The afterlife

Prager, we're pretty sure the afterlife is spent in an immaterial place. See "String Theory".

I happen to think it's another dimension in this universe, but that's just my opinion.

At any rate, the existence of an immaterial dimension or dimensions outside our three-dimension (three and a half, actually, since time really is a dimension but we're stuck in it, unable to move around at will) world means that there is no such thing as a heaven with pearly gates and no such thing as fire, since fire and pearl are both material things that do not exist in an immaterial dimension.

I wish you would mention how the ancient poetry we find in the Bible isn't meant to give lovely graphics about what you see, the road you walk down, the lion and the gazelle lying down together. It expresses moods, sensations, "What it's like to feel this way." Thus, the Beloved's breasts are like a clump of grapes, but no, they're not all lumpy and squishy and ready to be pressed into wine; instead the Lover's joy at burying his face between her breasts is as satisfying as admiring a fine clump of grapes. There's a huge difference.

So then is "heaven has streets of gold" is going to be an immaterial place as rich and lush as if we were walking through a marble shrine with the ground paved with gold. The eternal separation from God that some people have asked for is going to be as harsh and painful as if there were a fire burning inside, thus the image of a fiery hell.