Question Forty-One
Is Heaven Boring?
This may seem like an odd question, but when you hear people from various religions describe what the heavenly realms of the afterlife will be like, it does sound boring indeed. Here are some things that are hoped for by the saved or chosen ones:
(1) Sing hymns of praise with God and Jesus
(2) Hang around with God and Jesus for eternity.
(3) Everyone will be changed into perfect beings with no flaws so there will be perfect peace with no disagreements.
(4) The Buddhists enter Nirvana a world with no desire, no personalities where only bliss is known.
All this sounds pretty boring, especially after a couple hundred years. Such a situation would be a hell for poor God and Jesus. After all, who would want billions of souls clinging to you forever wanting to be your best friend? Just take a gander at a few of those who claim to be saved and ask, “would I want a billion of these guys hanging around me day after day for eternity competing for my attention?”
Now the American Indians had a better idea. They envisioned “Happy Hunting Grounds” a place with plentiful game always available.
But then the Muslims had one better. The Hadith number 2,562 in the collection known as the Sunan al-Tirmidhi says, “The least (reward) for the people of Heaven is 80,000 servants and 72 wives (virgins).
Then in the Qur’an, Surah 78:31-33 we read, “Verily, for the Muttaqun (righteous), there will be a success (paradise); gardens and grapeyards; and young full-breasted maidens of equal age; and a full cup (of wine)”
At least the Muslims claim to be looking forward to some fun in heaven – all the sex, drink and luxury that one can imagine.
But there are problems even with this idea. The 72 full breasted wives and 80,000 servants may provide a nice break from regular earth life for a short period of time, but how about eternity, or even just a mere century? After a while the average man would grow bored of all these servants and wives going out of their way just to please him and he would want some new challenge of some kind. Then too, 72 wives could be a burden to handle after a while.
And how about the women? What kind of heaven is it for them to be one of 72 wives with nothing to do but compete for the attention of their male master?
And then the 80,000 servants really have it bad. This must be hell for them to compete with thousands of others to serve some guy who committed suicide for Allah. And even if you are one of the lucky ones with 80,000 servants wouldn’t you feel bad for them being forced to serve you forever? If they were my servants I would just dismiss them and tell then to pursue a direction that will make them happy. Why would any sane man even want 72 wives and 80,000 servants?
Most religious people have the idea that heaven is a place where they will be served but pay attention to the words of Jesus:
“But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Matt 20:26-28
So, if you want to be like the Master the path is to serve, not to seek to be served.
So what’s the answer to the question then? Are we eventually going to get bored, maybe get too much of a good thing after 100, 1000 or 1,000,000 years? Here’s the answer.
There is much more to do in the afterlife than there is here. The greater the spiritual advancement achieved here on the earth, the greater will be freedom, the power to enjoy and accomplish in the spiritual spheres. Because there are many mansions there will be something for everyone. Here are just a few things.
(1) Spending time with friends. Friendship is eternally a source of enjoyment in any plane of existence including the afterlife.
(2) There will be every form of entertainment you can imagine. Just as on earth, in the next world many will receive satisfaction by entertaining others through music, plays, dance etc. Sports will be different though, for by using thought you can make a hole in one on every shot. Any competition will be taken to a higher level difficult for us earthlings to relate.
(3) There will be much to learn and much to teach. All true world history will be at our disposal and it will be fun to learn events as they really happened. There are great libraries there and depending on your degree of advancement you will be able to absorb material at a very rapid rate.
(4) There will be many opportunities for service. One that will be most useful will be assisting those who are caught up in the fog of illusion, which has followed then to their abode. When a person wants to move up higher teachers will be needed to assist and prepare them.
(5) There is an entire universe to explore. It will be fun discovering what is really out there.
(6) You can be a spiritual scientist and work with new ways to assist life in evolving and progressing on this earth and other planets.
(7) You can fulfill your dreams that were frustrated on the Earth. There are places there a little like the Holodeck on Star Trek where you can act out your fantasies and unfulfilled desires.
The point is that there is lots of fun stuff to do there. Even though this is the case there is still a problem, which is this. No matter how enjoyable something is, it is only a matter of time before a certain amount of boredom sets in. And what is it that we always want sooner or later?
A new challenge.
And there is no greater challenge than being born into this mortal life and solving all the problems that come with it.
This is why there is reincarnation. No matter how good we have it between lives we always come back to desiring the challenge of going back to earth and facing all the challenges here.
Why is Monopoly such an enduring game? You can be winning one minute and lose everything the next. This is a game posing great risk, yet we love to play it. Football is a game of great risk to the players yet we love to either play or watch it.
Mortal life is the greatest risk of all, but we come here willingly to participate in the adventure.
So… between the fun stuff available between lives and the challenges here in physical plane life the problem of boredom has been solved by Divine Intelligence.
Copyright 2014 by J J Dewey
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