Other theistic religions have often depicted a Heaven somewhat similar to the Christian one. Such a Heaven is only available if there is a God, for its activity is centered on the development of friendship with him. As I noted earlier, the non-theistic form of Buddhism also claims that there is a kind of after-life; yet there is to my mind considerable plausibility in maintaining that an after-life without God would not be as happy as the theistic Heaven. For friendship is with persons. If there is no God, the only friendship to be attained is with persons with limited ability to satisfy our needs, limited natures to reveal to us, limited abilities to do things for us and satisfy our curiosity.

(Richard Swinburne, Faith and Reason [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981], 135)