What Is Heaven?
Cleaning up horse poo a couple of days ago, I was having one of those imagined conversations with my daughter, you know the sort you have in your head, we all do that, don’t we?
She was asking about heaven. What is heaven?
And I was stumped.
As an athiest I find so much about religion difficult to get my head around. Heaven is a prime example
Assuming, for the sake of this conversation, that there is such a place as heaven and that all who are reading this are going there, what is it like? Is it the same for everyone or does everyone get their own special heaven?
Is everybody that ever died, ever, in the whole world, in heaven? (or the ones that were good at least) Isn’t it going to be quite busy? It must be quite a big place to fit all those people in, do we get a map?
Are there lots of areas, each a different kind of heaven, something to suit everyone, or is it all sitting around on clouds playing harps?
What is there to do in heaven? Because to be honest I need things to do. Whether it writing, walking, reading, whatever, I’m not very good at just doing nothing. Do they have the internet?
Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick enitrely? When we die and transcend to heaven do we change and become something different, some sort of etheral spriit that enjoys just sort of floating around all day?
Is it a bit like taking drugs? Being so high that sitting around on a cloud for the rest of eternity seems like the best thing ever?
Are there animals in heaven?
Will we recognise each other?
What will we look like?
Are there animals in heaven?
Is it written anywhere, in any holy books, what to expect when we get there? Are there any explanations for it?
I’m completely serious, what is heaven?
And what did you or do you plan to tell your children when they start asking questions?
I'm Heather, an ex expat, now back in blighty and living in Lancashire. Which is just like Lapland only less snowy...and stuff.
ooh me first I think – well Heather the teachings of my church are that heaven will be on this very earth when Jesus returns to us. We believe that when we die we are in an ‘eternal sleep’, a sort of limbo where our souls will wait for that time and we will then recognise each other but have new bodies and the earth will change and become paradise. We believe we are all parts of ‘the body of christ’ and that when he returns we will be complete. Hope tht helps but it probably doesn’t! We only have adult baptism in our faith by the way which means those who sign up do so knowingly and in the act of being submerged in water we come out ‘born again’ and with the holy spirit inside us, so we have then awakened and accepted our God. You will notice I slipped in ‘born again’ there because, yes, I am one of those that people are wary of – a born again christian.
I am pretty sure they have great wine but no hangovers in heaven.
I’m all for the sterotype of heaven being a lovely serene place full of fluffy clouds where you can do anything you like all day & meet up with all your dearly departed relatives and family pets.
Who knows if it really is, but i like that image, and it’s one I hope to pass down to Dylan – I think you have to make up a ‘nice’ idea – the end is inevitable for us all, but I don’t think there’s any need for it to be a gloom-fest for kids.
Knowing my luck though, D will take after his daddy & be all ‘don’t be daft mummy, you die, you’re worm food, end of.’
Crikey – that’s a biggy. In all honesty I have no idea and am having my own faith shaken a little at the moment anyway. Not sure what I believe any more. I’d like to think Heaven is a different form of life – where we still have to learn things and progress as human beings. I’d like to think all my relatives and family would be there. It would be nice to see my grandparents again.
Can’t help you out here. I’m a non-believer and have been ever since being a choirboy and realising the vicar had wandering hands and, “No, you know what you can do with Murray mint, you perv!” My choirboy career was short.
My children know my views on “God” and religion. I’ve never told them what to believe however (Apart from, “when you start earning money a good person will give 35% of their salary every month to their father. Amen.”)
But just in case there is a heaven and I’ve made a very big booboo I’d like to say that a cool God would forgive me and let me into the garden of paradise and “do I get my pick of Page 3 girls?”
We actually havnt talked about heaven and hell yet, they understand death, but we explain it to them as it is the same as before they were born, just nothing!
When my Neice’s baby boy died, we just said he was with my dad (who is also dead!)
It is interesting, i love learning about other peoples religions, no idea why but i find it all rather fascinating. so, when you come back, is it just you born again Christians or all Christians? Is there going to be enough room on the Earth for everyone? what happens to the people still alive when he comes back? so many questions…sorry.
that would be my kind of heaven.
I agree with that in a sense, we ARE all going to die so there is little point about imagining up all sorts of horrible ends. What worries me about it all is that whenever I try to imagine it in my head, the place is so full of people, think how many have died already, that it is more like a slum with too many people all huddled together, and too quickly cobbled together shelters made form bits of tarpaulin and old rope.
I’m odd aren’t I?
It is a nice thought, i like the idea of it, I just worry about the practicalities of it all. wont it be too busy, too many people or souls? how will we be able to find the people we know? and all sorts of other really daft things. My brain is a dark and frightening place sometimes.
Only 35%? In my religion it is at least 50%.
Ahh, so you’d quite like a ’7 virgins’ kind of heaven al la Terry Pratchet. Except less of the virgin
I think he makes a lot of sense on the subject. Each goes to the heaven that they believe in, some to get 7 virgins and lots of booze, others to sit on a cloud and play a harp. I know which one i’d go for.
I don’t envy you at all. I’ve had to have a similar discussion with a very inquisitive 4 year old. I too am Athiest and struggle when my little one comes home from school telling me about the religion she’s been learning about (Easter for example). I don’t think it’s fair to tell her that I think it’s all a load of cobblers, she has to make her own mind up when she’s old enough, but the discussion about Heaven was a tough one. I let her lead the way on the conversation to be honest. She says her grandad lives with the angels in the clouds and he’s happy. Then both her gerbils died within days of each other, which lead to the question is there a gerbil heaven and is it the same heaven where grandad lives with the angels? We decided that heaven is whatever you want it to be. All the nice things you dream about and would like to have here on earth but can’t for whatever reason. She named a big list of toys obviously and insisted that they would be in heaven. Then she asked can you still see everyone down on earth that haven’t died. I told her that it would be a nice thing if you could, then you could make sure everyone is ok and because you could still see them, you wouldn’t miss them so much, because that’s one of her biggest fears, not being able to see her family.
Good luck…
Son has decided he’s an atheist already but I don’t suppose that will get me off the hook completely. He knows my dad is dead, and has a resonably morbid fascination with it but heaven has never been mentioned or asked about, just the colour that his bones will be and whether or not he will be all eaten up by the worms yet… maybe it’s a boy thing?
That seems to the best way to explain it, i think, as somewhere that dead people all hang out together. Nothing, even as an atheist, is a hard thing to explain. how do you tell a child that?
So you have grandad, a couple of gerbils and a huge sack of toys waiting for her? It’s quite a nice thought really, lol.
I am not looking forward to this inquisitive stage, I’m terrified i’m going to say the wrong thing and scar her for life.
really? oh i could do those questions, lots of fun time spent on Google finding out the answers lol
Don’t be afraid to tell her you don’t know. This is one thing I’ve learned with Isabelle. She has an above average comprehension for a 4 year old and will continually barrage me with questions till she gets an answer her logic will accept. I have to tell her I don’t know but I will find out (and mean it, not in an offhand way) because she will come back and ask me again. You won’t scar her for life LOL.. you can’t be right all of the time (despite us all wanting to be) I now sound like my mother and am going to lie down in a darkened room until it passes
a large glass of wine should help lol. Good advice though, about admitting
you don’t know.
Oh that’s a tough one. Marie never asked that really. I like to think that we all turn into stars and just glow at night. That’s not heaven but what happens after you die. I’m an atheist too and down believe in heaven and hell. I think it’s all just the biggest bribery of all. Behave or you’ll burn in hell after you die!
Yeah, i’m with you on that one. It would be nice to believe but I just
don’t.
hahaha! Well,a little.
Don’t worry though- it’s in the sky, so limitless scope for multi-storey heavenly continents. I’m sure it’s pretty comfy
that’s where I have loyalty problems with my own church – the plan is that only through accepting Jesus can you join the paradise club – but as there are plenty of worthy atheists and others who all deserve to join in too I think there will be room for us all, it would be daft if there wasn’t really. It shouldn’t matter if you signed the right contract so much as whether you are leading the right lifestyle in my opinion.
I pretty much blogged on this when i talked about telling the truth.
I’m a Christian.
I tend to throw the question right back ‘what do you think?’ also I explain that no-one knows, as no one has come back to tell us.
I don’t really believe we will have physical bodies though. But some thing much much better.
Josie had a what happens when we die writing prompt in her workshop a while back. I bet you could find all kinds of answers. I kind of picture this loss of earthly concerns (maybe there isn’t internet, but we won’t know there isn’t because we’re not concerned about it) kind of heaven. This is my take on it http://www.readilyaparent.com/2010/03/heaven-is-boring.html Tattooed Mommy had a good one too.
Fortunately my kids haven’t started asking really particular questions (I remember asking my Mom if I’d be allowed to wear shorts and climb trees in heaven), but they do talk about and about dying – a lot. They’re kind of morbid.
Truthfully the bible doesn’t really say a lot specifically about heaven. I remember talks of battles in heaven which kind of turns me off as I had hoped it would be peaceful.
Decent tea in proper teapots, semi-skimmed milk, no sugar.
My Mother in Law died recently and although my 4 year old son doesn’t really get what’s happened, he does ask where his Nanny is. We’re athiests too so I found it hard to give an explanation. In the end I settled for telling him she is with the angels in the sky. Even though I don’t believe in God I don’t believe that there is nothing after death. He seemed happy enough with what I said but I expect he’ll ask more as he gets older. I’d better start thinking of what to say!
Milk in first huh?
I can’t think of any other way of explaining it to them really, especially
since that is what will be taught in schools where I live.
I don’t think it could be heaven without animals. I think the ‘what do you think’ route is a good one, i will have to remember that. do you have a link to your post?
I will come over an have a read soon. Battles in heaven doesn’t sound very heavenly…
not sure I’m clkever enough to do links – but it’s here http://tattooedmummy.blogspot.com/2010/03/lies-to-tell-small-peopleor-what-is.html enjoy
oooh who knew – it’s so clever it makes it a link!
I'm sort of grateful that I haven't had to deal with this yet. We haven't talked about religion. Around Christmas time, my father took my son for a walk around the corner and told him about “the baby Jesus.” When we passed the same house with the nativity scene, my kid starts mentioning Jesus. I'm like, WTF? How do you explain this crap to a barely-three-year-old?
I don't know what to say about heaven. I don't really believe in heaven in the sense of clouds and golden arches. (Wait, is it McDonald's?) I'd like some help with this one, too. Maybe I'll say, the beautiful place you go when you die. But I don't think he knows what dying is yet, and I'm not going to rush that explanation, either.
No. I think this stuff, too. I think, doesn't it get boring up there? If we don't have human strife, would we really enjoy all the beauty?
Umm, yeah, you can't really explain heaven with the whole dying thing i
guess. and that's not something I want to tackle until i have to. I do
think that explaining it all as angels and clouds is the easiest way to
explain it kids even though i am an atheist. Whats the point of filling
their heads with the darker stuff? Plenty of time for that when they're
older.
Oh i am glad it's not just me that has these thoughts lol