Is Belief in Heaven Illogical?

A FRIEND RECENTLY TOLD ME that her belief in heaven was described as illogical. I provided her with a response to this matter which may be of interest or benefit to others. My response to my friend (with some edits) is what follows…

The reasoning for believing in heaven would actually have to begin, for me, with arguments for the existence of God.

I can put it this way: the question of heaven is very much secondary for me. The primary question would be: Does God exist? If God exists then it seems entirely plausible that an afterlife which would be described as heaven can exist.

There are a number of logically consistent arguments for the existence of God. One example would be the Kalam Cosmological Argument. It goes like this…

1. Everything that BEGAN to existence must have a cause.

2. Our universe BEGAN to exist. (It is not eternal. We know this from the Big Bang Theory.)

3. Therefore, our universe has a cause of its beginning.

This is a logically consistent argument. It has been studied and analyzed by philosophers who know much more about logic than I do and it holds up as a logically consistent argument. Each of the premises are true and therefore the conclusion is logically valid.

If we continue with this argument for God, it is reasonable to posit that whatever it is that “caused” the universe must be…

1. Timeless (because time came into existence with the Big Bang).

2. Eternal (because this Cause exists outside of time).

3. Immaterial (matter came into existence with the Big Bang).

4. Incredibly, immeasurably, powerful

The 4 qualities mentioned above would be describing some type of Cause that sounds a lot like God.

Sorry, I know this is an incredibly lengthy answer, but it is a very deep question…

There are other arguments for the existence of God, but I won’t go into more of them, I’m just trying to give an example of what I mean by arguments for God’s existence. Obviously, I am biased (but so is everyone else) however, I find the arguments for the existence of God to be stronger and more compelling than any arguments I have encountered against the existence of God.

I’m trying to shorten this already too long answer and I know the primary question has to do with the existence of heaven, so, I’ll put it like this:

If an All-powerful, eternal God exists (and there are compelling arguments for that truth) then it is not logically inconsistent to believe that He is capable of providing life after this earthly existence in a place we know of as heaven.

I understand that a person might say, “Well I don’t believe in God.”

I get it. And obviously, a person is allowed to hold that belief, but that is not a logical argument against the existence of God or heaven. It is a belief.

By the way, I have provided an argument for the existence of God, can the person who is arguing against heaven (and I’m guessing against God) provide a reasonable, intelligent defeater to this argument?

Like I mentioned earlier, in a way, the point I’m making is that the real question is not about the existence of heaven. It is about the existence of God. If there is no God then I would agree that there is nothing after our existence here on earth and there certainly is no heaven. But no one has ever proven that God does not exist. (And, as I mentioned earlier, there are compelling arguments for the truth that He DOES exist.)

On the other hand, if an eternal, all-powerful God exists then the existence of an after-life and heaven really is not an unreasonable or illogical belief.

Dan Marler

Oak Lawn, IL