Heaven/Hell cannot exist.

Thank you for accepting imsmarterthanyou, I look forward to a stimulating first debate. If my formatting looks funny its because it was done in word. I also forgot to mention that this debate will mostly be philosophical but should we reference the bible it would be ideal to add your source at the bottom of your round. Lets begin, Contention 1. The Problem of Evil. When people debate the problem of evil, both sides prematurely agree that evil does indeed exist. What their debate goes onto be about is whether or not gratuitous evil (or suffering) is permitted by god, which it supposedly is not. The primary contention the theist makes is that good cannot exist without evil. This does makes sense, how can we logically discriminate between that which is good when there is no evil to compare it too, and visa versa. IF this is the case, heaven and hell do not make any sense. Heaven as described in the bible is effectively eternal happiness (eternal goodness) with the lord, but how can this be if we don"t actually know what evil is while we"re there (the thought of "sinning"). How can we begin to even appreciate good without evil doings. To argue that we can be in heaven without evil, makes us circle back to the problem of evil and why god couldn"t just make a world without evil. The clear cut answer to these questions though is that no such place exists, it cannot logically exist in the first place. God cannot make a square with three points, similarly, god cannot make free will without having two points, good and evil (arguably three for neutrality. IF this is not the case, the problem of evil follows through invalidating god. If there is no god, it is safe to say heaven/hell cannot exist. Contention 2. Morality is subjective Perhaps an even more daunting question is what would heaven be like? It is essentially argued by the bible that it is eternal happiness with the lord, but how can one even define what "happiness" is. Most would agree that, that which is good brings you happiness, but what is good is entirely dependent on our subjective situations we were born/raised into. There are people who genuinely believe that rape or killing is good, and they believe it just like any of us believe helping the less fortunate is good. If we all share the same heaven/hell [1], then heaven ought to be whatever it is we consider to be good. Conversely, hell ought to be the exact opposite of what we find is good, so as to actually serve as a punishment. A masochist wouldn't mind a thousand lashes in hell, while an aurophobic person wouldn"t like the new gold roads god used in heaven [2]. Clearly this is not the case. Both of these kinds of people get sent both to hell or heaven depending if they have repented, regardless of what they think is good or evil. Contention 3. It"s Incomplete Looking at what most of us believe is good, the average person would still not want to go to heaven. Many families have had people who do not believe in god, this automatically disqualifies them from heaven. Additionally we have friends or family who follow different religions who also lead wholesome lives but are still sent to "the eternal fire" for repenting or worshipping the wrong god (even accidentally). There are also parents that have had a child die at birth or a very young age, assuming we maintain our individuality [3], these babies would simply be babies for all eternity, depriving the mother of the great happiness of raising a child (or its conclusion at least). I would find it to be a horror, that the baby will be eternally unconscious, neigh, I find this to be a worse punishment then hell itself, imagine the mothers thoughts about this. For the bible to actually call this heaven is absurd. Contention 4. Individuality and Free-will. As I previously mentioned, the bible eludes to the fact that we will still have our individuality. To this I say poppycock. Our individuality is created entirely of both the good and evil choices we have made through life utilizing our free-will. Speaking strictly from a philosophical stand point, how can we still be us if we were to take away the evil. How can we still act like "us" if the option to do evil is taken away? I think people would agree that we love the things we hate about some people. If someone were to suddenly start behaving only good(in heaven) or suddenly start behaving only evil (in hell), we would hardly recognize them as the same person. One could argue that we have "free-will" and just have divine knowledge to know not to do evil things, but this once again leads us back to contention one and why god couldnt just give us this knowledge in the first place. With this reasoning the resolution is affirmed. [1] http://www.biblestudytools.com... [2] http://www.biblestudytools.com... [3] [Note: W.A. Criswell and Paige Patterson, Heaven, Tyndale House Publishers, 1991, pp. 33-3