Heaven Or Hell: The Answer Might Blow You Away

Which is better: Heaven or Hell?

I know this has to be one of the great philosophical questions of our time, and one that has been debated by the greats for generations. But I'm telling you now: it's a trick question. There is no answer (and frankly, we're not sure that either option is better than the other).

And I'll be honest: I've been there. I've asked myself, "Is there a God?" "Do good people go to Heaven?" "What if Hell is actually better than Heaven?" And then one day, while deep in contemplation, it hit me. I realized that these are incredibly important questions, and they're worth asking.

The reason we want to know what Heaven and Hell are like is that we want to be able to choose between them. We want to make an informed decision about where we end up once this life is over. And really—who could blame us?

For most people, the choice is obvious. But I question that decision. Not because I think Hell is better than Heaven—on the contrary: I think both are equally awful and you should choose neither!

Now, I understand how this might seem blasphemous—and, to be honest, if you were thinking with a limited mind, it might be. But let's look at things from a broader perspective.

Sure, on paper, Heaven looks like it's got a lot going for it. You've got eternal life in a paradise where nothing goes wrong, ever. Seems pretty good. But then you take away all the things that make living interesting—all the challenges and struggles and mistakes we make along the way—and what are you left with? A bunch of people who have never had to learn how to deal with disappointment or figure out how to work through conflict or set boundaries with others or build resilience from a place of failure. At least in hell you get an opportunity to grow as a human being!

Hell probably seems like an obvious loser here. It's hot, it's smelly, there are demons everywhere trying to torture you constantly… but if you think about it, isn't that just a metaphor for life? Isn't life kind of like living in hell already? When things go wrong, they seem to get worse before they can get better. Things only ever seem to get better when we suffer through the bad stuff first. So wouldn't Hell be better than Heaven because it would give us something to look forward to?

We all know that heaven is metaphorical. It's easy to understand what it means when someone says they were in heaven after they ate a really delicious slice of cheesecake. But if we think of hell as just another word for the way things are—a world filled with pain and turmoil—then the question becomes "which is more likely: that this world will continue to be a place where your boss can yell at you whenever he wants to, or that it will become a place where everyone has the same amount of money and no one ever goes hungry?"

Life is all about choices.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. You can't have great wealth without hard work, you can't have family without pain, and if you want a chance at eternal bliss, you're going to have to face the fires of Hell first.

I'd like to offer an alternative perspective: Heaven isn't better than Hell. It's that both are equally necessary for our lives to be whole. If we want the joy of Heaven, we also need the struggle of Hell. If we're given everything without having to earn it, how will we know what value even means?