Teapots&unicorns writes:
I've been thinking about the nature of heaven, and realized that I do not know exactly how one gets in. Any answer I try to get is usually just a slippery contradiction. So please, how do you get into heaven in your faith.
Name: Stile
Faith as described by others, and likely basically correct in most cases: Atheist
Faith as described by self: Unknown/Don't care.
How to get to Heaven: Be honest, and try your best to be a good person.
Note: "Good" is not up for debate in a whatever-anyone-wants-it-to-be sort of way. It is, however, up for debate to find out whatever the best "Good" actually is, which is difficult with no standard to measure it against. The best I've found so far is based on the almost universally accepted idea that laughing and smiling is good while crying and hurting is bad. Formalized as:
quote:
Good = an action by a being that positively increases the inner-feelings of the being acted upon.
As derived from this old thread:
Message 1
Therefore, "being good" involves thinking about the consequences of your actions and trying not to do anything which results in harm to others as much as possible. We must also remember that good/bad cannot be determined 100% before the action (although informed-estimations are certainly possible), it can only be determined 100% after the action... when we can determine the result upon whoever is affected. This crucial point removes the ability to manipulate or corrupt the system of morality. Also, once one agrees and accepts that "laughing is good and crying is bad," then the system of morality becomes objective as the results of actions on others can be objectively obtained.
If we are able to live our lives being honest and good, then there is no just God who can condemn us for any rational reason. And therefore, thoughts of "what must happen to enter Heaven?" become useless and irrelevent. If there is a positive-heaven, then we've done everything possible (if "doing anything" is even a condition), and been open to all possible entry ways (by remaining honest about reality).
In following this system, we also have the added bonus of not wasting our current life on anything possibly not-real if it so happens that Heaven doesn't even exist anyways.
™ Version 4.2
