can anyone honestly fathom the concept of eternity? what is there to do for eternity, without getting bored?

..used to think about that too..then i started to think we simply get reincarnated..in some form or another...Newton or Einstien - 'atoms neither can get created nor destroyed, but simply rearranged' ..so basically, we get recycled..

roco

p.s. -- atoms can indeed get destroyed -- nuclear fusion..or fission..one of the two..

eternity is like reading microscopically
different versions of the same threads on
the same topics over and over and over.
forever.

that's a long time.

i believe in reincarnation too. i think that there are endless realities/dimensions that we can experience. i was just challenging the Christian philosophy of eternity

Yes, living in a 'perfect' heaven doing only the will of their 'Lord' will test their patience to be sure. I'll think they'd get tired of kissing his feet before they even made it through a single millennium much less billions of millions of years with no end in sight. A person would really need to enjoy groveling to put up with that crap for very long.

Many ideas of reincarnation are not exactly eternal. Some ideas are that we reincarnate for a finite amount of time (maybe the lifespan of a universe?).

Then the physical world is consumed by 'fire' and we return to a pure spiritual form which is an existence of pure bliss and non-involvement kind of like a meditative rest period I guess.

Then after the rest period, a new universe is born and the incarnations begin again in a totally new universe with new laws of physics, new kinds of beings and existence, etc.

So it's eternal, but runs in cycles.

I'm not so sold on the idea that I would want to exist for eternity. But then again, I've never experienced being pure spirit either so what do I know?

I call it infinity. To me, eternity implies "time unending."

Infinity is in this present, it is NOW, and is always. There is no time involved.

If you think infinity is a difficult concept to grasp, try thinking about "nothing" and how that could conceivably exist.

My conclusion is that "nothing" is impossible.

"Nothing" cannot exist.

There is no such thing as nothing and no such number as zero.

There is only +1 and -1.

There is matter and anti-matter.

JB

I’m with Jeannie here. Past is nothing but memory. Future is nothing but possibility (or imagination, whichever way you want to say it). There really is nothing but NOW in the physical/material sense. Thinking of eternity as a “length of time” that we’re in the middle of is like thinking of infinity as a “number” that you can add 1 to. It’s a misconception. Similarly, thinking of “nothing” as “an absence of anything” is also a misconception. You can’t “add something to nothing” any more than you can add 1 to infinity.

I am therefore I was.
I am therefore I will be.
I am therefore I am.

We are all imortal.

If you understand this not as you are... be patient... It will be clear to you as you will be.

the question falls apart by itself.
how can we now what eternity is if we are not there yet?
eternity will be what we want it to be depending upon our earthly actions.
however, we cannot define eternitu with human terms and standards. Ergo, it's very silly and naive to think about eternity in terms of boredom.

for someone who says there is no such thing as nothing or it doesn't exist, you sure do use it alot -

Atoms do not get destroyed...

fusion... they change state to a different type of matter.
Fission. they change state into two different types of matter.

but they do not get destroyed... merely redirected to a different frequency.

Please explain this statement, I don't get it.

no -

Then it is a meaningless statement.

I'm not falling for that old trick.

I thought it was "Energy can neither be created or destroyed". And atoms can also be destroyed through reactions with ant-matter.

breathe

I agree. Interesting. I have even used the term "recycled" as it relates to souls. I have no proof that this takes place although I have witnessed babies born and people die because I worked in a hospital for a period of time. Community Hospital of the MP in fact which you are probably familaur with. I just have a "hunch" but thats it.