RavenStar,
You have a really negative view of spirituality. Where did you get the idea that spirituality is a denial of life? Did you have some bad role models or what?
To all the unspiritual out there,
Whats the point of setting limits on what's possible? or of limiting how amazing the universe can be?
That is not to say that i am against applying the brake now and then to the human imagination. Its good for us. But when we try to define the limits of the universe to the merely physical or measurable, that just seems too uptight to me.
Who is to say that the life energy that animates us and separates us from other creatures doesn't in fact continue into another phase of existence when we die? What do we know about it really? It seems pretty unique and for all we know, our consciousness could be the rarest most unique thing in all the universe. The life in us could capable of wonders we can't even imagine. It could be so dynamic and energetic that nothing can really put an end to it.
So why then would a different level of existence necessarily be a pipe dream? Isn't it scientifically possible that there are other universes? Isn't it scientifically possible that there was a universe before this one and that there will be another after this one? And what is wrong with equating Heaven with these modern concepts?
What if what we think of as death is really a step into another existence or universe of amazing freedom and possiblity for the life force in us? What if death means that we then enter into the ultimate communion between ourselves and the great life energy that animates the universe. ( Of course, even for us modern Christians, that force would actually still be a conscious and distinct set of Persons. I am not going all New Age here
) What if life as we know it is just some kind of larval stage for us?
I didn't get a chance to say this before, but I believe that Heaven won't just be different in terms of the lack of physical suffering found there. I think all the rules will be different. For instance, time and distance might become irrelevant. We might be able to explore a distant solar system without having to travel there. Or we could be in a crowd and still feel like we were cruising Rt 66 in an old Mustang. Intimacy with a loved one could go beyond sex. We could be high all the time but still be bright and functional. And although we would still have some sort of material existence, Heaven would not end up being some Fantasy Island type place where we would gorge endlessly on all the things we were denied in life. I think Heaven would be beyond the physical as we know it and beyond all present limits but it would be even more satisfying to us than the pleasures of physical existence. There would really be no such thing as insatiable greed or lust because we would be perfectly satisfied in everyway just existing there.
Going even beyond this, I think that all of this would be possible just by hooking up with The Creator after our death and tripping out on what he could teach us about what he knows. He knows everything about everything and through Him we could explore anything we wanted to, even the past. We would have ages in which to learn and experience and we would never run out of things to learn and experience.
Is it so impossible to believe that there could something like this in store for us? Why not have a little fun imagining what a new and improved existence might look like?
As you can probably tell, I've been having a lot of fun imagining the possiblities!
