation or "maybe". Down here, I don't see God saving us from something unless maybe he is using a proxy, but even then he doesn't want to show himself visibly, or certain things are a barrier to saving from him. And no matter what, there are certain things that are still awful.

[HighlyVolatile]

That mushy stuff also turned me off a bit, like the idea that God is all-loving. I think if I have a personal idea of God -- even as an atheist allergic to supernatural claims but in a metaphorical sense like the most ideal being -- I prefer all-wise to all-loving... and paradise to be a continuation of the sorts of struggles and challenges we find in this life.

[HighlyVolatile]

I do like youthfulness though. I start to miss it as I grow older, like being sharp, learning more quickly, having a body that recovers more quickly from injury. I would at least prefer to be forever young than forever old. Not a child though free of responsibilities and the need for critical thought. Say my late 20s. And not a superhero. I want some weaknesses. But I want enough strengths to have a decent fighting chance, not a guarantee, to accomplish my goals and overcome any challenges along the way.

[KlinkyCoder]

Although I liked how the medieval Catholic church launched the crusades, that was a badass moment.

[HighlyVolatile]

That's where we got some of the more romantic and gentler ideas of chivalry and even the derivation of a gentleman to my understanding. The crusaders went out on their crusades and the ladies in waiting had to take care of the noble's keeps. When the crusaders returned, they were so battle-hardened by the war that they didn't know how to touch women, talk to them. So it was like teaching a battle-hardened beast to be gentle once more: teaching a lion to retract its claws when touching one who is not an enemy.

[KlinkyCoder]

And I heard before about how I am not able to enjoy the flesh and pleasures of the world down here, when those same pleasures will most likely be done away or not needed anymore in Heaven. That's one of the parts that piss me off more. And if anything, desiring those pleasures is probably a barrier to getting to Heaven in the first place.

It's like being invited to a banquet with the most exquisite and tempting food where everyone is allowed to eat it at the table but you can't eat it at all, and the banquet ends and you wish you had that great food but missed out and there will not be any more banquets like it because they are "no longer needed" anymore.

If it's true that those "fleshy" sensual pleasures are inherently evil or corrupted, then why did God create man with biological desires in the first place or allow them to develop such biological desires? Also if God wanted people to never be hungry, reproduce asexually, etc. he could have, yet here we are now.

[FunkyMonkee]

I already asked that 2 weeks ago and couldn't get a decent answer.