March 28, 2004

On Memory

So I went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the crew. And by the crew, I mean just about everyone in the SC. I really enjoyed the movie... and thought it was high-quality stuff. People always claim that Jim Carey is a crappy actor or deride all of his stuff, but I would assert he's excellent in Eternal Sunshine.

Without any spoilers, the movie is essentially about a couple who erases one another from their respective memories and the associated emotions and interactions that go along with that. In short, one of the messages one is intended to derive from the film is that ignorance is not bliss and even sad memories are worth having. This is a message that I would affirm and support totally, and while I would muse that this film shares the notion with Big Fish that flawed memory with its indulgences is a fair sight better than none at all, that is neither here nor there.

This whole discussion of the fallacy of ignorance brought up an interesting memory of a bible study in high school where my youth pastor declared that in heaven, we would have no memory of our lives on earth, because clearly that would make us sad and invalidate Revelation 21:4.

While I have never met anyone else to advocate this position, that's mostly because I've never gone looking and it's not something that comes up a whole lot. That said, on a philosophical level, the argument bothers me horribly. Regardless of whether or not one can find good scripture to argue definitively for it, one should note John 14. Not only does Jesus refer to Himself as the way, truth and life in verse 6, but he also refers to the Holy Spirit as the "Spirit of Truth" in verse 17. I cannot help but think that an all-knowing God who refers to Himself as Truth would send people to a paradise of ignorance. I'm going to roll this one around some more, but that's what I've got for now...

Posted by Vengeful Cynic at March 28, 2004 03:30 AM | TrackBack