Heaven, would you really want to exist forever ?

[Davin]

I thought it was reasonable to assume the Theist mentioned living forever in the context of "heaven".  We are in the religion section right?  "Heaven" is in the title of the thread...checking...

I don't think it's reasonable to assume that at all, not all religions have a heaven. Not even all religions have an afterlife. He may have meant his statement in the context of heaven, but it was not apparent in his text and I certainly didn't mention anything about a heaven, so your comment is still improper in the context of a reply to what I wrote. I provided a thought experiment of how an eternity would feel and how boring everything will get once everything has been done a few billion times only to be left with an eternity left to live.

[AnimatedDirt]

I thought it was reasonable to assume the Theist mentioned living forever in the context of "heaven".  We are in the religion section right?  "Heaven" is in the title of the thread...checking...

I don't think it's reasonable to assume that at all, not all religions have a heaven. Not even all religions have an afterlife. He may have meant his statement in the context of heaven, but it was not apparent in his text and I certainly didn't mention anything about a heaven, so your comment is still improper in the context of a reply to what I wrote. I provided a thought experiment of how an eternity would feel and how boring everything will get once everything has been done a few billion times only to be left with an eternity left to live.

I stand corrected.  It is unreasonable to assume a Theist in a forum section of religion, under a thread about heaven and existing forever, that his comment about existing forever and loving life...is totally off on my part.

Apologies to Ecurb Noselrub.

[Davin]

I thought it was reasonable to assume the Theist mentioned living forever in the context of "heaven".  We are in the religion section right?  "Heaven" is in the title of the thread...checking...

I don't think it's reasonable to assume that at all, not all religions have a heaven. Not even all religions have an afterlife. He may have meant his statement in the context of heaven, but it was not apparent in his text and I certainly didn't mention anything about a heaven, so your comment is still improper in the context of a reply to what I wrote. I provided a thought experiment of how an eternity would feel and how boring everything will get once everything has been done a few billion times only to be left with an eternity left to live.

I stand corrected.  It is unreasonable to assume a Theist in a forum section of religion, under a thread about heaven and existing forever, that his comment about existing forever and loving life...is totally off on my part.

Apologies to Ecurb Noselrub.

Well, if you're just going to get snarky and uncivil, you might want to avoid replying to me.

[Tank]

Get your favorite book, go to your favorite page, and read it and only it hundreds of times a day for a year straight (no watching TV or movies, no playing games, no listening to music or talking to anyone else or doing anything else). If you get bored with that one page after reading it thousands of times in row, then eternity is not for you, because eventually during eternity, you'll have done everything and learned everything possible an infinite amount of times... and you'll still have an eternity to go.

Sounds like you know exactly what heaven will be like...

Who said anything about heaven? I was responding to:

I can say without any hesitation that I want to live forever. I never want to cease to exist.  I think life is wonderful and cannot imagine ever being bored with it.

He mentioned nothing of heaven, just living forever.

I thought it was reasonable to assume the Theist mentioned living forever in the context of "heaven".  We are in the religion section right?  "Heaven" is in the title of the thread...checking...

Well this is the religion section and heaven is mentioned in the title, so I would agree that it's not unreasonable to interpret the question in light of one's world view if that included the concept of 'heaven'. Each to their own.

[AnimatedDirt]

Well, if you're just going to get snarky and uncivil, you might want to avoid replying to me.

I'm being snarky and uncivil??

[Too Few Lions]

I've often thought that the Christian idea of heaven is my idea of hell, spending all eternity in the company of dull Christians and their even duller god. It does remind me a bit of the famous letterbox scene from Bedazzled

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z8AddFYCnA

No-one's really thinking about just how long eternity is, and also the fact that humans won't exist in a few million years' time, never mind a trillion. If we haven't destroyed ourselves by then, I'm sure we'll have evolved into something else.

[AnimatedDirt]

Well, if you're just going to get snarky and uncivil, you might want to avoid replying to me.

I'm being snarky and uncivil??

Let me say, then.  I apologize for being snarky and uncivil.

[Davin]

Well, if you're just going to get snarky and uncivil, you might want to avoid replying to me.

I'm being snarky and uncivil??

You said before when you acted in a similar manner that it was you being intentionally snarky. I told you that I would remember that kind of behavior and attribute it accordingly.

Let me say, then.  I apologize for being snarky and uncivil.

I don't require or desire any apologies for behavior towards me, I just thought you might not want to be heading into being uncivil.

[superfes]

I personally would love to live forever, watch Humanity grow and make amazing discoveries... just not in "Heaven".

And I was raised LDS where we get to become Gods and make our own worlds to test our own spiritual children with sin and punish them for having the will to spend time thinking.

o_O

[AnimatedDirt]

I personally would love to live forever, watch Humanity grow and make amazing discoveries... just not in "Heaven".

So you're saying there would be endless things to watch and discover...

[superfes]

I personally would love to live forever, watch Humanity grow and make amazing discoveries... just not in "Heaven".

So you're saying there would be endless things to watch and discover...

Absolutely, ever since our minds evolved a taste for curiosity Human beings have become the most creative species we've seen, I find the prospects of what Humans could be capable of doing quite exciting.

^_^

[AnimatedDirt]

Absolutely, ever since our minds evolved a taste for curiosity Human beings have become the most creative species we've seen, I find the prospects of what Humans could be capable of doing quite exciting.

^_^

So then you and I are at odds with Davin who may, it seems, feel living forever would be like reading one page out of a book hundreds or thousands of times.

How long has this universe been around?  At what speed is the universe expanding?  So unless we find a way of travelling at the speed of light, it seems simply exploring the universe, like driving across country, would take Billions of Trillions and so on, years to make that trek...not to mention exploring every planet, every inch of it.  That alone would be time consuming of seemingly an eternity.  That's a straight line exploration...now think of the infinite number of directions we could take from each point or from here.  Mind boggling.  Then we have the implementation of the new knowledge we gain and creating new things for our entertainment...the imagination can run wild with ideas.

Boring?

[superfes]

Absolutely, ever since our minds evolved a taste for curiosity Human beings have become the most creative species we've seen, I find the prospects of what Humans could be capable of doing quite exciting.

^_^

So then you and I are at odds with Davin who may, it seems, feel living forever would be like reading one page out of a book hundreds or thousands of times.

How long has this universe been around?  At what speed is the universe expanding?  So unless we find a way of travelling at the speed of light, it seems simply exploring the universe, like driving across country, would take Billions of Trillions and so on, years to make that trek...not to mention exploring every planet, every inch of it.  That alone would be time consuming of seemingly an eternity.  That's a straight line exploration...now think of the infinite number of directions we could take from each point or from here.  Mind boggling.  Then we have the implementation of the new knowledge we gain and creating new things for our entertainment...the imagination can run wild with ideas.

Boring?

Perhaps I am at odds with him, but history has shown us that Humankind spends lots of time repeating the same events over and over again. So maybe he is more correct on this one o_O

[Davin]

Absolutely, ever since our minds evolved a taste for curiosity Human beings have become the most creative species we've seen, I find the prospects of what Humans could be capable of doing quite exciting.

^_^

So then you and I are at odds with Davin who may, it seems, feel living forever would be like reading one page out of a book hundreds or thousands of times.

How long has this universe been around?  At what speed is the universe expanding?  So unless we find a way of travelling at the speed of light, it seems simply exploring the universe, like driving across country, would take Billions of Trillions and so on, years to make that trek...not to mention exploring every planet, every inch of it.  That alone would be time consuming of seemingly an eternity.  That's a straight line exploration...now think of the infinite number of directions we could take from each point or from here.  Mind boggling.  Then we have the implementation of the new knowledge we gain and creating new things for our entertainment...the imagination can run wild with ideas.

Boring?

Not boring the first few thousand times. But it is eternity, so after doing all that a few billion times still with an eternity left to live... yeah, boring.

[AnimatedDirt]

Perhaps I am at odds with him, but history has shown us that Humankind spends lots of time repeating the same events over and over again. So maybe he is more correct on this one o_O

True.  We are creatures of habit with foods we like, sports we watch/play, areas of interest we delve into...it seems to me that doing an array of things, say in succession for millions and billions of years, to then turn around and start again, assuming of course that the universe isn't stagnant, will the next time produce different results/pleasures.

Not boring the first few thousand times. But it is eternity, so after doing all that a few billion times still with an eternity left to live... yeah, boring.

I guess that's pessimistic thinking vs optimistic thinking.  I simply think of the ongoing array of things and people to interact with.  No one said living forever would be static and not dynamic.

Of course with our finite minds, how can we even fathom eternity...imagination is the only way.  Some put limits on imagination.