How LONG is Eternity? How will we spend it?

Eternity is incomprehensibly long. Our lifetimes here on earth are almost literally nothing by comparison, since eternity is endless. But just for fun, let's look at some numbers.

A googleplex is a 1, followed by 100 zeros. Looks like this:

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

This is a bit problematical, since 3 doesn't divide evenly into 100, so what we really have is 10 of something else (gosh knows what its name is) that equals a googleplex.

But that's neither here nor there. Because if, after you die and your new eternal life gets underway, you find at some point that you've been out and about in the universe for the above number of years, and you'll know that's been a very long time.

But consider this -- the time you've spent by then is only the first split-second of endless eternity.

Let's jump ahead in time. To the time when you've spent a googleplex of years TIMES a googleplex, of your eternal existence. That's still only the first split-second of eternity! Which will never end.

If there's some math in your background, try to imagine that latest number of years we've just discussed... to the google-times-a-google power... factorial! And after your eternal life has gone on for that long -- you STILL are only within the first split-second of eternity!

Now, let's suppose your job in the next life is astro-geographer-historian, and your task is to personally explore, map, learn, and record every salient fact about every single astronomical body in God's entire universe. Would you have time? Sure! Because eternity will never end!

This is a photo of the Eta Nebula, right here in our own galaxy. It could easily contain a million or more stars. How long would it take for you to explore, map, and describe all the salient details of each of those stars, and all their associated planets, planetoids, asteroids, comets, and all material and gaseous particles that are at large in space, of all sizes, all the way down to the size of a molecule?

Okay. Let's say you've finished with that task. Of course, that photo shows only an infinitesimally-small portion of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Maybe only a millionth or so of it. Since this galaxy contains around 300 billion stars. (With a "B.") And you still have the whole rest of the galaxy to go.

Science thinks the known universe contains around 250 BILLION additional galaxies, most of them comparable in size to our own. So as you move on to the rest of them, one-by-one, you just know that you really have a LOT of job security!

One day though, an unspeakably-huge number of years later, you'll have completed the last survey.

But you've really only just started. Because in all those eons, the universe has completely changed, and the stars and worlds you first explored and studied don't even exist any more, and new ones... and galaxies... now exist in their place. So you start all over again.

LOTS of job security!!

But not to worry. After you have completed this entire task a googleplex of times -- you STILL will only be within the first split-second of eternity!

(I wonder if we'll get to change jobs, during the course of eternity? Or will our astro-geographer-historian have to continue doing that same task an infinite number of times? Forever!?! We won't know 'til we get there. Talk about God's keeping us all in suspense! The Book of Revelation really needed at least one, very detailed, additional chapter at its end!)