Concept of Going to Heaven...

[Kantor]

ArnoldRimmer said:
If one takes the "afterlife" aspect out, I think it's possible even for atheists to accept heaven (and hell) - as kinds of metaphors for a good or bad possible later life.

In this context I really like that tale I've read in a number of variations:

Someone is so curious what heaven and hell are like, so god shows him.

He first takes him to a room with a round table in the middle, with people sitting around it. On the table there is a large pot of hot and extremely delicious soup - and yet the people are all undernourished, starving, ill and in a very bad mood. That's because they cannot eat the soup, because all they have are spoons that are extremely long and so hot that they can only be touched at the wooden far end of the handle, so it's impossible to put the soup in one's mouth. God says "This is hell", and the guy becomes sad because he understands the tricky situation these people are in.

Then god says: "Now I'll show you heaven" and he takes him to another room. At first it looks like the same room - the same table, the same pot of hot and delicous soup and even the same oversized spoons. And yet all the people in this room are well-fed, healthy, and in a very good mood. The guy asks: "How is that possible? Everything about this room is the same as in hell!" And god says: "They learned to feed each other."

So I think one doesn't have to wait for an afterlife to enjoy "heaven", to be rewarded for being "good" to others. It's more a state of mind, everyone creates his own heaven or hell right here on earth by the way he treats his fellow men, because if you help them, they'll usually be willing to help you too in the future. Give and you will be given, often even more than you gave in the first place.
If you look at what Jesus says about heaven in the bible, he makes a number of parables that can be considered "good investments": For example the farmer who sows his best seeds, but later when he harvests he gets much more back. Or a guy who buys an acre because he knows there is an expensive treasure buried under it.

I quite like this, but the problem with it is that being a good person has nothing to do with getting into heaven. You could save thousands of lives as a doctor, volunteer, give blood and donate to charity, but if you don't accept Jesus as your saviour, it's hell for you.

The reverse is also true.

I would have no problem with the idea of a heaven where you are judged on the goodness of your actions in theory, except that morality is relative, so who would judge? It doesn't really chime with that atheist idea of morality at all.