Why is it that religionists accept the concept of heaven without thinking it through to its logical conclusions?  To them, that is what this world is all about.  Live your life within the guidelines of morality, as dictated by a book that could not be more irrelevant to the modern world, so that you may enter the kingdom of heaven …. otherwise ye shall be condemned to the firey pits of hell.  Oh yeah – it’s for eternity, by the way.  Eternity.  As in forever and ever and ever and ever.

Maybe it’s just me, but when you add that “eternity” caveat, doesn’t that make both versions of the afterlife seem like nothing to look forward to?  Of all the vacations that I have ever taken, and of all the vacations that I would like to take but can’t afford to, I cannot imagine one that I wouldn’t eventually be sick of.  You could send me to my own private island in the most beautiful Caribbean waters on earth, with all the free amenities, servants, delicious food and drink that I can partake in – it may take a year, it may take 5 years, but eventually it will get old and I will want to get the hell out of there.  Maybe I’m off a bit, and it would take 20 years to become painfully tired of such an environment – but what is 20 years in comparison to eternity?  Maybe it will take 1,000 years to get sick of it, but again - what is 1,000 years in comparison to eternity?  

There is virtually nothing that a billionaire cannot afford to buy, and consequently I imagine that not much of anything falls into the category of a luxury at that point.  If heaven is a land of milk and honey where you are richly rewarded with anything you desire, what would you have a desire for that would last an eternity?

If hell is eternal, wouldn’t you get used to that burning sensation pretty quickly?  What is torture if you cannot eventually die from it?  How do trillions of souls, who cannot die again, not stand up to one devil and change their environment?  How does that devil manage to control all those souls and still find time to mess with mortals on earth?

If doing things like gambling, partying, having sex, cursing, telling lewd jokes, not going to church, working on a Sunday, etc. is what lands you in hell, and doing things like singing religious hymns, proselytizing, going to church, and living a quiet, sanitized life of utter mediocrity is what gets you into heaven, which kind of souls would you rather be surrounded by for ETERNITY?  Once you get beyond the paradise surroundings, and you are sick to death of being waited on hand and foot, and tired of playing golf every single day with gold plated clubs and diamond tipped golf balls, and don’t want to ever see another luxury item again – the only thing you will have left to suffer through eternity with will be the trillions of other souls who you are surrounded by.  It sickens me to think of myself ever being that position.

Once you think it through, the fact is that the only just reward that a god could ever grant would be the opportunity to come back to earth, or some other non-eternal place, and do it all over again.  If I can’t have that, then leave me to disintegrate into the earth and become a part of whatever else happens to absorb me.  The heaven concept sounds grand, but thanks to that eternity clause it will eventually be as maddening as hell.