Eurasian nuthatch in paradise
Will birds show up in heaven
While heading for lunch we walked around the building as usual. There was a dead bird a Eurasian Nuthatch on the pebbled strip in front of the building. The wind played with the orange feathers. It doesn't feel cold anymore, no hunger, no hiding from predators. Does an animal move to a better world? Would it be better for it to live without fear? What would it be like without that little fear, some excitement, feeling hungry or a little shiver? Does being tired count as sorrow, maybe less than sweating?
Which feelings would be allowed? Which are lost? Is a being longing for a bit of trouble to feel being alive? Wouldn't a world without any sorrow nor trouble be the same as when laying flat on the ground? Isn't farewell to all sorrow a sort of death? For me being alive is the whole spectrum of experience a vital function. I don't stumble anymore because I had bloddy knees as a kid. I learned to avoid some pain and grew gained some power over my body. The I woke up and started to want.
Life can be described with three features of an object: metabolism, reproduction and response to stimuli of the environment. If I don't feel the cold anymore one response is missing which means I'm less alive. I count this as a deterioration. Leibniz, Poincaré and others already throught about the best of all worlds. A mathematician simply counts all bad events and puts them in an order. The question remains: how can a fair god allow certain events? Who has to be tested and who will flourish from this test? And what if one learned the lesson but dies anyway? The set of good people in paradise will grow monotonously. Even the slightest increase means eternal growth.
Also those receiving gods grace while in purgatorial fire must be added to those already in paradise. They learned their lesson a little late but at least. I ask myself what for? Somehow the concept is somehow flawed. A lord of lords is only necessary to have a judgement day. The true nature of power is what it is: superiority of the stronger over the weaker. The process of aging is still the most powerful a force of nature. Wouldn't we live totally different being certain there is only one salvation: provide the next generation with a better world? What improvement could the nuthatch provide to its offspring?