This is a bit like asking if the Force powers lightsabers… because heaven is a fictional concept.

But in the universe of that fiction, I don’t think it’s clear. Actually, I’m pretty sure the Bible says your corpse will come back to life (the Bible’s view of the afterlife is very different from the modern conception of heaven, because the people who wrote the New Testament thought the world was going to end in a few years and that the “afterlife” was simply the resulting “kingdom of heaven”—not some magical place in the clouds/another dimension).

Heaven seems to treasure youth too. All people appear as they were in their youth!!!!

@Qingu Who are you to say its fictional,please don’t criticize something that you don’t understand,the bible says the soul is the one instead of some corpse or body that goes to heaven and christians don’t believe in afterlife…So please read the bible before criticizing it..If you want to debate about muslim,christians,buddhists or whoever,please learn about them instead of criticizing them,the world would be a better place if people were reasonable..:)

@Roby If you are talking about Christians,souls in heaven has no physical body to distinguish the age so,there is probably no age

@vamtire

Asking someone to read the bible because they don’t believe that heaven exists, is like asking someone to read Bram Stoker because they don’t believe that vampires exist.

As far as I know, the concept of physical age, etc… doesn’t exist in the modern version of heaven because the form people will be in is so different.

Then again, that could just be hearsay.

@Brian1946 Except that there isn’t a huge percentage of the population that believes in vampires. Then again, I do think you are right that you can debate the existence of god, etc… would reading the bible, but you do need to read the bible if you want to debate finer points about Christianity.

I expect that we won’t.
C. S. Lewis was of the opinion that we’d look about 30.

@Qingu The Kingdom of Heaven is timeless; if I remember correctly, it showed up at Pentecost (related in Acts). It both is, and yet to come.

If any of the reports from humans on earth about seeing spirits are true, they seem to retain the shape/age of their human form at the time of death. In heaven, the souls may take on a different form that we cannot even fathom to imagine.

i’m not sure a universally recognised abstract concept like arithmetic, derived from the empirical world, is then applicable to, or in anyway compatible with, another, somewhat bizarre, subjective fantasy-world, abstracted from some sentimental sap’s escapist daydreams. but i could be wrong

@roundsquare

“Except that there isn’t a huge percentage of the population that believes in vampires”

The belief in something by a huge percentage of the population isn’t proof that it exists.

There probably was a time when a huge percentage of the population believed in a geocentric planetary system, but now we know that system is heliocentric.

@vamtire, I have read the Bible.

If you want to get technical, the hebrew word for heaven, “shamayam,” simply means “Sky.” It is the name that God gives to the solid dome that he creates in Genesis 1. This sky-dome allegedly separates the waters here on Earth from the ocean above the sky. Of course, the sky is not actually a solid dome, and there is no ocean above the sky… but ancient people believed this and that holes or “windows” in the sky let it through to create rain.

Like most ancient people, the Hebrews believed that their god lived in the sky. In the apocalyptic Biblical texts (Daniel, Ezekial, Revelation) we get to see a kind of sky palace where Yahweh lives that is filled with magical creatures.

My interpretation of the New Testament’s description of the end times, as the early Christians understood it, is that Yahweh is going to basically bring his magical sky kingdom down to earth after a big battle and genocide of unbelievers, and then resurrect the corpses of all the Christians. But maybe these zombies would get to go up in magic elevators or something to Yahweh’s sky palace too.

But they thought it was going to happen very soon. Not much different from the Heaven’s Gate cult who thought that aliens were going to come down soon and rescue them from earth’s travails.

In my ‘fictional’ rendition (because I’m atheist, but I have an imagination… don’t I?) . I think that the god and our soul knows when we were happiest with ourselves and will return us (or bring us to that point in the case of babies…) to that point. I don’t think we’d need to recognise each other’s corporal being, but the energy instead.

@Brian1946 i’m not certain heliocentrism is necessary any better than geocentrism, but is merely indicative of the fluctuating authoritative opinion.

I do not see how our souls would have an age or appearance of age. I believe it will be soon though, the end, according to Israel becoming a state in 1948 and that generation will not pass away before the Lord comes back. That is just one prophecy that is hard to get around if you think there is much time left.

Heaven has no time or place. Any soul in heaven has no age at all. To ask a question like this is to completely miss the point. Heaven can not be explained in words. The images in any holy book are metaphorical and can not possibly give us anything but a faint shadow of a conception of it.

Age means nothing in heaven. Souls do not relate as humans do, and we can not possibly imagine what it is like to be one.

Probably around 30. I remember at one funeral I went to (this was for someone who died at age 18), one of the speakers said we would be about 33 because that’s how old Jesus was when he was crucified and it’s kind of a “not that young, not that old” age.

In her book, Life On The Other Side, Sylvia Browne states that her contact told her that everyone is aged 30, though no explanation is given. Could it have anything to do with the fact that Jesus died at that age? I would like to ask Ms Browne how people who die in infancy manage to suddenly attain the knowledge of a 30 year old.

I was told “the prime of life” but who knows?

If God is good, all the women will be sixteen.

I don’t think you’ll have a body in heaven, you’ll be in spirit form, so age will not exist.

time is only an earthly concept.
when one is born again they become ageless.

Honestly, this question would be better suited for the Social section.

@noelleptc, I’m almost certain the Bible doesn’t say that. Did you have a specific verse in mind?

In fact, the Bible reveals very few concrete details about heaven, the afterlife and what happens when we die. God must have a good reason for keeping us wondering about the mysteries of heaven. Perhaps our finite minds could never comprehend the realities of eternity. For now, we can only imagine. Source

This site lists many quotes from the bible, as well as additional references.

I think that we would be in our mid thirties.

If you have died, that is as old as you will get.

It is the soul that goes to heaven, right? So, if you believe that a soul is created at conception, wouldn’t the soul still be as old as when it was created? For those that believe in reincarnation, the age of the soul would be much older than the age of the last body it left.

@Qingu I’ve heard similar about the so-called regenerated bodies.

@ratboy There is no marriage in Heaven. By extension, there’s no sex.

@Brian1946 No, it’s like asking someone to read Bram Stoker before criticizing it. Or anything for that matter- the point was to know what you’re talking about before you debate about it.

Ah, wouldn’t it be nice if there was a heaven!

@skfinkel Why shouldn’t there be? Have we had too much Lennon?

@noelleptc It is Qingu’s way to belittle and misrepresent Christians. I expect that there’s a reason somewhere.

@noelleptc, I’m sorry if you were offended by my comments, but let’s be honest; your religion says a lot more disrespectful things about people like me (that we are fools, that we are evil, that we deserve to be killed and/or tortured forever).

There is no evidence whatsoever that heaven exists. As I pointed out, the word “heaven” in the Bible just means the sky, which is where primitive people thought their sky-gods lived. As for the afterlife (an idea which developed later), I think it’s abundantly clear that men made up the idea, for the same reason that modern cults make up unprovable stories that function as “carrots” to attract believers.

I’m not trying to be condescending or belittling, just calling reality as I see it. In my opinion, it would be less respectful if I dishonestly tapdanced around the issue to avoid “offending” the poor misguided Christians with their primitive, fragile beliefs.

@Qingu The OP didn’t specify any religious heaven so I’m not sure why you brought Christianity into the picture. Not all of us theists are narrow minded or believe in any certain religion.

@Roby According to what I think, everyone regresses to their best age (20’s to 30’s) because your existance is in an energy, not physical state. Spirits have the ability to transform themselves to any form/age that the person who knew them would be most familiar with. From what I’ve resaerched about this topic this is a very complicated issue I would be willing to answer any questions for you in a pm if you’re interested when I get time.

OK Roby, getting back to your answer and away from trying to convince you that the Bible is fake and you have to be some half wit bamboozled by the religious leader of whoever, heaven will in part be on a new Earth as told by Rev: 21, 1–4. It will be like a hybrid of Heaven and Eden back in the beginning before Eve and Adam sinned.

As for the believers we will have new bodies, not these imperfect shells we are in now, Php: 3, 21; 1:Col 15,44–49. How or what this glorious body will be like is beyond what our feeble mortal minds can conceive but we will not be in this tomb of flesh and bone. I believe we will have no age, for all those souls killed off in abortions will be there and all the children who died with out no real account of sin, good and evil will be there and they won’t be stuck in eternity bald, crawling babies unable to speak or take care for themselves. How that helped through all the haze of distracters who should have passed on the question in the 1st place because they don’t believe it has any answer that is real. ;-)

@noelleptc, I guess there’s a fundamental difference between us, because I don’t think “beliefs” are inherently worthy of respect.

For example, Muslims (and some Christians) in northern Africa believe that young girl’s genitals should be mutilated. They believe this largely because their religion tells them that female sexuality is a dangerous temptation. Do you respect this belief? I don’t.

Up until the 1800’s, most Christians believed that the sun revolves around the earth. They believed this, despite mounting scientific evidence to the contrary, because it’s exactly what the Bible says. Do you respect the belief that the sun revolves around the sun?

Now, I could just censor myself to avoid “offending” people like you… but this strikes me as more condescending than simply being honest and forthright with you. You seem to have misinterpreted one of my remarks about “poor misguided Christians”—what I meant was, there are atheists who simply avoid confronting religious folk not because they actually respect their beliefs, but rather because they don’t think Christians can handle the truth and that we should just let them have their delusions. This is not my attitude. I think Christians are wrong in their beliefs, but I also think they’re perfectly capable of handling the truth and engaging in debate about it, because they are intelligent human beings.

I think you should ask yourself: why you offended by what I’m writing? Surely you realize that many people believe your basic beliefs are fictional. Do you think that your beliefs, or religious beliefs in particular, deserve special consideration above and beyond other types of beliefs (like political beliefs) and that people who disagree with you should keep our mouths shut? Because that’s what you’re coming off like.

Now, you claimed there is “no way to answer this question” because nobody can know. This is a fallacy. What we have here is a religious tradition that claims, with no evidence, that a sky-god will resurrect our bodies in the future and let us live forever. Now, the Heaven’s Gate cult makes a very similar claim: they believed that space-aliens were going to beam them up into their ships and grant them immortality.

Do you think there’s “no way to know” if the Heaven’s Gate cult’s ideas were fictional? What about Aum Shinrikyo (the Japanese suicide cult), or David Korresh? All of these cults were based on similar ideas to the Christian afterlife—and all of them have exactly as much evidence to support their claims: zero. Are you on the fence about these cults, too? Why or why not?

I must have missed where I stated you don’t have a right to share your opinion?

You are, however, explicitly telling me that I don’t have the right to share my opinion, because it “offends” you.

Who am I to tell people their religion is fiction? This is a weird question, coming from someone who clearly believes that every single religion on Earth except his/her own is fiction and presumably goes to a church where the minister/priest repeats this assertion over and over again. (In fact, you explicitly said “people believe in weird, messed up stuff”)

I would be more sympathetic to your “hurt feelings” if you didn’t have such a terrible double standard.

@Nullo It is not a question of “should.”

@Brian1946 I am not asking the person to read the bible but the problem is that you shouldn’t criticize something if you don’t understand it,its like criticizing that vampires suck saliva when they suck blood

@Qingu Why are you telling me about the sky when we are talking about age in heaven?If you are talking about heaven,it is not in physical form,it is in spiritual form or you can also assume that it is in a dimension above ours,but my point is that we don’t have a body in heaven,I think the hebrews understand that the heaven is not in physical form since our bodies do rot and there are planes in the sky which the hebrews know sometime ago but still believe in God

@Qingu Can you please backup the claim that the bible says that the sun revolves around the earth and other things like women’s genitals should be mutilated

@noelleptc Hhhmmm…But that is out of what muslims and christians are taught to do as that is their own culture like african women are whipped to show that they are strong,they should not tie up culture and religion so easily

We don’t know. Probably not. Maybe heaven is timeless and ageless.

I really liked the depiction of heaven in the movie ‘What Dreams May Come’. The idea that damnation isn’t so much a punishment put upon us, but one that we put upon ourselves. The misery we make in our lives carry on into the afterlife because we don’t know that we’ve died. It’s like the tethered elephant syndrome.

The physical manifestations of things in heaven, the ‘afterlife’ are more a reflection of what we want to see, or expect to see, but our perceptions can change even there to reflect our new, ethereal surroundings, so age, corporal embodiments are all fluid.

It’s a visually stunning movie. I liked it. Have tissues handy.

@noelleptc Ok I get what you mean,the african culture came from christianity which originated from the middle east

@vamtire, as I said earlier, the Hebrew word shamayam is translated as both “heaven” and “sky.” It is the same thing. It’s not a vague spiritual thing; it’s clearly a physical structure as described in Genesis.

In Genesis 1, God creates a solid dome above the earth. The Hebrew word here is raqiya, and it means “that which is hammered out.” The word raqiya is sometimes translated as “dome,” “expanse,” or “firmament.” The Hebrews certainly thought it was a solid object—everyone else at the time thought so.

Genesis 1 further describes this dome. It separates the waters below it from the waters above it. In other words, there’s an ocean above the sky. If you are a bronze-age nomad, this actually makes a lot of sense. The sky, like large bodies of water, is blue. So there must be an ocean up there. But water doesn’t float, so something must hold it up (some ancient people described the solid sky as made out of metal or glass). Also, rain falls from the sky, so it must have windows that can open to let the ocean’s water fall down. In fact, Genesis 8 explicitly says “God opens the windows of the sky” to create the floodwaters.

Shamayam is simply the name that God gives the raqiya. Again, this is exactly what Genesis 1 says.

Genesis 1 also says that God set lights inside the raqiya—the lights of the sun, moon, planet and stars. In Joshua, the sun and moon are stopped in their motion around Earth’s solid sky-dome. So yes, the ancient Hebrews, along with every single other person on Earth at the time except perhaps a few clever Greeks, believed the sun and stars revolved around the Earth, and this idea is reflected in their mythology.

(I didn’t say the Bible says women’s genitals should be mutilated—it doesn’t. It does say men’s genitals should be mutilated, however. It also has some wonderful ideas about women’s rights, like if a woman cannot prove she’s a virgin on her wedding night, she should be stoned to death on the doorsteps of her father’s house. Also, if a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, he has to pay her dad the brideprice and then marry her. Both of these laws are in Deuteronomy 22. The Hebrews, like everyone else, believed women were essentially the property of men, and “if you break it, you buy it.”)

@Qingu God created a dome?In Genesis 1 I know that the Earth was originally shapeless and God gave the Earth a shape,and the water separation is true,can you tell me the specific verse and which translated version of bible you are using?And God explained that there was no rain when the sky was covered with water,and explained the watering of the plants by saying that there was mist instead of rain.(sorry,but depending of your definition of “ancient”,there was no glass in the ancient times and metal only at the bronze-age onwards but glass is totally out of the question).
Just asking if you actually read the bible or did you just google these stuff?
In Joshua,the sun and stars stopped in motioon around Earth’s solid sky-dome??Can you tell me the verse??
It does not say a men’s genitals should be mutilated or the laws you talked about,that’s Judaism,Jesus came and changed all that,I assume you know that Christians are named after Jesus Christ and died for us,and in Romans they say there is no use being circumcised(I think you call it mutilated) if you don’t love God,because in the past being circumcised was just a way for men to show that they belong to God.

@vamtire the verse is 1:14–16. I use NRSV, but most translations make it clear that the sky is solid. In any case, you can look up the etymology of the word “raqiya” yourself if you don’t believe me.

The Hebrews might not have known about glass. The Egyptians and the Greeks had rudimentary glass (and their myths about the sky’s shape that resembled the Bible). In any case, the root of the word raqiya is used more often to refer to beating out metal.

The point wasn’t to speculate on the actual substance (I doubt the Hebrews thought it was a metal or a glass that they have seen); the point was that the Bible makes it clear that the sky was a solid structure, something that is “beaten out” and divides the ocean above it from the ocean below it.

The verse in Joshua is 10:12. Note also that Genesis 1 says the sun and moon are set “in” the sky. Which is, of course, exactly what every single person on Earth thought at the time, and continued to think with a few exceptions up until the time of Isaac Newton.

And the Bible does say a man’s genitals should to be mutilated; Jesus just says you don’t have to do this anymore. Sort of like not having to cross the street anymore, although it’s still a good idea. Though you are correct to point out some tension here from Paul’s perspective. I imagine the pro-circumcision Christians were not as popular as Paul’s sect (and he didn’t seem to get along with them, judging from his letter to the Galatians…)

And yes, I have actually read the Bible.

I’m not going to Heaven, if I do, I’ll strangle God. That should definitely get me sent to Hell… if it doesn’t work.

@Justice13 – “I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints / the sinners are much more fun”

@Hobbes @Justice13 Wasn’t this a general question? Why do people on here have to poke fun at others beliefs?

@Justice13 Careful what you wish
Careful what you say
Careful what you wish you may regret it
Careful what you wish you just might get it.
Metallica

Well why EXACTLY would YOU want to go to Heaven?

Ignore everything anyone else says.

Why do YOU, the only person that your situation called life truly concerns… no matter what (meaning, even if you’re all alone, you still have yourself), want to go to Heaven?

I seem to notice that you people are rather avoiding the question it is how old we would be in heaven. Here we are assuming that there is a heaven and this is not a place for debating the topic of wheter there is or isnt a heaven.