So You Do Want To Live Forever?
That's probably with some reservations. You probably don't want to live reincarnated as a bovine destined to become an "all-beef patty". Or as a mangy, flea-ridden resident on death row at the local animal shelter. Or as a short-lived, blood-sucking insect feasting on stray dogs and picnickers who are feasting on "all-beef patties". Most of us in industrialized nations enjoy our present position in the food chain. Besides, then we'd have to ask, "Which came first, you or the 'all-beef patty'?".
You probably don't want to live forever in your present body either, as it begins wearing out, and looking worse for the living you've already done. Would you really want to start over as a human, with no memories of previous existence? That could be like a woman trying on a new dress and saying, "It's just not me.", especially if we had been a man in our previous life.
We want to live forever but not in "Pleasantville" (as in the movie), because we desire change. But it must be a change for the better, or bigger, or newer, or at the least, more. If our 'forever' body has to resemble our temporary physical one, we would want it to be at our prime, whether that was at 16, 18, 21 or older. Or we might want to customize, with our (male) chest, arms and shoulders at 35, abs and hips at 18, legs at 23, face at 25, stamina at 16 and brains at 45 (or at peak just before senility begins).
Since there is no higher rung in the physical food chain, we are very interested in new dimensions, in possibilities at the "Outer Limits" of our imaginations, in the "Twilight Zone" of human understanding, in going "where no man has gone before". Science fiction and the newest technology can go a long way in helping us to understand the possibilities of the "next world". (Fiction is often based on fact. See "The Matrix and Divine Truth".)
If anyone actually believes the next world involves sitting on a cloud with a harp, listening to eternal chatter from an ex-talk show hostess, a poster girl for overdone cosmetics, popes of the inquisition and the holocaust, and hypocritical, Bible-thumping, tithe-begging, prostitute-prone televangelists, then all we can say is, enjoy this life, because your vision of the next one is just as hellish as Dante's nightmare. If your vision of the next life is based on mainstream religious thought, then your God is too small and your copy of the Bible is under-read and overly-"interpreted".
For many, religion has nothing to do with life. For some, religion is just a social exercise. For others, it's therapy for their daily disfunctionalisms. For some, it's just a family, cultural or ethnic "tradition". For others it's just a "philosophy of life". And for most of those "in the business", it IS JUST A BUSINESS complete with marketing strategies, target customers, product refinement, competition for customers, "consumer-driven" product design, packaging, and delivery; quotas, acceptable losses; lower, middle and upper level management, and profits (not to be confused with prophets).
If you feel that there has to be something more than what the local 'Priest-in-the-Box' or 'Preacher-in-the-Box' outlet has to offer, then CONGRATULATIONS!!!, you have already begun to think about "changes", much like Matrix's "Neo" did when he was flushed out of his (life suspension) pod and began to experience "Reality".
"For now we see through a glass darkly;" (1 Cor. 13:12).
". . . therefore have I uttered that [which] I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not." (Job 42:3).
"What is man, that you are mindful of him?. . . "
"For you have made him a little lower than the angels,. . ." (Psa. 8:4-5).
"You have put all things (in the earth) in subjection under his feet. But . . . not yet all things (sun, moon, stars, space) put under him". (Heb. 2:7-8).
"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor.15:53).
". . . and we shall reign on the earth." (Rev. 5:10).
". . . and he (Christ) shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 11:15).
". . . he that is in the first resurrection . . . shall reign with him (Christ). .." (Rev. 20:6).
". . . and they (we) shall reign for ever and ever." (Rev. 22:5).Articles / Site Index / Humor / Topic Guides / Study Guides / Contact Us Copyright M.H. and G.H. 2000 All Rights Reserved.