Heaven Would Get Boring!
Even the “fortunate” folks who go to Heaven would experience serious drawbacks.
“Why would I want to go to Heaven? None of my friends will be there.”
— Mark Twain
In addition to the problem Mark Twain has pointed out above, Heaven, as it’s usually pictured would get pretty boring. It would be an endless circle of sameness, without challenge, without danger. There would be no more learning or teaching, because everyone (including you) would already know everything. No more creating, because Creation (including you and everyone around you) would already be perfect. Surely classic Christian heaven would eventually get humdrum, what with the constant harp music, praise-singing and all.
An unusual kind of “heaven” was portrayed in the classic 1952 science fiction novel City, by Clifford D. Simak. In City, nearly all the humans on Earth decide, one by one, to decamp to Jupiter and turn themselves into creatures called “Jovians.” The Jovians spend their lives galumphing across Jupiter in carefree ecstasy, with all their needs abundantly supplied by the atmosphere and surface of Jupiter. They do no work and they experience no violence, no disease, no suffering, no worry.
However, in the novel City, a terrible outcome flows from Human-to-Jovian conversion: The ex-humans no longer create anything – no culture, no knowledge, no science, no technology, nothing. And back on Earth, Human civilization dies out. The Path of Continuing Creation says – This is not the path we humans should choose!
Maybe Heaven would somehow be designed to provide humans with Earth-like lives, including challenge, creative work, a full variety of activities to choose from, and without the endless harp music. Maybe it would be like real life on Earth, but without war, pain, disease, and mosquitos. Well, maybe, but would it be without death? Without evolution?
Can we even sense pleasure without the contrast of pain? Can we have discovery without prior ignorance? Can black be perceived without white? The answer is “no.” (See our Essay, Nature Creates Patterns of Information & Beauty.)
Nirvana Would Be Even More Boring than Heaven!
“Eternity is an awfully long time…especially toward the end.”
— attributed to Woody Allen
Merging with the Godhead or attaining Nirvana through one of the Indian religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, or Sikhism) – would be even more boring that going to Heaven. As in Heaven, there is no sin within Nirvana; nor is there any striving, struggle or quest; no discovery, invention, or adventure.
But unlike being in Heaven, when you are merged with the Godhead you have no human body, because you don’t need one! So, you can’t even experience eating, walking in the woods, or sex with any of the 72 virgins that jihadi martyrs supposedly get in Islamic Heaven.
In Sanskrit, the word “nirvana” means “blowing out,” “extinguishing,” or “quenching.” What is blown out? All differences and all distinctions; and therefore, all dissatisfaction, striving, suffering; no human invention or creating. Yes, one is released from the repeating cycle of birth and death… but to what purpose? 1
Since both Heaven and Nirvana are eternal perfection, there would never even be any change. Therefore, no past and no future. You would attain what Deepak Chopra thinks is the ultimate: “eternally living in the now,” if such a thing is not a contradiction in terms! Think about it. If you can’t remember your past, nor imagine your future, if everything is One, then there is no “you.” You can’t even have a self-identity unless you have a memory of your past (and maybe a vision of your future as well).
And consider this: If you enter Nirvana and merge with the Godhead, you would then see and know everything that God sees and knows. If so, you would see that all the environmental destruction, all the warfare, all the human sadism and child abuse “down below” in the world. Would you (and God) conclude those are all okay, because they are all part of the One? Our Practice of Continuing Natural Creation says, “No Way!”