@
Baybreeze We do have some control over our own futures.
----------
Your thoughts about perfection and disease remind me of the elves of Middle Earth. They were similar to humans in body and thought, yet immortal since they never grew old in body, never decayed (or at least they had youthful regeneration of their bodies all the time?), and never got ill from bacteria, viruses, genetic diseases, the effects of obesity, heart disease, cancer, etc.
Yet their bodies could be broken or slain, they could lose limbs which did not grow back, etc. And they could die from intense grief and weariness of the world.
But their fate, after the death of their bodies, was to be assembled in the Halls of Mandos, who was one of the "Gods" of Middle Earth. Sort of like the Greek god Hades. There they waited until the end of days, and their fate after the end of the world was yet unknown. I think only one elf, Luthien, a powerful princess, ever returned after her body died. But she lived in a new body for only a short time after that.
She had married a man, Beren (who also died, yet was sent back, too). Because she married Beren, she lost her immortality, and so they both died again, this time for good. Yet they both died of old age, and in peace. They had children. I think Aragorn was one of their descendents.
In this mythology, humans die like humans in our real world. They grow old, get sick, etc. Yet unlike elves, after death they truely leave the world. They do not go to Mandos with the elves. They go back to God ("Illuvatar"). The fate of the elves is bound to the fate of the World. The fate of humans is a mystery. They leave the World.
Tolkien was Catholic so his books had a lot of religious themes.
The fantasies of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc , are just as fantastical to me as those of Middle Earth. I guess the difference is billions follow them, so I must be sensitive to that, whereas I presume all people know Middle Earth is not real! Except perhaps some internet eccentrics!
