In an email message, JKC quoted some technical articles on Cryonics, and concluded: So if a neuron shrinks or grows in volume during freezing that shouldn't be something it hasn't seen before, and even if a shard of ice does punch a meaningless hole in the net it should be obvious to a intelligent nano-machine that the hole was just caused by ice and not by synaptic behavior because the ice would still be sticking through it.
I wrote: JC, I can see that you are concerned about the outcome of Cryonics program you've signed up your brain for. Someone or something set in motion a process which brought you into existence in this life - trust the same to repeat the process and bring you back into existence.
I wrote: JC, I can see that you are concerned about the outcome of Cryonics program you've signed up your brain for. Someone or something set in motion a process which brought you into existence in this life - trust the same to repeat the process and bring you back into existence.
I urge you to worry more about the quality of that life!
We believe that the quality of that life depends on the beliefs and actions in this life. Do take the time to study the Quran or Torah or start with any scripture you feel more comfortable with.
This link may be a good place to start: http://searchtruth.com/list.php
JKC asked: Actions I can understand but why beliefs? Why on earth would an omniscient being consider holding an unshakable belief even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence to be a virtue and not a vice? Give me a good answer to that question and I promise I will start reading the Quran, although I'll have to learn Arabic first.
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Answer: Actions carry weight only if they are based upon the correct beliefs.
As I understand it, in this world we have been sent to be tested if we can be entrusted with the inheritance of the Gardens of Eternity. This is because The Human volunteered for The Trust.
The Quran uses the Arabic term for inheritance for the Gardens promised to the righteous Believers who do Good Deeds. Inheritance implies that we will not be guests but rather owners of those gardens. I think this means we shall have a much larger role and be entrusted with the land we inherit!
The inheritance will vary in accordance with the faith and actions of each individual, as indicated in the size of the gardens mentioned in Quran 57:21 and Quran 3:133, and as stated in Quran 8:4. For those who believe and seek forgiveness for their sins, God will grace them with a garden as extensive as heaven [singular] and the earth, while those who also keep their duty to God, the pious, the reward will be greater: as extensive as the heavens [plural] and the earth. The believers will have exalted grades/grades of dignity, forgiveness and honourable sustenance.
[Note: The term arabic term translated as heaven implies sky and not paradise; the Quran uses the terms Garden and Fire for the perpetual abode of the Hereafter. Personally, I imagine them with the concept of planets and stars]
The last few verses of Quran Chapter 18 inform us:
Quran 18:103-108 Say: "Shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds?- "Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works?" They are those who deny the Signs of their Lord and the fact of their having to meet Him (in the Hereafter): vain will be their works, nor shall We, on the Day of Judgment, give them any weight. That is their reward, Hell, because they rejected Faith, and took My Signs and My Messengers by way of jest. As to those who believe and work righteous deeds, they have, for their entertainment, the Gardens of Paradise, Wherein they shall dwell (for aye): no change will they wish for from them.
See if some of my blogposts are of any help:
JKC responded:
> Actions carry weight only if they are based upon the correct beliefs.
I don't think so. If you hit me in the head with a heavy ax that action carries weight regardless of what beliefs were or were not dancing around in your head when you did it. If somebody does the wrong thing for the right reason it's still the wrong thing, and the right thing for the wrong reason is still the right thing.
> As I understand it, in this world we have been sent to be tested
But why do religious people insist God devised it as is it as a stupidity test rather than a IQ test?
> as stated in Quran 8:4. For those who believe and seek forgiveness for their sins, God will grace them with a garden as extensive as heaven
So says the Quran, and you believe it's true for the same reason anybody believes what the Quran (or the Bible) says is true, because their Mommy and Daddy told them it's true. It's no deeper than that. That's why there aren't many Baptists in Pakistan but lots of them in Mississippi. If you tell me where somebody was born I can have a pretty good idea what their religious beliefs are. Your deepest held beliefs are a function of Geography.
So it's easy to understand why a human could gain power by pushing the idea that believing in stuff he can't prove is a good idea, but you still haven't answered the question I asked in my last post. Why on earth would an omniscient being consider holding an unshakable belief in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence to be a virtue and not a vice?
Answer:
Actions and their Weight:
There is the outcome of actions and there is the recompense for the actions. According to my faith, the outcome is already preordained, while the choice to choose why and whether to choose to act or not is left to us. Eventually we end up doing whatever has already been preordained, and the program of this world proceeds as planned. Thus, the weight of the actions depends on the choices we make and the intentions and reasons behind them. Faith plays a major role in the evaluation of the choice.
Evidence (or the lack of it) for An Omniscient Being:
There is no evidence for either atheism or polytheism. The only deduction all humans can make from our daily experiences is that there is always someone who makes something, i.e. nothing comes from nothing. The other deduction that we can make from human interactions is that whenever there are more than one claimants to power, there eventually is a power struggle, with either one person dominating the rest, or whatever they were fighting over gets destroyed. Thus, logically, there can only be one God.
Of course, that leads us to the question that if there is a God who is uncreated, then why can't everything else also come into existence without a creator? There is a definite gap in our knowledge as we know nothing about God, but that is not a proof for the non-existence of God. It simply means that our knowledge is limited and inadequate.
Faith and Justice:
The greatest injustice conceivable is to deny the existence of God or to believe that there can be more than one God. The Hereafter is about Justice and Recompense.
Coming back to my previous post where I've mentioned The Trust, only those humans can be entrusted with the Gardens of Eternity who are able to prove that they qualify for the huge responsibility that comes with such an inheritance: that they have done their best to be Just towards God and His creations, including one's own self, and are kind and generous, and are doers of good deeds. Thus the need for this trial we call life on Earth. Therefore, it is deliberately a blindfolded test.
This is how I understand it. And God knows best.
