not sure the category

[pthandsome]

my 8 year old wants to know what is heaven like? Tough one I know.

[mrkester]

try here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/sost eacher/re/37369.shtml

good luck

[cliffsweb]

tell him truthfully that you dont know exatcly, but that in heaven no one ever gets hurt or upset, everyone is peacefill and happy and everyone is friends with everyone else.

[brachiopod]

I told my son it didn't exist.

Not very helpful, I know, but this is Science
Those AB'ers over in Body & Soul may be able to give you a better answer.

[Sphinx_Svens]

Just say, 'I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you'

[horsestache1]

Alton Towers, Chessington World of Adventure and Thorpe Park all rolled into one, or if your from the USA :)

Disney land/world

He's 8, dont get serious, there's time for that later,

[ll_billym]

Tell him when he's older Horsestache?? It's not Father bloody Christmas. As if you'll sit him down in 2 years and say "You know son....... heaven's not quite like we told you it was.......actually it doesn't exist."

[Dizzieblonde]

Somewhere where you can meet everyone you like who has passed away, and where you can all be happy and do everything you want

[Space]

just tell him the truth:
you have no idea what heaven is, and it was very probably just made up by religious people just to make people behave.

[horsestache1]

Get a grip, II-billym the child's 8 in 2 years time he'll know, as all 10 year olds do.

Or perhaps you did'nt hmmmmmm

[horsestache1]

Heaven is whatever your imagination wants it to be.

[brachiopod]

Woh-ooh, isn't Heaven a place on Earth?

[mibn2cweus]

Heaven is believed to be a place so fabulous that people are not only dying to get there but by virtue of the act of killing and maiming as many innocent people (whom they have never met) as they can in the process, believe they obtain a ticket to a front row seat in eternity.

Do not pretend to yourself that your delusion about the �afterlife� is in anyway superior. It is not the flavor of the delusion but the delusion itself that has and continues to afflict human civilization. Whichever God you hope will be greeting you in your grave is not a friend of yours, mine or anyone else.

Reason defines us as a species. When you turn your back on reason, and propound post-mortem fantasies, it is not only yourself but also the corrupted minds of innocent children affected by those perpetuated lies who pay the consequences of rationality sacrificed to mindless wishful �thinking�.

Death is the reality of a life ended. Until people accept this absolute fact of existence the potential quality of human life that comes as a product of valuing that which is real, will continue to suffer in the bargain.

[pootie439]

mibn2cweus

Rational and succinct. There is , I know , no way to pursuade people that there is no god, despite the misery and mayhem that goes on around them, any more than you can pursuade people that going to war for national pride is a really smart thing to do or that murdering innocent people by blowing yourself up will guarantee an eternal life of bliss with seventeen virgins. Maybe one day in the distant future we will stop behaving like 8 year olds ourselves then maybe we might just find that indeed, to quote Brachiopod " heaven is a place on earth"

[brachiopod]

*Blush*

And there was me quoting Belinda Carlisle !!

In the light of mib's (as ever) excellent response, I feel quite humbled by my glib quip of 24 hours ago. Good answer, too, pootie,
Apart from a turn of phrase, "I was in hog / chocolate / cider etc. Heaven." it has no physical meaning, and the sooner we realise that, the better, in my view.

(Please note, there is no sarcasm in this answer whatsoever - I honestly wish I could have put it so eloquently myself ! )

[nucleardream]

Heaven...mmm...such an arbitrary concept. Heaven is no more than what we conceive hell to be (or at least the concept by the masses). Heaven is hell and hell is heaven. There the exact same concept (i.e. the afterlife) perceived to be the enigma it is wrapped tightly around a mystery.

It is what I refer to (conceive as) a unilateral afterlife. It's one in the same. I truly believe it is a very good place (this place where we all to revert natural innocence, etc...).

Anyway, I suggest we all do away with a dichotomous distinction of the afterlife (what more is good vs. bad than meaning assigned by so-called rational beings?), and say if you want to be "bad/sinful/corrupt/pretentious/etc." in life, then you gotta pay the consequences of that behavior - here in life. But if you invest so much energy to do the right thing with the hope that you'll gain some self-invested interest in the afterlife, you may be sadly mistaken.

[birdie1971]

Try this link...

http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/pearlygates .html

Print it off and read it. Then tell him it doesn't exist :-)