Is There a Heaven for Humans?

God Discusses This Question with Me in a Dream

Written by Raymond Fontaine, PhD - July 2004

    Last evening, I received an e-mail from a Deist friend. It reads: "I believe in Deism. Yet I wonder if there's a chance that heaven exists. What do you think?" Coming from a sincere intelligent person, the question deserved serious reconsideration. Later when I retired without a final resolution, I tossed and turned before falling asleep. When I did, a dream picked up the question and searched for a definitive answer. As often before in dreams, God came along to help me. 

   "Your problem tonight," said God, "is a sticky one: is there a heaven where humans can enjoy an eternity of happiness and peace? A simple yes or no directly from me, even if only in a dream, might suffice for you. But when your readers and friends ask you about heaven, you can't simply answer that God told you such and such in a dream. You need a fully rational reply, albeit subtle, to enlighten people who sincerely want to know the truth - the facts."

   "To understand the problem," I said, "it's better to begin at the very end of the story - the Last Judgment of humans. Some fifty years after Jesus died, some unknown author wrote that when the Son of Man comes in his glory, all nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the good from the bad who will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

   "I know the story well," said God. "I've seen the glorious portrayal of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Both, the story and the painting, represent what the Pope's Church teaches about the end of time for humans, which will happen when the sun loses all its fiery energy and the earth freezes over - in five billion years. 

   "But from now till then," I said, "the people want to know where are the deceased? And the Pope's Church has a ready answer. It teaches that their bodies, in various degrees of decomposition and disintegration, remain on earth while their souls, being spiritual, continue to exist intact."

    "Where and what exactly does the Pope say?" asked God.

    "Paragraph #366 of the Pope's Catechism of the Catholic Church," I answered, "reads as follow: The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not produced by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection."

    "How is it," asked God, "that I didn't know that I am creating and fashioning human souls every day? Since the Big Bang, billions of stars and zillions of animals, insects and birds have been generated without my individual intervention. I have let all of nature develop and evolve according to its innate forces and laws. Since the Big Bang, which formed the universe, nature has not produced anything that is spiritual - NOR HAVE I." 

    "In that case," I said, "without spiritual and immortal souls, humans, like every other organism on earth, cease to exist after death. There is no after-life and no heaven. Did I hear you right? Are you sure?" 

    "Yes, my dear fellow," God replied, "but don't be disappointed. An eternal life sounds great. But without a body for billions of years, what would you do? Life would get boring and there would be no escape." With that comforting thought, God left my dream and I awoke with a definitive answer for my Deist friend. 

    A billion people believe what the Pope's Church teaches about spiritual souls. They are created by God and infused into a single human zygote at the moment of conception. Being immaterial, the soul is immortal and lives for all eternity. At death, God judges each soul and determines its eternal destiny in heaven or in hell.

    Unable to prove any of this story, the Pope's Church teaches that God revealed it to prophets thousands of years ago. The Church now preaches this supernatural mystery with absolute certainty and infallibility. Not one of the Church's many supernatural dogmas can be observed and verified. All of them can only be believed on the word of vulnerable and fallible humans.

    Still, many people believe the Church although its teaching may be sheer fabrication. I did for fifty years. But in 1967, I left the priesthood and the Church and all its supernatural doctrines. I retained only the existence of the Creator that the structures and laws in nature reveal to me. I do not believe in heaven nor in an after-life. I accept life on earth exploiting my innate potential and lending a helping hand to my paralyzed wife and to many other fellow-creatures. 

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