Or, what’s a heaven for?

The following are only musings of a common man pursuing incomprehensible meanings.

The light was streaming hard against my face. I could feel the heat and the energy emanating from its core which seemed to be light years away. I guessed that maybe I was stepping into God’s abode. I wasn’t sure, though. I didn’t know if I had gotten my ticket punched in time.

My friend had spoken to me many times about the joy that beckoned the believers to this eternal sanctuary. I never thought that I was worthy of such a place. My friend assured me that it took no particular gifts or achievements to merit entry. All one needed was to give his life over to Him.

I had read the stories in the Bible throughout my life. They were timeless tales of prophesies and retributions. I had always envisioned these stories as parables which had been handed down over the centuries and eventually immortalized in written form.

I felt that these stories were a mix of the retelling of real world events and the rationalizations required to fill in the gaps in scientific knowledge. My beliefs were always framed by a conflict between intellectual thought and religious faith.

Because of these beliefs, I have always felt that I might be barred at the gate through which only the true believer could walk. However, I also believed that, as in science, there are exceptions to the rule. I might be able to sneak in on a technicality; a semantical culpability argument or maybe a Clintonian phraseology defense.

With that slim glimmer of hope convincing me that I still have a chance, I am always interested in the true believer’s concept of that halcyon place.

So, I asked my learned friend about heaven. He and I have had many discussions about life, God and the afterlife. He is an expert in both the scientific and faith arena. He is not just a blind follower of faith concepts. He has formally studied both science and religion and has formed his opinions based on this lifelong searching for the truth.

He has verbalized his beliefs many times and has documented his musings in written form. I have listened diligently to his thoughts and analyzed his written dialogs on the subject. At the moment, I cannot formally reproduce exactly what he said about his beliefs but I can attempt to paraphrase to the best of my ability.

Of course, my friend sees a heaven restricted to the true believer; one who has given his life to Him. That thought is a constant for one of faith. However, my friend has a different feeling about the environment and activities on the other side of the golden gate. My friend envisions a place where a person has the free will to engage in any activity which brings him happiness but does not encroach on the tenets of God’s will. His favorite example of such an activity is one which the believer can, if he wishes, play golf on all of his favorite courses for an eternity. He can feel utter euphoria on every shot he takes. He can set the course record for every hole. He can skip the ball off of the bank and into the hole on the twelfth hole at Augusta and then immediately step on the eighteenth tee at Pebble Beach and draw the ball around the dogleg every time.

To summarize succinctly, my friend believes that utter happiness and contentment shall follow him forever on every step of every journey he takes.

Heaven seems like a worthy place to aspire to enter. The first argument that a non-believer would bring up is the fact that, with human nature being what it is, one might quickly become bored with total euphoria over time. It’s human nature to shy away from too much of a good thing.

I think that the non-believer has no basis for this argument because boredom is an attribute ingrained in the neurology of the human psyche and can be easily turned off by the hand that created it.

Infinite variety in nature and science can and will usurp any tendency to stagnate if one is given the ability to fully utilize his talents to the fullest.

However, I believe that the only true euphoria may come with pondering the unknowable and briefly glimpsing a solution. That state of questioning would be the environment which I would desire to live if presented with the opportunity to walk through those gates.

I think that my vision of happiness is congruent to my friend’s concepts, so I will let it be for now.

The light continues to shine on my face and warm my soul, but I must wait to determine if and when I’ll cross the threshold into that sacred place.