Nobody wants to live in paradise

by eric356 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • eric356
    eric356

    simon - I think you may be right that I'm making a mistake in regards to JW beliefs "as written". However, for my whole life on the inside, I've asked people questions like this, and they've never objected to my description. Maybe the people I knew were weird, but I (and apparently they) have always been under the assumption that paradise really meant "perfection." Absence of sin is one thing, which I think is the main point they talk about. But along with the health stuff you mentioned, they also talk about the "perfection" of all human abilities.

    There's a Bethel talk (I can't remember by who) all about the Garden of Eden, and the speaker said the Adam must have been the smartest, most capable human ever (until Jesus). I think he drew a comparison to Mozart and Beethoven, that they were closer (with respect to their composing abilities) to what it would be like to be perfect. He also said something like "Adam would have been even better than them" and better than all the most talented people from history at everything. I believe he also mentioned sort of super memory (like savants) is the way perfect people would remember.

    This sounds to me like a logical extrapolation from the "perfect health" idea. I think the WT figures that if one person can say, play a song perfectly after hearing it once, or remember pi to 45,000 places, or compose Beethoven's Ninth, than the fact that normal people can't do these things is due to their "fallen nature." If you reverse the fallen nature, then everyone gets all of these abilities. I know I've heard speakers at meetings and assemblies say things to that effect. Also, when people say "I want to learn piano in the New System" I've never gotten the impression that all they're saying is that then they'll have the time to do it, but that's when they'll have the "ability" to do it.

    Also, in regards to injury, I don't see how people could get injured and have it be consistent with their immortal perfect world. I guess people could have "elven" immortality (like the elves in Lord of the Rings, where they don't get sick or age, but you could kill one with a sword) but then what happens if someone accidentally walks off a cliff? Do they die? Do they respawn like a video game back into reality? Are they just invincible and dust themselves off uninjured? I think all the answers are ridiculous. I've had people avoid this by saying that if you were perfect you wouldn't "accidentally" do anything. This is also ridiculous, which is why I talked about it. But this may just be a peculiar thing that other people haven't heard or imagined.

    I have to disagree with your statements regarding boredom. I don't think people *really* grasp that forever is an infinite amount of time. It never ends, ever. Even if there's something that I absolutely LOVE doing, at some point I will get sick of it. With an infinite amount of time, you could climb every mountain, read every book, write every song, eat every dish, meet every person, and dance every dance. If there is anything that you can think of that is finite, you can do that an infinite number of times within infinity. The only thing I can think of that would take an infinite amount of time is counting. But that's boring. (Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't turn down several thousand years of life. After that though, I think I would get bored)

    Unless we were a very different sort of being, we would get bored eventually. Any changes that would make us able to be satisfied living forever would make us very unhuman.

  • frankiespeakin
    frankiespeakin

    Eric,

    You make a good point, Nobody(Vast majority sound truer) who seriously thinks about it(without the preconditioned bias: that what Jehovah decides to do we are going to love it) would want to be forced to spend eternity on some earthly paradise.

  • wasblind
  • eric356
    eric356

    wasblind - There are no cheeseburgers in paradise. Everyone (and thing) is vegetarian!

  • wasblind
    wasblind

    That's one of the reasons I ain't gonna be there

  • Think About It
    Think About It
    Look at the bright side:
    1. No more field service.
    2. No more WT publications to read ?
    4. No more "Armageddon is just around the corner" hype

    While these things may be gone.........I'm sure the "Princes of the earth" will devise more life sucking tasks & burdens for the JW's.

    Think About It

  • serenitynow!
    serenitynow!

    Wasblind, that was one of the things that used to trouble me about paradise too. No matter how big and pretty they made those grapes look, I was like, "no more ribs?" Like after a few days of eating perfect cantaloupes, grapes and oranges, I'm gonna start slaughtering me some hogs, cows and chickens.

    And I wondered what were we supposed to do forever? My mom promised that I would not get bored, but I don't know.

    And sex with one man for eternity? Even a perfect man, there is no way that is not going to get boring. Now if we could do a whole lot of samplin' w/out worrying about disease, now that's paradise!

  • serenitynow!
    serenitynow!

    I heard there was supposed to be more preaching in paradise. Who do you think teaches the resurrected ones about Jehovah? Because there will be another "armageddon" at the end of that thousand years right? After Satan gets let loose again? When I heard about that as a kid, I got to thinking, "you mean this (preaching) will never really end?" It was very discouraging.

  • wasblind
    wasblind

    Serenity said: "no more ribs?"

    Girl, I know what you mean !!!!!

    Serenity said: "And sex with one man for eternity? Even a perfect man, there is no way that is not going to get boring. Now if we could do a whole lot of samplin' w/out worrying about disease, now that's paradise!"

    Serenity, you naughty girl.

    Serenity said: "I heard there was supposed to be more preaching in paradise. Who do you think teaches the resurrected ones about Jehovah?"

    I was told the same thing Serenity, the very same thing.

  • serenitynow!
    serenitynow!

    Well, I did the whole "waiting on Jehovah" to provide that great JW man. Living a chaste life is much overrated, trust me. I know a faithful sister who was constantly told to wait on Jehovah to provide her a husband, she was in her 50s and still a virgin! She finally couldn't take it anymore and hooked up with some loser from prison. I think it's the sexual repression that makes a person just go wild.

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