Many (most?) religions have some analogue of heaven (e.g. Nirvana, the Elysian Fields, Valhalla, etc.). They also generally detail what steps people need to take to get there.

Does your faith have the concept of salvation? What do you believe is necessary to achieve salvation?

-- Jeff

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"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan

My religion has heaven...and I think you just need to be a good person to not have committed huge sins. Everyone commits sins, whether or not anyone wants to admit it.

You just need to be good human to have good time in your life and afterwards also.Just do your duties well and be nice at heart.

Dreamr,

What if a good person doesn't believe in God or heaven? Will they still go?

What if they adamantly don't want to have any part in heaven even though they are good? Will they be forced to go to Heaven?

As to committing huge sins, is there some sin that God cannot forgive?

-- Jeff

__________________
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan

Sanju,

If I'm a good human, but I don't believe in an afterlife, will I still go to heaven? Who decides if I'm good enough? Is there a balance sheet that I can look at?

-- Jeff

__________________
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan

A teacher once told me, Heaven is already here on earth, and somehow I believed in her. Do good and most likely, feedbacks would be good. Maybe not all feedbacks but still, the chances of having a good feedback would definetly improve.

__________________
Every fight is a food fight when you’re a cannibal.

So then is your idea of Heaven along the lines that mostly good things would happen, but it would be ok if there was some bad?

-- Jeff

__________________
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan

yeah, i suppose so, and maybe heaven is just not that perfect but at least it does more good than bad. Where would you rather put yourself into? heaven? hell?

And by using the word heaven and hell, aren't we acknowledging its existence?

__________________
Every fight is a food fight when you’re a cannibal.

Actually, I didn't presume the existence of Heaven and Hell, but asked if people's faith's supported the concept. There are some faiths that don't have heaven or hell, some that have one but not the other. Some that don't have an afterlife component at all.

Although I didn't specifically state it, I was more interested in people's view of the afterlife (whether they thought it exists or not and how to get there). The idea of Heaven on earth simply doesn't mesh for me because for me, Heaven is something greater than we can achieve in this world. If Heaven is the "Utopia" that we strive for, then how can we say that it is here since we have so many horrible things happening here?

From my viewpoint, I do believe in both Heaven and Hell. My faith holds that Salvation is given by God's grace as a free gift for those who acknowledge God and accept Jesus as Savior (yes, I'm a Christian). However my faith also holds that there is nothing one can "do" to attain salvation (i.e. one cannot do good works and live a good life and therefore be "good enough" to go to Heaven). One instead attains salvation by having faith and accepting the Lordship of Jesus and the gift of faith that is given.

-- Jeff

__________________
"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem." --Ronald Reagan

Being someone who has a different perception on certain things, there are some concepts I would like to believe and by believing it, it would be my sense of the afterlife.

I was very much interested in the Gaia concept, that we're all part of the earth and we go back even though as spirits and as spirits, we support the planet allowing it to produce life and sometime we get reborn in another place and time. By believing this firmly as a view of my afterlife, that would eventually become true when I die. As for salvation, my own views of what my life had been, if it has been good or bad, would alter how close I am to achieving my own perceptions of my afterlife. I hope someone got my explanation 'cause it's kind of complicated. Anyway, that's just me. A view of a freethinker.