Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: On the nature of heaven Message-ID: Date: 9 Jan 91 08:52:37 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 20 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I am curious about our current ideas of the nature of heaven. Most descriptions reveal a place very removed from our physical existence. In heaven, we are even stripped of the relationship of marriage (described elsewhere as yielding ``one flesh''). And yet, in reading Genesis I find that God created a physical world, with relationships amongst its people (Adam and Eve), and declared that world ``good''. While it is true that the sin of Adam and Eve destroyed this paradise, and, apparently left us with the world which we see today, I am curious why God should have abandoned this conception of paradise. If Eden was indeed a perfect world for us, why does that not remain the case? If Eden was not perfect in God's eyes why did he create it as such? If the relationships between people are not binding beyond death, why were such relationships an inherent part of the original creation? -- Terry Coatta (coatta@cs.ubc.ca) Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada `What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'