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Heaven is sharing afterglow with Kathy Martin...
:-p
Biblically heaven is the concept of afterlife enjoyment. Opposed of course to afterlife misery, hell. The concept of afterlife was well aged when early Christians offered their speculation on afterlife involving conscious continued. Indeed the earliest of "religions" is Hinduism, the early followers of such were well expressed afterlife believers.
http://ephemeris.com/history/india.html
["Early Mehrgarh dwellers were Neolithic until around 5,500 BCE, when pottery began to appear. From the beginning, dwellings were aligned with the four cardinal directions (North, East, South, West). For the first thousand years, corpses were buried in the fetal position surrounded with personal possessions and food. This clearly shows a religious belief in an afterlife, as in ancient Egypt."]
I read some place else that early Hindu texts record belief in reincarnation toward again Earthly existence, later Hindu texts reduce the states of afterlife potential to Christian similar, eternal bliss or eternal misery.
Heaven in my estimation is a long time continuation of pleasant rebirth via reincarnation. This of course dependent on having made a tremendous contribution to living condition betterment for very many sentients.
Christianities simplification of afterlife potential to just 2 states, bliss or misery is a disservice to humanity, in that with so widely varied states of existence obviously possible, a person would have to be pretty simple to believe there are just 2 available after life. The nagging question as to the explanation how going from widely varied enjoyment potential to bliss or misery doubtless brews in the minds of any so duped, though is suppressed by dogma and societal pressure to ask less questions.
The bible should be studied as Ancient law, Ancient History of the middle east, Ancient hunting lessons, ancient nutrition, ancient military advancements, ancient domination study passed from generation to generation though contained within the ruling clique until recently and then exposed so cryptically as to delay understanding. The bible in the hands of a first century peasant was a death sentence. The bible was for a long time the ruling powers play book on how to stay in power.
Thanks for the salient question Kathy,
Dan
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