Enjoy the title of the song!
I’m quite sure I WILL get to Heaven without believing in God. Would only love to be able to prove it – to those on Earth.
[Capitals: Where there is a will, there is a way].
.-
I don’t want to go to heaven. Imagine the conversations you could have with the likes of Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell (JR and SR), Jim and Tammy Bakker and all the other televangelists. Perhaps John Calvin as well – if he was so fated. Nope, send me to hell with Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Samuel Clemens and all the other rowdies. Much better conversation and worth the torment.
@cjsm: I don’t imagine a Biblical, Christian heaven. Yes, would prefer their hell. Amused by your wish to meet Samuel Clemens instead of Mark Twain (I had to google the relationship!).
About heaven:
A man suddenly dies and comes to st Peter.
But he dies so suddenly, Peter has no credentials on him.
So, he is offered the choice, after a sneak preview. Seeing Hell, it looks like a big party is going on “but there are drawbacks” Peter says.
Then Heaven. It is rather fresh and when the man remarks on that, Peter says “It is too uneconomical to get the heating going for about a dozen-and-a-half souls”
Yeah…. So to really kill the joke, (since it needs to be put down), it’s kinda like the one about why cemeteries have such high fences… people are dying to get in.
That said, Mockingbird, you do happen to describe my general impression of what being dead will feel like (i.e. that it won’t feel like anything since I won’t be aware, or even “be” to experience it). Only real difference between birth and death is that in one case you can learn about the other side after the fact (birth+history). On the other hand, they’re the same since in both cases you never know what’s coming next, and can learn about what happened before from records.
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about an atheist who dies and goes to Heaven and discovers that God is infinitely bored and would like to die but doesn’t know how to kill Himself, and that the purpose of the the Heavenly Host (similarly bored) is to think think think until they can come up way to grant God His wish.
I’m not convinced. If you were to grant an animal eternal life in comfortable and stimulating conditions I doubt it would ever get bored and want to die. Humans are not so far above the other animals that sufficiently clever deity would be incapable of coming up with an eternal afterlife that we would find satisfying.
Or, for that matter, that it would be incapable of coming up with a highly effective Hell. One should never underestimate the capabilities of a vastly superior being.
Omniscient, right? Could be bad in combination with a mind that can suffer from boredom. Just a bit silly though, to sympathize with God like that. Like worrying about whether he’s comfortable in the chilly upper atmosphere.
A long-term resident complained to Jesus, “This is all so perfect, it is boring. I might just as well be in hell”.
Jesus replied, “Where do you think you are then?”
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
Jesus & Mo is one of the most wonderful things on the internet.. JT Eberhard
Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
I love jesusandmo.net cartoons - witty and sharp! Katha Pollitt
Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
...a wonderfully acid British cartoonist... Nick Cohen
I love the scrappy mockery of Jesus and Mo. Freedom of speech
includes the freedom to mock any person, any thing, any activity, and
any belief -- and J&M stands up for this unflinchingly Richard Stallman
...empowering, important and deeply progressive, not to mention hilarious... Council of Ex-Muslims
May 2, 2006
…. and if you DO believe, you are in for some real disappointment.
Sounds like a safe bet…
Enjoy the title of the song!
I’m quite sure I WILL get to Heaven without believing in God. Would only love to be able to prove it – to those on Earth.
[Capitals: Where there is a will, there is a way].
.-
I’m not sure I would get into heaven without faith. What I do know, is that once the time comes, I’ll be dying to find out.
I don’t want to go to heaven. Imagine the conversations you could have with the likes of Jimmy Swaggart, Jerry Falwell (JR and SR), Jim and Tammy Bakker and all the other televangelists. Perhaps John Calvin as well – if he was so fated. Nope, send me to hell with Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Samuel Clemens and all the other rowdies. Much better conversation and worth the torment.
@cjsm: I don’t imagine a Biblical, Christian heaven. Yes, would prefer their hell. Amused by your wish to meet Samuel Clemens instead of Mark Twain (I had to google the relationship!).
Alone in the dark – Remember what it was like waiting to be born? Well being dead will be just like that.
Or, alternatively…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_wsEMzDsSE
cjsm: What makes you think that Jimmy Swaggart & Co would get into Heaven?
By that logic, I’ll never get to Hell either. So, win-win?
About heaven:
A man suddenly dies and comes to st Peter.
But he dies so suddenly, Peter has no credentials on him.
So, he is offered the choice, after a sneak preview. Seeing Hell, it looks like a big party is going on “but there are drawbacks” Peter says.
Then Heaven. It is rather fresh and when the man remarks on that, Peter says “It is too uneconomical to get the heating going for about a dozen-and-a-half souls”
Yeah…. So to really kill the joke, (since it needs to be put down), it’s kinda like the one about why cemeteries have such high fences… people are dying to get in.
That said, Mockingbird, you do happen to describe my general impression of what being dead will feel like (i.e. that it won’t feel like anything since I won’t be aware, or even “be” to experience it). Only real difference between birth and death is that in one case you can learn about the other side after the fact (birth+history). On the other hand, they’re the same since in both cases you never know what’s coming next, and can learn about what happened before from records.
Dr…
And a half? xD
Evangelical idea of heaven:
(“Amazing Grace” – verse 4)
“When we’ve been there
Ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ll have no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun”
10,000 years of hymn-singing?!!
Sounds like hell to me!
Isaac Asimov wrote a short story about an atheist who dies and goes to Heaven and discovers that God is infinitely bored and would like to die but doesn’t know how to kill Himself, and that the purpose of the the Heavenly Host (similarly bored) is to think think think until they can come up way to grant God His wish.
I’m not convinced. If you were to grant an animal eternal life in comfortable and stimulating conditions I doubt it would ever get bored and want to die. Humans are not so far above the other animals that sufficiently clever deity would be incapable of coming up with an eternal afterlife that we would find satisfying.
Or, for that matter, that it would be incapable of coming up with a highly effective Hell. One should never underestimate the capabilities of a vastly superior being.
Omniscient, right? Could be bad in combination with a mind that can suffer from boredom. Just a bit silly though, to sympathize with God like that. Like worrying about whether he’s comfortable in the chilly upper atmosphere.
Jim Baerg: Thanks for introducing me to the comic strip, “Freefall”, which I have enjoyed getting to know.
(Your comment last week: December 1, 2020 at 5:34 pm)
A long-term resident complained to Jesus, “This is all so perfect, it is boring. I might just as well be in hell”.
Jesus replied, “Where do you think you are then?”
As long as we are discussing heaven & hell…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV5w262XvCU
Thank you Jim Baerg for sharing The Saga of Bjorn! That was most epic!
Jim – Poor old Bjorn, stuck with all those nuns. Could be worse, imagine being in Muslim heaven stuck with 72 aging ex-virgins all nagging you.