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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
 Posted - 09/18/2006 : 08:10:39 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by marfknox
I don't think it is a limited thought at all. We're talking about eternity. I don't think Asimov would have turned down living for hundreds, even thousands or tens of thousands of years. But eternity?
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"For what could any Entity, conscious of eternal existence, want-but an end? (P. 356)"
Exactly. Give me time, but not infinite time. I fill my days and nights with work, play, sex, good food, and good books because life is short and I want to enjoy every moment. If I had infinite time I think there's a good chance I'd just sit on the couch.
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Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 09/23/2006 : 18:47:41 [Permalink]
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On the matter of how boring a hypothetical Heaven might be, perhaps an analogy with online role playing games is in order.
As some of you know, I play City of Villains. It is possible to greatly tune the difficulty and risk of "missions" in CoV to suit individual tastes. Until recently, I played my missions at the easiest possible setting. My risk of getting my character killed was minimized by doing this, but eventually I became bored, and set the difficulty to the next higher level. Even that became boring after a bit, so I advanced the difficulty level once again. I now play most missions at the medium difficulty level, receiving both more excitement, and faster character advancement, than before.
Surely, a proper Heaven would allow for individually-selected difficulty levels.
And this may not always be merely a moot issue: When/if the "Rapture for the Nerds" happens, who knows whether we might at some future date be able to have our consciousnesses "uploaded" to some hypercomputer before brain death, and be able to participate in the life simulation of our choice?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 09/23/2006 18:58:40 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 09/24/2006 : 23:59:30 [Permalink]
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The fantasy of the Christian heaven (since there are other afterlife scenarios in other religions) reminds me of the typical movie ending where after an incredible adventure, boy gets girl or girl gets boy and the viewer is left with the thought they lived happily ever after. Yet the viewer's 'ever after' is a blank. The viewer doesn't imagine the details, instead the movie ends as if a fog covers up the rest but it is taken for granted the rest is good.
Christians imagine this heaven, some wonderful place whatever the description, they "walk with God" and live happily ever after. Like in the movies, ever after is a blank. It's in a fog. No need to think about or imagine the actual details. God's love is somehow supposed to be fulfilling.
Well I don't know about anyone else but the love of some god doesn't appeal to me as especially fulfilling. Beyond that, I doubt most Christians fill in the details in their own fantasies about heaven other than that wonderful last scene in the movie just before the blank 'ever after'.
For the suicide bomber dreaming of the 72 virgins, I imagine there is a lot of detail in the fantasy about a life he sees others have, but the bomber has no hope of ever achieving. Same with reincarnation. If one does xyz in this life, the misery will abate in the next life and the next. Which is, I imagine, what the Christian heaven was for most people in the past and with poor populations today. For the Christian who is not living such a miserable life, heaven is the 'happily ever after' blank just as in the movies.
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| Edited by - beskeptigal on 09/25/2006 00:02:56 |
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