So, Christian Today kinda pissed me off, recently.
I wrote a blog post a while ago wishing that there was a heaven after death. I don’t think there’s evidence for it, and I don’t believe in it. I wouldn’t want to be there forever — I’d prefer it to be a place I could leave if I got tired of it. And it would be awesome if it were a place were everything made sense, and everyone loved and cared about each other, and…well, a lot of things that are beautiful in my mind. You can read more about it here.
I was a bit worried about how that would come across to atheists, as I’ve heard a lot of atheists say that a desire to go to heaven was nonsense. That’s why I said that this wish that there was heaven was not “atheistically correct.” It had nothing to do with the dictionary definition of “atheism” — that’s nothing more than a lack of belief in God or gods. It had to do with the atheists that I knew in the United States and that I wrote for often. I was saying I didn’t think that my wish that there was a heaven would go over well.
I was wrong, for the record. The article was more well received than I thought it would be. Simon Davis from the Religion News Service contacted me soon after I published the piece to write an article about it, among some other observations about those who had no religion and wanted to (or actually did) believe in heaven. He got one key detail right:
Asked if [Hughes] was ever tempted to believe in the version he described, he said he tried, but ultimately could not: “I found no evidence for it.”
A rather important detail. I think that the evidence points to death being it. That’s important, because it makes it that much more important for me to make the most of my life here on earth.
Which is why I’m a bit disturbed that Christian Today missed that detail, in their determination to show that those without religion embodied a “contradiction.” The article starts:
An atheist who believes in heaven may look like an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Nonetheless, there are people who do not believe in God but who do believe in an afterlife.
Atheist blogger Martin Hughes is one of them.
No I’m not. I’m not. I don’t believe in heaven. And I think that’s important, as this is our one chance to pursue understanding and love of our fellowmen, especially the most vulnerable among us. This is it.
So I want to set the record straight.
So far as I know, this is each and every one of our’s last chance to make life beautiful for ourselves and others.
And in a way, it’s better than heaven, because it’s real. I don’t have to worry about having faith or living for what happens after I die. I can embrace it right now.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZGghmwUcbQ[/youtube]
I can live like this.
Thanks for reading.
P.S. I have a Patreon, if you want to help me do what I do.