my wife of course

Mmmkay, so I'm gonna put you down for playing chess and jamming with Janis Joplin..

You get eternity fishing on a calm, serene lake w Albert Einstein..

Well that's the thing and you nailed it just perfect... I do NOT like fishing !!!!!!! (Sorry, I've just had to mess with you a little bit, it's all good, ok?)

Earth is boring..

"On the basis that every heaven eventually becomes its own hell".

What basis is that? How is that proven? This is a fun, for shits n'giggles kinda question. Like smoking weed for eternity w/ Kurt Cobain. This isn't a serious philosophical question..

@Loud_Love OK well then you can free-form it. I was treating it as a serious question.

I could be wrong about every heaven eventually becoming its own hell, but I think that people really don't understand how long eternity actually is, and they have no clue what "heaven" actually is.

@mordant - Dude, do you wanna talk shop with Einstien, Steinbeck, Cobain, Hendrix? Do you wanna run through flowers all day? It's just a question for fun. Use your imagination!

@mordant - and yes, I think all of us on this site know what the standard accepted idea of "Heaven" is, and yes, we understand what "eternity" means. Please don't talk down to us.

@Loud_Love I'm not talking down to anyone likely to be here, and certainly to no one in particular. I'm talking about society generally. Eternity is forever. After a few hundred years of that, will anything you encounter be brand-spanking-new to you, or exciting? I don't think humans are really equipped for eternal life. Hedonic tone guarantees that after you've experienced the major categories of novel stuff, it will eventually become impossible to wring novelty out of anything. If you're resistant to this idea, that's fine, and your right. But it doesn't make the problem imagined, or make it go away, either.

As to people "knowing" what heaven "is" ... no one knows what it is. People imagine what they would wish that it is. Conveniently, it's always highly pleasurable and idealized, not because it "is" that -- but because people want it to be that.

For all we know, it's SSDD (Same Shit, Different Dimension). What basis is there to describe heaven that's distinguishable from what you're exercising with this thread: your imagination and wishful thinking?

Anyway, sorry I misunderstood that you were asking a serious question. If this question is purely to have speculative fun, I am not here to rain on anyone's parade. Do carry on.

@mordant - Lol, man - This was just fun. Athiests pretending what their heaven would be like. It can actually tell you a lot about a person - their answers. No harm, no foul. This was NOT a serious question, lol..

@Loud_Love Well to play the game as you intended, my best shot at heaven would be (1) the ability to return to the hopes, dreams and aspirations I had as a young man and actually live them out as my chosen experience and (2) to be able to stop having new experiences any time I want, should that become an issue. As to what (1) was -- it was basically to marry into a conflict-free, life-long vital relationship that makes all the other BS in life worthwhile for both parties. Now here in the Real World(tm) that's asking too much, but if I get to construct my imaginary world that would be it.

So, your imaginary heaven is Earth?

@Loud_Love Yeah, pretty much, Earth is like a giant Disneyland for me, I mean, there are virtually unlimited opportunities for having an almost infinite number of experiences and adventures. Bear in mind that it's been said that "an adventure is only inconvenience rightly considered and an inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.". There is also an unlimited number of "challenging" personalities to use to learn things like acceptance. I contend that there can't be joy without sorrow of love without hate because those terms essentially devine each other.

I think Aldous Huxley made a brilliant statement when he said, "Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities." Continued exposure to the extraordinary, by definition, would cause it to become the ordinary. To wish for some eternally "extraordinary" heaven scenario is pretty much impossible because of this. Unless maybe there was a way to move through an infinite number of different extraordinary circumstances. I'd buy that.

On the other hand, my life is generally pretty mundane but I absolutely love living it. So, yes, for a heaven to be a continuation of what my life feels like right now would be awesome. I just turn off the TV and quit listening to all the knuckleheads that want to control our lives through fear mongering. And I try to lead my life in a way that is respectful to the planet (though I know I could be better). I enjoy learning the lessons life provides.

Dude, you're overthinking this.. YOUR heaven.. What would be there?

Thanks for the invite @kenriley I'll find my heaven again, it's just getting everyone in one place at one time that I'm not sure about. The only good reason I've found for getting married, that would be one cool party.

yep that's more like it !

You don't have to be, neither am I, it's just a fun mental exercise..

@Loud_Love paradise will include god, jesus and the usual suspects... enough for me to end the mental exercise. But go ahead, knock yourself out.

@GipsyOfNewSpain - my idea of a hypothetical "heaven" won't include any of the above. C'mon, man, have some fun!

@Loud_Love I will have it right here in this plane. Watching my first born daughter sing on church, play bass on a blues on stage. ,See my second born daughter play some rock and metal on a club. Watch my son perform salsa dance on stage in Vegas. All attainable right now. When I die, their will explore all my writing, music and lyrics and do as they please if they want to. If I want to dream and trip about it.... Present a dance number with me and my son performing on stage. Lyrics done, music laid out but I need to spiff it more and sing it.... the hardest part. Need to get in shape. 2019 I will Ready... but if I complete that... all I will have left to do is to die. I will live on my children after gone. No dream of paradise somehow. I am here, were I need to be.

@GipsyOfNewSpain - All of those things are awesome and admirable, but for the purposes of this question, I think you may be taking it too seriously. Yes, we all don't believe in "God", yes, we all believe in the scientific method and what it can produce, yes, we all believe that "here and now" is all there is.. I'm just asking you to play. Stretch your imagination. Make it as ridiculous as you can!

@Loud_Love sorry. Too old to play. I already accomplished many of your heavens.... but go ahead and play children... dream on ... I will continue fixed on the Here and Now. I answered your question 40 years ago. You should had been there. But Dont get me wrong. I had been there were you are now.

No, I am not a Troll. This is a mental/imaginative exercise, for fun. If you don't wanna play, don't.

and you are not a dreamer

Because you think there would be more people "hypothetically" going to Heaven than Hell? Or Limbo? Or whatever?

even at 50-50, there would already be 25 billion.

I'll bet you're fun at parties..

I assume before AIDS?

@AnneWimsey People use condoms now. Have for decades..

@Loud_Love yes indeedy...mouth condoms? My BIL died from it, I remain aware.

@AnneWimsey - Ewwww.. "mouth condoms"..

@AnneWimsey - Seriously?? before AIDS?? Are you living in 1984?? Aids is a problem, yes, however in the last 20 years since you watched TV, there have been countless educational programs on TV and in school, safe sex, and countless community programs to combat the spread (safe injection sites, safe pipes, safe needles, CONDOMS)

@Loud_Love well, check your CDC stats, people...the fastest-growing HIV-positive group in the country, for 10 years running, is women my age...over 62, so I do think I know a bit about it, since I try to spread the word. And yes to be truly safe you need to use a mouth dam...transmissable bodily fluids are not just below the waist. With you all's level of "awareness" i sincerely wish you a lot of luck!

@Loud_Love, @ADistantShore moral condemnation your ass! You are in danger because of your obvious ignorance and here I am wasting my time trying to help you. For example, you have never heard of a mouth dam or mouth condom, and yet approx. 1/3 of cases are spread Orally...fluids are fluids, wherever they seep from! Does your defensive sarcasm result from the Fact that you know you are woefully ignorant? When my BIL died he weighed 63 lbs at 6'2".......

@ADistantShore no such thing as too many hugs!