Community Question:
Is there a heaven?
Answer:
Energy transforms. It’s impossible to know for certain what form our energy takes when the physical body dies. Anything we can imagine only highlights our inability to imagine anything beyond the current limitations of mind. That said, consciousness may be a result of the interaction of different components, which may include aspects of our physical body. The science is still out on this so there is no way of knowing if consciousness exists in the same form after physical death. It may exist in a greater or less significant matter, or not at all.
Experiences in the physical body accumulate energy, ranging from very dense to very translucent. Therefore, it logically seems possible that the destination of our energy after death would be drawn to “like” energy. Symbolically, it seems reasonable to assume this is the principle underlying the concept of heaven.
Ultimately, all we humans have is concepts, and concepts are metaphors for what is beyond our understanding.
Faith is the consolation prize of being unable to verify solutions to our existential questions.
Society has trained us to “need” answers to existential questions, and this “need” is what keeps religion/dogma in business. It can be very unnerving to live contentedly without existential answers, and a crutch is a welcome alternative to immobility. Any belief in service to our ideal state (or an “idealer” state) is beneficial, as long as we consistently evaluate the relevance of our beliefs.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen,” just remember that “hope” was one of Pandora’s gifts.
Iceland
Aperture of Brahma 