That slogan seemed so real and glorious, hearing it non-stop throughout my life just became second nature. Well...now 58 years later, after seeing many couples, including my parents (70 years) stay together, almost all really cant stand each other and I know they really dont want to be together for "time and all eternity"! Even my sister who is going through a divorce after 22 years,she just cant stand the guy any more, even though her home is plastered with signs "familys can be eternal", "live, laugh, love", "a gathering place", we wont ever be able to ever conceive the concept of eternity, so why use it? Why even think it?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 07:04PM by dirtbikr.

A green field with one tree in it against the backdrop of a blue sky where a beautiful man and woman in their early 30s (right out of central casting) are kneeling besides two darling young children. Straight, perfect teeth...and as white as their skin. A forever family!

Who would not want that?

The reality?---So now I'm praying for the end of time
To hurry up and arrive
Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
I don't think that I can really survive
I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
But God only knows what I can do right now
I'm praying for the end of time
It's all that I can do
Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time with you!!!

Just another one of the dumb tricks the Mormon Church plays on people.

Wait a minute--mormons aren't supposed to see paradise by the dashboard light! But I'll bet a lot of eternal families got started that way.....

Shiner Bock Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>...
> The reality?---So now I'm praying for the end of
> time
> To hurry up and arrive
> Cause if I gotta spend another minute with you
> I don't think that I can really survive
> I'll never break my promise or forget my vow
> But God only knows what I can do right now
> I'm praying for the end of time
> It's all that I can do
> Praying for the end of time, so I can end my time
> with you!!!
>...

Meatloaf. Just another pretty face.

Half the people I know can't plan their lives past Saturday night yet they are certain they know what they will be doing for eternity. Go figure.

I don't think they have a clue that eternity means no end-no way out. That means there is no reason to do anything since you always have eternity left. Even if you wanted to do a lot of things, there is still eternity after that to fill. It's a sobering thought that devalues everything.

One believer once told me, "Jesus will have plenty of things for us to do so we won't get bored." Poor Jesus having to babysit everyone for ETERNITY. What if HE gets bored?

We're in big trouble of he gets bored...he'll probably make me cook...

stormy

Star Trek: Voyager had an episode called "Death Wish" that explored the theme of immortality in an interesting way. Quinn, who is a member of a race of immortals, the Q, has grown tired of his endless life and wishes to die. He tries to explain to Captain Janeway what immortality is like by putting it into human terms. He creates and takes her to a run down building by a road in a desert town.

"Quinn explains that the road represents the universe, and that it goes around in a large circle before ending up right back at the building. Quinn has travelled the road many, many times and has done everything he can in the building. Played the games, sat on the porch, been the dog and even took the place of the scarecrow once before. When Janeway asks why, he tells her that it was simply because he hadn't done it before."

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Death_Wish

The episode provided me with a lot of food for thought, to the point that I remember it to this day. The Mormon church promises that marriages can last for "time and all eternity," and exacts a heavy price from its members in order to fulfill that dream. Yet I think that the Star Trek writers have given more complex thought as to the potential implications for being an immortal than the church ever has. The Mormon church has taught that exalted members will be able to create and populate their own planets one day. Then the thinking stops abruptly. Why is that? Creating and populating a planet is child's play for the Q; it is the least of their abilities. Where is that level of thinking and imagination among the suits at the COB? Why such a grandiose claim and promise with so little to back it up in terms of intellectual thought? Do they have any idea at all what they are talking about?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 09:09PM by summer.

yeah and think about it this way with mormons they have to keep to alot of extra rules. They cant be the dog or the scarecrow they cant play the games they have to stand in a certain spot for etrnity just watching the dog and the games being played.

And a few other things with eternity. They do alow people to think about being addicted to something for that long but nothing else. Some opf the insanaty mormonisum creates you'd think they'd do something with adicts if they can cure that insanaty.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/07/2011 10:28PM by blindmag.

Strip away all the flowery language and the basic concept is that each person who proves worthy of "Eternal Life" (R) will be cemented into a rigid hierarchy of relationships based on the primacy of primitive patriarchal patrilineage as the core organizational principle, with some exceptions being made for high-ranking priesthood leaders to become bosses over their patriarchal predecessors.

Doesn't it sound like a beautiful paradise?

And for all the blather about the wonderfulness of being "sealed" to one's family, the womenfolk actually get sealed into their husbands' family and become part of that patriarchal line in the hierarchy. Maybe they can go visit their birth family, but they belong to the husband's family.

Why do Mormons think that this would be a good way for heaven to be? It's all about bondage, rather than freedom of association. You lock in the relationships. You seal relationships, so that they remain controlled. Controlled by whom? It's about possession, more than it is about love. Possessing people. Possessing relationships. Legalistically imposing penalties on loved ones (possessed ones?) who want out.

Human society requires a certain amount of stability in relationships and hence a degree of legal and social coercion has been introduced over millenia to maintain family structures. Whether what exists now is better than other alternatives is open to debate.

But in a supposed afterlife heaven? Why would there be a need for institutionalized arrangements like marriage and patriarchal orders and the like? If there is an eternity of consciousness, why should an ad hoc relationship created for a limited purpose in an earthly life constituting nothing more than a blink of an eye in comparison to eternal existence become an eternally permanent arrangement? It would be like being assigned to a lab partner for a frog-dissecting class in the 7th grade and then being told that this person is going to be your only partner for the rest of your life and will sit next to you on busses and on planes, and will share your bed and meals with you, and will sit next to you in all classes in all educational institutions you attend and so on until the end of time.

You may like that person. You may want to see them often and keep touch with them throughout your life. But is there a need to lock down the relationship and make it absolutely exclusive?

I don't think Mormons really even think about what they believe. They're told its nice and good and desirable. But they can't even explain why.

Seems like a logical fallacy to me.

This thing is so good that there must be something wrong with anyone who doesn't want it.

Excellent post. Really summed it up.

I can just imagine being my husband's family...read mother for time and all eternity. Hell, I'm having trouble with the time part. Boy that's not myidea of heaven, not at all. I want to make sure that she never finds me. It sounds deadly and boring and I just want to play golf and ride horses. I don't want my husband to have a dozen wives and I don't want to raise spirit children. Been there done that..

stormy

What I never understood is that you don't really get to keep your family. The girls go off and become some other person's family for time and all eternity, so you only get to keep women married into the family and men who were there the whole time. What kind of BS is that? Its a crap deal. What if you only have daughters, do you only get the whole time with your wife? The logistics of all this is confusing to me.

Also, how do people with dysfunctional families get behind this whole idea? I know so many TBM's who have families that are cruel and still believe. Who would wanna be stuck with them forever?

Also, don't forget that if you get divorced then children under 16 years of age can't be sealed to you later if you decide to return back to church. At 16, children are legally able to make decisions without parental signature. This is because of the family law in the US, that requires the signature of both spouses for any ordinance to be done. When you ask your Bishop about not being able to be sealed to your daughter due to this law, and are anxiety ridden and panicked like hell you will be separated from her. Reminding the bishop that the child later will have no chance of wanting to be sealed because she will grow up for the next 10 years in a non-mormon home....The Bishop then offers no comfort at all, and says it will all be worked out later. If it will all be worked out later, then why the need in the first place?

So the eternal family only works if every member of a family never divorces, and ALL family member walk perfectly upright to a celestial law their entire lives, not ever wavering one bit. For most of us (at least 50%) who have some sort of divorce situation, the family Might be eternal, we just have to wait to know later because it will all be worked out in the end.

Familes being forever makes perfect sense, and I think God will keep our relationships intact. However, logistics of family forever in the "Mormon" perspective make little sense.