Got God-questions? 01
It’s a simple question. But for some reason, Christians seem completely unable to give a simple, straightforward answer. Most of them will eloquently beat around the bush and tell you in their magical, meaning twisting language what heaven is. Some do try however and I was pleasantly surprised to have found an article that held the promise of shedding clarity. As the unnamed author of the article in question progressed however, he/she only re-joined the ranks of the Christian army unable to give answers to whatever issue. I should have known already from the name of the website where the answer was formulated: GotQuestions.org and its heading: "Got Questions? Your question, biblical answers". The article is named the same as my own titular question: “Where is heaven?” https://www.gotquestions.org/where-is-Heaven.html
A. Refusal to answer
My debunking of the “answer” will take no longer than the quoted article, mostly because I can reduce the core of it to the following citations:
1.
Question: "Where is heaven? What is the location of heaven?"
Answer: Heaven is most certainly a real place. The Bible very definitely speaks of heaven’s existence—and access to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ—but there are no verses that give us a geographical location. The short answer to this question is, “heaven is where God is.”
2.
It is more important to know the “why” and the “who” than the “where.” The New Testament focuses on the purpose of heaven and who is there instead of telling us exactly what it is like or where it is.
In citation 1. the author tells us right off the bat that the bible cannot give you a geographical location of heaven. How ironic, when your website claims to offer 'biblical answers'. The author admits to not having a clue on the location of heaven, yet somehow knows that it is real. That again, is telling us about the what, not the where. But granted that the author is right, and heaven is most certainly a real place, then it exists by definition within the by humans observable area of our universe. Otherwise, the author cannot know that it is a real place. Second, saying that it is real means that this place is part of the space-time continuum. It can therefore not be “beyond the stars” as some maintain, as this would mean that the place would be outside the universe and can therefore not be a place. Faced with the conundrum of having to demonstrate the reality of a fictitious place, the author resorts to the instruction in citation 2. Not surprisingly this is the same old rhetoric since Christianity started exhuming authority: don’t ask questions. Just swallow what we feed you.
B. Oops, I did it again.
By circumventing a direct answer, the author does what is so typical for Christian apologists. The diversion tactic here: heaven is where god is. Okay, let’s go with that and follow it through in a logical manner. If heaven is where god is, than the immediate follow up question is “where is god?” The answer to that is almost always: everywhere. Assuming these claims to be true, than we can postulate them as the first two premises in the below syllogism:
Heaven is where god is.
God is everywhere.
Heaven is everywhere.
Earth is in heaven.
I am on Earth...
...therefore I am also in heaven.
Since I am already in heaven, I do not have to accept Jesus as my lord and savior to go to heaven.
This is true for me as it is true for every other human on Earth as they too are already in heaven.
Being Christian does not affect this outcome. Christianity is irrelevant.
A small part of heaven (*)
I doubt it was the intention of the author on the clearly Christian website of GotQuestions.org to denounce the necessity of Christianity. If I was a Christian I would certainly not like to see my name under this article. Or perhaps it was and the people administering the website removed the author’s name from it. Maybe that’s because the author realized how silly his/her beliefs were and instantly became an atheist. I for one am amused to see how often Christians are the ones bringing their institution of contradictions and nonsense down on their own heads. When push comes to shove, the entire construct of Christianity is but a house of cards easily blown down by a whiff of logic.
Richard Dalet PHD, February 07, 2021
(*) Photo by Claudio Allio, published in the ‘Mathare-Inn Photobook’, Blurb Books, [https://www.blurb.com/books/1167636-mathare-inn], part of the fundraising project by photographer Claudio Allio and texts by Claudio Torres.