If you believe in heaven, what is your answer to this scenario?

[NoPoint2Life]

I personally am an atheist. i'm totally fine with everyone's opinion on the subject and I don't wanna start any fights, but I have a somewhat stupid question that has been driving me nuts for years:

A lot of people who believe in heaven will often say when someone dies that the person who died, let's call them person A, is being reunited with person B in heaven. Often it's a romantic partner.

So let's say person A and person B are married for 20 years. Person B then dies. Person A manages to find love again and marries person C who they are just as happy with for another 20 years. If everybody gets reunited with their loved one in heaven, which spouse does person A get reunited with when they die???

 

[obligatoryshackles]

Neither. It's "Till death do us part" for a reason. Anyone who talks about reunion either didn't get this part or meant it non-romantically.

 

[ms_beaverhousen]

Heaven is suddenly seeming very Sodom and Gomorrah

 

[Leiot]

The concept of Heaven is to give people structure and meaning to their lives. When people die we really don't know what happens and we don't want to lose that connection to them. You could just as easily say you hope you'll be reincarnated together.

Like you said, when you look at it literally things start to fall apart, but if it gives that person hope and closure then it's not a bad thing.

 

[Forever Sleep]

My step Mum worries about this. I've wondered about it too. Quite a few of my family members died in my early childhood, including my Mum. I was raised with the hope we would reunite in heaven some day. Like you, I lean more towards atheism now. In certain ways, I'd prefer there to be nothing.

One thing's for sure- it would be more of a hellscape for me if I have to reunite with my step family! Sometimes I think- if heaven's real and we're all good enough to qualify to get in- maybe God's got it worked out. Maybe they'll create two versions of my Dad. One to be with my family and me and one to be with my step family. Not all of them though- again- some of them I imagine would prefer to be with their own father.

That's the thing- why do people even think heaven will be so great? Unless they only want the 'good' bits of people preserved up there- our relatives are surely more likely to be just how they were on earth and- some of them didn't get on!

Even if it was just my family- who I would like to see again, beyond that initial emotional hug (tricky without a body...) how long would it be before some of them started finding fault with how I lived my life? Sometimes, the thought of nothing after life seems a whole lot more appealing- more appealing than heaven even!

 

[cotton]

I think this is one of those things that makes religious ideas a bit contradictory and open for interpretation. I suppose, religion makes a point of the afterlife and eternal life etc so maybe it's more of a case of eternal happiness and what fits in with what makes you happy?

 

[CryingLuci]

Love this question. It's funny how some ideas about the afterlife can feel more like a script than genuine happiness. Like, are people really just automatically paired up forever based on past relationships? What if Person A's true happiness looks different than some preset reunion? In this view, heaven seems less about individual choice and more about sticking to a tidy storyline, even if life was complex. Maybe the afterlife should be about personal peace and freedom rather than everyone getting boxed into roles from life. Feels a bit limiting, doesn't it?

 

[RiverOfLife]

If there are no dogs in heaven I don't want to go.