Asking the Clergy: Is there a heaven?

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking recently said that heaven "is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." What do you think?

Imam Muhammad Jabbar, Masjid Darul Quran, Bay Shore:

Heaven is a real place for people who do good, who are righteous, who are nice. Their intention is to please God. If there is no heaven and no hell, it would mean this life has no purpose. There should be a place for those who do a good job in this life but who are not properly rewarded.

What will someone do if he earns hell through his behaviors and sins? May God have mercy on him and treat him differently than his life has earned him.

Islam teaches us that there is a heaven and a hell, and we should go toward the positive side in our lives.

I believe God is just, and there will be reward and punishment for us all. Those who believe that the universe has no purpose are mistaken. There is a purpose to the universe and to each of us.

Amy Frushour Kelly, coordinator, Center for Inquiry Long Island, Lindenhurst:

I think Stephen Hawking is right. In the same way most Christians or Jews would think of the Greek god Zeus as mythology, we think of an afterlife as mythology.

It is a comforting crutch. Just because faith is a crutch, doesn't always mean a crutch is a bad thing. If a crutch helps you to walk -- and you don't hit anybody over the head with it -- it's a good thing.

The line of good and evil runs through every heart. I don't believe in heaven, but it does provide comfort to people. Unfortunately, it also can make some people complacent and accepting of the bad things that happen to them now because they believe they'll have a better time in the afterlife. Then, it's definitely a bad thing.

The Rev. Thomas Goodhue, executive director, The Long Island Council of Churches, Riverhead and Hempstead:

I do believe in life after death, and I'm not afraid of the dark. I'm not afraid of Stephen Hawking, either. This is a case of someone speaking way out of his field. He knows no more about heaven than I do about theoretical physics.

The fascinating thing is that Hawking is one of those cosmologists who spew out theology that it will take thousands of years to reproduce. There is a certain irony to his saying that because he can't see something, it doesn't exist. He has theories that have not stood up to the test of time because there currently are no ways to test them. For example, Hawking says there are parallel universes. That may be true, but there's no way to prove or disprove it now.

Hawking is a genius and a great theoretical physicist, but he's also guilty of the sin of hubris. It is bad science to say that because I don't know it, it doesn't exist. I believe there is life after death. I believe we will be with God. He's entitled to his opinion, but when it comes to the existence of heaven, it carries no weight for me.

Rabbi Elliot Skiddell, Reconstructionist Congregation Beth Emeth, Hewlett:

He's one of the most brilliant scientific minds of our era, but that doesn't mean he's right about everything. Hawking and some others sometimes say things to provoke and create controversy and to get people thinking.

Houses of worship and people of faith should welcome people asking questions, even challenging them. In my congregation, we welcome these conversations.There is a tremendous diversity of views within the Jewish community about what is heaven. For some it is Olam Ha-Ba, which means "the world to come." It is a place of afterlife and external reward. For others, it is more of a metaphor. Heaven is here on earth. It is the values that you leave to the earth through others. And, there also are all the opinions in between.

The Very Rev. Richard E. Simpson, T.S.S.F., rector of St Mark's Episcopal Church, Islip, and dean of the Atlantic Deanery, Diocese of Long Island:

He's a very bright man, but he sure underestimates the significant history of religion. As an Episcopalian, I don't worry about the brilliant people in the world saying there is no heaven, because I know there is.

As Christians, we should not be afraid of scientific and intellectual inquiry. These too can lead us to the truth, because all truth belongs to God. The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Those who are "certain" don't want their faith questioned, or even touched. Faith and doubt are the same side of one coin. We always must walk by faith. The faith that God loves us. The faith in our vision of heaven as a place where the faithful live in peace and joy in the presence of God and with those we love.

That is not a vision of weak minds, but of human aspirations and divine revelations.