Will our soul have a sense of 'self' in Heaven?

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without said:
I know the natural to be real… I know the supernatural to be pretend… 🤷
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What is real? What you touch may be an illusion. What is matter? It is mostly empty space.
It could all implode. The whole universe could fit in a pea pod. God’s world (heaven) is the real. Everything you see is a shadow of heaven.
 
without said:
I know the natural to be real… I know the supernatural to be pretend… 🤷
Click to expand...
What is real? What you touch may be an illusion. What is matter? It is mostly empty space.
It could all implode. The whole universe could fit in a pea pod. God’s world (heaven) is the real. Everything you see is a shadow of heaven.
 
eazyduzit said:
What is real? What you touch may be an illusion. What is matter? It is mostly empty space.
It could all implode. The whole universe could fit in a pea pod. God’s world (heaven) is the real. Everything you see is a shadow of heaven.
Click to expand...
👍 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1 Corinthians 13:12
 
without said:
You felt and knew nothing before you were born, correct? … you will feel and know nothing when you die.
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It’s a little like you’re saying: “You ate a sandwich before you took a nap and so you will eat a sandwich after you are finished with your nap.” The one does not logically imply the other. You are conflating “pre-conception” person with “post-death” person without logically establishing why this is appropriate.

Catholics and atheists are in agreement that there is no “you” before conception. God creates the human soul at conception and not before. It’s with regards to our post-death state that Catholics and atheists differ.

If you are a consistent materialist atheist, then you would logically believe that “you” are your brain. It wouldn’t be wholly inaccurate to say that your brain secretes “you” like your liver secretes bile, That is it’s correct function. “You” are nothing more than the brain’s way of organizing itself to process incoming sensory information and make decisions. Once the brain becomes too old or too damaged to function, it ceases being able to create “you”. The brain suffers death and the illusion of you has ceased.

This is not what Catholics believe. In brief, you are a spirit with a physical body. Angels are only spirit, and animals only body. Human beings are both. Your spirit uses the body to interact with the material world. It uses the brain to sense and think, but does not rely on the brain for its existence. The spirit imparts to the brain certain characteristics of mind that obviously distinguish us from every other living thing. (Interestingly enough, human free will is only possible under such a model. For the materialist, free will in the brain is about as absurd as free will in the stomach. “Will I digest this food today?”) When you die, the spirit continues to exist. It is the nature of a spirit that it is eternal.
 
I personally believe that we do not lose a sense of ‘self’ in Heaven, but that it is perfected and added to and in, by God’s presence/identity. Why are we promised our human bodies in a perfected way? Are they going to effectively be clones of each other - I don’t think/hope so.

We still maintain the essential better traits and expressions of our earthly personalities, BUT in a much more discerning and wise way.
 
Mount_Carmel said:
I personally believe that we do not lose a sense of ‘self’ in Heaven, but that it is perfected and added to and in, by God’s presence/identity. Why are we promised our human bodies in a perfected way? Are they going to effectively be clones of each other - I don’t think/hope so.

We still maintain the essential better traits and expressions of our earthly personalities, BUT in a much more discerning and wise way.
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I believe that all our attention will be drawn outwardly to God to such a degree that the self vanishes.
 
Robert_Sock said:
Unity with God world is basically the purpose of Contemplative Prayer here in this world. What is not in accord the Church’s teachings?
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From the Catechism:

1025 To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ,” but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.

There’s probably other passages in the Catechism that touch on this, I honestly didn’t look too hard. Basically, Catholic teaching never blurs the line between Creator and created. We will never lose our identity or the sense of God’s otherness.
 
Hicks said:
From the Catechism:

1025 To live in heaven is “to be with Christ.” The elect live “in Christ,” but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.

There’s probably other passages in the Catechism that touch on this, I honestly didn’t look too hard. Basically, Catholic teaching never blurs the line between Creator and created. We will never lose our identity or the sense of God’s otherness.
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Thanks! I take that to heart.

It may be interesting though to note that Jews believe that all individual Jewish souls will go on to form a single Jewish soul in the Heaven.
 
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