Contemplating Eternity

I’m going to begin this article by first asking a few questions.

Eternity, what is it?

What is your understanding of it?

Is it a concept or a construct?

Is it a place of imagination or reality?

Can we go there, or will we end up there?

Do we have to die first?

How do we exist in it?

If we can get there and exist in it, how will we see each other?

I am sure you can think of many more questions, but these few will keep us going for a while.

What can we base the idea eternity upon, because we have nothing to compare it with. Our own perceptions cannot really identify or describe it, because it simply does not have substance as we understand it.

As far as we know, it exists in another dimension where there is no time, and all of space lies within it. It does not function according to the known laws of the universe. How then can we describe a place we have never seen or been to? There’s another question.

If I was going on holiday for instance, particularly to a place I’ve never been to before, I can surmise at least about the weather and compare certain things to my previous experiences abroad. I know what it’s like to travel on an aircraft and leave the aircraft on a hot or humid day. My memories and the holiday pickies will help me put the pieces together to create perceived scenarios. I might not have the same experiences but I may well have similar ones.

But how do we build a scenario when the pieces are not there and how can I perceive a place that has no counterpart in my material world?

If I were to dive into the world of virtual reality, even that which presents itself in all its sensory overload cannot give me something tangible. I’m just in a hyper make-believe-super-enhanced world that stimulates my cognitive senses. The palette for eternity just does not exist.