Heaven is an incentive. It is used to lure people into following the rather controlling rules set by religions. If you do as they tell you here on earth, when you die you get a reward. You will go to a place of perfection, where you will have eternal happiness and pleasure. However if you disobey the rules stated you will be damned to hell, a place of misery, where you will have eternal suffering and pain.

I must say whoever came up with the whole concept of heaven is a genius. What better way could there be to lure people to follow you than by promising them a reward when their dead? There is no way to prove them wrong! The hell part is even better. What better could there be way to scare people into following you than to warn them that not following them will lead them into eternal suffering? The Catholic church is especially good at using this control method to exploit its followers. "Sure your life may be miserable on earth, but if you do everything we tell you, after you die you will be eternally happy. Not lisening to us will result in eternal suffering." A very effective scare tactic. If what they say is true, you don't really have much of an option other than to blindly follow.

Personally, I don't think going to heaven would be that great anyways. I mean what are you really going to do for eternity? What do people in heaven do? Sit around and play cards? It sounds boring.

KANJI: TEN ame (heaven, sky)

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Character Etymology:

Originally written as a person standing with an exaggerated head symbolizing the upper part of something. By association it came to mean that from above.

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: TEN
kun-yomi: amatsu ame ama-

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: aki amo ta takashi te nama

English Definitions:

1. TEN: sky, air, heavens, celestial sphere, firmanment; heaven, Providence, God, Nature; destiny; weather, top, beginning.
2. ame: sky, heaven.
3. ama-: heavenly.
4. amatsu-: heavenly, imperial.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 1138
Henshall: 58

Unicode Encoded Version:

天

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

天女 (tennyo): heavenly maiden, goddess.
天火 (tenpi): oven.
天下り (amakudari): decent from heaven.

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Directed by Scott Reynolds
Cast: Martin Donovan (The Opposite of Sex), Danny Edwards, Richard Schiff and Joanna Going.
Distribution: Miramax - New Zealand, 1998.

Basically, it's the story of an architect, divorced and hopelessly addicted to gambling. He has a lot of debts so he decides to redesign a strip club. Soon, he meets a transsexual dancer named Heaven, who has psychic abilities that can influence gambling. They form a team and begin to win a lot of cash. But as more and more people learn about Heaven's powers, that duo attracts more envy, suspicion and hate. Then it's all unleashed in an orgy of destruction.

Directed by kiwi Scott Reynolds (who also did The Ugly and Game With No Rules), Heaven is a weird and mind-blowing, but excellent, movie. Dialogues are in the present, past or future tense. We see scenes that have yet to occur. Flash-forwards, flash-backs, it's all messed up but we always understand. Reynolds is a true independant filmmaker who learned the ropes by himself and that's great. In some senses, it reminds me Memento though, in my opinion, it's not as good.

Heav"en (?), n. [OE. heven, hefen, heofen, AS. heofon; akin to OS. hevan, LG. heben, heven, Icel. hifinn; of uncertain origin, cf. D. hemel, G. himmel, Icel. himmin, Goth. himins; perh. akin to, or influenced by, the root of E. heave, or from a root signifying to cover, cf. Goth. gahamn to put on, clothe one's self, G. hemd shirt, and perh. E. chemise.]

1.

The expanse of space surrounding the earth; esp., that which seems to be over the earth like a great arch or dome; the firmament; the sky; the place where the sun, moon, and stars appear; -- often used in the plural in this sense.

I never saw the heavens so dim by day. Shak.

When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last time the sun in heaven. D. Webster.

2.

The dwelling place of the Deity; the abode of bliss; the place or state of the blessed after death.

Unto the God of love, high heaven's King. Spenser.

It is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Shak.

New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. Keble.

In this general sense heaven and its corresponding words in other languages have as various definite interpretations as there are phases of religious belief.

3.

The sovereign of heaven; God; also, the assembly of the blessed, collectively; -- used variously in this sense, as in No. 2.

Her prayers, whom Heaven delights to hear. Shak.

The will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven. Milton.

4.

Any place of supreme happiness or great comfort; perfect felicity; bliss; a sublime or exalted condition; as, a heaven of delight.

Shak.

O bed! bed! delicious bed! That heaven upon earth to the weary head! Hood.

Heaven is very often used, esp. with participles, in forming compound words, most of which need no special explanation; as, heaven-appeasing, heaven-aspiring, heaven-begot, heaven-born, heaven-bred, heaven-conducted, heaven-descended, heaven-directed, heaven-exalted, heaven-given, heaven-guided, heaven-inflicted, heaven-inspired, heaven-instructed, heaven-kissing, heaven-loved, heaven-moving, heaven-protected, heaven-taught, heaven-warring, and the like.

© Webster 1913.

Heav"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Heavened (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Heavening.]

To place in happiness or bliss, as if in heaven; to beatify.

We are happy as the bird whose nest Is heavened in the hush of purple hills. G. Massey.

© Webster 1913.