The belief in heaven, say the positivists, is to be set aside for two great reasons.

In the first place there is no objective proof of its existence, and in the second place there is subjective proof of its impossibility.

Not only is it not deducible, but it is not even thinkable.

Give the imagination _carte blanche_ to construct it, and the imagination will either do nothing, or will do something ridiculous.
'_My position [with regard to this matter]_' says a popular living writer,[27] '_is this--The idea of a glorified energy in an ampler life, is an idea utterly incompatible with exact thought, one which evaporates in contradictions, in phrases, which when pressed have no meaning._' Now if this criticism has the least force, as used against the Christian heaven, it has certainly far more as used against the future glories of humanity.

The positivists ask the Christians how they expect to enjoy themselves in heaven.