An Atheist's Interpretations of Heaven and Hell

I have often wondered where I would like to be reborn, if I could choose to be reborn in any universe of my own design. I would like heaven to be a place that makes sense, or at least is more sensible, esp. in terms of how people and their relationships work, than this place we find ourselves in here, in which everything that exists appears to have developed randomly, organically, and doesnt necessarily seem consistent with everything else, at least not on a human level.

In paradise, everyone does things for reasons that seem consistent, appropriate, and relevent to your expectations for how everyone should do things. I dont mind surprises, disappointments, frustration or even danger and evil. But I would feel myself to be in a better world if everything was more like a fictional novel in that it all felt right. Does that make any sense? Like a writer wrote everything, designed everything, and the reasons why would be comprehensible to me. In other words, the creator, God, thinks just like I do. That's heaven.

I can never decide which genre I would like to exist in. Usually I prefer either a wooded realm, similar to a fantasy setting, or descriptions of Fairy. Or maybe a primeval forest, where one could live autonomously, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles without the complications of modern society.

Then again, I think I would also appreciate a more sci-fi setting. Having the opportunity to explore worlds, relying on only myself and a few trusted companions, would be nearly the ideal way to live. Esp. if I were more intelligent than I presently appear to be, and I could actually gain insight into the inner working of the universe through sheer willpower and a little introspection.

A universe that makes sense, in other words, one where I naturally know what to do most of the time, and whatever I do usually works. I wouldn't even mind dying a second time, if I could live in a world like that.

I'm an atheist and I think I recall reading PMM fic that had something roughly lilke what you are looking for. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/ResonanceDays .

Essentially it's an infinite plane of simple randomly generated terrain, people are invulnerable and immortal. Everybody has the ability to perform shaping which allows minor reality warping of a wide area, limited by complexity and time. Shaping ability increases the more depressed someone is. People still form cities, buildings and civilizations and such for social reasons and because it is still much easier to make artificial products manually instead of using shaping.

Hell would be similar except a respawn mechanic would be used instead of a invulnerability one, and the world would be populated by creatures similar to the Grimm from RWBY (Demons) forcing individuals to co-operate and form organizations and cities for their own protection, maybe with periodic attacks and having the world separated into infinite caverns instead of an overland thing.

edited 7th Apr '15 10:22:39 PM by MrCogmor

So, basically, you live in a video game?

Not really, while it does have some similarities to Minecraft those are incidental and Minecraft itself is an outlier where video games are concerned.

edited 7th Apr '15 10:27:05 PM by MrCogmor

Minecraft is not the only video game ever, though. Nor the measuring stick for games with infinitely large playing area.

And what you described basically is "living in a video game".

Make Heaven a metropolitan area and Hell a traffic jam. That, as an atheist, would appeal to me because it's funny.

edited 8th Apr '15 8:27:36 AM by Iakwbos

Another possibility is have the environment be dictated by a caricature of the person's personality.

Metropolitan? Sylvan, or at least rural, please. Nothing "heavenly" about any city.

I lived in Hell - Hamilton, New Zealand - for more years than I care to remember... until such time as I was given a big enough redundancy pay-out to enable me to move far away from there.

edited 8th Apr '15 10:43:11 PM by Wolf1066