Living Forever on a Paradise Earth?

by return of parakeet 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  return of parakeet

  Think about the dub concept of living as a human being forever on this earth. It sounds inviting at first blush, but if you think about eternity, what would you do to fill the endless time?

  Eventually, you would learn everything, experience everything, understand everything, grow tired of everything. Then what?

  It may sound like sour grapes, but I think living forever would inevitably become intolerably boring. Granted, it would take a long time to get to that point, but think of it ........ Forrrrrrevvvvvverrrrrrrr.

  It makes a dirt nap sound downright inviting.
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  Gopher

  I put this subject on the board a while back. It got some interesting responses.

  http://jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/104879/1/You-cannot-live-forever-in-paradise-on-earth

  Also as someone else has pointed out, the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) makes it virtually certain this universe won't continue forever.
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  whathappened

  It was the most difficult thing for me to give up, the hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth. I mourned over the fact that I will never see my deceased baby girl again, my father, grandmother, etc. It still makes me sad when I think I am going to die and rot in the ground and my family will also.

  The Watchtower Society gave us a false hope. It was the thing that kept us in, no matter what bs they threw at us. We all stayed in for that hope.
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  MrFreeze

  There is also a theory that the longer you are alive, the faster time will seem to go. It is why when you are 8 years old, the years seem to go by so slowly but when you are 80, the years are flying by. It is all based on perspective. How quickly would time be seeming to go if you've been alive 10,000 years? 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? A year might end up flying by in what we think of as a week.
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  prologos

  Mr. Freeze, that is why it is good that our life span is limited.

  Imagine having drivers on the road who see time go as fast as a 1000 year old. driving 125 times slower than me, the octogenarian.

  The fast passing time for seniors is probably due to the decline in brain function.

  Picture an old clock with 12 marks 5 minute-marks , that the hand rotates through in an hour. now have these marks fall of one by one because of old age. of the clock, or the equivalent of the brain/mind.

  Now in an hour only 11, then 9, and less marks are re-marked or registered in the mind, you are still passing at a constant speed/rate/clip through time, but with deterioation, the perception of movement through time changes. But of course according to the story*,

  we will not deterioate with time, so the movement -through -time perception will be constant in the NW, no old ghisers holding up traffic.

  * the story based on the naked, spare-rib-cloned lady talking to the speech-empowered snake.

  The earth, the sun, the universe as it is will not last forever.
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  return of parakeet

  MrFreeze: " There is also a theory that the longer you are alive, the faster time will seem to go....A year might end up flying by in what we think of as a week. "

  Even if time seems to go faster, it's all the same when you're talking about eternity.

  A million years might seem like a week, but if the millions of years never run out, time loses all meaning.

  Gopher: "... the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) makes it virtually certain this universe won't continue forever. "

  I'm in agreement with the natural laws. Our sun and the earth along with it will burn out long before the universe. I'm just speculating on the dub's so-called prize of eternal life on earth. It reminds me of Dante's Inferno -- whatever sin you committed in life, you get the same thing times a thousand in Hell. Eternal life is not so attractive when you put it in perspective of eternity.
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  dinah

  Do I have to live forever with Witness rules? No thanks. An eternity with Jehovah's Witnesses would be HELL on earth.
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  WTWizard

  Do you wish to have someone dictating what you do forever? Think of the rules at a$$emblies that have been popping up recently. Limits on sanitary supplies, notably the one towel rule, at the bathrooms. No mirror use--they tape paper on the mirrors. Vending machines, perfectly working and fully stocked, with Out of Order signs and paper on them, with hounders guarding them. Assigned seating starting to show up in scattered locations, and possibly everywhere the hounders can get away with it.

  Day to day life is no better. Would you want to listen to the same 225 songs all the time forever? This lasted somewhat more than 8 hours, and was of rubbish quality. And you thought that was bad? Now, it's even worse--only 135 songs, lasting something like 5 hours, and is even worse quality. There are limits on videos you can watch--all washtowel productions. You get limits on reading material--of inferior quality. You are supposed to waste your time on the deadest of works, while letting your talents languish. You never get to do even the most basic spiritual advancement, let alone achieve anything that resembles doing something about problems joke-hova gives you. You do anything and joke-hova gets the credit; yet, if something bad happens, you get the blame (that is, unless joke-hova decides to blame poor Satan for it). If nothing bad happens, you are not doing enough. I don't think I would want to do field circus, or something equally dreary, forever.
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  return of parakeet

  Dinah: " Do I have to live forever with Witness rules? No thanks. An eternity with Jehovah's Witnesses would be HELL on earth. "

  WTWizard: " Do you wish to have someone dictating what you do forever? Think of the rules at a$$emblies that have been popping up recently. "

  I agree that living forever with dubs merits a its own circle in Dante's hell. But what I'm trying to comprehend is the idea of living forever, even discounting the dubs. Say you could do whatever you wanted. Wouldn't life eventually pall?
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  BluesBrother

  If one thinks about it, the idea is completely selfish.

  I mean that in our experience, we live 70 years or so, die and the next generation takes over . That allows for billions of human lives to be led with all the love, joy, and some sadness that makes up our existence. It also allows for occasional geniuses to make their mark in the fields of science, invention and the arts.

  In the WT New World, a certain number would live, on and on forever, with no childbirth, no death...no turnover of the human society. That one generation would hog it all, for all time.

  It does not seem right to me now......(but of course it used to be my hope )