Would you like to live forever? It's been one of the goals of many people to find a way to live forever. Others say that you live forever by accomplishing things in this life and being remembered or by reproducing and passing your DNA onto another generation. Christianity states that there will be a coming judgment and that the good will spend eternity in heaven and the rest in hell.
However, if I was a benevolent deity, I wouldn't dare curse anyone with experiencing eternity. You can't imagine an eternity. One followed by an endless string of zeroes of years.....can you imagine living that long? Would your eally want to remember every day and keep the memories and pains and the boredom of living forever.
So what sounds like the best solution? Well you would let souls live for eternity, yet only have them experience it in small chunks of years in a body at a time, erase the memories and start over again. It's a good solution to a maddening problem.
I remember being younger and pondering eternity and infinity, just repeating over and over and I started to get sad. It finally dawned on me how vast that amount of time really is....and I didn't want to be a part of it. Even if I was forever doing things I enjoyed, like the preachers attempt to sell you, eventually you would weary of existing and experiencing the passage of time.
Posts
2 comments:
When I was a young, foolish right wing conserva-kid and Evangelical Christianist, it was all so simple. You lived according to Dr. James Dobson's version of the Bible, you died, you rejoiced forever in the glory of God. Or, if you were Ghandi, Freddie Mercury, or FDR you went to the burning lake of fire for not fitting the prescribed criteria.
As I grew up and cast off the security blanket of Rush Limbaugh's spoon fed opinions, it became much more complex, this concept of eternity and reward.
I'm not a big fan of reincarnation. It makes me feel sad, like eternity is just a big treadmill. We're constantly running, constantly striving and working but never getting anywhere except, maybe, onto another treadmill. I want to believe that our struggles and triumphs and love all mean something, all contribute to a result.
I tend to believe that, upon shuffling off this mortal coil, our soul is set free of the limited confines of our consciousness and brain and body. Like a butterfly bursting free of the chrysalis,we spread our wings, and suddenly are free, our concept of the universe expanded a trillion-fold. We can finally take in the enormity of forever and the endlessness of the universe. We are not so much transfigured, and reawakened from a lifetime of slumber. And that our brief time as a mortal being is God's way of giving us perspective, that we can better appreciate the majesty of His creation.
So...I really do believe in forever. I have to. I never want to imagine any existence without the companionship of those whom I love.
That was the most beautiful thing I've ever read!
Post a Comment