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Open Theism Discussion Board > Public Forums > Questions about Christianity > (No Subject)
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markporter
Fire over Oxford
Date Joined Oct 2003
Total Posts : 263
| Posted 3/4/2005 12:53 PM (GMT -6) |   | Ok, well I've asked this on another board, but I thought I'd ask you guys as well since you tend to think about things in a different way;
Does the idea of eternity scare any of you? If I try thinking about an infinity of time, something which never ends it really makes me scared for some reason, just wondering if anyone felt the same and if so what you do about it | | Back to Top | | |
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selah
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1210
| Posted 3/5/2005 6:19 AM (GMT -6) | | markporter said...
Ok, well I've asked this on another board, but I thought I'd ask you guys as well since you tend to think about things in a different way;
Does the idea of eternity scare any of you? If I try thinking about an infinity of time, something which never ends it really makes me scared for some reason, just wondering if anyone felt the same and if so what you do about it
Only if i have to spend eternity with SATAN!
just kiddin'
Actually both of my children have come to me with this fear at some point in their development (MOM, eternity is SO LONG!!)...
I tell them it's one thing to think about the amount of time in an eternity and quite another to think about
the content of that time. If we are with God, in love, (in PERFECT love) that should take care of our fears.
1Jo 4:18 - There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Just when I think I'm cool for answering and backing up my answer with scripture they assert the problem of eternal BOREDOM instead (find a verse for THAT one Mommm!)...then I'm pretty much stuck! 
Blessings and love,
selah
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
psalm 108:4 | | Back to Top | | |
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Corey
Five with a Four-wing
Date Joined Feb 2003
Total Posts : 1893
| Posted 3/5/2005 11:34 AM (GMT -6) | |
markporter said...
Does the idea of eternity scare any of you? If I try thinking about an infinity of time, something which never ends it really makes me scared for some reason, just wondering if anyone felt the same and if so what you do about it
I think I can do this too. As you continually "zoom out", the smaller and smaller your lifetime is in proportion, the more of a speck. Now take this to infinity, and we can't even compute our smallness! If time is infinitely long, our lifetimes become infinitesimally short. It’s almost as if we don’t exist, or at least that we are completely insignificant.
This line of thinking is I think what is behind the "nausea" described by people like Sartre and Camus.
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One Love
Registered Member
Date Joined Jan 2003
Total Posts : 13888
| Posted 3/5/2005 12:33 PM (GMT -6) | | Corey:
As you continually "zoom out", the smaller and smaller your lifetime is in proportion, the more of a speck. Now take this to infinity, and we can't even compute our smallness! If time is infinitely long, our lifetimes become infinitesimally short. It’s almost as if we don’t exist, or at least that we are completely insignificant.
This line of thinking is I think what is behind the "nausea" described by people like Sartre and Camus.
YES, YES, YES!
This, my friends, is the price of being SENTIENT hairy little mammals in a fairly impersonal, uncaring universe. The ability to contemplate our own finitude and, with growing information, our very obvious insignificance. Only a being with our type of consciousness could experience such existential despair from nihilistic implications. People like Neitzche, Sartre, and Camus were truly brave human beings to stare meaninglessness in the face and deal with it the way that they did.
Unfortunately, human beings cannot live in such a state. With such utter meaninglessness. Which is why we have historically felt the need to create all types of beliefs that provide us with meaning, power, and significance.
Such puerile, puny creatures, we are.
If there is no God...well...
Heh.
 , the former/neo existentialist-nihilist.
"I've been converted three times. The first was to traditional Christianity; the second to honesty and the third was to the Love of God and man (humanity) The third was the real conversion. The first two were preliminary."
--Nels Ferre, a theologian speaking of his spiritual journey with the Triune God
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