dimbulb

I have been told more than once by Believers that their faith gives them a purpose in their life. And in fact, without that purpose life isn't worth living.
According to them, their purpose is to serve God and find everlasting life aka Heaven.

So here are my questions:
What is going to be your purpose in your Everlasting Life?
Is Eternal Life worth "living" without one?
Is Heaven the ultimate? Or is there a Life #3 that you must strive for when you get to Heaven?
Or is Everlasting Life an existence totally devoid of a purpose?
And if you can imagine that Heaven is a "life" without a goal, why can't you believe this Life is also without purpose?

DBT

Isn't the purpose of heaven supposed to be bask eternally in the presence of 'The Lord' and to sing Eternal Praise? What more could anyone want? Hellelujah!

dimbulb

"to be bask eternally in the presence of 'The Lord' and to sing Eternal Praise?"

I guess.

I've always found it curious that details about heaven are so few and far between.
At least there are the 72 virgins in Islamic Martyr Heaven or, I suppose, buffalo in the Happy Hunting Ground Heaven for the Indians.

I can see the attraction of the virgins. The buffaloes, not so much.

But with Christians they have no clue and stranger still, no curiosity about what is in store for them. Harps and eternal church service? Damn, that's some goal?

Ask them what so great about Heaven and they just look at you like who asked the question in a foreign language.

"Huh? Well you know, it's going to be really....well.... uh..... nice!"

A life spent in a quest for a life with no description and no meaning.

Gotta get me some of dat!
**************************
Where Christians come from

Ding! Dong!
"Hi we're in the neighborhood selling...."
"What a coincidence, my vacuum cleaner just broke! I'm so in the market for..."
"Excuse me Madam, but we aren't selling vacuums"
"Well, we need vitamins, magazines, whatever you have, I'm sure we need it?"
"Oh we can't tell you what we're selling exactly, but it's really good and you'll have to devote your life to it .."
"OK, sounds great..... when can you deliver? I'm so excited!!!"
"Well, this is a bit unusual I know but you don't get our product until after you're dead!!!"
"After I'm dead? Hmmm! Well, Okey Dokey! Sounds good, where do I sign?"

Riley Stone

I had a Christian tell me recently that heaven is NOT a resort or a carnival of sorts. It's a place where Christians are going to worship God forever, which is what will give them pleasure. So I guess Christians think that experiencing pleasure is the ultimate purpose in life. That strikes me as ironic, though, considering the fact that most Christians would probably say that experiencing pleasure in this life isn't terribly important.

I think you ask a great question in your OP, though...what is it about "worshipping God" for eternity that would be meaningful or good or worth striving for? Sounds like hell to me. When you think about it though, when Christians use the word "love" to describe God, they are often referring to characteristics that most of us think of us as hateful. (i.e. a "perfectly loving" God who eternally torments people in hell.) It only makes sense then that when Christians use of the word "heaven," they are actually referring to an existence that is as meaningless, drab, and hellish as one could possibly imagine.

TheRealityOfMan

Wasn't it C.S. Lewis who suggested that the bible hell is experienced when an unbeliever dies and goes to heaven and will hate it eternally.

Ronin

One of my many questions is...in this particular final eternal city, can an individual succeed, fail, learn, grow, etc. or are we automatons without free will?

Riley Stone

Good question, Ronin. As far as I understand it, the Christian heaven includes a lobotomy as part of each person's intake procedure.

Definitely no free will. Otherwise, people might sin. And everyone knows that there is no sinning, no compassion, no learning, no growing, no curiosity, no failing, no anything--other than singing endless refrains of Amazing Grace and Crown Him with Many Crowns in the Christian "heaven."

ziffel

Yeah, I think God probably learned his lesson about allowing free will in heaven with Lucifer/Satan.

There is either free will in heaven and sin is possible, or there is no free will in heaven and we become the robots Christians tell us God doesn't want.

And if it's the latter (no free will, a bunch of 'perfect' worshipers), God could have just as easily started with that scenario and skipped the dramatics.

Riley Stone

Exactly . . . Christians often say that "free will" is one of God's greatest gifts. They say that if human beings didn't have free will, they would be robots. Some Christians I've talked with have even gone so far as to say, "The love of a robot would not be very satisfying." And of course, that's true. The question, though, is why would God not want people to be robots in this life, but he does apparently want people to be robots in heaven.

ziffel

And further, he seems to want one of two ends for us: to become heavenly praise/worship machines, or to be set on fire and tortured forever for having the audacity to not praise/worship him and essentially live like robots while we were on earth.

Even the super awesome gift of free will on earth is really just an illusion. The bible repeatedly commands us how to live virtually every aspect of our lives, and demands full complicity.

Jesus' command 'go and sin no more' = stop exercising free will!

It's all very strange, if not outright nonsensical when you start to break it down.