Philosophical question of the day

If no one died, but rather lived forever after birth... would humans even care to seek answers about creation or a higher power ?
Is death the only contributing factor to our search for a God, meaning, and finding the "key" to eternal life in the hereafter ?


Chew on that for a minute or a few hours and lemme hear your take -

I don't need an hour.  

John 16 states that the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, giving us the desire to right our wrongs, so to speak. However, the Bible states in many places that we cannot right our wrongs ourselves, that only Jesus can do that, and John 6 indicates that He will only do so after the Father draws us in. But that same verse in John 6 (6:44) seems to indicate that God doesn't call everyone ("Unless the Father draw him ..."), so to me the only thing to cause the "undrawn" to seek a higher power is the fear of what's following the grave. But if someone is seeking, then has he been drawn?  Do the undrawn, like Stephen Hawking, even seek?

Very deep, and an excellent Scriptural analysis of God's working in man's life. I'm totally on-board with what you said 100%. My strange idea here is from a non-Biblical perspective, a hypothetical thought... random idea.

I think I'm going at this from a human-to-God perspective. He certainly makes the rules and is righteous and just in doing so - and I can see that if our mortal bodies never died (this is one of those crazy hypothetical, non-Biblical questions) that God could still choose and bring His own to Him, to glorify Him and serve Him forever on earth. This is plausible.

My crazy idea I've presented here, is the hypothetical consideration that IF man never died, would the lack of death be enough for man to simply fear nothing and find that serving the True Creator to be without profit to us - would mankind just ignore God ? Perhaps the lack of death and the questionable after life would be enough to make for an apathetic human race- a world of humans simply seeking their own will and never giving God or what's "beyond" the Kosmos a fleeting thought.

It just seems that all religions, and even some philosophies wouldn't even exist if it weren't for the mystery of death.

(wow, I need to stop thinking so much)

If life was like it is now with the suffering, even without death, I think many would. In fact, if you lived a life of suffering without death I think you'd be more inclined to seek for answers.
Can you imagine the evil people would perpetrate if they didn't face death?

I don't think death is the only reason people ask questions about something that is bigger than ourselves.  Sure, if everyone lived forever there would be no need to find the key to eternal life, it would just be the way things were and we wouldn't know to question anything being different.  I do think, however, that there would be some realization that there is something more to everything.  Even atheists now believe that, they just come to a different conclusion about what that "more" is.  I still think we would wonder what the point of everything is even without the issue of mortality.

Sorry, but I'm having trouble seeing the entire IF. Maybe you are thinking too deeply!

In your hypothetical scenario you acknowledge the existence of God; are you then also suggesting within the boundaries of your scenario that no sin exists?  After all, part of the curse was that man would not live forever (or at least we assume that we would had Adam and Eve not sinned -- Gen 3:19). Therefore, since death is the result of sin I can only assume that in your "world" there is no sin, as humans are living forever. And since sin is what separates us from God then in your "world" man and God would enjoy a relationship without separation, so man would not be looking for God. 

The only other scenario possible is that sin does exist but does not lead to death, in which case something else would separate us from God and no doubt be the cause to look for God.

Ultimately, we were created to be in a relationship with God, so anything that interferes with that relationship must in and of itself be the source of our desire to repair the relationship.

I think ...    I suck at philosophy; I'm not sure why I tried to answer.  Maybe I'm just avoiding work! LOL!

No bro ! I dig your answer ! This is just a "thinking" hypothetical scenario... and you're thinking, and coming up with some really great stuff !

Everyone is. All of us know the One Truth and are secure in that Truth, thus this thread of "what if" - it gets us thinking beyond our current scenario and what would or could happen if things were really different... like taking death out of our current scenario.

Yes, everything else would remain the same, sans death. I know why death is, and what God did to conquer it... but if death were NOT, what would mankind be like ?

Some excellent answers here - some real thinking going on too. I love it.

My thought on this is: 
I'm obviously still coming from the angle that there is indeed a God, and in that case I think He would still want to be involved with His creation and would therefore still make a way for Him to commune with sinful mankind- even though there would be no need to save from the 2nd death.  I believe in God's infinite love for His creation, He would still send Jesus to make communion with us possible as we must be made holy in His sight to approach a Holy God.
So despite the "lack of death" scenario, I think God would still seek us. But would man bother with all these religions and other ideas if there were NO death ?  Perhaps (as Messiaen77, Staybrite, Redeemed Fool and Beardad said) they would due to man's need to understand WHY he's here (death or no death).

Just like I said on f.b. I do think many would still seek a purpose for their lives (maybe more so given the fact that it never ends).

However if "no death" equals "no punishment for sin" then yes, I believe countless millions would give up on "religion" and think nothing of continuing to revel in their sin.

Also on FB was a scenario by Driven, which would coincide with what Beardad was kind of getting at:

Driven said: Or would it be that we would be in communion with God already, like in the Garden of Eden?
 
I replied: That's another scenario though. We could say the reason there's no death would be due to mankind's obedience to God, thus never falling, and only eating from the tree of life, living forever as intended in the first place, all mankind would already KNOW God and walk with Him. No other religions would need to exist, since man wouldn't be separated from God due to sin.
Heavy thought !!

Topshot brought up the little detail of "over population" - we would have to find a way to inhabit the moon as well as other local planets if humans from Adam never died...

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Topshot brought up the little detail of "over population" - we would have to find a way to inhabit the moon as well as other local planets if humans from Adam never died...

Unless God's plan was to do for everyone as he did for Enoch, who "walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him"" (Gen 5)

Ooh good one !  (wow, we're really going off on this...) If He were to take a percentage every so often, there'd be no over-population.

Mind is officially blown...

I don't believe that we have to look at a theoretical situation to get our answer to the original question.  We know that death, because of sin, entered through the one man: Adam.  He & Eve walked and talked with God in the garden yet rejected His will to do their own thing when the serpent tempted them.  When they are banished from the garden, it is to keep them from eating of the Tree of Life and living forever.  They would not have sought God due to their sin, so death came to all.

Also, look at the life spans of the early Bible characters.  Nearly 1000 years?  That's ridiculous!  But, in Noah's day, only he found favor with God.  The Lord said that the rest of the world was wicked and in need of destruction.  Such long lives and the people made up their own religions and their own gods.  They didn't even live forever and they rejected him.

So, the verdict is this:  mankind is rejecting God whether they die or not or whether they have long or short lives.  It is only by Christ's sacrifice, resurrection, and the power of the Holy Spirit's drawing that we even seek God.  If not for that, we would reject Him.  Even if we lived forever, or just a really long time that seemed like forever.  Mankind would not follow God and would reject Him.  That's just what sinful beings do.

Very good points. Especially drawing from actual Biblical events of those who lived hundreds of years. I didn't even think of that initially, but it makes it's own point that though man lived on and on for many hundreds of years, they still created their own religions and ignored the outward and inward witness of God's presence.

Good discussion. I'm not one to bring up hypothetical un-Biblical ideas, as it can sometimes lead to upsetting some people, but I thought this one was interesting.  I love all the responses. You guys are on top of it. Keep it up !