Come back to reality!

[Starkist]

I just finished reading another book by C.S. Lewis called The Great Divorce. Basically Lewis tells like a vision how he went on a bus ride from hell to heaven, where the ghosts from hell could 'tour' heaven and then choose to stay or return to hell. Anyhow, many of the ghosts choose hell. They condemn the citizens of heaven, who live in perfect joy and peace, telling them to 'come back to reality'. To them heaven is fantasy, while the cold brutal lonely world of hell is what is real.

Move to the Matrix. Smith tells Morpheus that the first Matrix was perfect in every way, but humanity would not accept it. The machines had to recreate the Matrix with imperfection.

My point is this: Is it instinctive in humanity to believe that perfection is fantasy while imperfection is reality? Whenever someone uses the phrase 'come back to reality' it is usually in response to seeing joy in someone else. If you go through your life with a smile on your face people assume you're living in a dream world. The hard life of the ghetto is automatically considered more 'real' than easy life of a rich man. Why? Aren't they merely different?

So what is 'real'? Why do we consider evil, death, coldness, and loneliness to be more real than good, life, warmth, and love? Secondly, why must we do our best to ruin the joy of others by dragging them into our sad, self-created reality?

[SquishyMon]

Personally, I don't think heaven is a place where everything is handed to you on a silver platter. It's a higher level of existence. Hell could also be a higher level of existence, but filled with misery. Hell could perhaps be close to our vision of a "grim reality". It could be just like earth and beyond as we see now, but people live forever and there is no God. It would be made horrible just by the people who live there.

[Shadowblazer]

Originally posted by Starkist
Secondly, why must we do our best to ruin the joy of others by dragging them into our sad, self-created reality? I'm not sober enough to give this entire topic the thought that it deserves, but this one line jumped out at me and the answer immediately sprang to mind.

Misery loves company.

:shrug:

I think that statement is more than a clichè, I think there's a good deal of truth to it. After all, the only thing worse than being in the depths of despair is to suffer in such a state alone.

[carrot red]

I didn't read the book, I saw the Matrix (and got Reloaded.).

I always heard that perfection is not of this world.
There is no well defined what's real and what's not, all rides on your state of mind and personal disposition. This leads us back to the optimist/pessimist thing.
If all were perfect, why bother doing anything at all?
My own belief is that perfection is relative, just like everything else and that all men and women work towards achieving (having) their own definition of a perfect world, life and so on.

That said, it's far better to work your way up than believe everything is rosy and take a steep fall.

[TheGeepster]

One of our biggest problems is the flase assumption that reality is exactly the same as our own flawed perceptions of it. But on this planet, during our brief time here, we shall never see anything close to perfection. We'll have to wait for the afterlife for that.

I do have to read The Great Divorce, because I admire Lewis's reasoning ability greatly, even if there are a few things for which I disagree with him.

But some of AGN's religious debate masters do seem to be proof that some would willingly choose hell over heaven for their own reasons.

[Rijuhn]

That is so true Starkist. C.S. Lewis seems to be a very understanding man. I need to check out C.S. Lewis. My brother read a copy of Mere Christianity, and another book of his with I think the word "God" or "Religion" in the title, and he said that C.S. Lewis really understood God like he did. I just wish my brother would realize there are more people like him that he thinks there are.

Tolkien is cool too. :D

[TheGeepster]

I know that Tolkien's most famous series of works, the Lord of the Rings (and 2 or 3 books which were related to it) were philological, or based on the development of the languages and linguistic themes such as the fairy tale and other literary devices, but they do have a heavy dose of the philosophies of good and evil, and their nature.