CIVIL RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION: All things Islam...

[Spear Dane]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

 

[RobbyMaQ]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence.

On the bright side you could be buddhist and keep coming back to hell on earth over and over

 

[Spear Dane]

On the bright side you could be buddhist and keep coming back to hell on earth over and over

This probably explains why some of them set themselves on fire in the street.

 

[foszoe]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

Ever love some one then lose them and wish that they could be with you?

Those that came up with heaven as having a big house in the sky with beautiful scenery and exploring new worlds and perpetually learning missed the point.

 

[RobbyMaQ]

This probably explains why some of them set themselves on fire in the street.

You're a 'glass is half empty' kinda guy?

 

[Spear Dane]

You're a 'glass is half empty' kinda guy?

At this point, probably. 2010-2013 cost me a huge chunk of my family and now all this crapola with snowflakes and safe spaces and 50 something genders...yeah I'm getting jaded.

 

[Benp]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

It's difficult to imagine, but we would not be in human form, and we wouldn't think the same either, we will be like God. God has not painted Himself in the corner with eternity, He knows what He's doing, and He says that we cannot imagine what is in store for us. I don't need to know what I'll be doing, I'm just going to trust the Designer.

 

[jamil]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

I'll play devil's advocate here. I'd guess if there were an eternal consciousness for every person all that would probably be worked out.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

No supernatural stuff. Just lights out.

That's what's supernatural about it. It's an unprecedented event that no one has ever experienced (or knows). Everything that ever was, isn't. Forever.

 

[jamil]

That's what's supernatural about it. It's an unprecedented event that no one has ever experienced (or knows). Everything that ever was, isn't. Forever.

Is every unprecedented event supernatural?

Definition of supernatural: (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.

What about death, even from the perspective of the living, transcends that? I think it would be supernatural for consciousness to continue forever. I think about squashed bugs. If I can conceive that they aren't going off to bug heaven, why is it such a stretch to think human consciousness would end at some point. The most natural thing to think about life as we know it, is that it ends at some point.

So what happens? Here's a pretty good description: When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his very thoughts perish. A live dog is better off than a dead lion. For the living know they will die; but the dead know nothing.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

Maybe we have trouble wrapping our minds around those concepts after a lifetime of being bound to our bodies and the earth. In that present state, we have to imagine heaven being like earth and we imagine being there in our bodies with our earth and body-bound minds.

But, maybe when our souls do go to heaven, there's a different kind of being where our relation to space and time are different. Maybe our spiritual existence in heaven becomes something more like pure energy and place never matters and there's no such thing as too much or not enough time. Just peace.

 

[spencer rifle]

Maybe it's like this:
Milliways | Hitchhikers | Fandom powered by Wikia

 

[Benp]

Also we need to consider that God created His creation within "Time" but He exists outside of time. This can be compared to a computer programmer who makes a program, sets up the parameters and boundaries that the program can work, but the programmer is not limited to the same boundaries that he places upon his program (creation). We cannot fathom being outside of time because it's all that we know.

 

[rvb]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

I certainly have...
It seems hard to imagine, but eternity with God was God's original plan for us. We deviated and became sinful and had to live apart from God; brought death upon ourselves. Living for eternity isn't the goal, but being re-connected and living with God is the goal. My mind can't even begin to fathom how awesome that would be. There will be no need for marriage, as it an earthly symbol of the union between God and his Church. I imagine Heaven much like life as I know it, only minus the sin and disease and pain. I may still work, but without the "painful toil." Friends? likely. Hobbies? possibly. But whatever we will do to occupy our eternity, it will honor God as opposed to earthly hobbies/friends/etc which tend to distract from God. We will be like the angels. How to occupy your time/mind is an earthly problem and distraction.

The selfish ideas of "I want to live forever," or "I want to get to heaven to see [spouse/kid/friend/etc]" miss the point, I think. Those are all cool parts of it, but won't be our primary focus when we get there...

Regardless, an eternity of tiddlywinks sounds WAY better than an eternity of treading water in a lake of fire.

-rvb

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Not to necessarily associate this thread with "terrorism", but we don't have a "General Terrorism Thread". So I'll drop this here.

Saudi Arabia has given Qatar 24 hours to meet the following 10 demands:

Immediately break diplomatic relations with Iran.
Expel all Hamas members.
Freeze bank accounts of Hamas members and stop dealing with them.
Expel all Muslim Brotherhood members from Qatar.
Expel anti-GCC elements.
End support of 'terrorist orgs'
Stop interfering in Egyptian affairs.
Cease broadcasting the Al Jazeera news channel.
Apologize to all Gulf governments for 'abuses' by Al Jazeera.
Qatar must pledge that they will not carry out any actions that contradict the policies of the GCC and adhere to its charter.

An emergency meeting of all GCC leaders will be held in Jeddah should Qatar abide by the conditions laid out.

 

[IndyDave1776]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

I would propose that eternity is not an infinite amount of time, but the absence of time, or rather, life OUTSIDE the constraints of time which, to my understanding, is a condition placed on this life. Some religions' 'heaven' amounts to spending an infinite amount of time enjoying unlimited worldly pleasures. As I believe what I understand of the eternity of the Bible, not only will it amount to entirely different conditions rather than glorified temporal life, but each person partaking of it will become a perfected being, thus existing in a state of being completely incomprehensible within the limits of our finite understanding. The description of the throne room in Revelation could sound to someone expecting infinitely more of the same as a remarkably boring existence. On the other hand, suppose those reactions are to God showing those present new and amazing things without limit, no reruns, forever.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

Assuming my faith and beliefs are true, God could boil this down to one question:

That’s why, when our time comes and we stand before the throne of judgment, I imagine that God will only need to ask one question: “What do you want?” And we, for the first time, will be forced to answer honestly. I fear that a great many of us will have no choice but to look back at Him and say, “Myself, Lord. Only myself.” Yet I pray, and I have hope, that you and I will be able to answer, with gratitude and joy, “You, Lord. Only you.” And no matter what answer we give, God’s response will be the same: “So be it.”

You might not want to go to Heaven ? TheBlaze

If I'm right, it won't be "lights out" either. It will be eternal separation from God. It will be eternal separation from all the good things on this earth, everything we all know, love, and enjoy that God has created.

 

[Kutnupe14]

The afterlife sounds desirable...but is it really? The Gospel promises life everlasting. Now how many of you that are Christians have taken the time to really sit down and consider what that means? Eternity...an infinity of time. What in the universe are we supposed to do for infinity? You can take up every hobby known to mankind for a trillion years each. You could marry and divorce every female (heck lets be bi and say every soul) for a hundred Googol years each...and at some point you are gonna run out of new things to do. You might take up competitive tiddlywinks for a Centillion (10^303) years...and you haven't scratched the surface of eternity. This does not sound appealing to me. It sounds like a trap. A permanent jail sentence. What does a rational, thinking, reasoning being DO for eternity?

I can't help but point out that you said "every hobby known to man." Well, there are infinite hobbies "unknown" to man. You're thinking within the restraints of the Earthly realm.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Chicago suburb will pay $580,000 to Muslim group which was denied zoning for a mosque.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Chicago suburb will pay $580,000 to Muslim group which was denied zoning for a mosque.

From that article, it seems like the right ruling.