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Revision as of 21:07, 30 April 2003 by 64.199.233.18 (talk)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Heaven is a concept found in many world religions or spiritual philosophies that describes a blissful existence achieved after death. In the Western monotheist traditions (and also some other traditions, see Mag Mell, Elysium, Valhalla), heaven is a place of eternal happiness that can be achieved after death.
In Eastern religions (and some Western traditions), with their emphasis on reincarnation, heaven as such is less important. But it still is present: for example, in Buddhism there are several heavens, and those who accumulate good karma will be reborn in a heaven; however their stay in the heaven is not eternal -- eventually they will use up all their good karma and be reincarnated as a human again. Buddhism on the other hand has nirvana, though the concept of nirvana does not have much in common with that of heaven. In nirvana the personality does not stay intact. The one exception to this is Pure Land Buddhism
Religions which have a Heaven differ on how one gets into it. Some (followers of universalism) provide that everyone will go to heaven, no matter what they have done on earth. Others make entrance to heaven conditional on having lived a "good life" (within the terms of the spiritual system); those who do not meet the criteria go to a place of punishment, hell. Other religions (many varieties of Christianity) make entrance to heaven conditional not on good works, but on having believed and trusted in the deity, and accepting the deity's offer of salvation. In yet other religions (Calvinism, a Protestant form of Christianity), those who go to heaven go, not because of anything they have done or independently chosen, but because God has chosen to favour them by predestining them to go there.
Heaven is an especially interesting doctrine in Christian thought, as the afterlife depends largely on the resurrection of the body. While the intermediate state (between death and the return of Christ) is unclear, the final state of believers is in a resurrected body, living in the "New Jerusalem" in the "New Earth." The person was never meant to be disembodied. Death is an enemy, not a friend who frees the soul.
The concept of Heaven is well-defined within the Christian and Islamic religions. The Jewish concept of the afterlife is sometimes known as "olam haba", the world to come, but Judaism's afterlife beliefs were never set forth in a systematic or official fashion as was done in Christianity and Islam.