Modulous the Pretend Pirate wearing a shirt too large for his neck:
quote:
I'm not asking for answers about the future. I'm asking if it is possible to construct a hypothetical eternal life which escapes the dilemma, or for any reason why the dilemma is a false one. Whether or not that hypothetical eternal life is going to come to pass in not a question I think we need worry about in this thread.
1. The "dilemma" you so superficially constructed is a strawman. It is as absurd as you look wearing your little pirate's hat. If anyone you know presented you with a photograph of you at your high school graduation ceremony, and asked if that was you, you would of course answer in the affirmative. And yet in your opening line, you claim otherwise. You're "different" and the old you is gone. I have only heard such nonsense prattled from the godless left, speaking of which,
2. Your first two words, Mister Pirate, are "Dear God." So clearly you are not addressing anyone who posts on this forum. Moreover, since you are a militant atheist, you are also self-contradictory, writing to the "supernatural" being you have denied countless times.
How unscholarly of you.
3. Many of us cherish what we have learned in growing up. You, not so much. You don't like learning because it changes you into someone entirely different. But you don't like to remain who you are because that's so very boring. Evidently playing Mister Pirate is more to your liking.
When you father and raise your own children, you will learn things that will delight you, and others that will alarm or shock you. Think of it as a process, rather like evolution. Now godless leftists swear allegiance to evolution, and all its wonderful properties. Why you should absolutely reject evolution in your own personal life is really something you need to explain, rather than denounce as completely unacceptable.
4. The pretense that your bizarre creation of a "dilemma" applies to everyone else is something else you need to explain. For Stephen Hawking, who has been confined to a wheelchair for most of his life, one might think that he would welcome the transition to a new status where he could spend a good deal more time enjoying himself than he has spent here on earth.
Atheists may argue that it is eminently "fair" for the injustices here on earth to end in oblivion and darkness, but I'm sure most people think of a day of reckoning presents a cosmic justice that would be satisfying and enlightening. Imagine those whose most precious loved ones were taken away from them by monsters who were never caught and brought to justice here on earth.
Either
A. They will die and escape punishment forever, according to pirates like you, or else
B. They will face their Maker, who will dispense perfect justice the likes of which we cannot imagine, but with which everyone will agree. What does this mean? Well, a hint of perfect justice was shown when God commanded Abraham to slay his son, his only son. Abraham did not question this, but began to do as he was ordered. When God saw this, he held back Abraham from the deed.
Second example. Two women claimed the same baby and brought their case to Solomon, the wisest man ever to live. Solomon held the child by one foot and pretended he was about to cut it in half and give half to each woman. The real mother begged him to spare her child, and in so doing, proved her love and her true motherhood. Solomon awarded her the child he had proven to be her own.
Pretend pirates can of course find fault with both of these, because pretend pirates think themselves wiser than God, more clever than God, able to configure petty challenges that God could not possibly defeat.
But pretend pirates are only playing petty games. Reality is something very, very different than pretend piracy.
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