(May 12, 2016 at 4:57 pm)The Reality Salesman Wrote:(May 12, 2016 at 4:21 pm)Rhythm Wrote: Meh, maybe I'm just obstinent on this one..but it's difficult for me to imagine a scenario where a person slams a door behind them...says to me "there's a fucking werewolf in there, we've gotta run!" - really believes it........and then just -lets- me open the door because I dared to smile and say "I don't believe you". No effort made, whatsoever.
-and I'm not just being an optimist here, study after study show us that that really isn't the way that people behave with each other in the sorts of situations where we perceive ourselves or others to be in even -minor- danger. The chances of our resident liar for christ being one of the vanishingly few aberrations of humanity that would behave like this beggars belief almost as much as his stories about monkeymen.
I've thought that same thing. My mother is a devout Christian and she knows exactly where I stand when it comes to ideas of that sort, but I remember she came to visit a few years back and the subject came up. I asked her what she thought heaven would be like, and she painted me a euphoric picture of bliss. I said that was weird that she was able to picture being in heaven and enjoying herself there...she asked why? I said "because I won't be there, and you'd know why...and IF you WERE in heaven and I wasn't-then you'd know where I was instead...and for an eternity, you'd feel entirely blissful knowing that I was simultaneously being tortured in some alternative other realm?...I don't think I'd be able consider that state of mind to be paradise...an eternity of knowing my son was in agony somewhere praying for death...(awkward silence) -Lets have a drink!
How can anyone hold such conflicting views without the slightest hint of dissonance?...Unless, they really don't believe one of them...
..We try to find other things to discuss.
Seriously?!?!?
When you were 10 who was your best friend that was around your age?
Is that person your best friend now?
Why not?
Ever break up with someone you love?
Ever get a divorce?
How do you think it possible to have such strong love for someone then not?
In short we grow up. we mature. we change. what we saw in our friends as small children often amount to proximity and a fondness for similar things. As we age our minds develop and what was once the center of our world can all but be forgotten memories. This is true for anything given a steady progressive growth and enough time.
I believe in this world in this life we are only operating at a small fraction of our intended mental capacity and have extremely low awareness of all of creation.
If Heaven includes mental and spiritual birth or awakening to God and his glory the things of this world will mean very little to nothing.
Just look at how Heaven is Described. Streets of Gold Jeweled gates etc... It basically takes our most precious items and makes them common everyday building materials. Meaning they will have very little to no value. Lest you think you can buy a new car with a 100 lb chunk of asphalt.
Father mother son daughter husband wife.. are all relative terms. At our core we are souls. we live out the roles I mentioned because we either elect or are born into them, but the bible identifies us as being spiritual beings, in familial terms we are all brothers and sisters. Not father or mothers. In short your earthly attachments won't mean what they do now.
