I believe in heaven, but not God.
I hear this a lot, not in so many words. But, if you compare what people say with what they do, that is the conclusion that you must reach.
If you ask people what happens to them after they die, most will say that there is something beyond death. They will describe it as a beautiful pleasant place where they will be reunited with family and friends…….a place where they will be happy. People who believe that death is the end….”You die you’re dirt” …..are rare. People who believe that they are going someplace bad are non-existent.
I’ll call this afterlife paradise. In one form or another, almost all of us believe in it. Yet, a great many people do not recognise a creator…….I’ll call the creator God. Today I won’t delve into specifics.
So……can there be paradise without God?
If paradise is real, and we almost all believe it is. How did it come to be? There is no spiritual version of Darwinism. There must be a power, a force, a creative energy behind paradise……..and that is a good working definition of God. There is no other explanation. You can quibble over the details of God’s nature….. but it is intellectually dishonest to look forward to paradise while denying its creator…….while denying God.
Most people who believe in paradise but deny God will give you a description of paradise. Most of the time it is a hazy, soft focus place that feels good and is trouble free. Some of the time it is remarkably detailed. It varies from a vague hope to a detailed construct. The person who describes it is either disengaged but hopeful, or has actively created the paradise that they want. Curiously, this “do it yourself” paradise always has one feature. It never requires the person who made it up to change anything about the way they live. They get to do whatever they be want…….both during this life……..and in paradise. Everybody else has to bend to accommodate them. Not only that……paradise must mold itself to the wants and needs of the person you are by talking to. If they are on the left……..paradise has gun control. If they are on the right………. it has a world class sporting clays range.
Realistically, as finite humans, limited by the restrictions of science and the physical world, we can neither dream up nor create paradise. If there is a paradise…….. then there must be a creator.
It will be awkward for you to enter, or try to enter, paradise while denying its creator.
It is dishonest to create your own version of paradise……unless you are, in fact, the creator, God. If you deny paradise and deny God, then you are at least honest and intellectually consistent………though you must live in a state of profound despair.
So…….
If you seek paradise…….. then you must seek the creator……..and the creator is either God…………or you.
Please know………..God is seeking you.