This was the title of a leaflet put through my door by those nice J.W. people this afternoon. In a totally non-threatening way, it asks and then answers a series of the Big Questions. Or at least, it tries to answer those questions. Because the authors' thinking is constrained by a biblical narrative, it can only recite those Iron Age writers whose thoughts survive. But still.
One question is "Is there any hope for the Dead". The "answer" includes the words:
"...those resurrected as humans will have the opportunity to live on a paradise earth."
which it later promises is "forever".
Now, forever is a long time: and I thought about whether I would personally welcome this: paradise forever. No stress, no hassle, no pain or death (presumably), no risk, no work etc. Wouldn't we all just get soooo bored?
And if we did get soooo bored, then for amusement we might decide to create a universe to inhabit where none of those things are true. A place where we could experience the delicious frisson of danger, choice, peril, uncertainty, pain and pleasure. In fact, such a universe might look a lot like the one I see around me today. The inhabitants would need to be completely ignorant of the fact that it is a construct, at least for the period of their residence here. And as far as I know, most of us are.
I can, of course, not prove that any of this is true (or untrue), and to be clear, I don't see any point in believing it. It won't be useful to you in making sense of your situation. You might as well believe that this universe is empty of everyone but yourself, that it's all about you. Everything here is for your amusement, and indeed the universe doesn't exist except for your immediate environs.
Another wholly unhelpful thought, but again, not one you can prove or dispprove either way.
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