Mainstream Christianity (although, presumably, not what Jesus actually said and did!) has apparently always embodied a fundamental, metaphysical, incoherence - whereby it has tried to assert two incompatible world-views and life-aspirations.
(I assume - but cannot "prove" - that this arose as a consequence of early theologians being unwilling to give-up their Judaic assumptions and/or the Classically-derived Greek and Roman philosophy - especially Neo-Platonism; and instead fitting the simple reality of Christianity into one, the other, or both of these pre-existing moulds - thereby creating the unclarity, paradoxes and "mysteries" which have existed since.)
Entropy - leading to our death and the death of every person and thing that we know - is an unavoidable experience and fact of life; unavoidable so long as we are aware, purposive, and/or take memory seriously.
People have therefore dealt with entropy, tried to remove it from experience and/or from reality, by several tactics and strategies.
One is the goal of living in a perpetual present. If Time is cut down to a present-moment in which (so far as we can tell) nothing happens; then we have apparently deleted Time. If there is no Time, there is no entropy, and no death...
The idea in practice may become manifested as life being cut-up into a sequence of disconnected "now"s; each without relation to what went before.
To some extent, this can be seen in popular mainstream culture, and its extreme un-interest in looking at trends, or "joining the dots" between facts or experiences. "That was then, this is now"... so why bother about it? Concern about the past or future is a "downer". If I feel OK now, then that's all that matters...
In effect: if I can say "I see no entropy now" (i.e. there is no change, no degeneration, no death) in the time-slice that is the present moment under consideration; then (it is inferred) entropy can be denied or ignored.
This "works" insofar as analysis is restricted to this present moment.
Ultimately, this aspires to delete Time - or, if not possible, to delete any perception of Time.
Thus life aspires to a state of stasis - preferably blissful stasis.
The aim is contemplative, not creative.
Thus the ideal state is to "stop" or escape Time, and therefore (necessarily) to "stop" creation - more exactly, to stop creating.
(God's creation is seen from this perspective as done and finished, completed once and for always, total and complete - a creation to which nothing can be added.)
The above analysis and purpose seems to be converged-upon by a wide range of religions and spiritualties; I think because it arises from commonly shared assumptions and practices - from a particular way of dealing-with, of escaping-from, the problem of entropy.
The attitude aimed-at is indifference, detachment, not-feeling, not-caring; the desire is to become unaware of entropy and its consequence.
The attitude aimed at is acceptance: don't compare, don't remember, don't plan...
Accept whatever happens. Maybe it is all regarded as "good"... But however regarded What Is, Just Is, and should be accepted.
(Our misery is interpreted as a consequence of failing to accept.)
But (by my understanding) what Jesus said was aimed-at those of us who choose creation as our primary goal, not contemplation.
Those of us who choose love as our fundamental value, rather than indifference.
Jesus dealt with entropy by accepting its inevitability in this mortal life; and offering the elimination of entropy ("life everlasting") in resurrected heavenly life - after death.
The need for resurrection derives from the inevitability of entropy in this mortal world. From the fact that this mortal world cannot be "redeemed".
Entropy is a part of this mortal reality - therefore there cannot be a heaven in this life or on this earth - which is why the Heaven of Jesus is in the resurrected life and in Heaven.
Jesus's teaching is linear, sequential, includes time, includes change, entails freedom and the capacity for love - and from this it promises to eliminated death - which concept included sin and corruption.
In the Heaven made possible by Jesus; there will be love, creation, and change - but there will not be sin, corruption or death.
Resurrection is a voluntary remaking: we desire and allow ourselves to be remade without entropy, and without sin by following Jesus - and that is the only way it can happen.
Implicitly; Jesus dealt with entropy by love; and love is a choice - love entails freedom.
Jesus embraced creation rather than contemplation, and invited Men to join with the work of creation (to become Sons of God).
This is why Heaven is necessarily opt-in - because people cannot be made to love, nor to create - these come from freedom, not coercion. And this is why those who do not (from their freedom) opt-in, are thereby (self-) excluded.
And those self-identified Christians who aspire to a Heaven that is without Time, that contemplative not creative, is changeless, is experienced as a constant present...
Well, such people are wanting something different from what Jesus actually offered.
2 comments:
I have experienced the "weight". It goes along with a sense of "time is running out" (for both me and the World).
One of the most infuriating things is when I bother to have a serious discussion with someone who has "bought in" (is an adherent of TPTB), they eventually inevitably tell me (smugly) that "it's always been like this" as if I were some bumpkin just learning how the world really works.
This post brought to mind a quote from the brilliant and bughouse Lyndon LaRouche which I really like:
“Nothing is permanent but change subsumed by continuing negentropic action"
Here's the link. It's great over-the-top tour de force operatic stuff:
https://archive.schillerinstitute.com/fid_91-96/941_lar_discovery.html?utm_source=perplexity
What he's talking about is self-aware creative participation in the historical process of genius. It has similarities to your ideas (I think).
@S - I've written a little about the concept of negentropy - https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/search?q=negentropy. I regard it as a halfway house, double-negatively expressed (but a partial truth in which people can get stuck their whole lives! - because it is a superior insight to normal views) - situated part-way between the mainstream understanding of reality as driven by energy, and the understanding that we inhabit a divine creation.
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