Further posting on immortality:
One such example from Permutation City is a man who named his digital self Peer. This man’s scan was installed as a background noise coded into the Permutation City architecture, so he was invisible to the programmers and the people living there. He was one such person who, in order to remain satisfied and happy, set up a defined series of enjoyments for himself, such as turning table legs out of wood on a lathe. He created the code so he would thoroughly enjoy this pursuit alone for around 60 or 70 years, making literally hundreds of thousands of table legs. Then, a change began to happen, which shifted his love for table legs to something else, and he abandoned his warehouse full of them to find the new single dream he had. In a world where everything from appearances to emotions and environments is changeable, immortality seems to be superbly gratifying (one pursuit at a time, using a created gratification).
This idea of tailoring emotions and situations at will to love one thing, then drastically changing and loving another thing for certain amounts of time ad infinum really jarred my idea of a Christian heaven. Revelation 2:15-17 sheds light on the image of heaven: 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Rev. 2:15-17 NIV)
Right off, this seems like it could get monotonous. The people in heaven will never hunger or thirst, or get hot in the sun? These sensations are what tell a person its time to eat or get inside for the day—I don’t typically think of them as bad. At the same time, the extremes of these conditions are what many in poverty face, and that is most likely what these verses are getting at. There are also claims of no one crying, and everyone serving God, day and night. I’m not about to claim serving or praising God will get boring after awhile, but certainly from human experience doing anything for even extended periods of time lend one to believe that doing any singular thing for an infinite amount of time would get incredibly dull and lifeless. As a rule, people claim to dislike change, but if there were none, the same people would be just as upset.
Any thoughts about this? Heaven's a tough cookie to crack.
One such example from Permutation City is a man who named his digital self Peer. This man’s scan was installed as a background noise coded into the Permutation City architecture, so he was invisible to the programmers and the people living there. He was one such person who, in order to remain satisfied and happy, set up a defined series of enjoyments for himself, such as turning table legs out of wood on a lathe. He created the code so he would thoroughly enjoy this pursuit alone for around 60 or 70 years, making literally hundreds of thousands of table legs. Then, a change began to happen, which shifted his love for table legs to something else, and he abandoned his warehouse full of them to find the new single dream he had. In a world where everything from appearances to emotions and environments is changeable, immortality seems to be superbly gratifying (one pursuit at a time, using a created gratification).
This idea of tailoring emotions and situations at will to love one thing, then drastically changing and loving another thing for certain amounts of time ad infinum really jarred my idea of a Christian heaven. Revelation 2:15-17 sheds light on the image of heaven: 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Rev. 2:15-17 NIV)
Right off, this seems like it could get monotonous. The people in heaven will never hunger or thirst, or get hot in the sun? These sensations are what tell a person its time to eat or get inside for the day—I don’t typically think of them as bad. At the same time, the extremes of these conditions are what many in poverty face, and that is most likely what these verses are getting at. There are also claims of no one crying, and everyone serving God, day and night. I’m not about to claim serving or praising God will get boring after awhile, but certainly from human experience doing anything for even extended periods of time lend one to believe that doing any singular thing for an infinite amount of time would get incredibly dull and lifeless. As a rule, people claim to dislike change, but if there were none, the same people would be just as upset.
Any thoughts about this? Heaven's a tough cookie to crack.
posted by Brett Boote at 8:55 AM
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