How Would You Choose To Spend Eternity?
[Read this with your best Rod Serling Twilight Zone voice. If you're too young to remember Twilight Zone or know who Rod Serling is, then fake it by lowering your voice to sound like a broadcaster calling a golf tournament, then put a slight edge of urgency on it, and hope for the best...]
You find yourself swirling and tumbling through life, pulled this way and that, not knowing what lies around the next corner or when your number might be called. You meet an intriguing, wise old man who captures your attention. He offers a proposition and you are convinced that he has the powers to fulfill your wish. The choice is yours and yours alone, and you realize that your future, in fact your very existence, depends on the choice you must make. The intriguing, wise old man’s name is Orquq Blue-34 Jones, but he says you may just call him Blue. After exchanging pleasantries, Blue offers you the following options for spending eternity, starting immediately:
A. As an immortal physical being, immune to disease, aging, pain, and physical harm, capable of superhuman physical feats but unable to grow intellectually or emotionally from where you are now.
B. As pure intellect, not bounded by a physical body or constrained by the physical universe, but capable of knowing all and solving all problems and questions, and unable to feel or emote.
C. Live out your life as it is, to whatever end you are destined, enjoying and suffering through the human experience, then die and that’s the end. In other words, no existence beyond this one.
D. Same as C: except at death you move to a new realm, call it heaven or hell, that your present belief system embraces. You will not know in advance whether you qualify for heaven … or eternal hell.
Think about these choices very carefully. Take your time. Choose deliberately, and choose only one. Do not let your choice be governed by your religious views and your belief or non-belief in a life hereafter. Think and choose with your head, not your heart.
21 Comments so far
I think I would opt for a little of all of them..but if I had my druthers..I’d druther not die at all…and if you hear that I died?..know one thing..’she’s pissed’…
That is an easy question to answer.
A. Imagine living forever but never making any progress Would you like to be four years old forever? Not on your life.
B. Imagine being an intelligent entity who knows everything but can do nothing. Not on your life.
D. Who wants to live their life on this earth with the hopes of going to heaven when they die. All your efforts here are spent “selling” yourself for that big promotion at the end. Nobody really KNOWS that there is a heaven or hell anyway. Not on your life.
C. Leading a good life for 80 years with new experiences and achievements every day seems like the best option to me. Spend more time doing good things in this life and making your world, country, and community a better place for all. Don’t worry about heaven or hell, concentrate on this life.
Got any hard questions?
Respectfully,
2M
C. …… all day long and twice on Sundays…. just let me live my life……
D. I want to see the next realm..whatever it is, and it may be neither heaven nor hell. Why limit myself to this one life….there may be others.
D. is what I believe we most of us expect now. Live our life, do it the best we can, but no one can know for certain what is on the other side. I want to feel. I want to have the full life experience, body and soul, but if there is more over there, I want to experience that also and don’t fear what it’ll be.
D for me… except I don’t believe in heaven or hell.
I want a good life here and hope to be even better in the next existence. And the next.
OK, let’s look at this logically.
How is the world better off?
1. A person works hard to sell himself to God and promises to be everything that God wants and concerns himself more with how he is going to achieve the after life in a heaven of bliss.
Or 2. The person who tries to make life better in his life and his children’s lives. A person who tries to help others in this world instead of being selfish about his own life. (and his after life).
Just wondering…….
There are many Southern Baptists who are convinced that they are going to heaven even though they practice a life of hypocrisy.
D. D. D.
Twomartini — About your option #2: “The person who tries to make life better in his life and his children’s lives. A person who tries to help others in this world instead of being selfish about his own life,” I believe is doing exactly what God wants. It might be what you want to do, but it is indeed what God wants you to do. About option #1: No one can sell themselves to God. He knows if you are living a true life or not. Empty promises don’t work with the big guy. So, with all due respect, in my opinion your logic is flawed. And I’ll still live the best way I can and take Winston’s option D.
Soo…….. Winston… What is the correct answer? And why?
I’m already in the hereafter stage — half the time I’m wondering what I’m here after. Sigh
Well…… no absolute answer yet.
I’ll ask a harder question:
You and I have some apples.
If I give you one of my apples we each have the same number of apples.
But if you give me one of your apples I have twice as many as you have.
How many total apples do we have?
Thanks to all who really thought about this and gave an honest answer. Of course, there is no “correct” answer. Interestingly all responses were for C or D. Two males chose C - just live this life and be done with it, while four females preferred D - live this life followed by the hereafter, whatever that is. Choices A and B were ignored completely. While admittedly a small sampling, it never occurred to me that there might be a gender split.
I just can’t get into this.
Que sera, sera.
Sorry I’m late for the tallying, but I would have picked C. And I’m female.
Wow…thank goodness you didn’t ask a hard question! LOL I have to say…I’m wanting to pick a bit from both C and D. I don’t believe in a traditional version of heaven or hell…so the split is sort of logical with my currently held beliefs.
Sorry I missed the talley on this, but I’d pick “D” — whether or not there’s a heaven or hell. Sounds a lot like the life dimension in which I live now. Like your description of Serling’s voice.
Oh, undoubtedly I would choose D. At first, I thought B sounded nice, until I read the part about no feelings or emotions.
Thanks for the visit, Winston. I’m going to hang around here a while, if you don’t mind.
Sorry - I came late. But I would choose C.
And that probably fuzzies up the gender split - slightly.
I’m a “D” girl myself….but there were some pretty cool aspects to “A” that kept tugging at me. Come on, let’s be honest….who wouldn’t like to be an immortal physical being, immune to disease, aging, pain, and physical harm, capable of superhuman physical feats? Sounds pretty cool to me.
Shit…. guess my response was removed. Don’t know why. Guess I was bad.
I’m only now getting to my reading, but I’m adding my answer to the list … “D” I want my life as it is/will be all the way to the end, but I live this life with greater peace and pleasure by enjoying the hope and anticipation of another, “better” life to come.
Happy Holidays to you, Winston! -mg