h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I suppose I need to look up some of the old hassidic texts to see what they usually called it. I am sure though that the idea of "whosoever will" going to heaven started with the New Testament.
Also I want to look at that article on Hell. But not right now or I will be late for an appointment in RL s

Well, "heaven" started with the New Testament, but good dead people have been going *somewhere* for eons. ...well, I guess not always. Egyptians didn't have different locations for good people, did they?

If you want a really technical answer, dead good Jews goes to the Garden of Eden. (Bad ones either spend 6 months in purgatory or are recycled back to earth for another try.) But they just call it "the next world" in conversation and texts.

I looked at the Hell article. It appears that that made it into the EG and then afterwards they had a line of people complaining with words like 'Hell is not a place'
It kind of reminds me of as get fuzzy cartoon.
Where the cat say "Ohio does not exist'
Since the cat had no firsthand experience with it Ohio must be a fictional location

I did look it up and jews don't use the word purgatory- they use sheol. I switched the word to a version I found in a jewish website that says good jews go to Gan Eden (and by the way Eden is a Hebrew word for delight).

Purgatory is temporary, sheol is permanent. It is for only the truly hopelessly evil. The Hebrew word for purgatory is Gehennom.

I just wonder if the Hell entry was als oa little Christian-biased.

No, no. What actually happens when you 'go to hell' is that if you've been particularly bad, you're made god of an unimportant little place like Earth, until you've learned better. When you have, you're promoted to be god of a (slightly) better place.
Do well & ...eventually... you may get a galaxy, galaxy cluster... & so on. Once upon a Big Bang time & you may even get to be God of a new Universe of your own.

The Final step, though, is not open to promotions, that's the

TAX GOD.

are you sure you can mention the T*x G*d in a public website?

Mention the Tax God? of course I can - my identity is hidden by h2g2 isn't it?

Oh dear, but not from high authority.

Please Sir/Ma'am, it was a mistake, I didn't *really* mean it.

I remember years ago seeing an episode of twilight zone where someone died and found themself in a room where an endless travelog slide show was in progress. After watching a couple hours the person said I really don't think I belong here maybe I would be more at home in H3ell This is hell he was informed but youknow- the other place up there has a room just like this one. Makes you think doesn't it. my delete button quitr working st r

And what was the slideshow upstairs about?

I guess we will never know

Isn't it just inconsiderate, though? Someone gets to heaven and doesn't drop back in to tell us if it's worth it.


...maybe it isn't and they're all trumping the Emperor's new clothes to string us all along.

so I guess we keep whistling in the dark

What are you whistling for?

Shagbark, maybe run through the entry and tidy it up for missing spaces and random characters? Makes it easier to read. Not knowing a thing about the topic, I can't comment on it much further.

Actually, there is some good stuff in this which could possibly be worked into a good entry. I suggest you:

- Remove the Dictionary.com definition and put in a definition in your own words.

- Add the header "What's It Like?" before "A Church of England funeral page". You can change the wording of this later if you want.

- Would it be too much to ask that somewhere in the Entry you mention that there is no evidence that heaven actually exists? It is purely a matter of faith.

- At the start of the sentence "Heaven will be a place of perfect love, perfect justice, and perfect holiness" add the words "According to believers,"

- Change the header "Further Insight>" to "Further Reassurance".

- Combine the two sections "Deeper Study" and "The Backdrop" into one, which explores the topic of how originally the believers thought that heaven was actually upwards, above the sky. As the world view expanded to include infinite space, somewhere else had to be found for heaven. This in my opinion is the most interesting section of the entry (the only interesting section, actually).

- Insert another header before "Dwight D Moody". An appropriate one would be "Who Gets In?".


- Remove the header "Footnotes".

We can worry about the few spelling mistakes when the structure has been sorted out.

There's no harm in saying that it was John that wrote the Revelation as long as you don't call him John the Evangelist or "the Apostle John". He's known as John the Divine in some versions of the Bible.

I am still working on the changes suggested by Gnomen. As to who wrothe the apocalypse(Revelation) Is ight on that comes from the ninth verse of the first chapter' I, John, who also am your brother...was in the Isle of Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Most recaps of the Twelve apostles
including Foxes Book of Martyrs will say that eleven were martyred but John was exiled by Caesar to Patmos where he lived to be an old man.
The World Heritage site
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/942 says
'the site where John the Theologian (the Beloved Disciple) composed two of the most sacred Christian Works- his gospel and the Apocylypse. There is no doubt in there minds that this is the Beloved Disciple who wrote the Gospel of John also.

OK I have sorted out the structure. And Leo, did you notice I incorporated the 'Going Home section into 'Who gets in'

OK, you can call him John the Evangelist if you want.