What will heaven be like?

That is the eternal question. During St. Luke’s third Wednesday of Lent Worship, we will be looking at The Apostle Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 15 that shares Paul’s views on immortality and imperishability. The conversation deepens in Mark Chapter 12, when Jesus is confronted by the religious leaders concerning life after death,

I thought it would be fun to look at two reputable studies concerning the question, first a Gallup International Association (GSI) and the other from Pew Research. After reading these, it would be fun to hear your comments of “What will heaven be like?”

From Gallup Research:

“Two thirds of respondents around the world claim they are religious. Slightly more people believe in God and there is a life after death.

A majority also agree that there is a heaven and hell (although respondents are more confident in the “Good place” than the “Bad one”). Whether religious or not most people seem to believe that there is some mighty power beyond our understanding – a God.

Below are a few of the highlights from the special poll conducted by Gallup (GIA) in 2016:
61 countries covering over two thirds of the global population (and more than 90% of those countries which are free to conduct and publish opinion research). Two thirds (62%) of respondents around the world say they are religious, with one in four saying that they are not religious. Atheists account for 10%. The rest are not sure.

God and Afterlife
More people believe that there is a God. While 62% self-identify as religious, 72% say that there is a God. Just under one in seven (16%) however do not believe that any God exists. 10% are not sure.

Most respondents around the world (57%) think that there is a life after death. One in four (23%) do not believe that anything happens when we die. 15% cannot say.

Heaven and Hell
59% believe in heaven, with one in four denying its existence. Fewer people (yet still a majority, 53%) believe in hell.
 
From a Pew Research Study – Nearly three-quarters of U.S. adults say they believe in heaven. (The survey did not immediately offer a definition of heaven, though subsequent questions explored what respondents think heaven is like.)

A majority of all Christian subgroups say they believe in heaven.

Belief is much less common among religiously unaffiliated Americans (37%). This unaffiliated group includes those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” half of whom believe in heaven – as well as agnostics (26% of whom believe in heaven) and atheists (3%).

“I love that 3% percent of those who deny in the existence of God still believe in heaven.” - Rob

Roughly a quarter of all U.S. adults (26%) say that they do not believe in heaven or hell, including 7% who say they do believe in some kind of afterlife and 17% who do not believe in any afterlife at all.

Respondents who believe in neither heaven nor hell but do still believe in an afterlife were given the opportunity to describe their idea of this afterlife in the form of an open-ended question that asked:

“In your own words, what do you think the afterlife is like?”

Within this group, about one-in-five people (21%) express belief in an afterlife where one’s spirit, consciousness or energy lives on after their physical body has passed away, or in a continued existence in an alternate dimension or reality. One respondent describes their view as “a resting place for our spirits and energy. I don’t think it’s like the traditional view of heaven but I’m also not sure that death is the end.” And another says, “I believe that life continues and after my current life is done, I will go on in some other form. It won’t be me, as in my traits and personality, but something of me will carry on.”

An additional 17% of respondents who believe in neither heaven nor hell (but do believe in some kind of afterlife) express a belief in people enduring a cyclical existence or becoming enlightened after death. As one individual puts it, “Maybe something like nirvana or enlightenment? I like to imagine that the living world we inhabit is like a cradle for the soul. We spend our lifetime (or maybe many lifetimes) learning and growing, and then in the afterlife we retain all those memories from our life(/lives), and the lessons we’ve learned, and that we exist for some greater purpose that living prepares us for.”

Among many other responses, some people believe that people’s energy rejoins the universe in some form, while others feel that people simply enter a period of peace without suffering. And many people in this group (42% of everyone who says they believe in an afterlife but not in heaven or hell) did not offer a response.

In addition to asking about general belief in heaven and hell, the survey asked about specific characteristics of these two destinations to determine what Americans think they are like. In the case of heaven, respondents were presented with nine prospective traits, and asked whether heaven is “definitely like this,” “probably like this,” “probably not like this” or “definitely not like this.”

Of the items listed, U.S. adults are most likely to say that in heaven, people are definitely or probably free from suffering, with roughly seven-in-ten members of the general public holding this view. This perspective is nearly unanimous among the 73% of Americans who express belief in heaven.

Majorities of Americans also express confidence in the ideas that in heaven, people are reunited with deceased loved ones (65% of all U.S. adults say this), can meet God (62%) and have perfectly healthy bodies (60%). Roughly half of all U.S. adults (48%) believe that people in heaven are reunited with pets or animals that they knew on Earth, while more than four-in-ten say that people in heaven can see what is happening on Earth (44%) and can become angels (43%).

Smaller shares believe that people in heaven are able to have relationships with people who are still living on Earth (25%), or that they can choose whether they want to stop existing (15%).

This is just a small part of each of the studies. I would encourage you to look at each of them in their entirety: Gallup (GSI) and Pew Research

And now it is your turn. What do you think heaven will be like?