This question reminds me of a quote from John Taylor Gatto in Underground History of American Education:
"The only thing that gives our time on earth any deep significance is that none of this will last. If you were indestructible, what a curse! How could it possibly matter whether you did anything today or next year or in the next hundred years, learned anything, loved anybody? There would always be time for anything and everything."
I just finished teaching Pascal to my students this week. You might like Penees if you haven't read it. Also, Aquinas is generally very good on the problem of evil. For that matter, Lewis' Problem of Pain is also very good but very Protestant.
I do find your question of angels interesting. Although by that standard, permanent salvation is incompatible with free will period, which applies to us as well. However, Christ tells us that isn't true: it is appointed once for man to live and then the judgement. So more likely, our knowledge of angels and Heaven and eternity is so limited that attempting logical deduction based on it is flawed. One of my students put it best when we were covering cosmological arguments: eternity is kind of like infinity -- we talk about it like we know what it means, but we really don't have a clue.
My understanding of angels is that since they are bodiless creatures, they don't experience change, per se. So once they made their decision, they will never change course. Thus, why demons can't choose to repent any more than your guardian angel can choose to fall. Perhaps the reason why Jesus said that the Devil was "a murderer from the beginning", which to me implies that it was a decision he made the moment of his creation (so to speak).
As for evil entering the world, I'm leaning towards the idea that "Satan's Rebellion" happens during the Fall, where he finally acted on his initial decision by tempting Eve (and Adam) to eat the fruit. Perhaps not as glamorous as the "War in Heaven" idea, but it's the one that makes the most sense imo.
I want to be biologically immortal not because I think I will avoid dying horribly, but because I would rather not age. I am fine with dying in a spaceship explosion in the year 3056 after living for more than a thousand years in the body of a virile twenty-something.
If the 'immortality' is being a geriatric for centuries I would rather just die. After all, as a Christian I have no fear of death, and even painful, horrible death is a finite experience. I want to live longer because I want to bear witness to the passage of history, and see if I can guide my descendants towards the path of wisdom right up until the glory of the Second Coming. And if I die protecting my progeny in an annihilation beam fight in the 27th century, well, isn't that a glorious way to go?
This question reminds me of a quote from John Taylor Gatto in Underground History of American Education:
"The only thing that gives our time on earth any deep significance is that none of this will last. If you were indestructible, what a curse! How could it possibly matter whether you did anything today or next year or in the next hundred years, learned anything, loved anybody? There would always be time for anything and everything."
I just finished teaching Pascal to my students this week. You might like Penees if you haven't read it. Also, Aquinas is generally very good on the problem of evil. For that matter, Lewis' Problem of Pain is also very good but very Protestant.
I do find your question of angels interesting. Although by that standard, permanent salvation is incompatible with free will period, which applies to us as well. However, Christ tells us that isn't true: it is appointed once for man to live and then the judgement. So more likely, our knowledge of angels and Heaven and eternity is so limited that attempting logical deduction based on it is flawed. One of my students put it best when we were covering cosmological arguments: eternity is kind of like infinity -- we talk about it like we know what it means, but we really don't have a clue.
My understanding of angels is that since they are bodiless creatures, they don't experience change, per se. So once they made their decision, they will never change course. Thus, why demons can't choose to repent any more than your guardian angel can choose to fall. Perhaps the reason why Jesus said that the Devil was "a murderer from the beginning", which to me implies that it was a decision he made the moment of his creation (so to speak).
As for evil entering the world, I'm leaning towards the idea that "Satan's Rebellion" happens during the Fall, where he finally acted on his initial decision by tempting Eve (and Adam) to eat the fruit. Perhaps not as glamorous as the "War in Heaven" idea, but it's the one that makes the most sense imo.
You have forgotten the fact that I am built different. And therefore won't die in a car/plane/etc crash.
I want to be biologically immortal not because I think I will avoid dying horribly, but because I would rather not age. I am fine with dying in a spaceship explosion in the year 3056 after living for more than a thousand years in the body of a virile twenty-something.
If the 'immortality' is being a geriatric for centuries I would rather just die. After all, as a Christian I have no fear of death, and even painful, horrible death is a finite experience. I want to live longer because I want to bear witness to the passage of history, and see if I can guide my descendants towards the path of wisdom right up until the glory of the Second Coming. And if I die protecting my progeny in an annihilation beam fight in the 27th century, well, isn't that a glorious way to go?