Futility

Ebonmuse has some good thoughts about "heaven" up. They took me back to a post I started to write a while back, and gave up on, so I'll try again.

I don't see the point of heaven. Really don't. I don't mean "afterlife" in general: either there is one, or there's not, and I'll find out when this body gives out on me or is damaged beyond repair. I see no value in worrying about it, though I may occasionally give it thought. No, I mean the concept of a heaven full of perfected believers who have been subsumed into some deity's presence. Ummm... why...?

First question: What, under that definition of heaven, is the point of this life? The only thing I can come up with is that it's to make people feel miserable knowing that they're cut off from the divine source...so that they'll appreciate it more when they get there...? Is there something else? Some actual purpose to this mortal life other than as an inconvenient stop gap before "real" life begins in the presence of the Divine? If so, most of what the churches are teaching their followers is completely useless and irrelevant. Maybe someone who understands can try to explain it to me, but it just seems... silly.

Second question: Is there no sense of unity with the Divine allowed in this life? If not, then I have to say that such religions are missing out on a lot. The Divine is everywhere and in everything. Spill your tea, there It is! Start your car, She's there, too! Smell a flower, clean out a litterbox, in the beautiful and in the mundane, They're there. Why, exactly, are people supposed to "wait" until heaven to experience the Divine? Are the churches actively suppressing this to keep the people in their thrall? Are they just blind? I really, really don't get it.

Third Question: In what sense is the "Self" preserved in the theological concept of heaven? This one I ask due to a disconnect between the higher-level presentations of heaven and the common-level representations of it. The higher-level presentations imply a genuine union, which would extinguish the Self as a distinct entity (if it ever was one, but that's for a different post); the common-level perception is that people stay themselves, just in non-corporeal form, often involving wings and a harp.

Fourth Question: What's in it for this Deity presiding over heaven? Minions? Worshippers? Minds to feed on? Further, why are there restrictions on who the Deity allows in? Are only certain minds compatible with His diet, for instance? Why do people want to get in? If the Deity is so limited that Its presence can only be felt in a limited span of spacetime known as heaven, I'll take the Divine presence that shines throughout the Cosmos over That any day.

In fact, that sums up my objections to most forms of Christianity. The world cannot be fit into the small box of its reality. It's like trying to stick a lion inside a paper grocery bag: it's hard on the bag and annoys the lion. I've encountered broader conceptions of Christianity which I find less objectionable, but I find that I don't care for the baggage carried by the language that is used. So I'm just trying to shake some answers down. Seriously; any thoughts, post them in the comments. Just be warned that I like to argue; in fact, me not arguing with your answers should be taken as an insult, not the other way around.