jws

Someone on Facebook posted John 3:16 where it says people will live forever.

Not that I believe it, but I just cannot imagine this. This, to me, would be the true hell.

If I'm very lucky, I will live to be 100. At nearly half that, already some parts of life no longer hold much interest to me. Some of it's "been there, done that". Even TV shows. I see things and say "seen that before". When they were younger, my kids always wondered how I knew what would happen in Scooby Do. Because it's the same recycled plot. Even if I never saw it or saw it so long ago I forgot.

To some Christians we are supposed to go to some magical sky zoo called heaven. To JWs, it is life on earth. But think about the word forever. It's infinity on a timeline. After what? 1000 years, things may get really boring. You'd have to do that 1000 times to get to a million years. A thousand times all of that again to get to a billion years. What if you're really bored. You'd have to do that all a billion times again. And repeat it all trillions of times. Who wants forever?

In both world there are no offspring, so that thing is not there as a project. At least in the heaven version that many Christians believe, you get new people (at least until people stop believing in this religion). But how interesting are new people? I suppose you could hear tales of earth, which would only make me long for it. But in the end, you've probably seen every single "type" of person. It's like seeing the same plots over and over again in TV shows since the I Love Lucy days. In forever, you will start to see repeats of exactly the same person.

Especially when the assumption is we have a perfect mind. The only respite might be that our mind fills up and can't remember everything so that some things will be new again. Like the old Alzheimer humor where every day is an adventure because you meet new people.

This whole thing sounds terrifying. Do people realize what forever is?

There's also apparently no purpose. There's never any evidence of ANYBODY coming back from heaven or the grave or affecting life on earth in any way. So even if we were in heaven, the best we could do is watch earth. But there's nothing you can do about it. So what's the point to our lives? And in heaven (or earth) things are perfect. So what's there to do? What's the purpose?

Vanderhoven7

As near as I can make out our purpose now is to live holy (displaying the fruit of the Spirit) lives to the glory of God. By faith, I accept that just as we have purpose here on earth, using our gifts to enrich self and others, God will further enrich us for roles/tasks in eternity.

Village Idiot

I would not mind living to be a thousand or more years. There is plenty to learn within that time frame especially if we become a space faring species.

Pete Zahut

Every morning I let my dog out into the back yard and although he recognizes where he is, you'd swear by his excitement that he'd never seen the place before. Each day he seems as if it's a brand new world to him.

To live forever and be happy about it ones sense of the passage of time would have to be altered and ones memory would in some ways have to fail them so that things seemed new again.

Maybe when they talk about Adam and Eve having lost their innocence and their eyes being opened, this is what is what they mean. Maybe (if they truly ever existed) humans were supposed to be more innocent (like my dog) and their concept of time was meant to be different. Maybe our current concept of time and tendency to become bored is part of the "imperfection" we inherited. Maybe our concept of time and the passage of time is all fouled up.

At any rate, it's hard for me to imagine that all those years ago when my parents randomly conceived me that I was intended to live for all eternity just because the sperm that swam the strongest at that moment, was the one that made me instead of one of the other thousand that could have been someone else. If they'd have gone to bed 10 minutes sooner or 10 minutes later I wouldn't even be here.

Maybe wanting to live forever is part of the human tendency to be greedy or to be self absorbed. We always want more, even when sometimes more would be the worst thing ever.

SecretSlaveClass

Pete:
Maybe wanting to live forever is part of the human tendency to be greedy or to be self absorbed. We always want more, even when sometimes more would be the worst thing ever.

I have held this same view for at least 20 years and I am convinced of it to this day. I raise my glass of Laphroaig to you!

prologos

Living forever

This carrot is held out again by wt in tomorrow's wt "study" only they think they are going to assign tasks, domicil, absolutely control the survivors, resurrected ones for eternity. F--C-- fat chance.

Tenacious

If death was something we looked forward to after living a full and satisfying life, we wouldn't fear it or dread it.

That's not to say that there are not many people who after living what they consider in the context of today's world, a full and satisfying life, who wouldn't look forward to resting in death. Yet, the majority of humans would have liked to have had more time to do many more things hence the bucket list was born.

I agree with Village Idiot in that, and this is considering planets and stars still, to this day, continue to be formed, we might eventually become space travelers exploring other planets, stars, and galaxies.

It's impossible for God, who designed and created humans, to be unable to please his created species for eternity. Scripture does say God will make sure we are in need of nothing.

This is the way I see it; If I took an ant from my front yard and set it free to roam my front yard then the neighbors, how long would it take it? What would that ant encounter during the voyage? Let's say that after about a few thousand years the ant finally completes their voyage and exploration of planet earth. The only thing that is left for exploration and voyage is our solar system comprised of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (still a planet when I attended school). So after many more thousand years, that ant finally completes this journey. The only thing that is left is the rest of our Milky Way galaxy which is roughly 100k light years across. This completion bear in mind, does not include the intimate exploration of different animal and plant species which are in the thousands. That alone, adds many, many more thousands of years.

Yeah, I'm very, very comfortable with living forever.

GodZoo

Vanderhoven:

As near as I can make out our purpose now is to live holy (displaying the fruit of the Spirit) lives to the glory of God. By faith, I accept that just as we have purpose here on earth, using our gifts to enrich self and others, God will further enrich us for roles/tasks in eternity.

Enriching ourselves and others is finite and at some point logically will be complete. You can only 'enrich' so far before you hit saturation point. Then once everyone reaches perfection and 'tears are no more' and God 'satisfies the desire of every living thing'.. there will be nothing else anyone can ever do for anyone else as you will be completely content and satisfied in every way.

What then?

As for 'tasks in eternity'

That work task is equated with some pretty life numbing and banal synonyms: job, duty, chore, charge, labour, piece of work, piece of business, assignment, function, commission, mission, engagement, occupation, undertaking, exercise, business, responsibility, errand, detail, endeavour, quest, problem, burden.

Sounds Like an eternity of elder given assignments. I can not imagine anything worse.

Tenacious:

I agree with Village Idiot in that, and this is considering planets and stars still, to this day, continue to be formed, we might eventually become space travelers exploring other planets, stars, and galaxies.

We are doing that already and so far they are all lifeless, cold and dead and unable to support any form of life.

We should also not forget that the Bible itself clearly contradicts this fantasy of space travel and galactic exploration.

Psalm 27:39

'And the righteous ones inherit the Earth and dwell upon it for eternity.'

The idea of never dying and living for eternity does have it's appeal but not for any of the reasons organised religion or fantasy theorists offer.

prologos

Tenacious5 minutes ago

If death was something we looked forward to after living a full and satisfying life, we wouldn't fear it or dread it.

It would be nice if that would be the end-of-life experience, but most people like me, closer to 90 than 80, are in pain all the time. of course there are ongoing projects. Einstein's work room was strewn with paper work ongoing on the Theory of All. There would be more and more interesting stuff coming up as we [not] age into eternity, but better use your present life well, why would the deist creator give you more time , if you are already bored, wasteful with your life allocation now? and even that is an "if" totally unsubstantiated. use your present life well now, for, in all of eternity, that is the slice you surely have. (had)

Village Idiot

Tenacious:
I agree with Village Idiot in that, and this is considering planets and stars still, to this day, continue to be formed, we might eventually become space travelers exploring other planets, stars, and galaxies.
GodZoo:
We are doing that already and so far they are all lifeless, cold and dead and unable to support any form of life.
We should also not forget that the Bible itself clearly contradicts this fantasy of space travel and galactic exploration.
Psalm 27:39
'And the righteous ones inherit the Earth and dwell upon it for eternity.'

GodZoo, multiply 8 planets out of which 1 has life times 100 million and you'll get an idea of what lies ahead. Our little camera thrown out in space by a bottle rocket is no match for the pulse nuclear spaceships and the thousand mile wide space telescopes of the future.

By the way, that scripture you cite is not in Psalm 27 which doesn't have a verse 39.

Living forever

Living forever

Tenacious5 minutes ago

Share this