WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER? In Scientific American (November, 1999, page 6) John Rennie used this title for his column. He begins by reminding us that from Ponce de Leon's search for the Fountain of Youth to cryonics and nanotechnology, man has tried to avoid death. Suppose physical immortality was achieved and everything we die of could be overcome. Then what? He points out that eventually "everything that can happen will, in every permutation and to everyone, over and over again. It leaves them without hope or desire, only fleetingly roused from emotional torpor by sensual experience." He later suggests that "this bleak vision is what comes of wrangling with an unforgiving eternity." We would suggest that this observation is correct and is a good argument for the existence of man's spiritual nature and for the existence of God as a being outside of the physical world. The inadequacy of the physical world makes a powerful argument that we are not primarily physical beings. Rennie correctly says ".. .what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal." http://www.doesgodexist.org/JanFeb00

PAUL MITCHELL: Even the highly evolutionist, mostly atheistic series "Star Trek" implicitly admits this. One race of beings is known as the Q, eternal beings portrayed with the literal power of God, yet without the wisdom, which is more akin to man's (and juvenile, at that). In one episode, one of the Q desires to become mortal in order to die, for life has become an excruciating, boring repetition of one day after another, with everything possible having been experienced many times. (It was also intended to address the subject of suicide).

The Q, while eternal, cannot fathom nor approach the endless mind and being of God, for of course the Q is an invention of man. God's being is unfathomable, and much much more than simply eternal.

==============================

"If we had never sinned, we would live with a wonderful realization of our part in God's world rather than a desperate desire to find meaning." Larry Crabb, Inside Out, pg 69.

"I am bored with it all." (Winston Churchill's dying words, NY Times, 2-1-65, p. 12)

"All my possessions for a moment of time." (Queen Elizabeth I, 1603, on her deathbed)

Even John D. Rockefeller, in all his massive wealth, once spoke of his life and trying to survive through economic depressions. He said, "...We came through it. You know how often I had not an unbroken night's sleep, worrying about how it was all coming out. All the fortune I have made has not served to compensate for the anxiety of that period. Work by day and worry by night, week in and week out, month after month." -(Facts from "Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History," Richard Shenkman, 1988, Wm. Morrow & Co., NY)

"I am ready to go anywhere and do anything, but I am bankrupt of further ideas, and I find that physics and the teaching of physics, which is my life, now seems irrelevant."

--J. Robert Oppenheimer, Father of the atomic bomb and Manhatten Project, child genius, master of seven languages, 1946. (World War II Magazine, July, 1945, p. 71, 741 Miller Dr SE, Leesburg, VA 22075)

==============

LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO:

1. A man who was head of one of the worlds greatest monopolies.

2. A man who was one of the most successful speculators on Wall Street.

3. The former president of the largest independent steel company in America.

4. A past chairman of one of the countries largest utility companies.

5. A former president of the largest gas company in the United States.

6. A man who was once the president of the New York Stock Exchange.

7. A former president of the Bank of International Settlements.

8. A man who was a member of President Hardings Cabinet.

Here are the names that go with the events.

Ivar Kureger, head of International Match Corp. (known as the match king), died a suicide - or was murdered. The truth was never established.

Jesse Livermore, the most wondrous of the boy wonders of Wall Street, died a suicide.

Charles M. Schwab, chairman of Bethlehem Steel, died broke.

Samuel Insull, chairman of Commonwealth Edison Co. and other utility corporations, was acquitted on embezzlement and mail-fraud charges. He died in modest surroundings.

Howard Hopson, president of the Associated Gas and Electric Utility empire, had been in prison for mail-fraud charges and died in a sanitarium.

Richard Whitney, president of the NYSE, served time in Sing Sing for grand larceny.

Leon Fraser, president of the World Bank for International Settlements, died a suicide. Albert Fall, secretary of the interior in Hardings Cabinet, served a prison term for accepting a bribe.

Ann Landers in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 1/29/94.

====================

The year is 1923.

In 1923, do you know who was:

1. President of the largest steel company?

2. President of the largest gas company?

3. President of the New York Stock Exchange?

4. Greatest wheat speculator?

5. President of the Bank International Settlement?

6. Great Bear of Wall Street?

Now, these men should have been considered some of the world's

most successful men. At least, they found the secret to making

bundles of money.

Now, almost 80 years later, the history book asks us, do we know

what actually became of these men?

ANSWERS:

1. The president of the largest steel company, Charles Schwab,

died a pauper.

2. The president of the largest gas company, Edward Hopson, went

insane.

3. The president of the NYSE, Richard Whitney, was released from

prison to die at home.

4. The greatest wheat speculator, Arthur Cooger, died abroad,

penniless.

5. The president of the Bank of International Settlement, shot

himself.

6. The Great Bear of Wall Street, Cosabee Livermore, committed

suicide.

However, in that same year, 1923, the winner of the most

important golf championship, Gene Sarazan, won both the US Open

and PGA Championship.

What became of him, you ask? Well, he played golf until he was

92, died in 1999 at the age of 95, and was extremely financially

secure at the time of his death.

General Wellington commanded forces at Waterloo. When the battle was over, he spelled out by code, "Wellington defeated ...," yet fog set in, and people only saw news of "defeat." The fog cleared and the message continued. "Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo." People looked at the death of Christ and said "defeat." Yet, at the Resurrection, God's message was finished. The resurrection spelled victory.

A conversation between a Christian missionary and a Muslim illustrates a great point. The Mohammedan wanted to impress the missionary with what he considered to be the superiority of Islam. So he said, "When we go to Mecca, we at least find a coffin, but when you Christians go the Jerusalem, your Mecca, you find nothing but an empty grave." To this the believer replied, "That is just the difference, Mohammed is dead and in his coffin. And all other systems of religion and philosophy are in their coffins. But Christ is risen, and all power in heaven and on earth is given to Him! He is alive forevermore!

A man fell into a pit and couldn't get himself out.

A Christian Scientist came along and said: "You only think

that you are in a pit".

A Pharisee said: "Only bad people fall into a pit".

An IRS man asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.

A Sadducee walked by and ignored the man and the pit.

An Optimist said: "Things could be worse".

A Pessimist said: "Things will get worse!"

Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.

RETURN TO INDEX