If hell does not exist, then should heaven also does not exist?
By Frederick42
@Frederick42 (2024)
Canada
December 23, 2008 7:01am CST
When I say hell does not exist, some tell me that if hell does not exist, then heaven also cannot exist.
I really do not understand how the existence of heaven is dependent on the existence of hell. If God exists, then he might need a private place for him and that is heaven.
Does God's existnce depend on Satan's existence? If Yes, then Satan is as powerful as God and it will be difficult to determine who is the true God among them.
But my wisdom says there is no Devil. So, hell also is not there. But heaven can exist. Heaven is not dependent on an imaginary place called hell.
2 people like this
9 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
23 Dec 08
I agree with you that there is no personage called 'Satan' or the 'Devil', in other words, there is no entity who has god-like powers in the business of leading people astray, promoting evil or whatever. I also know that there is no place called Hell where one is subjected to eternal damnation and punishment.
Just as darkness is not a thing in itself, merely the absence of light, so sin, evil, 'the Devil' and Hell simply describe states or attitudes which are not in accordance with or do not recognise God. Hell, in the sense that many Christians use the word, is an invention of various mediaeval Christians which was expanded and used to good literary effect by Dante and other writers. As a place of 'eternal damnation' it actually has no place in Christian philosophy, since it is taught that Jesus suffered so that ALL sin should be forgiven and God is presented as a loving father, not a vengeful dictator.
It is sad, perhaps, that however logically one argues this, there are still people who pound their Bible and assert that there IS a 'Satan' and that many good people are destined to 'go to Hell' simply because they do not see every word in the Bible as literal "truth"! It is really a case of the playground taunt, "My dad's better than yours!" I just hope that their Dad is, at least, as good as mine and forgives their know-it-all, immature attitude and comforts them when they find that nearly all they believed in is wrong!
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
24 Dec 08
i just love it when people argue like crazy about the bible being literal truth and they get so obsessed over being right they miss out on the meaning any of it has
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
24 Dec 08
i think of the whole heaven thing as just a place where our soul goes to rest or at he end of our lives etc.. that there is no hell so therefore heaven isnt special but there is still a place where your soul/life ends.. if that makes any sense
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
24 Dec 08
That assumes that our soul has only one pass through this life or, indeed, that our soul is the personal essence of the person we call 'ourself'. What if we are all members of one, or a number of, 'collectives', just as a drop of rain is an individual until it hits the ground and merges with others in a puddle, flows to the sea as a river and is thence once more taken up into the 'heavens' to form clouds which give us rain?
In my view, 'heaven' is a state of 'being with God' and 'hell' is the concept of 'being without Him or apart from Him'. Since I also believe that God is the name we give to the Creator and that creation is not an event but a continuous process, it follows that He/She/It is intimately present in the whole of Creation and that, in fact, nothing could exist unless that were true.
There's a good deal more to it, of course, than I have said - there is, for example, the question of intelligence and 'love' and why humanity needs to 'personalise' it - but I feel closer to the truth with that idea than I do with the idea of some (reasonably) benevolent, white bearded gentleman somewhere in the sky.
@WebMann (4731)
• Canada
23 Dec 08
Claiming something doesn't make it so. Read your bible and let me know where Christ went after he was murdered.
And why are there keys to hell if it doesn't exist.
You can justify anything you want in your own mind but and spread it around but it doesn't make it fact.
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
24 Dec 08
Good for you Fred', you're catching on. Neither Heaven nor Hell exist, including the Devil,( yes you Are getting Wise.) Its all a Yarn, spun to en-snare the ignorant, and wring out tithes for the Church. God, its worked for 2000 years and shows very little sign of drying up anytime soon. What a Scam! Heaven is a name used, because Science had not yet learned of Higher Dimensions.
@Fadolf (545)
• Slovenia
24 Dec 08
I believe that none of it exist. I remember the previous pope (John Paul II.) once said something like this: "Hell is in our souls but only if we made it for ourselves". I don't know if he also said something for the Heaven. Hell and Heaven don't exist it depends of the person how it will behave and how will it make differences between good and bad, right or wrong, etc.
@Seyduna (129)
• Turkey
24 Dec 08
Hey =)
I don't think God would torture and torment to the creatures which HE himself created as they are..
So i deny all claims that there is a Hell!
Can you think of a sinful but old and weak woman crying in misery while she is smelling the scent of her burning body ?
I think this is irrational because only Satan-like Deities could let this kind of act...
@coolcat123 (4387)
• India
24 Dec 08
Both Hell and heavens exist.According to religious books we know that hell is for those who do bad deeds in the world during his/her life period.Heavens is for those whi have bone several good things when he/she was alive in the world.So we know that both hell's and heavens are as true and present as God is.
@TwilightGuardian (70)
•
23 Dec 08
You're right, the existence of heaven does not depend on the existence of hell. It does, however, depend on the existence of evidence that suggests there is such a thing as heaven. No such evidence exists.
@iZoran (111)
• Serbia And Montenegro
24 Dec 08
I think it would be better to ask this question to those who tell you that if there is no hell there can be no heaven. It is not a statement I would make. However it would depend on the point of view of the person saying that.
For example, you cannot have good without bad, simply because you would need both ends of the scale in order for such a scale to exist. How could we compare the goodness of something if we did not have examples of badness?
