LIFE IN HEAVEN: A Reassessment

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82

July       1       676    4857        1057      438         92

             5       251    3572          535       421       173

             7       993    5504        1312       479       192

           12       380    4118          659       500       108

           14       935    5414        1341       586       174

           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107

           19       412    4606          715       675         85

           21     1119    5669        1346       671        195

           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572

           26       450    4307         556       715        114
           28    1266     5589         955       776        190
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
            2     1123     5601       1048       852        148
            3       467     4430         514       514        213

            5     1362     6292       1394       849        345

          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          11       569     4575         721       887        213
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          13     1386     6816       1164       950        129
          14     1284     6653       1301     1006        260
          15     1071     5410         726       950        121
          16       522     4525         582       961        162
          17       589     4289         775       880        143
          18     1358     6312        1365    1089        282
          19     1263     6671        1170      980        159
          20     1090     6188        1234      981        195
          21     1170     6062        1031      953        225
          22       974     5349          823      918        144

Summary:  Weekend numbers are usually lower.

Ah, Sunday, when I leap into a subject where I have almost no background.  But that was also the case for my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.  I've many times posted on purgatory, twice in 2016:

• MY LIFE IN PURGATORY
• MY SIMPLE LIFE IN PURGATORY

Sure, tongue firmly in cheek, but there is the larger question of Heaven.  The year 2016 handled this issue too:

     LIFE IN HEAVEN

Various polls were provided about beliefs in Life after Death, Heaven and Hell.  But after all that analysis, my conclusion was that the more logical long term option for me was eternal life on Planet Earth.  Earlier, in 2011, I wrote in The Huffington Post:

     Science and the Future of Cloning:  Is Immortality Possible?

Two years later in this blog site I reported:

    WILL GOOGLE BE ABLE TO COMMERCIALIZE ETERNAL LIFE?

Alas, it is now my opinion that this option will not arrive in my lifetime, and maybe never.

What about all those near death experiences, where reasonable people return with very similar stories?  That bright light, such peace and the beauty of the afterlife?   You can read  Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven:  A Neurosurgeon's Journey in the Afterlife.  Here is a five-minute You Tube summary.  My take?  They sincerely had something similar to a dream.  Many store in the brain this ideal vision.  Some say the light is embedded at birth.

So what about Heaven, if there is one?  Here are some results of the mentioned Roper/Gallup/Newsweek Poll (cross-section of hopeful Americans).

• Will it be peaceful and will you be happy?  Of course, for 91% felt it would be peaceful and 90% happy.  How can 10% or so think this won't be the case?  But read on.
• Interesting that only 77% thought they would see friends, relatives and spouses.
• Human form?  43%.  This is a puzzlement, for what are some other options?
• Sports and leisure activities?  20%.  Then what do they do?
• Sexual relations with spouses?  14%.  Why so low?
• Total darkness?  7%.  
• Boring?  4%.

I guess it is not particularly surprising that 7% of those who think they will go to Heaven will end up in the same place I will be.  Maybe even more notable, 4% actually think Heaven will be boring.  Maybe that's worse than eternal gloom.

Also, really, what will one do in Heaven if sports/leisure activities fall in at 20% and no sex at 80%?  Well, the question had to do with spouses, so that perhaps leaves the door open.

I further searched into who will grow and serve your food...wash the dishes...and so on.  What happens to all that waste?  Are there power plants to generate electricity?  Or does God, who is omni-everything, just makes things magically happen?  I didn't research all that much, but couldn't find anything.  

What I did is watch The Good Place, a series on Netflix about the afterlife.  Five seasons (although I've only watched a couple of episodes of the first), all highly rated, with Seasons 2 and 4 at 100%.  You want to gain a sense of an idealized Heaven?  Good place to start, with Kristen Bell (who made it to this promised place by mistake) and Ted Danson (who plays The Architect of this particular place.  Apparently there are others.).

Nothing by St. Thomas Aquinas or Soren Kierkegaard going into vivid detail.  But then, Eben Alexander notwithstanding, no one has actually returned from Heaven with the actual scoop.  Also, too, seances have all been judged to be scams, and no electronic messages have been credibly received.

So what is this grand reassessment?  I'm still doing research and this all remains a work in progress.  I'll let you know if I find anything worthy.

Some of us remember what it was like on Sunday night with Ed Sullivan.   From 1948 until 1971, 8-9PM, it ran for 23 years on CBS.

Next, what a friendship:

Looks like there won't be a merging of two cyclonic storms, as Hurricane Marco will beat to-be hurricane Laura to New Orleans or thereabouts by two days or so:

Even so close to landfall, computer models show a wide range of potential (Blue are American simulations, while Red represents those from Europe).  Marco first, then Laura, which might well strengthen into a Category 2...or remain a tropical storm:

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