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While most of us think there's a heaven, we differ on the details
The Dallas Morning News ^ | Tue, Nov. 11, 2003 | JEFFREY WEISS

Posted on 11/11/2003 12:01:31 PM PST by yonif

DALLAS - (KRT) - What's heaven really like?

Linda Lopez has an idea. Heaven, she figures, is a lot like the sun-dappled cloudscapes she's seen from airplane windows. "The only thing we are missing on the clouds are the angels jumping from cloud to cloud," she said. "And flowers."

Since her childhood in Mexico, Lopez has set up an altar every year to honor her loved ones in heaven. Every Nov. 2, on the Day of the Dead, she is sure that her grandmother pays her a visit.

Marigolds, sacred candles, an Abuelita brand chocolate bar - the altar is heaped with treats to welcome the spiritual guest.

Lopez firmly believes that heaven is a place - a place as real as the Bath House Cultural Center in Dallas, where her elaborate altar was featured in an exhibit dedicated to the Mexican observance.

What's heaven really like? Kathy Windrow's notion is far less concrete than Lopez's.

"I don't picture them floating on clouds or any of that," said Windrow, who chairs the art department at Eastfield College in Mesquite, Texas. "But I do feel that something essential about their energy or spirit exists out there."

Just as there's no consensus on what God is, does or looks like, there is no single model of heaven. While most Americans say they believe in some sort of afterlife, those beliefs don't necessarily tie in with the teachings of any particular religion. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha'i - the list of traditional visions of the world to come is as long as the list of faith traditions.

People in general - more than eight in 10 Americans, according to a Harris poll - cling to some notion of heaven.

While most of us didn't set up altars for the recent Day of the Dead, many share visions of the hereafter with those who will. In best-selling books, in popular songs, on movie screens and in surveys, we reveal what we know - or hope we know - about the world to come.

The Harris Poll - conducted in February and reflecting attitudes on religion similar to those in earlier years - found that about 90 percent of those questioned said they believed in God. About 84 percent said they believed in the survival of the soul or something like it. (But only 69 percent said they believed in hell.) Close to a third said they believed in reincarnation.

The vast majority who believe in heaven figure they're going there; only one-half of 1 percent told Harris pollsters that they'd go to hell.

Another pollster, George Barna, found widely varying views of heaven. In a survey released last month, he reported that among those who believe in heaven, 46 percent describe it as "a state of eternal existence in God's presence," while 30 percent said it's "an actual place of rest and reward where souls go after death." And 14 percent said that heaven is just "symbolic."

Barna, an evangelical Christian, notes the diversity of opinion without approval:

"These contradictions are further evidence that many Americans adopt simplistic views of life and the afterlife based upon ideas drawn from disparate sources, such as movies, music and novels, without carefully considering those beliefs."

What's heaven really like? Mitch Albom has an idea.

The erstwhile sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press is best known as the author of the runaway 1997 bestseller, "Tuesdays With Morrie," a book about his final weeks with an old college professor who was dying.

Albom has a new book, "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" (Random House, $21.95). It, too, shot to the top of The New York Times best-seller list. While Albom insists it's anything but Wednesdays with Morrie - for one thing, it's fiction - the new work plows some of the same moral and spiritual ground. It asks and tries to answer Big Questions about life, death and meaning.

The 198-page novel tells the story of a man who dies and meets five people who died before. Each was connected to his life, some in ways he could not have imagined while alive. At the end of the five meetings, the man's seemingly mundane life makes sense to him as something important.

The message - that all lives are meaningful and connected, and that we'll eventually understand how - has clearly struck a chord with readers.

But is this really what heaven is like?

Albom, who is Jewish, acknowledges that his concept isn't specifically from his faith tradition or any personal divine revelation.

"It's not researched first-person" he said. "I didn't go there and come back. But it is my hope that if heaven doesn't work exactly like that, the spirit is like that."

What is heaven really like? Anthony DeStefano, another author, has another idea.

Like Albom, he has a new book that's selling pretty well. "A Travel Guide to Heaven" (Doubleday, $18.95) went into its third printing last month. Unlike Albom, DeStefano says his work is Christian, Bible-based nonfiction.

Heaven, he says, is a physical place where there will be recognizable people and colors and sounds and cities and animals. It will be lots of fun for those who get there - and the party will build toward a big finish. (The full payoff of heaven, DeStefano says, won't happen until after the resurrection of the dead.)

Like Albom, DeStefano is no professional theologian. A Catholic, he is executive director of an anti-abortion organization in New York. But he said he was careful not to let his day job leak into the book.

"I stayed away from controversial moral or political positions," he said.

The point of his book: If people really understood the Christian promise of heaven, they'd be more excited about it and more inclined to try to get there. The 208-page book is modeled on a travel guide, with the highlights gleaned from centuries of Christian writings about the hereafter.

"I'm obviously pushing the envelope a little. I want to be a little provocative," DeStefano said. "I would not bet my life that there are animals in heaven. I would bet my life that I'll have a body in heaven and there will be colors in heaven."

So what's heaven really like?

For many, questions give way to hope.

For Lopez, her altar for her grandmother expresses that hope.

"I was very close to her and I still think she is with me and takes care of me," she said. "Every day."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: god; heaven; religion
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1 posted on 11/11/2003 12:01:32 PM PST by yonif
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To: yonif
as the old song goes....I know there aint no heaven and I pray there aint no hell...
2 posted on 11/11/2003 12:14:14 PM PST by stylin19a (is it vietnam yet ?)
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To: yonif
I want a Heaven that doesn't force me to accept 72 pissed off West Virginia lesbians... like the Muzzle-em Paradise promises !!! ;-))

.

3 posted on 11/11/2003 12:19:55 PM PST by GeekDejure (<H3> Searching For The Meaning Of "Huge" Fonts !!!</H3>)
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To: stylin19a
In my humble opinion, every woman in heaven would look like Laurie Dhue.
4 posted on 11/11/2003 12:22:09 PM PST by exile (Exile - Proudly ticking off the left since 1992.)
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To: yonif
Just as there's no consensus on what God is, does or looks like, there is no single model of heaven. While most Americans say they believe in some sort of afterlife, those beliefs don't necessarily tie in with the teachings of any particular religion. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Baha'i - the list of traditional visions of the world to come is as long as the list of faith traditions.

"No religion is genuine that is not in accordance with truth" - Lactantius

5 posted on 11/11/2003 12:24:18 PM PST by Pete
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To: exile
In my humble opinion, every woman in heaven would look like Laurie Dhue.

And every woman in Hell would look like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, so many choices available!

Man nor beast should be subjected to this over the line punishment, huh?

6 posted on 11/11/2003 12:46:10 PM PST by VOYAGER
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To: exile
In my humble opinion, every woman in heaven would look like Laurie Dhue.

And every woman in Hell would look like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, so many choices available!

NO man or beast should be subjected to this over the line punishment, huh?

7 posted on 11/11/2003 12:47:11 PM PST by VOYAGER
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To: yonif
read later
8 posted on 11/11/2003 12:55:54 PM PST by LiteKeeper
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To: yonif
I truly believe Heaven is a place. And when my beloved Grandmother departed this world last month at the age of 95, I'm positive she set up a kitchen there to feed everybody coming through the Pearly Gates.

Luv ya Grandma. ;-)

9 posted on 11/11/2003 12:56:16 PM PST by uglybiker (Member in good standing of the Freerepublic Beer Drinking Team)
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To: exile
Okay...but what would you have to look like?
10 posted on 11/11/2003 12:57:19 PM PST by fml ( You can twist perception, reality won't budge. -RUSH)
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To: yonif
I'm personally hoping for Valhalla.
11 posted on 11/11/2003 12:57:27 PM PST by Dementon (I hear the voices in my head, I swear to God it sounds like they're snoring...)
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To: fml
Being a happenin' dude as I am, I'd just look like good old dashing Exile.
12 posted on 11/11/2003 12:58:35 PM PST by exile (Exile - Proudly ticking off the left since 1992.)
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To: yonif
Pie for breakfast.

Miles Davis musak.

Lots of grass and streams.

No clothes.

And yes...many, many Laurie Dhue's.
13 posted on 11/11/2003 12:59:14 PM PST by ItsOurTimeNow ("Forth now, and fear no darkness!")
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To: VOYAGER
In hell you would be forced to have sex with Helen Thomas.
14 posted on 11/11/2003 12:59:50 PM PST by DarthVader (DemoRAT Senators should have done to them what was done to Joe Pesci in Casino)
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To: yonif
Heaven is a real place. The best site on the web about heaven is Randy Alcorn's (Eternal Perspective's Ministries)
epm.org

15 posted on 11/11/2003 1:01:06 PM PST by Haddon
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To: yonif

16 posted on 11/11/2003 1:01:55 PM PST by Hatteras (Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps...)
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To: DarthVader
"In hell you would be forced to have sex with Helen Thomas."

In the words of the great Homer Simpson, "Jesus, Allah, Buddah, I love you all!"
17 posted on 11/11/2003 1:03:11 PM PST by exile (Exile - Proudly ticking off the left since 1992.)
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To: exile
Nope, not good enough, sorry ya ol'dashing dude, give it another try.
18 posted on 11/11/2003 1:04:34 PM PST by fml ( You can twist perception, reality won't budge. -RUSH)
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To: yonif
Several years ago, I couldn't attend my mother's funeral in Fla., so when her ashes were buried in Vt., when the ground thawed, I made sure I was there. Unfortunately, I was ten minutes late and saw a pickup truck leaving, shovel rattling in back, saw a priest's car leaving...and knew my stupid brother in law had held the funeral without me. So I'm dragging a few miserable perennials out of the back of my car, beyond fury, and Bill the brother in law, sidled up and said, "Well, it was only you." (and my four kids) He had the grace to look guilty and went on, "Uh, you're mad, aren't you." I opened my mouth to blast him, and my mother said to me (in my head), "What did you expect? He's a jerk. He was always a jerk. He'll die a jerk." My mother, never one to mince words, was dead right about Bill. She went on to say that nothing matters that happens here on earth, and that God forgives everything. She then told me to sit on her grave and talk about her and have a good time. It was one of the best days of my life. What a gift! About heaven, one of my friends, a Seventh Day Adventist, doesn't believe pets have an afterlife. This is ridiculous. It wouldn't be heaven without them.
19 posted on 11/11/2003 1:10:19 PM PST by hershey
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To: VOYAGER
And every woman in Hell would look like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi

That wouldn't be so bad. I personally suspect that the women in hell will look like Janet Reno or Andrea Dworkin. The more attractive ones might resemble Rosie O'Donnell. Madellyn Murray O'Hare will undoubtedly be there too.

20 posted on 11/11/2003 1:18:20 PM PST by elmer fudd
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