Beautifully put, Yabby.

G'day Pericles,
Heaven is percieved as a place of happiness, peace and a feeling of enlightenment together love and living in absolute harmony.
If the good book reflects this, there must have been a reason for it to have been written, but without trying to involve religion here, the fact remains that the good book is in fact saying (in so many words) if one is bad, one burns in hell and the good go to heaven.
What happens if this is the other way around? We all have one heck of a surprise coming. The word I am looking for, describes what the bible has become to us humans. Its like a preacher, he enters the room and what do you get?.. dead silence or all of ones good points come to the fore. One goes to church, we (or we used to) put on a suit and this is why I used the word "stigma" Church, Religion,Pastor,
Reverend, R.H. whoever whatsisname, they make there presence, we experience a... (stigma?)

Yabby and Pericles.

There is not a chapter in the Bible called 'Heaven'.

But the OT has much about the 'nature' of it. (Lion lay down with the lamb...etc)

Rev 21
1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
5 He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.

Sobering thoughts.

Hey Boaz

I prefer the Buddhist belief of Karma and reincarnation. Buddhists do not threaten their fellow humans with an eternity of a "fiery lake of burning sulfur."

Even Christian churches now rarely allude to the Christian God's threat of fire and brimstone. This is a result of parishes losing their attendee numbers, and of evolved human enlightenment where past parishioners' now realise that Christianity is flawed - even fraudulent!

Do not forget Boaz that the Christians promoted the slaughters and destruction of Rome, North Africa, Palestine, Syria, Jerusalem, Constantinople. Then you have a history of Christians murdering Christians and the incineration of heretics.

Paul, I believe, wrote the oldest surviving Christian texts though he had never seen the earthly Jesus.

Then in more recent times we've witnessed the slaughter of the Irish - Protestants against Catholics. What about the "charming" Hitler, a Christian?

And again, the unevolved, fundamentalist Muslim is "hell-bent" on blowing up the infidels in the name of Allah and his scriptures with the promise of a few hundred virgins in the after-life. They remain in the middle ages, duped by the radical clerics with a few insidious politics thrown in for good measure. Even worse, they continue to kill each other!

Bibles promote wars and destruction.

The most illogical part is that bibles were written by mere earthlings, hell-bent on duping and controlling the uneducated masses. But now we're on to them, hey?

In fact, may I say it? I'd even prefer Yabby's hypothesis of the worms cleaning up the environment and having a tea party over some poor critter's broken and abused bodily remnants!

Though, the mystery remains, can worms eat the spirit, if there is one?

Interesting, Boaz.

Are we in "literally true" territory here, or are we in the land of metaphor?

You have a habit of picking and choosing, you see, and it is never immediately apparent which one is in play at any one point in time.

Except for the Qur'an, of course, which you insist is not only literally true, but whose instructions are strictly adhered to by every Muslim.

So which is it this time?

Who is "speaking" here, by the way? I'm not familiar with the context of Revelations. But from the manner in which the topic is addressed, it would appear to be some form of prophecy - or did he literally see "a new heaven and a new earth".

If so, the part about the burning in the fiery pit must also be taken literally, I guess.

I hate to say it, but don't you find it all a little far-fetched?

Isn't it far more likely that the book was written in the same style, and with the same intent, as the ubiquitous TV Evangelist, simply in order to exert control over more... suggestible minds?

The whole thing is a puzzle. From the geography - why there, and not in a more educated part of the world to ensure a better continuity of written evidence? - to the chronology - why then, and not at a time when communications had improved sufficiently to ensure the word was efficiently promulgated?

As I have said before, there are vastly more questions than answers. In fact each answer simply illuminates how little we actually know, and opens the way for another round of questions.

But I guess at least it may be safely said that no-one actually has a clue what heaven or hell are all about. Even the people who use them as carrot-and-stick to get people's attention.

Speaking of tea parties reminds me of a conversation I had some years ago with a nun. She had dedicated an entire life-time to her religious order, doing good.

Finally, as an old woman and saving for many years from a small stipend and gifts from her family, she took herself off to see the world, living frugally and staying mainly in youth hostels and not disclosing she was a "religious."

At a tea party in her honour, and after perusing many photographs of her travels I asked:

"Sister, what did you think of all the magnificent churches in Italy?"

"Ooh", she said in her Irish accent. "I wouldn't go into those churches. They were all built on poor people's money!"