Does God strip us of all emotion when we go to heaven?

I have been told by a fundie on another site, that there will be no emotional anguish in heaven, and you will be eternally joyful.
So either you will feel nothing when looking down on the results of your handiwork, or you will feel joy witnessing the misery you have wrought.
Either way, your god will have turned you into a sick, twisted, evil monster.
It will have made you in its own image.

My thoughts too when I thought of it. We’re supposed to have eternal peace and joy, all the while being conscious and as aware as we are not. How is that even possible?
Yes, the word “Psychopathic” came to my mind too.

Seems to me they may be in Purgatory or worse, rather than looking down from Heaver. Purgatory or Hell are of course metaphors for the suffering and healing states that come from horrible life choices, just as you mention.

“Hey. I won’t be around to see it in 100 years so what do I care?” isn’t necessarily atheistic, but it could be. It’s certainly denial and not a correct Christian stance, unless you include the sort of “conservative Christian” thinking you’re talking about as actually Christian, which I don’t think really works, except, again, with boatloads of denial.

(River Styx industial barge-loads?)

Yeah, maybe that’s what hell really is! Everyone is in the same place but some are made to keep emotions and feelings, including regret and pain as they “look up at their loved ones from hell.”
The ones in heaven, although in same place, are turned into unaware, happy, peaceful zombies, with no awareness but with a sudden ability to play a harp.

Well, since there is no heaven, the question is kind of irrelevant.

@Dutchess III that’s the eternal discussion. Would you be happier as a well cared for cow? The price of reasoning is wrapped up in subjective experiences. What if you were given the choice in heaven at returning in the next life as a person with no guarantees or Colma’s goose? Which should you choose?

The way I was told, when people go to heaven, they then have the knowledge of everything, just like god. That knowledge stills all fears and eliminates all pain, because they are able to fully understand that the deserving will join them in eternal joy, and the evil will be justifiably punnished. The reason we worry and fear is because we are capable only of living in the here and now, and cannot perceive the enormity of eternity. So, the pain of Earth life will seem like a skeeter bite by comparison.

Others believe souls will rest in quiet limbo until the calling after the resurrection. At the time of rapture is when all heaven bound spirits join their maker at the same time.

Pulling out of Paris…some dumb guy about to release another Hilton sex tape?

@stanleybmanly, that’s reincarnation which is a whole other religion. If I had to chose, I’d much rather believe in reincarnation! But you don’t get to choose the next life. Who or what you will become in your future life depends on what you do with your current life. That’s why I kinda like it. You have a reason to strive to be a good person because you’ll be rewarded. There is no reward in Christianity for being a good person all of your life. You can be the most horrible person in the world but if you accept Jesus at the last second you go to heaven.

@Patty_Melt, I guess that explains why God doesn’t seem to care that babies get raped, and does nothing to stop it. Nor really sure I want to be like that.
And I’m not talking about observing random strangers. I’m talking about observing people you love going through misery because of things you did to them, or failed to do. What about the people who aren’t going to make to heaven, who will not be among the “deserving” because of something you did?

@ucme That didn’t even make sense.

Well that’s okay it’s a theme of yours so should make you feel right at home.

They don’t care, they’ll all be up in heaven strumming harps with the other Jesus groupies.

What thee hell are you talking about @ucme?

@NomoreY_A I guess there is no consciousness huh.

All people who went to heaven winding up being mindless zombies would make some sense, I suppose…

@Dutchess_III No consciousness, or no conscience.

Both really @NomoreY_A.

That’s the only thing I can think of @kritiper.

Lots of them are mindless zombies right now.

I always used to wonder that, back in the days when I believed, and just how I was ever going to keep myself entertained. You can’t play with yourself in heaven…

LOL @kritiper ! Right? I remember pondering on the same things. I was going to somehow devise a way to float around earth actually helping people. But, I know now, that would probably get me kicked out of heaven.

I don’t see any reason to force other people to care about what happen to earth in the next millenia. It’s not anybody’s burden and I don’t think it’s selfish if other people prefer to be the carpe diem type. The idea of God and anything related to it is man-made so it’s irrelevant to determine whether or not one’s emotion is wiped out after death.

When it comes to running out of fossil fuels, @Unofficial_Member, we aren’t talking about a millennia. We’re talking about one life time from now. The lifetime of our grandchildren, or even our own children, if you’re young enough. If there is something you could do to stop the train that’s bearing down on them why would you not care to do something about it?

I also can’t help but think that the Christians are really lucky Jesus didn’t have that attitude 3 millennia ago.

^ Because people have free will and as I said, it’s not their responsibility. Just because someone doesn’t care about the existence of fossil fuel in the future doesn’t mean that they’re completely bad person, they probably still donate money, help neighbors, contributing to society in different way, etc that will elevate their status as good as (if not better than) people that care about fossil fuel. Moreover, not every matter is easily/practically solvable by everyone that some people have given up the matter altogether and go on with their own life. This is like asking a regular person whether or not he/she cares or will do something about the possible fluctuance of tax rate in the future, the answer is, most people won’t care about that as that matter is out of their hand and taken care of by the government. We have delegated some of our problems to more-able people so we can focus on other things that we do better.

Do you not understand what the loss of fossil fuel will mean to this world as we know it in the next generation? These “Christians” are backing Trump’s refusal to participate in the Paris Climate Accord. There are only 3 countries who are refusing to participate:
1) Syria, whose main export is crude oil
2) The US, whose “government” (the president himself) has vested interest in the gas an oil industry, and
3) Nicaragua. Have not yet checked to see whether profit is the reason Nicaragua is refusing.
Who cares if they donate to today’s society, when today’s society will no longer be in existence before long because of them? Why should they bother to donate today?

BTW, out of the 10 or so people who donated to my daughter’s Go Fund Me, only 1 was a “Christian.” The rest were atheists who don’t even know her.

ALL of those people up in heaven looking down? ON ME??? I am SO embarrassed!

When posting on Q&A sites ignore those who lack education, it’s time spent you will never get back :D

I don’t see it as being stripped of emotions but maybe being tied by the spirit to all the wonders of the universe.
A small example . You have 3 people. One loves the rain because it reminds them of being dry and cozy indoors. Another who hates it because it reminds them of feeling trapped indoors and then the 3rd person. The one that neither hates it or loves it. They understand the need for rain to nourish the planet. They understand the good or the bad that can come from it but accept it as necessary. I think of Heaven in that manner. It’s not that you are unfeeling. You just see the bigger picture.

Now as for your so call “Christian Friends”, let them know that their attitude is hardly Christian and will gain them entry in Heaven. God gave mankind the planet to be good stewards towards. Not to pilfer and destroy. He didn’t give us ownership. And selfishness and greed are far from Christian values. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2015/06/23/top-7-bible-verses-about-taking-care-of-the-earth/

@Pandora let’s say you have a granddaughter who is 3 year old when you die. You, in heaven, get to watch her grow up. In 13 years, when she is 16, you get to watch her go on a date that, unbeknownst to her, is a set up. The guy takes her to an empty house where he and 4 of his friends rape and brutalize her.
Can you really just smile benignly and say, “I see the bigger picture so it’s OK.”

You’re lounging in heaven and witness a helpless baby being being raped and murdered. “Oh, it’s OK. There is a bigger picture here.”

You get to watch all these atrocities and feel nothing but peace because you know what the bigger picture is?

I don’t buy it. I wouldn’t even want to buy it. That’s why I asked if you would be stripped of all emotion, as God must be.

BTW, out of the 10 or so people who donated to my daughter’s Go Fund Me, only 1 was a “Christian.” The rest were atheists who don’t even know her.
Perhaps it’s because you trash talk about Christians.

The way I understood it, upon arriving in heaven, our knowledge and understanding is enhanced to the point that the things which matter most to us as mortals are recognized as trivial and petty. In fact, in the days when I wrestled inwardly with the tenets of my Catholic faith, the only possible way for me to reconcile a Just God with the arbitrary distribution of misery and suffering on the earth was to conclude that the time spent here must be trivial to the point of meaningless. If so, then what IS the purpose of existence? I mean the flies I swat, ants I poison, mice I murder, the cows I gobble up; what’s their percentage in this? But I’m drifting away from the point. To me, heaven as a concept is fine. It’s the stated qualifications for and restrictions to admittance which are so blindingly arbitrary and cluttered with logic holes typical of the Christian solution to the way things work. It’s bad enough to be confronted with those holes, but the flaws are nothing compared to the verifiable history of the cult in matters of disillusionment.

@chyna I do not trash talk about Christians. I will debate them because of their behavior when it seems to be in direct opposition to their vaunted and publicly stated philosophies, as I listed in the details. In my debates with that hypocrite, I never once mocked him for believing in something that I believe to be imaginary. My debates with him have focused on his behavior, his not giving a shit about future generations.
That is exactly the opposite of what Jesus preached, and even died for. He died for all future generations.
To take something like that, that you believe to be so precious, then turn around and grind it into the mud just leaves my mind boggled.

@Dutchess_III
Criticism and debate is “trash talk”.
Pushback against discriminatory legislation is “persecution”.
Promoting racial equality is “white genocide”.
Some people just want to be victims.

@Dutchess_III That’s because you are thinking that your thoughts would remain the same. Attached to human flesh. There is no way of actually knowing what happens after death, but as a Christian it is our soul that is suppose to be most valued. Our physical selves are just a moment in time, but the soul eternal. Also, why would you believe that you could see what happens to love ones after you pass. What if your soul was reincarnated over and over and with every passing your memory is gone? Wouldn’t it be a kindness to feel love for all equally? Heaven would have to be that way, I would think. If it wasn’t, then it wouldn’t be heaven. You would be missing love ones.

I like to think of humanity like being a child. There is much we don’t understand because we flesh. in weak human bodies. Then when we die our spirit is free. Free from all the things that bind us in the flesh. We get to grow up.

Corinthians 13:11, When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

@ragingloli I don’t criticize or debate Christians because of their beliefs, like I want them to see the light or something. As long as they aren’t hurting anyone, I don’t care what anyone believes.

@Pandora I understand.

“I can swear there ain’t no Heaven
But I pray there ain’t no hell
Swear there ain’t no Heaven
And I’ll pray there ain’t no hell
But I’ll never know by livin’
Only my dyin’ will tell”

If there ain’t no heaven, your dyin’ won’t tell. At the end, you’ll black out and that will be that.

“I am not ashamed to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know that, which other men say they are sure of”... Clarence Darrow /// One of my favorite quotes, and I feel it can apply to both religious people and hard core atheists, equally.

^^^I like that.

@NomoreY_A That sounds just exactly like what I would suspect a Agnostic to say.

Well yes. And it is utterly logical.

Maybe for a Agnostic… A little too pretentious for a hard-core Atheist.

It is pretentious to say that you won’t pretend to understand things that you aren’t sure of, but that other people say they ARE sure of? I don’t understand.

Many people are absolutely certian there is a heaven and hell. I am not so sure. In fact, I am quite certain that there is not. Does that make me pretentious?

In my opinion, yes. Because you are not sure. And it takes more language to say so.
Look up the definition of “agnosticism” in the dictionary and the definition rambles on at some length. Now look up the definition of “atheism” and you will find the definition is short and to the point.

You have so lost me! Why are the people who are so absolutely certain of some things that, IMO, are superstitions, and thunder so rightously about them, are not the “pretentious” ones yet the people who have reservations are the pretentious ones? I am really trying to figure this out. What am I missing? Anybody?

Let me simplify this – Militant Agnostic: I don’t know, and neither do you. Apathetic Agnostic: I don’t know, and I don’t care. If you are absolutely sure that a God, Goddess, or Gods exist, then kudos to you. If you are absolutely sure that no God, Goddess, or Gods exist or possibly could exist, then kudos to you. To me, these things are unknown and unknowable. That makes me pretentious?

I always liked the end scene of the Movie, “Inherit the Wind”, where the actor who portrays Clarence Darrow, (at the end of a fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial), picks up a Bible in one hand, and Darwin’s Origin of Species in the other, ways them against each other, then smiles, slaps both books together, and places them in his briefcase.

Spencer Tracy

@stanleybmanly Thanks – call that a “senior moment”.

The Paris Accord has to do with our sending money (hundreds of billions_ to China and India. trump’s refusal to sign had nothing to do with environmental concerns.

Conservative Christians do not believe the environment is in jeopardy.

Well, he doesn’t think the layout is necessary because he doesn’t think there is anything wrong with the environment. He’s just stupid.

RepubliCONS don’t give a damn about anything but money, and how to get more for themselves and their corporate cronies at the expense of the middle class and working poor. Anything else is a dog and pony show for their moron base. That’s who they are, that’s what they’re about, that’s where they’re coming from.

@Yellowdog Conservative Christians apparently believe they are to be righteously raptured prior to the disappearance of Florida or malaria epidemics in Alaska.