Which Way Is Up?

Is heaven up? Does this imply that the earth is flat and located in the center of a small universe? This idea is found in the heart of the gospel narrative that speaks of Jesus ascending into heaven. How are we to look at it?

We do not know how other realms such as heaven and hell are connected to the world we know. That they should be reached by going upward or downward in relation to the earth makes as much sense as any other possibility. One can look for some kind of symbolic meaning here, but that does not mean the movements are not real, any more than the bread and cup in communion are not real. But let us look at this in the most crassly literal way possible, though I do not believe it should be understood this way. We know the earth is solid, or rather, at the center, liquid. But who is to say disembodied spirits cannot exist in liquid matter, which is without question hot? As for upwards, there are a multitude of stars and galaxies where you could locate heaven. And perhaps disembodied spirits can exist in the airlessness of space. I do not believe heaven and hell are to be understood this way, but they do not contradict the known facts of science.

This does not require that the earth is flat or in the center of the universe, or that the universe small. Nor does the Scripture seem to be interested in teaching such things one way or the other. The statements used to prove this are either descriptions of what we see when we look up in the sky  or are poetical statements or metaphors. But where then did the Medievals get these ideas? They did not, in general, believe earth was flat and the universe was small, though there was an occasional scholar (who was not at the time considered totally crackpot) who disagreed. As for the idea that the earth was the center of the universe, they got it from the same source that told them the other two were not true, the Greek philosophers represented by Ptolemy's Almagest. But it is very questionable that they got them from Scripture, though they read it back in.

But the real problem is the connection to pagan myth. There are various myths that put the gods on heights or the top of mountains. It is assumed that the idea that heaven is up is an extension of this concept. But it is the Christian contention that God revealed Himself to all people right from the beginning. Part of that revelation could include the connection of heaven with up, whatever that means. And people understood it in simplistic ways, thinking it referred to the top of mountains. But the exact meaning for the original remains a mystery.