Pondering the idea of Eternity...

Arizonax19

Arizonax19

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Lately, I find myself trying to wrap my mind around the concept of "forever" - in a literal sense.

Imagine that you had a bucket containing 1,000,000,000 grains of sand and each grain represents 1,000,000,000 years. That's one billion-billion years 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 years. On a linear time scale with no end, where one inch = eternity, how big a blip does 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 make? Is it even visible?

I am wondering that if there is something more beyond the realm, is time still linear and if so what would one do for all of "eternity"?

No this isn't a trick question or asked to spark heated debate where people disparage that with which they cannot accept. I am just conflicted between the comfortable doubt of agnosticism and an uncomfortable acceptance of some type of afterlife, and I wonder how many others have a similar question regardless of whether they would claim to be atheistic, agnostic, or deistic in some manner.

If anyone cares to respond via PM - you have my word that it will be kept confidential.

Tommy
 
Which one ,,,

is harder to comprehend? Endless time or endless space ? :dead: Gave up figuring those out in I think it was grade three. Religion said it was one of the great mysteries that we would find out on the other side:angel:
 
I like the idea of reincarnation. My thinking is that it would be nice if one's trials and tribulations somehow contributed to the wisdom or instinct of one's next incarnation.

Not sure this is what you're asking.

I remember a camp song that featured the lyrics:

In the land of Odin there stands a mountain, one thousand miles in the air. From edge to edge this mountain measures one thousand miles square.

Little bird comes a wingin' every million years or so, sharpens its beak on this mountain and swiftly flies away. When this mountain has worn away, this to eternity shall be as one single day.
 
that's exactly along the lines of what I am thinking

Just pondering what our purpose (collectively and individually) is in this realm.

And yeah, lol, It was probably about grade three for me too that I mentally checked out of thinking about complex science vs. spiritual matters too deeply. For some reason though, it's weighing really heavy on me now.
 
How old are you?

I'm 43 and pondering what the next 2/3 (ha!) of my life will be like. In many ways I feel like I'm just hitting my stride.

I have a relative who is a Theosophist, a small and misunderstood religious/philosophical sect. I wonder what she would say about this.
 
Well here's another ponderer..

Are we somewhat reincarnated through our offspring. Evolution continues and each successsive generation advances, adding to the knowledge and experiences of the prior one.:hmm2:
 
I'm 46 and had open heart surgery last September

Since then I've pondered what and if their is an afterlife. Your body dies, but what is your soul? That inner voice that is somewhat disconnected from reality?

I dont know.
 
47 and way past prime it seems...

I peaked early in life getting married into an instant family at 20, owning my first business and home by 22 and doing pretty much everything I ever wanted to do by 30. And, to be blunt, I never really expected to live this long between motorcycle and back-country skiing accidents.

I just had a friend my age die while playing ball a few weeks back and it's caused me to think and rethink what possible purpose there is for me, and what is next after this existence - if anything...


Sometimes I think about things I hold as important and then realize that they really aren't...

Tommy
 
It's the mileage, not the years...

I was voted most likely not to live past 25 in my year book. <-- da truth!
 
Some surprises..

I 've helped out an old lady of 88 many times ,appointments etc. and always figured she would totally believe what her church preached. After losing her husband she confinded that she didn't know what to expect, or believe what was in the next life. It was a real surprise to me. , Ah , no!! we're not dating !!
 
That's kind of the point

As far back as I can remember, I remember church 3 days a week, bible study every night and being taught about intensely deep subjects at a time when I still believed in Santa Clause. Does a four year old child singing "Jesus Loves Me" (or any other song from any other faith) have any idea what that means. Of course not, but over time and with repetition the message eventually gets through to the point one will "believe" without question.

By the time I was 11 or 12, I began to question stories that seemed to contradict one another and after getting no real answers, I just bailed on all of it.

In 2001, my step-daughter Amanda was killed by a DUI driver. Ten years later I am continually "seeing" her in my dreams with her asking me not to remember her with any sadness or anger and not to have hate for the one that killed her because -- "time here is different and you are already here. Because you chose to forgive what you once thought was unforgivable, you have also been forgiven".

Not really sure what to make of all of this...

T
 
Eternity

The story of the "Eternity Man" of Sydney
www.greenplanet.com.au/eternity/eternity.htm
My concept of Eternity was shaped in the 6th grade, when I asked my teacher to explain it to me. She (a nun) said: "Imagine the earth was a huge steel ball. Imagine that once every million years a white dove flew down and touched the ball with its wing. Eternity would be how long it would take the dove to wear down the ball into nothing."
I'm not sure I want to go there, think of how many spare Fiat parts you would need! Cheers, Terry
 
The plague,,haven't heard of it..

Anyone read"" Jonathan Livingson seagull "" best seller in the 80's Neil Diamond soundtract, and video also go with it. It's only a one hour read.
 
Keeping to the spirit..

of honest inquiry:

What makes a difficult to comprehend issue "deep"? Perhaps it is actually very shallow. Maybe there is nothing "essential"-that is to say of an essence; no soul; no somewwere other than here and no time other than now that is even conceivably available to us?
Maybe our questions are just far more interesting than the answers.
 
Perhaps...

Yeah, I get your point. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective.

From the perspective of the overused and uninspired, if there is nothing at all beyond this realm, what then, really, is the purpose of staying around and using up resources that could benefit those that still do remain inspired?

The only answer I can think of is FEAR that there is something next, and, that it could be far worse - for all of "eternity". That's kind of deep for me right now.

T
 
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Well, there really is no....

"purpose" to either going or staying if you get right down to it. If being "inspired" is a requisite conditon for a good life then I tremble for all but a select few of us. Fear of, or happy anticipation of something beyond where we find ourselves is at best baseless and at worst destructively distracting. How can any truly rational decision be made about current life predicated on something about which, we must admit in honesty, we know absolutely nothing.
The whole eternal this and eternal that thinking is almost literally talking about nothing. I sometimes think we do it to make ourselves seem more profound in our own eyes than we have any right to seem. But I am coming at that from the point of view that life is a matter of pretty quotidian concerns despite what we think. The appearance of much beyond this is a kind of editorial trick. Given the utter improbablity of even quotidian human self awareness in a vast and essentially mindless universe, maybe we are being greedy to want anything else-I personally see it as slightly impious to get fed up with the here and now in hopes, or fear, of a somewhere else.
IMHO, it goes without saying. In other words, instead of searching for unobtainable answers maybe time would be better spent asking entirely different questions.
 
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