Eternal Life.

[Atheist]

Before we were born we didn't exist, so time only started at our birth. Perhaps after we die we don't exist, so time would stop then. Eternal life wouldn't be eternal if life had a beginning or an end, so there isn't such a thing. Any thoughts?

[andy-hughes]

Sounds reasonable.

[JimF]

"Before we were born we didn't exist"

That really depends whether you believe unborn babies to be "alive" or not before they are born. Catholics will tell you that they are, of course. The law in this country will tell you that they aren't before a certain number of weeks in the womb, before which it's OK to kill them.

Eternal life on earth is not beyond the bounds of possibility. The decoding of the human genome has isolated those genes which "kill" us by deliberately not rejuvenating parts of the body.

Eternal life in the "next world" is, of course, a different matter altogether.

[Atheist]

Jim, I think that life which had a beginning (conception or birth) could not logically be eternal, since it would be missing that section of time which elapsed before its coming into being.

[eve1974]

Oooh interesting ... !
I’m gonna be pondering this all night now lol!!!

My Simple reply wld be that because God / heaven has ALWAYS existed that’s the eternal part - it didn’t have a beginning - it won’t have an end.

Our LIVES BEGAN with a time stamp so to speak - and our soul was created at conception. So we have a beginning. But when we die our soul carries on. Eternally.

[Atheist]

Eve, I'm not sure that 'eternity' can be 'eternity' if it is mising a huge chunk of 'eternity' which elapsed before 'eternity' began. The bit of 'eternity' before coming into existence might be just as big as 'eternity' after coming into existence.

[JimF]

We're arguing about definitions, though. Think of the pyramids in Egypt. They didn't exist at the Big Bang yet, barring natural disasters or deliberate destruction, they will very likely still be standing when the Earth is absorbed into the expanding sun.

Same with people. If science finds a way of preventing our own DNA from killing us, then people could theoretically live forever, also barring natural disasters or deliberate destruction.

Heaven, though, frightens the living carp out of me if it's populated by Christians...

[Atheist]

Also, Eve, if life carried on to eternity in the future, then there wouldn't be any time passing, so it wouldn't be any kind of life that we could understand, just an eternity of nothing happening. If things did happen, then that would be extremely tedious, as it would go on forever without end.

[JimF]

"then there wouldn't be any time passing"

Yes there would - years and decades and centuries and millennia of it!

[Atheist]

Jim, and if the pyramids are there for a long time, they will eventually disappear, so they're not eternal.

[Atheist]

Jim, decades and millions of years is not eternity. Eternity surely implies that time has stopped?

[JimF]

They might, if we have discovered a way of keeping the Earth as fit for life when time comes. A few billion years to go yet, though!

[JimF]

"Eternity surely implies that time has stopped"

That makes no sense at all to me. To me, eternity implies that time never stops.

[Atheist]

Jim, if time never stops, then what is time? Time seems to involve things happening, and what can possbly happen in infinite time? There would have to be infinite repetition of all possible events and that seems nonsense to me.

[Theland]

My opinion, based on what I have learned, that God created time, for us, and that there is no time in heaven, although there is a chronology of events, but without the passage of a non existent time.
(I'm sure that's clear!)

[JimF]

"if time never stops, then what is time"

The fourth dimension. If you believe that the universe will continue to expand forever, them time will continue forever. However, if you subscribe to the "Big Crunch" theory, then the universe will eventually stop expanding for an infinitely small amount of time and then begin to contract until it completely collapses in on itself whereupon nothing will exist and time will stop. Alternatively, that may trigger another Big Bang, in which case case all four dimensions will pop into existence again. This may have happened more than once, maybe infinitely.

[pixie374]

I've often asked the same thing, atheist. Even if we have eternally been alive, we weren't conscious of it, and so, won't be after we die. If you are completely unaware of everything, what's the difference with being dead?

[JimF]

That's the crux of it, pixie. I don't believe that we have been eternally alive, nor will be be after we die.

[Theland]

God CREATED us, we did not preexist.

[royfromaus]

I have to be inebriated to take part in these types of threads.

I do agree with eve though ...our souls carry on. Eternally :o)

[pixie374]

He didn't theland... I definitely created my four. I even remember being pregnant and giving birth.