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Post by gadreel on Dec 7, 2021 17:51:15 GMT
Do I think they understood the concept of infinity? Hm I think I am missing your point. I think today we confuse the modern concept infinity with the ancients’ concept of eternity, but they exist side by side in our culture. How would the absence of infinity affected their concept of death? I have never really thought too hard about that, so we are talking here about them thinking the afterlife is eternal rather than infinite. The core difference being infinite can be forever, but eternal being always. (Just making sure we are on the same page). So if the afterlife is eternal, then that could be interpreted as that is where you started and where you will return, im not really sure how that jibes with mainstream belief, I can tell you that it works quite well with the concept of God that created the universe as an expansion and intends that eventually all things will join with it again, which is not an uncommon belief in 'esoteric' Christianity. I would be interested in your thoughts.
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Post by rachelcarson1953 on Dec 21, 2021 18:37:40 GMT
I have never really thought too hard about that, so we are talking here about them thinking the afterlife is eternal rather than infinite. The core difference being infinite can be forever, but eternal being always. (Just making sure we are on the same page). So if the afterlife is eternal, then that could be interpreted as that is where you started and where you will return, im not really sure how that jibes with mainstream belief, I can tell you that it works quite well with the concept of God that created the universe as an expansion and intends that eventually all things will join with it again, which is not an uncommon belief in 'esoteric' Christianity. I would be interested in your thoughts. First, it maybe a popular belief for the individual soul to exist prior to conception, but the actual dogmatic teaching is the soul is created at conception.* There is no existence in eternity before that, only God exists in eternity before creation. The Big Bang expanding universe and life’s evolution seems to mirror the Genesis’ “In the Beginning” stories, but looking at the ancients Hebrews’ cosmology, their universe isn’t expanding but fixed. God and Satan lived in a specific places and could not be conceived as not being as concrete as the dirt under their feet. Esoteric Christianity had the advantage of not be limited to the Bible as the only source of their spirituality, so a lot of old Greek philosophy mixed with pagan mysticism got applied to Christianity to fill in any necessary holes a culture needs to form their cosmologies. Like believing in an eternal soul in a paradise or hell when that is not in the Old Testament. To this day, there is no clear teaching on an afterlife in Judaism. So, the religion Christianity is founded upon had no concept of eternity, at least not for soul. (*And this one of the reasons the church puts such a premium on sexual intercourse as sacred act that mirrors God’s birthing of the cosmos and ideally should only be done to procreate children. To use it for pleasure only is lust. Therefore any impediments to that end are seen as grave sin. No birth control including pulling out is allowed. Sperm must be given the chance to meet egg.) Hmmm, so where does the concept of the 'Guf' come from, where souls wait until a baby is born, then they fly down in the form of a bird?
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