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Is there gravity in Heaven?

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DixyCrat said:
...but I honestly don't think there's much of anyone out there that doesn't know "the good news".
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The problem is that they know a distorted version of "the good news", and it is these incorrect assumptions that usually cause people to push away from it. And because they think they already know about Jesus, they really don't want to listen to what you have to say... particularly if you're some stranger showing up on their doorstep.

Still, at least those people have heard of Jesus, and the truth is available for those who are willing to put their assumptions aside and look with fresh eyes. However, things are different in other areas of the world. I've gone to places where 99% of the people haven't ever heard of Jesus. When one guy was asked if he knew who Jesus was, he said, "Maybe he lives in the next village."

Dixy, I would be interested in hearing about the miracles that have taken place in your life. I personally experienced some amazing things when visiting the ends of the earth. 🙂
 
Pr0d1gy said:
Have pity for the lost, people.
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Don't knock the temporary hungers till you've tried them.

Honesty, your version of heaven sounds rediculusly dull. The viking one sounds a bit better but even that's going to get wearing after a couple of hundred years.
 
WelshBloke said:
Don't knock the temporary hungers till you've tried them.

Honesty, your version of heaven sounds rediculusly dull. The viking one sounds a bit better but even that's going to get wearing after a couple of hundred years.
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Valhalla doesn't sound bad. An eternity of honing the art of battle, and dying or feasting every day. The trauma of death though and then being a spirit thrall to God to worship him forever and never again get to have earthly experiences again... that sounds awful. I like experiencing new things.
 
what if we were just orbs of positive, sentient energy and that's all heaven was... a large collection and network of our energies.
 
Heaven isn't a place.

Similarly when it is written that Jesus sits at the right of the Father, that metaphor simply means he holds a position of the utmost honour. Otherwise, since God is everywhere, where can His right be? The homily last Sunday (Ascension Sunday) was about this.
 
dennilfloss said:
Heaven isn't a place.

Similarly when it is written that Jesus sits at the right of the Father, that metaphor simply means he holds a position of the utmost honour. Otherwise, since God is everywhere, where can His right be? The homily last Sunday (Ascension Sunday) was about this.
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You are correct.

Heaven as it is now is a spiritual place, i.e. not of this physical realm and possibly not consisting of physical/spatial dimensions.

So whether "right" or "left" (or anything xyz) exists there is beyond or understanding. All the visions or dreams of heaven in the Bible are described with metaphorical language for us to understand the attributes of heaven, if not truly comprehend the full reality of it.

Daniel, Ezekiel, Paul, John, etc. saw visions or dreams of heaven or having been "caught up" in spirit form. The flesh and blood body of humans wouldn't even be able to approach in the presence of God without being destroyed, either.

Imagining heaven for us is akin to 2-dimensional beings trying to map out the 3-d world only having an atlas as a guide, but even worse since heaven may not even exist spatially but as another plane or realm of the universe. Which - for those who deny the existence of heaven - isn't impossible if you accept the possibility of alternate/parallel universes as postulated by different theories in physics.
 
DixyCrat said:
I've got a hope for something I can't see; but it has helped me and my brothers and parents greatly in moving past the drunken, coke-addicted, ignorance of my parents.*

So, you see, what you are calling bullshit on I've already seen happen, here on earth, because of faith. This has been all the reward I've needed to be a believer for as-long as I live.
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I'm happy that you and your family found a way to move past "drunken, coke-addicted, ignorance", and have no problem believing your assertion that Christian faith played a pivotal role in this achievement.

That said, it's depressingly common for people to take actions based on perceptions of their situation that are later shown to be wrong.

As a silly example, I doubt that any of the sports fans' superstitions have an actual impact on their team's game performance -- even if they swear up and down that the team always wins when the fan wears team-colored underwear. I suppose it does the fan no real harm to believe this while cheering in front of the TV. It has much more serious consequences when this belief in the power of his/her underwear leads the fan to bet the mortgage payment on a team victory.

Moving to your much more serious example, the "reward" you have received is a good thing. I can understand why you might credit it to your Christian faith. I suggest to you, however, that your "reward" does not prove that what you believe is true. Please preserve a bit of doubt to prevent you from following your beliefs too far. I don't want to hear that you've sold off all your worldly possessions in anticipation of the next prophesized rapture date!
 
I can understand why you might credit it to your Christian faith. I suggest to you, however, that your "reward" does not prove that what you believe is true.
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This is a very interesting point and gets into a much deeper question of what "truth" is when it comes to the social/psychological world.

In the US we never learn a damned thing about philosophy because the physical sciences put a man on the moon so it must be the BEST method for every other attempt at accumulating useful knowledge... right?

Where human agency is involved experimental designs become impossible; at this point an understanding of what is true breaks into two parts: the bio-psychological (physical facts) and how this impacts individual social-psychological well-being.

The biology of the brain explains the ability of these things to happen; But without moving past experimental 'truth' we can never come to an understanding or interpretation of it. In the realm of social-psychological well-being the real is just a matter of functionality; and from this perspective God is real.

Please preserve a bit of doubt to prevent you from following your beliefs too far. I don't want to hear that you've sold off all your worldly possessions in anticipation of the next prophesized rapture date!
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Thank you. I've gone way past my early zealous phase, but your honest personal interest in my wellbeing is appreciated (as is your dilbert icon)
 
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