Ok, heres a thought for you.
Whilst out shopping in my nearest city some Christians were preaching and I thought it would only be right of me to stop and listen.
I only planned to stay for a minute but a woman caught my attention.
She was asked - 'So what is eternity?'
I didnt think she would be able to answer the boy that asked her but she did.
She said - 'Imagine a Dove of Peace. The dove picks just one grain of sand from a beach and takes it to Mars. It takes the dove 4 hours to get there and 4 hours to get back. It is an 8 hour journey and the bird does that until every grain of sand is gone from earth. That is eternity and it goes on forever.
I thought this was a very interesting way to view eternity until I realised that the bird would eventually run out of sand and therefore that cannot be eternity.
Eternity = Infinite time, time that never runs out.
I thought this was interesting and something that should be shared.
It would be nice to believe that this is actually what eternity is, but it obviously isnt.
Can any of you please tell me what you consider eternity to be as I am determined to try and get a clearer picture.:confused:

Have you read one of tiassa's or Boris' posts? Just kidding...[snicker]

The reference the woman makes to the bird was presented in James Joyce's Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. As I'm killing the next three minutes until I have to leave for work, I'm unable to produce my copy of it now. I'll post the Joyce reference of what is essentially a gruesome and more effective version.

I cannot speak for this idea prior to James Joyce.

thanx,
Tiassa :cool:

Sure...and HERE you choose to economize.

I thnk eternity is something that can not be comprehended by the human mind. It is best just to live it day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day by day...

Well, you get the picture :)

I heard this illustration of Eternity:

Imagine a huge planet made of steel, floating in space. Every one trillion years a mosquito would slowly come fluttering by and just barely flick the planet with its wing, and fly away. When a trillion more years go by, the mosquito comes again and flicks the steel, untill eventually the mosquito has rubbed the planet away.

I heard this illustration of Eternity:

Imagine a huge planet made of steel, floating in space. Every one trillion years a mosquito would slowly come fluttering by and just barely flick the planet with its wing, and fly away. When a trillion more years go by, the mosquito comes again and flicks the steel, untill eventually the mosquito has rubbed the planet away.

Eternity: timeless, infinitude, unending.....

Basically, the word refers to the concept of being "outside" of time. Think anticipating the thing you most want, it's almost within reach, but you're not quite there yet.

This is a difficult concept to wrestle with, considering how frail and brief our human existence is.
In my opinion, the term is useless; given that we are by our very nature temporal beings, and that without a finite concept of time we would be hard pressed to be able to function, it seems to me that the concept is nothing but another fantasy ideal that we create to metaphysically entertain ourselves.
The best way to research this concept would be to read some Romantic period poetry. Ahh how the mind fabricates when disturbed by opiates!

You could always use the simple math version. Start at one and double it, then double the answer, double that, double, double, x2,x2,x2,x2 etc. Keep doing this until the day you die and, congratulations! You've reached eternity! Ba-dum-bum.

Or you could use the even simpler J.O. version and attain eternity a lot sooner ... and with a smile on your face.

Chagur

Sorry, Hypnogog, I think it was the 'Ba-dum-bum' that did it. Welcome to the madness.

Just as someone mentioned earlier, itīs a concept outside of time. Time is just another illusion made for our convenience sake, but is in reality multidimensional. All there is is now, and now lasts forever.Everything that has happened, that will happen, happens right now. There is no time, so therefore eternity is real and happening.... :D

Time is how we may sense out of our lifespans. We can not say today, our pet dog died (which was 5 years ago), our car got wrecked (which was last week), and we won the lotttery (which is next year). To do so doesn't make sense. There has to be some kind of structure to it or it winds up to be gibberish to the listener.

That is the purpose of the illusion of time. :p

Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that i of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

One thing is for sure, eternity is the habitation of God. For this biblical declaration resulted the following:

1. eternal God
2. eternal excellency
3. eternal life
4. eternal damnation
5. eternal power and Godhead
6. eternal weight of glory
7. eternal things
8. eternal house
9. eternal purpose
10. eternal King
11. eternal salvation
12. eternal judgment
13. eternal redemption
14. eternal Spirit
15. eternal inheritance
16. eternal fire

;)

Nothingness.

eternity is life without any hope of events in the future. the stereotype of a bored and unadventurous office coworker could qualify as one who lives in eternity. nothing to live fore except death itself, an by ignoring that, has absolutely nothing he's willing to shoot for.

By that definition, eternity is a state of mind, which can be altered by will. The coworker may decide to take up windsurfing, look stupid on a board at first, later enjoy it, group up with fellow surfers, tour the world, find out he loves the australian coastline, etc. etc.

Eternity is Now.....but of course the minute you attach the words "past", "present" and "future" to it, it's no longer Eternity.

A void.

Eternity is a concept used by the religious to try to scare the rest of us into being good. If you kill someone who's done you wrong and you spend the rest of your life in prison, at least it will eventually be over. If you get the death penalty it will be over even sooner. But if you can be convinced to believe in an "eternal" afterlife, an infinite existence with no end in which you'll be punished mercilessly by Satan if you've been bad, then that punishment (presumably) becomes quite a bit more scary to contemplate and we'll think twice before risking it. Unfortunately it doesn't really seem to affect people that way. For one thing, every time they poll people in these supposedly religious times, the vast majority of Americans believe in Heaven, but only about 25 percent believe in Hell.

A shame that Tiassa isn't around these days. I'd like to see the reference he promised to give.

Fucking liar.

Anyway.
The little stories people are gving about mosquitos and doves and counting are all pretty damn dumb.
If one takes eternity to mean forever then none of these spans of time would come close. All those spans of time would qualify as "very long time" but not eternity.

However, an interesting concept that eternity is actually outside of time. Like the wormhole aliens in Deep Space Nine.


Anyway.

The beginning of eternity.
The end of time and space.
The beginning of every end.
The end of every place.

Imagine a huge planet made of steel, floating in space. Every one trillion years a mosquito would slowly come fluttering by and just barely flick the planet with its wing, and fly away. When a trillion more years go by, the mosquito comes again and flicks the steel, untill eventually the mosquito has rubbed the planet away.

That sounds like a modernized version of an old Hindu quote that I love, and think illustrates it nicely...

"There is a granite mountain so high that a raven can barely fly over it without touching it. In its beak, the raven has a scarf. Once every thousand years, it flies over the mountain, the very tips of the fringes rubbing against the granite. When the entire mountain has been ground into dust, that is one moment in eternity."

However, an interesting concept that eternity is actually outside of time. Like the wormhole aliens in Deep Space Nine.


Anyway.

The beginning of eternity.
The end of time and space.
The beginning of every end.
The end of every place.

Consider this....we're already in eternity cause all "Time" is, is the measuring standard of someone's invention.....the clock.