Back to our subject at hand:

So if heaven (of the religion kind not the "heaven on earth" kind) isn't real what is?

That which exists is real is the meaning of "real". That which doesn't exist (non-existence) isn't real. And that which isn't real (non-existence) can't exist. (Notice the use of "can't exist" rather than "doesn't exist". Can't exist subsumes doesn't exist--e.g., that which can't exist, doesn't exist but the reverse isn't necessarily true--and so in the context here can't exist is the better term to use.)

Events of consciousness are real in that they exist inside your mind as "things" to be understood by you and translated into events in reality (if such is your desire).

Since reality is real, that is, an absolute you have to meet its requirements to successfully translate your events of consciousness into events in reality. (For example, we fly to the moon in rockets, not by flapping our arms.)

More example. Ancient men dreamt of flying (event in consciousness). Middle Eastern man fantasized Magic carpets that fly and let it go at that, Western man built 707's.

To say that both of these--Flying carpets and Boeing 707's--are real is to commit a sin against language.

So, if you meet reality's absolute terms and want to spend the time translating, then you can succeed at it. If you don't meet reality's terms then no amount of mental gyrations and mind twisting will do it for you. (It won't that is, without twisting your mind into not's--not this, not that, don't do this, don't do that least you discover your inner contradictions, so to speak and repeat: not not not is the driver of such a person's action selectors.)

For example, Heaven--qua the literal place of religion inhabited by a non-existent god who judges your life to see if you qualify to enter through its non-existent "pearly gates"--isn't real because it doesn't exist.

And just as importantly--or even possibly, more importantly--it can't exist. And the REASON it can't is because it requires a pile of contradictions to "support" it.

That is, we must remember: CONTRADICTIONS DO NOT EXIST as nature demonstrates to us by not having any.

Or stated differently, if it is true that contradictions do not exist, that is, that not even ONE contradiction exists IN THE ALL OF EXISTENCE, then what is the conclusion to be drawn about an idea who's continuation as an idea requires a pile of contradictions to support it.

It's sh.. ?

Comes to mind.

So heaven doesn't exist outside the consciousness of fantasizers and intellectualizers who never translate their fantasies into reality because they aren't translate 'able.

If at this point you are arguing within your own mental space--a "space" that is real in that it is an argument that exists (inside of you)--that it takes FAITH to see that heaven is real, please be advised that by so doing  you are making my case as to why religion is evil.  It is lower case evil--that is, bad on steroids--because it pushes faith like drug dealers push drugs.  And faith--qua the perfect antipode to reason--is not good for you. Faith is not good for you as in it is a mind destroyer not mind builder.

Mind destruction is self destruction.

Self destruction is not good.

That is, to say that both of these--self destruction and self construction--are good is to commit a sin against language.

Reason is the mind builder.

Mind building is self building.

So since construction is better than destruction reason is good, faith is not.

Those who preach 'til the cows come home that faith is good (not to even mention those who preach faith is better than reason) are therefore lower case evil and on a dangerous track to becoming growingcase evil and eventually upp ... er ... well, I'm sure you've heard the phrase, "the road to hell is paved with "good" intensions".

So does this mean that, "Hell is real?"

Dunno, maybe ... or at least ... On Earth maybe.

To be determined.

We Are A Nation Of Narcissists

Derek Hunter | Apr 17, 2014

full article here:

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2014/04/17/we-are-a-nation-of-narcissists-n1825345?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl 

We Are A Nation Of Narcissists

Derek Hunter | Apr 17, 2014

opening ...

People have been saying the country is "going to hell in a handbasket" for decades. It's sort of a rite of passage for every current generation to look at the next one and think it will screw up things so badly everything will be ruined. But the handbasket this current generation is creating may well be the one that sinks us.

 [lots of "going to hell in a handbasket" rants--some of which I even agree with--in here ... ] 

conclusion ....

We have become a nation of narcissists - attention junkies measuring our success by the number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers we have rather than our accomplishments. None of us are immune - to one degree or another we've all ....

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I tried to Post the following as I've said but it didn't work so I'm putting it here for my f.u.t.u.r.e reference:

Narcissism is a pretty difficult concept to define correctly. It is so difficult in fact that it is almost an anti-concept but yet not quite. The best example of narcissists that I ever saw were the couple Stephanie and Michael (played perfectly by Julia Duffy and Peter Scolari) on the old Newhart show where Bob was the Vermont hotel owner, Dick Loudon.   The key factor in the Stephanie and Michael characters is that they were superficial in the extreme. That is, they spent the most amount of their time thinking about things that matter the least (is my hair straight, omg it's got one strand out of place, oh me oh my .... ) and they spent the least amount of time to virtually no amount of time thinking about things that matter the most (e.g., what exactly is the correct definition of "narcissist", is it any person who is selfish or is selfishness like Ayn Rand said, a virtue and selflessness a vice?) and so on. Since religious people believe sacrificing the self to anything and everything that is not-self is the highest "virtue" they are going to have a really really difficult time with the changing culture that they are currently finding themselves in--that is, one that is in the transition of changing over to the Ayn Rand view (as she and her fellow Objectivists and Biocentrists defined things).

For example, Selfishness IS a virtue. The danger to those of us who no longer accept the religious credo (Christian in my case) of self-sacrifice is that we are from time-to-time faced with having to point out to Christians the errors-of-their ways (it's a dirty job but somebody has to do it). Such that, if these get to be too frequent then we will be in danger of being physically hurt by the true Christian - that is, the religiously devout ones. The REASON for this is because (as Ayn Rand has already proven or at minimum demonstrated in spades) FAITH and FORCE go hand in hand and if you push the devoutly religious to their core they will lash out with the urge to beat you up (devout Christians) and/or kill you (devout Muslims). But since I do agree with Mr. Hunter in one way--the world is going to hell in a (different) hand basket--I have to speak out IN SPITE of my fear.

PS:

Mr. Hunter, for a second there you had me with the concept of a collective "self" as explaining some of the goofy behavior we see on such a widespread scale but (after I thought about it) it's a no go because it's contradictory. There is only one self and it's what individuals have, not groups. Individuals struggling to be individual who are caught up in some gr ... oops. Enough already, the end. Thought provoking article, I liked it. Thanks.