The only people who possess an argument against the reality of Heaven and Hell are ill-informed atheists. No god = no afterlife. Pretty simple. However, if you believe in any god of any make or model, you must also 1) believe in an afterlife, and 2) believe there are two potential ‘landing spots’: a good hereafter or a horrible hereafter. See Religion 101.
The speculative creativity of mankind knows no bounds, which has provided plenty of head-scratching afterlife options. Hindus roll the dice on reincarnation, which can cause a dead end. If you’re reincarnated as a tree, how do you possibly become a tree with good morals so that you can return to a higher life form in your next life? If you spend your tree-life badly, what do you become next? Asparagus? Brussel sprouts?
Mr. Buddha-guy developed another path, which he believed was superior to Hinduism. His focus was the positive afterlife, not ‘hell.’ He couldn’t solve the perplexity of reincarnation. He basically said, “Reincarnation works okay. Let’s not get lost in the minutiae of the myriad of possibilities of reincarnation.” Thus, Buddhism was born.
Islam was yet another attempt to nail down the heaven/hell dynamic. This religion affirmed the Biblical concepts of heaven and hell. It even accepted the same God we Christians worship although, for some strange reason, decided to re-name Him. Kind of like giving God a nickname.
Dismissing Jesus as the path of salvation forced Muslims to come up with another creative idea. Thus, the Five Pillars of Faith. If a person dedicated himself to performing the Five Pillars perfectly throughout his life, he stood an excellent chance of escaping Hell. However, he wouldn’t know if he was successful until he stood before his re-named god. That created a nail-biter situation with no possibility of a do-over.
The idea of purgatory was creative in a different way. Suppose you loved your uncle dearly. But he was a bad dude. Not like Adoph Hitler, but more like a man who cussed like a sailor, guzzled whiskey and joked that if he went to church, the ceiling would fall on him. Good news! He wouldn’t automatically go to hell, but to purgatory, somewhere between heaven and hell. Then you, because you loved your miscreant uncle, could pray and do good deeds on behalf of him in order to win his release from purgatory into heaven. Obviously, you wouldn’t have any notion your prayers or good deeds worked until you went to heaven.
But what if you cussed like a sailor, guzzled whiskey, and the church roof literally fell when you entered? You would also go to purgatory. Suppose you died before your uncle was released from purgatory. That created a conundrum didn’t it? Now, you’re both in purgatory, and your hope is someone else loves both of you enough to get the two of you out.
But think of the hurt feelings. Your wife likes your uncle better than she likes you. So she prays for him. Eventually, he gets released, but you have to stay. Darn the wife anyway!
The question of ‘heaven and hell’ has consumed humans as long as we’ve inhabited earth. Atheists settled on the idea we’re simply ‘walking compost.’ If you’re only ‘walking compost,’ does it matter how you live? Aren’t you conscious-free to rob, pillage, and destroy? Isn’t the world free to embrace total anarchy?
The bottom line of atheism is your life simply doesn’t matter. But, you argue, let’s raise children to be good people. Why? If they’re only walking compost, why does it matter how they live?
Jesus—omnipotent God—provided the answer. In John 11:25-26, He says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
Man’s problem has always been he’s ‘works-oriented.’ He thirsts for eternal life and follows up by creating elaborate systems of regulations he hopes the human race will follow. Of course, he must include repercussions for those who decline to follow his regulations. Thus, a religion is born every minute. A sucker thereafter.
In contrast, Jesus says, “Trust in me.” He provides two rules:1) Love God the Father with all your heart, soul, mind and body, and 2) love everyone else as you love yourself.
The world scoffs because it’s too simple. Suffice to say, the world lacks the wisdom of God. Don’t be the world.