I just posted this on the Biblical Flood thread and then realized that maybe it should be separate:

Roscoe, or anyone else on this forum, what are your beliefs about the location of Heaven? Is it up there in the sky or out there in space? God's voice comes booming down out of the sky in Genesis and Exodus; Elijah is taken up in a chariot; Jesus ascends and "is taken up by a cloud," etc.

Any thoughts or comments?

 Heaven and hell are both real. Modernists want to do away with hell fire by saying that it is just a metaphore or a symbol for sth like sorrow, remorse etc. So is the case with what they want to do with heaven. Please be careful.
  If Heaven is not literary a real place, then why should Jesus suffer so much to get us there?

I'm not asking if Heaven and Hell are real. I'm wondering what forum members think of their physical location. Where is Heaven exactly? Is it in the upper atmosphere? In outer space, beyond even the Moon or the other planets? Is it at the edge of the Universe? Is it in a parallel set of dimensions to the three that we observe? Is it another reality altogether that exists with us and around us, which we can only see if God allows us to?

 Heaven and hell are both real. Modernists want to do away with hell fire by saying that it is just a metaphore or a symbol for sth like sorrow, remorse etc. So is the case with what they want to do with heaven. Please be careful.
  If Heaven is not literary a real place, then why should Jesus suffer so much to get us there?

Heaven and Hell are real yes, both are literal, but Jehanne is also right..it is not like you can theoretically dig down in to the earth and poof-there are demons and souls,etc....same with Heaven, I cannot-theoretically-take a rocket ship to the moon, some planet or asteroids and poof, there are angels and souls dancing in happiness around......both places are not in our, for lack of Thomistic language, in our space/time continum......

I have always believed that both Heaven and Hell exist outside of this universe, in eternity, hence the reason why people who have had near-death experiences say they experience a feeling of timelessness.

Quote from: greenhill

heaven and hell do exist, but do you think they are places?

Bodies take up space.  In order for Christ to be a whole man, i.e. body AND soul, he must be in a place.  The same holds for all men, eventually.

Exactly. Heaven and Hell must be actual physical locations, because they contain physical entities, i.e. our resurrected bodies. It intrigues me though, that in the New Testament Jesus is seen going up into Heaven only once, at the Ascension. On several other occasions, however, He suddenly appears (to the apostles in the Upper Room, for example) and disappears, (from the two disciples going to Emaus, to give another example) apparently without rising into Heaven and descending again to Earth. So where did He go? Where was He in between His appearances?

Regarding Hell being "down" under the surface of the Earth, there have been many stories of miners, spelunkers, and others who have reported hearing the screams of the damned when they ventured underground. I even saw a YouTube video (I think it was posted on this forum) with a recording made by a Soviet scientist of those same voices. In addition, Hell in the Old Testament is often referred to as the "pit," and at Fatima the three seers saw a pit open up below as the Virgin showed them souls falling into it "like snowflakes."

All of these speculations fascinate me because many physicists postulate and even seem to have quite a few proofs of the existence of unexplored dimensions and states of being and I have to wonder how Heaven and Hell might fit in with those findings.  On the other hand, many ancient cultures believed that you could actually walk up to the entrance to Hell as to the mouth of a cave; Mt. Olympus where the Greek gods resided was an actual place and in Genesis the people built the Tower of Babel partly so that they could reach God. I really don't know what the Church specifically teaches on this.

Quote from: greenhill

heaven and hell do exist, but do you think they are places?

Bodies take up space.

This assumption is false.  We are finite, the One and Triune God is infinite.  Just as our Lord Jesus Christ's resurrected body passed through walls, it may be that our resurrected bodies will be defined by neither time nor space.  For instance, define a soul or a spirit.  Tell me what it is.

heaven and hell do exist, but do you think they are places?

yes they exist and are palces, but not like say Australia or hte moon-sail or fly and there you are....they do not exist physically...God being infinite could destroy at his whim every particle in the universe and Heaven/Hell would still be there (and limbo,Purgatory,etc)......

When I attended Catholic School, the Nuns always taught that
Heaven is in the sky, and hell is at the center of the earth.
In my 60 years I never disputed nor doubted this teaching.
modernism is something that I always avoided, and run from.