About angels . . .

As would be expected after such a tragedy, people are using whatever technique they can to understand and rationalize the deaths of the children who were killed on Friday in the safety of their godless public school.

Among those rationalizations is the insistence that those children are now angels, watching over the rest of us.

Something I've always wondered about angels, and how people imagine them to be is this: When a child dies and is (supposedly) brought to heaven to be an angel, is that child forever the same age, then? Would a child who died at age 2 or 4 always be 2 or 4 for the rest of eternity? Are our grandparents spending the rest of eternity as elderly versions of themselves forever and ever? Or is there some sort of transformation that makes them some timeless version of themselves - or to they quit being "themselves", lose their personalities, the lessons they've learned (or never learn life's lessons because they died too young), and become some formless, ageless, completely wise angelic drones?

How do you imagine angels to be? If you believe that people who were "good enough" in life become angels for eternity in heaven, do you think they go through any sort of transformation? Do babies grow up?

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Asked by jsbenkert at 4:48 PM on Dec. 16, 2012 in Religious Debate

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i was always taught that we dont become angels...they are their own creation, not dead humans.

there are faiths that teach that this is the body we take with us to heaven, thus why they cant have blood transfusions, organ transplants, autopsies, cremation, tattoos, etc. they would probably think we are the age we die at in heaven, but i have no clue.

Answer by okmanders at 8:04 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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We do not believe people become angels since angels and humans are separate. We also believe when children die they go directly to god as they were when they left this world and will remain that way. They have no sins on them so they do not have to go thru the waiting for judgement day prcocess.

Answer by virginiamama71 at 9:10 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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LOL @ FFA. I don't think I'm insane, so . . .

Of course, I'm atheist, so I don't believe in any afterlife, nor in any angels, nor that I'll meet my BFFs, dear, departed family members, or my childhood dog, Muffin ever again. That thought doesn't bother me, because I am able to appreciate the life we shared together before they died, and that's the legacy I hope to leave when I die - not watching over them in all their experiences (ahem), but that they will remember the times we shared, and how I loved them.

I'm always curious, though, about how people who do believe in an afterlife imagine their loved ones would be when the meet up again in their version of heaven - do babies grow up, do the elderly remain grey and wrinkled, etc.

Comment by jsbenkert (original poster) at 9:51 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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I hear this as well and I think it gives comfort to some people. I believe angels are other than us and that is all. They have been described with wings and so I also see them in my mind that way. People IMO do not become angels and so the age question doesnot matter.

Answer by Dardenella at 9:59 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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My religion doesn't believe that angels are people who have passed away. Angels are angels, humans are humans, and one doesn't turn into the other.

Answer by momto2boys973 at 10:52 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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My religion doesn't believe that angels are people who have passed away.

FWIW, I don't think there's any religion/denomination that teaches that (that angels are dead souls). That seems to be a Hollywood adaptation that spread through pop culture.

Answer by NotPanicking at 11:44 PM on Dec. 16, 2012
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Youtube Char Margolis. Or, Youtube Australia's The One Psychic.

I believe in the spiritual world. I think that souls are not defined by age. Time is a human constraint. The manifestation to a human may be purposefully in a recognizable form but according to psychics, they feel a spirit's energy and images to deduce age in order to communicate to other humans who seek to recognize who the spirit is. There are many people who claim to feel someone's presence without trying to figure out who it is; they just know. I think that souls have many lives and ultimately keep coming back in each life to master the lessons they've given to themselves. There's not enough space in this forum to explain all there is, but it doesn't matter what anyone believes. It only matters what you believe and what is the truth. One truth is that evil wins when "good" people do nothing. Good deeds define good people, not simply being.

Answer by hellokittykat at 1:09 AM on Dec. 17, 2012
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I do not believe those children are now angels. Angels are (in my belief) a seperate species then us and were created for a different reason. I also don't believe they come to Earth as often as claimed, but that's just me.
-Ashley

Answer by spiritguide_23 at 1:24 AM on Dec. 17, 2012
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I don't believe people become angels. I believe angels are a being all of their own. I believe all children go to heaven under the age of accountability, what ever that may be. I believe they grow up in heaven. I think we get new bodies, that never get sick or hurt or injured. Our personalities stay the same, who we are is the same, just our bodies change. I assume that we probably look around our 30's.

Answer by Anonymous at 2:38 AM on Dec. 17, 2012

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Humans do not become angels. Angels are a separate species.

One priest I knew some years ago said that he imagined that with his Heavenly body he will have a full head of beautiful long hair (he was bald). In other words... we don't know what our heavenly bodies will look like, but we can imagine them. I suppose that some imagine those in Heaven to look like "angels", and maybe that's where the saying comes from.

Answer by anime_mom619 at 10:54 AM on Dec. 17, 2012
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