Daily Archives: October 15, 2009
If Heaven is Real…
Mark from Proud Atheists has a post with three simple questions about heaven. Let’s look at them.
Why are only 144,000 going to enter heaven? Well, that’s a misreading of the text if I ever saw one. Revelation 14:4 says that these are redeemed as firstfruits from mankind–that means that the 144,000 are the first of the entrants to heaven.
Where is heaven? Heaven is a separate place from this universe; it is not located within the bounds of this space. Why do atheists assume that this universe is all that there is, then impose that assumption on biblical texts?
Why are Christians afraid to die? You assume that because Christians take medicine and receive medical treatment that that means we’re afraid to die? By no means. There is nothing in the Bible that prevents Christians from extending their lives by simply taking care of themselves properly and availing themselves of modern science. Each person on this earth is here because God has a plan for his life, and the longer said person lives, the more that God can accomplish through him. Why not live longer if that is possible?
Here’s a better question for the atheist: if you don’t believe in heaven, then why spend anytime at all thinking up these questions? Isn’t that a waste of the precious little time you have to live on this earth only?
Are we all Atheists?
Someone posting under the moniker 1minionsopinion has said the following:
Well, I’ll jump in with a paraphrase of some philosopher dude whose name currently eludes me – we’re all atheists when it comes to Zeus and Thor and Ra and Bast and Titan and all those other classic pantheon deities. People who insist on calling themselves “Atheist” simply believe in one less god than you do.
But is that true? I don’t think so. There are implications to believing in one less deity than I do.
First, we are not made in the image of God. We are merely descendants of other primates who have evolved intelligence, and that means that there is no inherent dignity to being human. We are animals (albeit smart ones), pure and simple.
Second, there is no transcendent meaning to anything; things are as they are. Though even atheist philosophers tend to agree that there are transcendent values (called “morality”), believing in “one less god” removes the ground for these transcendent values and renders everything we see simply as it is. Nothing means anything other than what value we assign to it–we become the arbiters of morality. Morality “evolved” the way it did because it was advantageous to the species. Nothing more.
Believing in one less god represents a fundamental worldview divide, and by saying it is a simple matter trivializes this difference.
Josiah Concept Ministries 