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According to one writer at the blog outlet called Sic et Non, death may be final.

Thinking of King Henry while lapping up the luxuries of Hampton Court, including dinning stylishly in the Queen's kitchen:

He never conceived of or thought about a hundred thousand things that vastly enrich our world but that we take thoughtlessly for granted. So I wonder what unthinkable things will come when, eventually and to the delight of some of my critics, I’m gone. I can no more imagine those things, probably, than the Tudors could have imagined space travel, GPS navigation, the Beach Boys, personal computers, or stadium lighting. So, in that sense, I won’t “miss” them, any more than Henry VIII missed Wagnerian opera or spaghetti. Still, I’m casually curious.

I'm definitely not criticizing the thought, I have roughly the same thoughts from time to time. The implication of the thought, however, is that there is no life after death. According to the gospel, he won't "miss" the future because he'll have front row seats to watch the future unfold from the spirit world, and if that isn't enough, when the earth is celestialized into a sea of glass, or a planetary urim and thummim, he won't even need to catch a plane, just peer down beneath his feat and watch the entire history of countless worlds unfold in "real time" since there is no such thing as time.

So there you go, no mystery, nothing to pine about; every question answered immediately and nothing to look forward to. He can literally "be right there" at the Nuremberg Opera House and enjoy Wagnerian opera as it happened -- or is happening, over and over again.

He'll get to watch the future and everything in it from a better vantage point than his grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are living it.

You could argue that, well, he doesn't know now, and so the mystery now is still very real. But that isn't the real belief underneath the thoughts, because as time passes and we age, we have more thoughts like this. If we really believe in an afterlife, then we'd have fewer such thoughts as we age because we know the answers are just around the corner.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 17, 2023 5:16 pm

If we really believe in an afterlife, then we'd have fewer such thoughts as we age because we know the answers are just around the corner.

If I were as smart as DCP, I would be hedging my bets with faith other than Mormonism. Take Pascal's wager seriously. Start believing in Christ above all else, move away from small sects like Mormonism and Seventh Day Adventism because those are more likely than not a danger to your eternal soul that Christ warned against.

Go with the crowd, and pick Roman Catholicism. If Jesus set up a church where 1 billion people are wrong, he is not a God worth worshiping.

"The Dean" wrote:So there you go, no mystery, nothing to pine about; every question answered immediately and nothing to look forward to. He can literally "be right there" at the Nuremberg Opera House and enjoy Wagnerian opera as it happened -- or is happening, over and over again.

He'll get to watch the future and everything in it from a better vantage point than his grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are living it.

You could argue that, well, he doesn't know now, and so the mystery now is still very real. But that isn't the real belief underneath the thoughts, because as time passes and we age, we have more thoughts like this. If we really believe in an afterlife, then we'd have fewer such thoughts as we age because we know the answers are just around the corner.

Lately, the proprietor has been making several similar posts. Maybe the proprietor is becoming more introspective and starting to not doubt his doubts as he gets closer to shedding his mortal coil. The proprietor does seem preoccupied with thoughts of death lately.

Gadianton wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 17, 2023 5:16 pm

According to one writer at the blog outlet called Sic et Non, death may be final.

Thinking of King Henry while lapping up the luxuries of Hampton Court, including dinning stylishly in the Queen's kitchen:

He never conceived of or thought about a hundred thousand things that vastly enrich our world but that we take thoughtlessly for granted. So I wonder what unthinkable things will come when, eventually and to the delight of some of my critics, I’m gone. I can no more imagine those things, probably, than the Tudors could have imagined space travel, GPS navigation, the Beach Boys, personal computers, or stadium lighting. So, in that sense, I won’t “miss” them, any more than Henry VIII missed Wagnerian opera or spaghetti. Still, I’m casually curious.

I'm definitely not criticizing the thought, I have roughly the same thoughts from time to time. The implication of the thought, however, is that there is no life after death. According to the gospel, he won't "miss" the future because he'll have front row seats to watch the future unfold from the spirit world, and if that isn't enough, when the earth is celestialized into a sea of glass, or a planetary urim and thummim, he won't even need to catch a plane, just peer down beneath his feat and watch the entire history of countless worlds unfold in "real time" since there is no such thing as time.

Gadianton, I feel quite sure that time is a real thing but I am not sure if that is the reason why I read your quote differently. I hear it in the present tense, while living he does not know what he is missing that the future holds. But I am able to hear a subtext like you hear. I find sometimes that getting older with death becoming more real allows a sneak appearance of a suspicion that the images of life after death are fantasies. One might note real difficulties in picturing them as real. If there is life after death I know very little about it.

Why does the Mormon church have to be the religion of seer stones?

Joseph used seer stones to “find” treasure, translate the Book of Mormon and get revelation. According to Mormonism we will all be given a personal seer stone if we are righteous. And, the fate of the Earth is to eventually become one big giant seer stone.

Is there any other religion or belief system so obsessed with seer stones?

Everybody Wang Chung wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 18, 2023 7:20 pm

Why does the Mormon church have to be the religion of seer stones?

Joseph used seer stones to “find” treasure, translate the Book of Mormon and get revelation. According to Mormonism we will all be given a personal seer stone if we are righteous. And, the fate of the Earth is to eventually become one big giant seer stone.

Is there any other religion or belief system so obsessed with seer stones?

If Joseph had been born in the 20th century it would have been an Ouiji board instead of a stone.