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Thread: Images of Heaven and Hell

  1. #1
    Memories of Nuremburg... Miss Darcy's Avatar
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    Images of Heaven and Hell

    Dear everyone,

    Don't be put off by the rather serious-looking subject header; I don't expect this will turn out a very serious thread. Mind you, I'll try my best to not do any ridiculing, and I promise I won't criticize. Not in this thread. This is a peaceful thread.

    Alright, so that angel looks like the spirit of Aunt Rhody's goose...never mind that. I wanted a peace smiley but I couldn't find one so...

    Now to the subject. I want everyone's ideas, visions, fantasies of what Heaven and Hell would be like. Not just Christians or members of other religions with a Heaven and a Hell...atheists as well. Being an atheist doesn't mean you don't have any imagination. Just make something up.

    I don't want any copy-the-Bible's-view sort of posts. I want originality. Your own personal ideas. It can be roughly based on the Bible, but not taken from the Bible.

    With Heaven, please state if this is the way you'd like it to be or the way you think it would be - which can be two very different things.

    With Hell...have a free hand. It can be a red cave filled with fire and hobgoblins for all I care. I just don't want you to be overly conventional.

    I think I've said enough.

    Darcy.

    -----

    Some of my ideas for these two...places...but please be reminded that I am an atheist and don't believe in these whimsical ideas...

    Heaven: Let's just say, the way I'd like it to be. I'd like it to be filled with classical music, and I'd want it to have a few good orchestras. I'm not overly particular about clouds under my feet and flying about with white wings...that sort of stuff is a bit too fanciful. I'd prefer a simply spiritual flying through the universe...see the Orion Nebula...Cats Eye...Ghost-head...to name just a few....journey to distant galaxies millions of light years away...by the way that means it takes millions of years for light to get there, so I'd have to be flying pretty fast...maybe I could employ a wormhole...*muses*

    Hell: Now this is pretty conventional, I must admit myself, but it's my pet version of Hell. Okay, it's this sort of big interconnected maze of underground caves. There are a lot of devils in it, very friendly guys, with horns on their heads...but I guess you know that...then there's Satan, cleverest of all, but he's rather strict and crafty. Satan changes into a fox. A horned fox? I know. Never mind. But he's got a good heart...just all this time spent distilling naughty spirits makes him a little ill-tempered. Ah, and he distils them in pots. They're invisible, sort of steam. When all the bad is evaporated, they turn from red to white. Then he lets them go, after testing them.

    Any other versions appreciated, guys, so hurry up and add some!


    After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
    -Aldous Huxley

    Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
    -W. A. Mozart

    Non scholae, sed vitae discimus.
    Not school, but life teaches us.

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    Registered User lhaeber's Avatar
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    Vahly intahrestingg..(say it with Freudian accent)

    I, too, am athiest, well, leaning that way, for now, deeply agnostic, I'm trying to find a way to begin a sect of Josephcampellism, but so far I'm lacking commitment.
    I don't believe in a heaven and hell, obviously, therefore my ideas of such don't exist.
    But I am interested in the answers to this question, good idea MissD.
    Last edited by lhaeber; 04-06-2005 at 02:21 AM.
    I poured spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone.

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    dancing before the storms baddad's Avatar
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    Oh, well, Hell will be easy to describe: The only redeeming thought is that I will not be alone.......I will be standing in the pit that is filled with snakes, and the pit will be deep enough so that the densely packed snakes slither all around, from my toes to my forehead. Hell will be our greatest fears..... Come visit me if your in the neighborhood.....but bring your own beer.....we can sip and wait to catch a glimpse of Dante'......

    ....got so freaked out I forgot the second part of the question....hehehe...


    Life is heaven. Everyday is heaven. The possibilities of each fresh dawning are heaven. New love is heaven, old friends are heaven, rain storms are heaven, all the arts/music are heaven, girls are heaven, children are heaven, fine wine, good food, procreating, new tales, great books, new friends,......well, you get the idea.......all the really good stuff is right here, right now!!!!
    Last edited by baddad; 04-07-2005 at 01:46 AM.

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    Heaven: right at the happy button (to use Kik's words)
    Hell: the farthest point from being happy

  5. #5
    dancing before the storms baddad's Avatar
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    Well, after this afternoon's round (golf) I'd have to say hell is shooting an 8 on a par 3 147 yard hole...........

    Heaven was Saturday morning, beating 3 other players (my friends) by 10 strokes....

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    exactly....it's in the eyes of the beholder indeed

  7. #7
    Registered User LV_Designs's Avatar
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    I was raised christian, but my view of hell differs from that of what is depicted by the church. In my case the church was Presbyterian, although I have visited many other denominations. I have now come to consider myself atheist, but here is what my view of hell was when I believed in "hell".

    It seems to me that hell is simply a metaphor. Hell is simply being separated from god. This would in fact be the worst case synario. What greater punishment could there be?

    I found it hard to believe that a loving God would banish those that he cared about to a perpetual place of torture. It just doesn't make sense. If humans are created to have the ability to make choices, the creator would know that they would chose wrong. By creating humans in such a manner, one can not judge them for incorrect choices.
    "I love fools' experiments....I am always making them."

  8. #8
    Memories of Nuremburg... Miss Darcy's Avatar
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    I found it hard to believe that a loving God would banish those that he cared about to a perpetual place of torture. It just doesn't make sense. If humans are created to have the ability to make choices, the creator would know that they would chose wrong. By creating humans in such a manner, one can not judge them for incorrect choices.
    That's exactly my argument! - And welcome to the forum, btw. Nice seeing your display picture, too...I saw a site full of those, forget which one it was, but...

    This thread was kind of meant to be just general depictions of "Heaven and Hell", but I meant this creatively, i.e. parody, satire, anything at all is welcome in your picture. I personally found Mark Twain's vision of Heaven particularly witty:

    2. In man's heaven everybody sings! The man who did not sing on earth sings there; the man who could not sing on earth is able to do it there. The universal singing is not casual, not occasional, not relieved by intervals of quiet; it goes on, all day long, and every day, during a stretch of twelve hours. And everybody stays; whereas in the earth the place would be empty in two hours. The singing is of hymns alone. Nay, it is of one hymn alone. The words are always the same, in number they are only about a dozen, there is no rhyme, there is no poetry: "Hosannah, hosannah, hosannah, Lord God of Sabaoth, 'rah! 'rah! 'rah! siss! -- boom! ... a-a-ah!"

    3. Meantime, every person is playing on a harp -- those millions and millions! -- whereas not more than twenty in the thousand of them could play an instrument in the earth, or ever wanted to.

    Consider the deafening hurricane of sound -- millions and millions of voices screaming at once and millions and millions of harps gritting their teeth at the same time! I ask you: is it hideous, is it odious, is it horrible?
    Anyway, hope you're enjoying the OLN so far.

    Darcy


    After silence, that which comes closest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
    -Aldous Huxley

    Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
    -W. A. Mozart

    Non scholae, sed vitae discimus.
    Not school, but life teaches us.

  9. #9
    unidentified hit record blp's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by baddad
    Life is heaven. Everyday is heaven. The possibilities of each fresh dawning are heaven. New love is heaven, old friends are heaven, rain storms are heaven, all the arts/music are heaven, girls are heaven, children are heaven, fine wine, good food, procreating, new tales, great books, new friends,......well, you get the idea.......all the really good stuff is right here, right now!!!!
    Stop, Baddad, I'm in hell.

    Other than sanctimony, hell will be being forced to watch shampoo and chicken tonight adverts while stuck in a tiny, cold, hard, damp, pinky green chamber too small for me to get comfortable in with a smell of rotting vegetables mixed with the strange odour of dipropyl triptamine burning and a tiny stone in my shoe that I can never get to.

    Heaven will be like Wilton Park, a beautiful stately home in England where ex Nazis were taken after the war for classes in 'thinking for themselves', but with European art movies and a lot of sex.

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    I remember reading this thread, and reflecting on its subject, but I either forgot to post, or thought I had nothing worth posting. Though I do consider myself a "believer," I cannot claim to believe in the existence of heaven (paradise), hell (inferno), or purgatory, etc. The satire sounds interesting to contribute to, however . . .
    I think I have posted this quote several times by now (one of my favorite quotes of all literature), from John Milton's Paradise Lost, but once more will not hurt :
    The mind is its own place, and in itself creates
    A heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
    This quote states much more behind its words, which I cannot agree with more in my interpretation, considering myself a great endorser of subjectivism vs. objectivism. Surely, by each of the above members' depictions of heaven and hell, we state our greatest desires, hobbies, enjoyment (some seemingly Epicurean), and leisure, along with our biggest fears, mystery, nightmares, and eternal toil.
    To me, both heaven and hell would persist simultaneously and in the same head-space of a person subjected to his/her own self; one would objectively perceive everything regarding his/herself, all actions committed, desires, thoughts, fears, faculties, perceptions, memories . . . everything! In this "intrapsychic" idea, heaven would consist of having no regrets, living a satisfied life of love and wisdom, and hell would consist of having to tolerate the most unsatisfying, loathsome self, if indeed someone lived in that manner with no hope (as states Dante's entry into Inferno: "all hope abandon, ye who enter in!").
    In essence, both heaven and hell, in my idea, exist as two facing mirrors with one person in the middle. What sounds better or worse than facing one's true, objective self?
    Last edited by mono; 08-18-2005 at 02:19 PM. Reason: spelling

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    dancing before the storms baddad's Avatar
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    ....good one Mono.......

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    Not politically correct Pendragon's Avatar
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    Let's see: By now, you know ol' Pendragon is "The Great Questioner". Heaven for me would not be mansions, streets of gold, harps, wings, etc. A simple cessation of my earthly trouble for a life of eternal peace in a small cabin in the mountains would do fine. As for hell. I was always facinated by the Norse belief in two hells, one hot and flaming (our traditional hell, called Suterheim) and one cold, but so cold that the cold itself burns you. This one was considered worse. It's called Niflheim. Oh, and I don't believe God sends you to hell anyway,the Bible says He isn't willing for any to perish. So how do you end up there? Simple, you send yourself.
    Some of us laugh
    Some of us cry
    Some of us smoke
    Some of us lie
    But it's all just the way
    that we cope with our lives...

  13. #13
    Love of Psyche Ulalume<3's Avatar
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    Hard for me to say what I think heaven is like. I just imagine it being beyond the comprehension on the human mind.

    My views on hell are taken from C.S. Lewis' views. I imagine it being just like Earth, just without true happiness. People will seem happy, and act like they're your friends and act like they love you, just so that they can gain control of you.
    And I said: "What is written, sweet sister,
    On the door of this legended tomb?"
    She replied: "Ulalume -Ulalume -
    'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

  14. #14
    Then dawns the Invisible Psycheinaboat's Avatar
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    Talking

    When I die, my god Krom will ask me the Riddle of Steal. If I cannot answer, he will cast me out of Valhalla and send me straight to California.

    (I don't think that is quite as funny as it seemed while I was typing it - gave me a chuckle, though. Seriously, this thread has given me something to think about today. I shall return, likely as not!)

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    The image of Heaven in The Bible seems at times a cold cathedrally edifice filled with never ending psalmody. No sea. No marriage or giving in marriage. No individuality and no one who means anything special. It's a pretty unappetising scene but compared to a Hell where there is only hatred, emptiness, loneliness amongst crowds and heavy metal freaks in a state of permanent shriek, superimposed on constantly repeated politically correct treatises then Heaven definitely is the lesser of two evils.

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