Friday, October 13, 2006
Eternal Life
(4)
And what a glorious freedom it is!
I should address the fear of Satan too, while I'm on the subject of Existential Fear. Fear of Satan relates to fear of God: both are figments which have no basis in reality. Likewise, the fear of Hell. There is no Hell, no Heaven. Someday you will die forever. You will never return. As one of my favorite web sites proclaims: 'Life is short: make fun of it!'
The downside of nonbelief is that you will have to live with the idea that you will die forever. At first glance this is a horrifying prospect. But is it? Think:
The Universe began about 13 billion years ago. You only arrived recently. You missed the first 13 billion. Do you feel sad about that? Not exactly. Did you really miss it? Not exactly. You weren't there!
The Universe may last for another 13 billion years (or many more). You will die forever and therefore you will miss all those years. It might be a trillion years and you will miss them all. Should you be sad about that? Not at all: you won't be there either. You weren't there for the first 13 billion and you won't be there for the last trillion. Thank God! It could be much worse.
But you long for eternal life. You want to live forever. You equate the two. Wrong: you will not live forever but you already have Eternal Life.
And what a glorious freedom it is!
I should address the fear of Satan too, while I'm on the subject of Existential Fear. Fear of Satan relates to fear of God: both are figments which have no basis in reality. Likewise, the fear of Hell. There is no Hell, no Heaven. Someday you will die forever. You will never return. As one of my favorite web sites proclaims: 'Life is short: make fun of it!'
The downside of nonbelief is that you will have to live with the idea that you will die forever. At first glance this is a horrifying prospect. But is it? Think:
The Universe began about 13 billion years ago. You only arrived recently. You missed the first 13 billion. Do you feel sad about that? Not exactly. Did you really miss it? Not exactly. You weren't there!
The Universe may last for another 13 billion years (or many more). You will die forever and therefore you will miss all those years. It might be a trillion years and you will miss them all. Should you be sad about that? Not at all: you won't be there either. You weren't there for the first 13 billion and you won't be there for the last trillion. Thank God! It could be much worse.
But you long for eternal life. You want to live forever. You equate the two. Wrong: you will not live forever but you already have Eternal Life.
Labels: fear of God, religion
