Now, here’s a topic to get our attention. After all, the vast majority of people in our culture believe in it. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people everywhere believe in it, albeit in different ways. A relatively small minority of people think it’s just fantasy and wish fulfillment. What do you believe?

In the broadest sense, most of the eastern faith systems do not really see heaven as a place like those portrayed in the three great monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The former view reality through a different lens than these three, with the ultimate afterlife being a kind of merging with the One, sort of like a drop of water splashed into the ocean. We get there through a succession of earthly lives, wherein we are trying to break free of the karma that separates us from this ideal conclusion. One of the ways we do this is through a process loosely called Self Realization, whereby our individual selves give way to the true and greater Self. While a gross exaggeration and simplistic portrayal (that some of my eastern friends will probably find unsatisfying), I don’t believe I’m that far off the mark. After all, I’ve both studied and practiced eastern faiths.

Those of us in the west and, increasingly, in Third World cultures align more to the viewpoint that heaven is a place where some form of us may actually go after we die. It’s to this that I speak now.

We’ve all heard plenty about heaven. First of all, we can agree it’s supposed to be a nice place. After that, things begin to fall apart.

In my mind things fall apart for two main reasons. We have different ideas of what kind of place it actually is and we have different views on who actually gets to go there.

(Remember, I’m not going to get into eastern views such as those held by traditional Hindus and Buddhists, nor am I going to spend anytime here considering the atheist/naturist views that there’s absolutely no such thing. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll look at what heaven might be like and the possible prerequisites for admission.)

So, once again, the vast majority of people with whom we come into contact believe in some form of heaven. They may or may not have given much thought about who gets to go there and how.

Let’s start off with some of the current popular imagery. We have all of the accounts of “near death” experiences where people see a welcoming light. Some of these people testify that they are greeted by loved ones. We have books and movies about people (especially about children but also adults) who share that they spent time in heaven but were brought back to this earthly life for one reason or another. Almost universally, they say this jolt back was entirely difficult and uncomfortable.

Of course, we have the classic Pearly Gates, manned by St. Peter acting as chief customs agent with the power to grant admission or turn away the undeserving. Presumably, beyond those Pearly Gates, we will have Streets Paved with Gold. I’ve sometimes wondered if there are shops on those streets and what forms of transportation will make use of them. Maybe it’s like Main Street at Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth.

I don’t really know anyone who thinks we’ll sit around on clouds playing harps but I do know that there’s a lot of confusion about what people will be doing who actually go there. As most people who think about heaven think it’s a permanent location … as in eternity which is very long indeed … conjecture can come to a pretty screeching halt. After all, who wants to do anything or nothing for all of eternity?? This can be a very destabilizing thought and a pretty quick turnoff to thinking about it much more.

We have good friends who, I understand, regularly engage in séances, speaking with deceased loved ones through a medium. I’m not sure of where my friends believe these people are but I know they are comforted when communicating with them. I love and respect them but I’m not inclined to participate in this kind of thing for a variety of reasons.

I think we can go on for awhile, recalling images and ideas, but I’d like to hit the pause button and go off for a bit in another direction.

I’d like to start with the question of why heaven should exist in the first place. Since a whole lot of people believe it does in some form or other, regardless of their views about God, I think it’s interesting to consider the point of it. I know people who believe it’s just where you go when you die. Like it’s automatic. You live your life here and then you go there. It’s just like this life: You show up at birth, live, die and go to heaven. No particular reason one way of the other. A variant of this is kind of an east/west hybrid where heaven is our permanent home but occasionally our number comes up or we choose to become human for a spell, returning back when that life is complete. This may be a one-time gig or a revolving door. Either way, the whole thing just is. Enough said.

If you’ve been reading how I think, you know that I like to cut away at the layers to find what lies underneath. I have to wonder who or what would have set up such a system and for what purpose? What’s the objective? After all, it is a system, which by definition has to have a rationale.

If heaven is a good place and there is a reason for it to exist, then what’s the reason to have a good place?

Most people, but not all, think heaven is for people who were good on earth. In other words, most people, but not all, think Adolf Hitler has not set up home there next door to his Holocaust victims and they’re all enjoying heavenly schnitzel while joyfully listening to Beethoven sonatas played by former SS murderers. Sorry for the graphic imagery but I’m trying to make a point. Having said that, however, there are a number of people who believe that all people will get to spend eternity in heaven (theologically, this is called Universalism). It just might take them longer to get there; hence one reason for purgatory, that cosmic holding tank.

In other words in this line of thinking, the main purpose of heaven is to serve as a reward for good behavior or (for the Universalists) the final destination after you’ve finally been forgiven for bad behavior and have come around after who knows how long?

The question for us, then, is do we think that heaven is just a place where all people go when they die, with no distinction based upon earthly behavior and choices, or do we think that entry to heaven is based upon some kind of metric, including being good? I, for one, think this is worth pondering. (And we think our daily choices are challenging!)

If you are somewhat or extremely repelled by the thought that the worst and most evil people who had no remorse could end up next to the very best of humanity then you probably line up with the majority group that says there are conditions for entry.

And, that gets very interesting. Because once we find ourselves leaning towards the “conditions for entry” camp, we have to think about what those conditions are. There’s no honest way to avoid it. Sorry.

Which brings me to what I consider to be three possible broad sets of conditions. (1) God is so loving and forgiving that none of the choices we make in life matter when it come to entry to heaven and eternal life. In other words, God’s loving nature is all that matters and we’re all in because that’s what he wants. Or, if you don’t really believe in God but believe in heaven, then this is just the way the system was set up, however that might be. (2) We need to earn our way in by some metric. The key here is “earn.” Typically this means to be a good person and do good things, whatever that may mean. In this format, there’s a kind of cosmic ledger and God (or whomever is doing the judging) analyzes our credit and debit statements on a regular basis. Two points in the plus column and one point in the minus column and so forth. How those points are considered and what the passing grade is, is a neat set of questions. I have heard all sorts of reasoning on this. One of the summaries I hear is, “since I’m basically a good person, I’m hopeful I’ll get in.” There are strains of this in both Christianity and New Age beliefs. I wonder what scale we’re measured on. It would be nice to know. Or, on the contrary, it might be terrifying to know. After all, with God knowing every single one of our thoughts and deeds during the course of our entire life (he being God, of course), which of us wants that videotape evidence played in front of us?

That leaves (3). Now #3 is interesting and it happens to be the one I believe, having run into brick walls considering #s 1&2. This one, in a sense, is a hybrid of 1 and 2. Like both of them, it involves an active agent setting conditions, however loose or strict. It involves a loving and forgiving God who cares for us unconditionally. But, it also involves choice and the recognition that there is justice in a reality that houses both good and evil. And, that choice is the single metric. Simple and clean. Not easy, mind you, but simple and clean. There is no “earning,” because there is nothing we can do to earn God’s love and a place in what we might call heaven. He already loves each of us, even the worst of our kind. No, instead, we need to simply recognize that we’ll never make it on the merits … the bar is just way too high. Holy is holy after all (unless you don’t believe in holiness, just niceness, then what does that make God?) Instead, we need a gift and the gift is grace, where grace is the one thing that gets us from where we are across the finish line. So, grace is the key. I’ve written about grace before and a whole lot of people a whole lot smarter than me have much better ways to talk about it. But, it’s really that simple. Well, simple, yes. Easy, no. In fact, much simpler than trying to keep track of the cosmic ledger which most people either avoid or do so in a way that drives them batty and turns them into being very judgmental, especially of others. It’s a simple choice with simple conditions. But, a choice it is (that free will thing) and conditions, there are. You can probably guess if you don’t already know. You see, grace is a gift freely given but there is a cost. Not to us, thankfully, with respect to this subject. But one of the conditions involves the nature of the cost.

So, if you haven’t give up on this yet, I think we’re left with five possibilities to choose from. (1) There is no such thing as and afterlife or heaven. The whole thing is foolishness when you get right to it. (2) The afterlife is something most akin to that portrayed in the eastern faiths … a cosmic oneness with which we will hopefully one day merge if we follow the rules. (3) There actually is a really nice place we can call heaven where we will go after we die. Everyone will be there. (4) There actually is a really nice place we can call heaven where we may go after we die if we are good enough. Some of us will be there. We may or may not want to think about who and where the others will be. And, (5) There actually is a really nice place we can call heaven where we may go after we die and it has nothing to do with us being good enough but about receiving the grace by which we qualify. The key is who receives the grace and how and why it is offered.

I will refrain here from detailing my specific thinking with respect to this last consideration, although I am largely convinced of its authenticity for many reasons.

Regardless, we have two options with respect to all of this. We can choose, first, to just let the chips fall where they may. “Above my pay grade,” so to speak. It’s just too complicated and “we can never know for certain, anyway.” Or, second, we can actually think about it, ask questions and make appropriate decisions. The choice is ours. Maybe the stakes are very low and maybe they are very high. Paraphrasing the famous 17^th century French physicist/mathematician/philosopher Blaise Pascal (remembered here for his Pascal’s Wager), “place your bets ladies and gentlemen.”

I think I’ll stop here for now. This may be continued.