Do You Believe In Heaven?
Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.
Do You Believe In Heaven?
Do You Believe In Heaven?
I know that when I went to Catholic school, I did believe in Heaven. I believed in Hell too! In Catholic school, this would have been called “behavior modification”.
I also wanted to become a nun, an image that brings tears of laughter to my most of my friends. Not because they have any problem with nuns – but rather because my somewhat irreverent and mildly hedonistic personality. 🙂
But all of that was before I entered adolescence.
Children are generally very impressionable and I was no different.
Do Children Believe in Heaven?
Children do believe in heaven. At least small children. They also believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. And the Tooth Fairy.
But they think about the naughty things they’ve done and they worry. Perhaps it’s not too good to believe in heaven when you’re little – there are so many naughty things to try!
As children grow up they begin to question categorical beliefs.
It isn’t sufficient to say Believe In Heaven because that’s where you’ll go when you die – if you’re good….”.
Children want more information.
The concept good people going to Heaven and bad people going to Hell becomes more difficult to explain. It’s complicated. They begin to understand that Hell must be a very busy place!
What happens if you were a really bad person but then, in the last few years of your life you become a good person and do good deeds? Where do you go?
If you’re Catholic, what happens if you’re a good person but you die suddenly, without absolution? Do you go to Hell because of your transgressions that were not “forgiven”.
And What About Now?
The other day, the college-aged son of a good friend asked me whether I was spiritual – I wasn’t sure if that was a euphemism for “Do you believe in God”?
I told him that I felt I was very spiritual but that my relationship with God could not be described by any institutionalized religion. Religion left far too many questions unanswered for me.
But I see evidence of God everywhere.
He was okay with that. But then came the inevitable question: “Do you believe in Heaven?” “Do you believe in reincarnation?” “Do you believe that when you die – that’s it?”
It was a difficult question, really.
I abandoned the church in my early teens. With that, went belief in the everlasting-life behind the pearly gates, or alternatively behind the gates of Hell in scorching flame pit.
But the older I get, the more inclined I am to cover all my bases. Still, there is a lot to be said for the idea that Heaven and Hell are right here on Earth and that we reside in one or the other through the choices we make.
I like the idea that I control my own destiny. There is a humanity in that.
And while it may not be the heaven of “eternal bliss” or the hell of “eternal damnation,” it allows for the ability to change one’s circumstance through choice or action.
I believe in heaven and I believe in hell. Life is full of challenges and how we address those challenges creates our heaven and it creates our hell. At least, that’s how I feel tonight.