(March 10, 2016 at 1:48 am)Aoi Magi Wrote:(March 10, 2016 at 1:42 am)ronedee Wrote: Great response! You've given the essence of my thoughts about the concepts we are divided on.The difference you are missing is between living for a long time vs living for eternity. No matter how many different ways you find to enjoy life, they all become meaningless and insignificant when you have to live for eternity.
Obviously an unbeliever will relate eternal life to what is evident in their present state of existence. But, even our present s.o.e. provides constant change and new revelations, almost daily. Why limit yourselves to what you are today?
Imagine (thinking logically) for a minute that we are able to refresh our thought patterns, and renew our experiences (like updating the last/next 60 years in a minute or 2!). I believe a few in this thread alluded to that premise. Through some outside means of technology..... The possibilities are rather endless. Add to that; our limitless relationships we would have with others advanced minds, and personalities that we meet through the eons of time! I don't see much boredom in any of that. Also, the universe is a pretty vast playground! No. Realize that life "could" be pretty great and interesting with a constant supply of new and stimulating sources and adventures!
All of a sudden things look a little better for a vote of not dying?
Now, with all the above fulfilled..... take all those negative aspects out of our "new" eternal lives. i.e. death, pain, suffering, lying, cheating, greed, hate, etc. etc. ETC..... The ultimate goal of humanity!
You then arrive where the believer is! Jesus basically tells us we cannot imagine heaven aka, "eternal life". And, if it only took God 6 days to create the universe and everything in it? Think about this: He's still working on heaven; ".....since the beginning of time!"
Ok, so the stretch for you guys is the God thingy. But, I believe you can't refute the fact that eternal life would be interesting w/o all the trappings, boredom and bs called, the present human s.o.e.
Reverting to human logic here: Einstein is quoted, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Just food for thought my friends. Thanks again for all...eh... the good responses!
Yes....and that the Bible is probably not actually God's Word, even if God does, by some chance, exist.
I can't buy into the idea of an omnipowerful being that logs 6 working Earth days to create the Universe,
and is still "working on" Heaven. If you're that powerful, why bother separating the Universe from Heaven?
Why not just create Heaven and THEN create life in it, without all the BS of THIS life?
Why not skip evil altogether?
See, I have always theoretically allowed for the possibility (if not the likelihood ) of the existence of God.
But what I cannot take even slightly seriously is all the absurd and contradictory religious claptrap that different dogmas ascribe to that mooted God.
To me, if there IS a God out there, that does not mean that He is what we think He is,
and it does not mean the Bible is actually His Word, at all.
Even if God does exist, it doesn't automatically follow that WE have Immortal Souls, too.
We could still be, and probably are, completely, 100% mortal.
Even if God does exist,
it does NOT automatically follow that "He resides in Heaven".
I can't buy into Heaven and Hell.
If there is a God, a Creative force that created the Universe,
then what I find far more likely is that He is more like the cell membrane around that Universe, if you will.
If there IS a God out there,
He probably didn't create the concept of "Sin", at all.
We did.
If He exists at all, He probably doesn't give a big rats ass about anything we do.
We are probably just by-product; an incredibly minute part of the picture.
