Post #83: Heaven and hell, realities?

My agnostic daughter made an affirmative comment on Facebook to someone’s comment: “Please note that your religion may tell you what you can or cannot do. But it has absolutely zero claim on the rest of us. ” I read the discussion and was appalled at the ignorance and self-righteousness of the comments. While it is true that anyone can hold whatever opinions he or she wishes that have no bearing on reality. Unfortunately most of these people do not care what is true, what they believe, true for false, is good enough for them. Since they do not care whether what they believe has any truth or not, they are not open to looking at any evidence for or against. My daughter (and others like her) have ignored everything I have communicated to her regarding evidence for truth.

So I chose to make my own comments to this conversation. But I was careful not to tell them they are wrong because they would totally not accept that. I decided to share what I wrote with you in case you have to deal with a similarly minded individual.

Reading through all these comments makes me sad. In this life you are totally free to have whatever opinions you want. You can be happy with your opinions, and everyone here is, and whether they are based on any truth is irrelevant. But you don’t care if your opinions have any basis in facts, they are as right as you want them to be for you. I will make a suggestion, but I doubt that anyone here will check out what I say because you have no interest in whether there are any facts to support your opinions. That is irrelevant to you. We have complete freewill to choose our opinions while we are alive in this life. When it comes to an end, we no longer have freewill to choose. The choices you have made will then stand forever with you. I read fifty-six books of reports of people who did experience the end of this life, but fortunately it was just temporary and they were able to report what they experienced on the other side. That is eyewitness testimony, which in a court of law supersedes whatever expert opinion is offered. “Heaven Is Beyond Imagination” compares fifty positive testimonies and nineteen negative ones regarding the person’s out of this life experience. It is not religion although the testimonies have religious implications. However, nearly everyone here should not read this book. Your opinion may not stand up in the face of these testimonies. You may not be able to handle that and will have to deny the validity of these testimonies to maintain the value system to which you are committed. I wish to spare you that anguish, but if you are open to evidence beyond this life regarding your opinions, I highly encourage you to read “Heaven Is Beyond Imagination” but only if you are open to yielding your opinions to the weight of additional evidence.

I would like to add to my comments even though I doubt that anyone here will pay any attention. Many years ago people had the opinion that the Earth was the center and the sun, moon, and stars revolved around it. Later others had the opinion that the sun was the center and the Earth and other planets revolved around it. These are dichotomous views; they cannot both be true. They are not complete however, because they all could be revolving around something else, but it certainly appears that the first view is correct since we do not feel the Earth moving but we can clearly see the other objects going around it. While you are free to hold whichever view you wish, most people would think you are a fool if you believe the first view because of the abundant evidence for the second view. Do you know what that evidence is or are you just adopting that opinion because so many others hold it? Similarly, whether or not there is a heaven after we die is dichotomous and either it must be true or false. But by the same token whether or not there is a hell is dichotomous and its reality must be true or false. In the case of the solar system, there is evidence regarding which opinion is true and which is false. Is there evidence regarding the reality of heaven or hell? Does it matter which opinion we have? It comes down to whether our lives here are infinite or finite. If they are finite, we will eventually be thrown into the truth of the matter whichever it is. While it does not really affect you which opinion you have about the Earth and sun, the reality has no effect on your life. But the truth about heaven or hell does eventually have an effect on you. Don’t you think having some evidence regarding the truth of the matter would be important if you are of the opinion that this life is finite? For those of you that question the validity of Christian beliefs, some who lived every day with Jesus for three years claim he made statements and did things that affirm he is not a mere human but is one with God. You are free to have your own opinion about whether the claim is true or false, but again it is dichotomous. Either he was one with God or he wasn’t. Your opinion doesn’t affect the reality. What is the evidence upon which you could evaluate which opinion is based on truth? Yes, you can have whatever opinion you want that makes you comfortable but since this life is finite (no matter if your opinion is that your life on Earth is infinite, an easily verified falsehood), having some supporting evidence for your opinions would be very beneficial in the long run, i.e. when this life is over, and have an effect on your eventual well-being.