There is no sea in heaven

Andrew Sullivan points to the finality of death as the inherent tragedy from which his religious view rescues him. But does it? Really? Has he examined his vision of an afterlife with the honesty that he asks about death? Heaven is one of the most ill-defined aspects of the salvational religions. The difficulty of imagining how a human being would spend an eternity, without lapsing into insanity, is compounded by the description of both heaven and its inhabitants as washed of much that makes us who we are, and that motivates our every act. In the Christian heaven, people will no longer desire to do anything that that religion describes as sinful. Imagine: never a lustful glance, never a desire for a second, too much piece of pie, never a prideful thought. Material need would be eliminated, and so also all that it motivates. There will be no games in heaven, because games presume a competitive spirit and all that entails. Which means also no mathematics or science. What would be the point? There is never sadness and regret, which means all past, earthly events whose remembrance generates these no longer have any meaning for those who hold those memories. There can be no fishing or hunting, since there is no death. Nature, if present, must be all rainbows and butterflies without gales or mosquitos. It is no wonder that Jesus cleanses heaven of the sea, that embodies so much that is impure, roiling and fickle, that is full of diverse animals from the minute to the huge, cold-blooded and warm, eating each other, that is an expanse without clear boundaries, smelling of life and decomposition, both at once, that has been exploited for trade, food, and conquest. The question for Andrew is whether he can turn the vapid descriptions of heaven — not this, not that, not the other, forever and ever, amen — into something that is positive, concrete, sensible, and meaningful. The fundamentalist Muslims at least offer 72 virgins. One suspects the excitement would wear off after ten thousand years. But it’s more than uninterrupted singing of praise! If we would have a fantasy to save us from facing death, it needs to be a good one. Even without a believing bone in my body, I can grow wistful over a good fantasy woven around a real tragedy. But heaven, as described by the Christians or Muslims, as an answer to death? That’s like saying life would be hard to face without belief in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to repair its injustices.