Physical beauty and Eternal Life


bytor2112
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Why do some people seem to have flawless features and others are drab and ordinary or even repulsive in their appearance? Those born with incredible good looks....perfect skin, great smile, awesome physique....some seem other worldly because they are so seemingly perfect. Yet, others struggle against acne or other skin conditions or have challenges with different areas of their bodies or are prone to weight gain or are just obese.

The movie Shallow Hal comes to mind when I ponder these issues. Will those who were not born with the beauty and body of Jessica Alba (insert your ideal woman) or Brad Pitt (again insert your own ideal) be made perfect in the Eternal realms or will what we perceive as physical beauty be completely different? Most women do not look like Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and most men don't look like gymnasts.

I imagine that life can be very painful if one struggles with excessive weight or is thought of as just down right ugly.

Edited by bytor2112
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You bring up an interesting point,with

(insert your ideal woman)

The concept of physical beauty is different for everyone therefor people can't be made physically beautiful.

Our perception would have to change, we all would wear eternal "beer goggles " so to speak

Very true....BUT, most guys...shallow pigs that we are....are much more likely to think the very fit aerobics chick is hot and the 60lb over weight with rosacea and hairy armed girl is.....not so much. And I dare say that some guy mowing his grass with shirt off exposing a hairy back and three rolls of "luv" handles isn't going to be gaining a huge female following.

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Personally, I think we will perceive physical beauty differently in the eternities - maybe not at all. Perhaps the appearance of our physical faces and bodies will be irrelevant.

I tend to agree with you. I think that our imperfections will be made perfect and that we will see beauty on a much higher spiritual plane.

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The definitions of beauty do change with time and culture. I mean didn't it used to be very unfavorable to be thin? A sign you were poor and sickly? If you were fat, it meant you were rich and most likely had status.

On the other hand, I think of the story of Ester. She apparently had physical beauty on her side and it helped with God's purposes.

I honestly think our modern sexualized and airbrushed culture has warped our sense of what is beautiful. And the genuninely and naturally beautiful start thinkin' they have to change themselves to be some narrow definition. It's sad really. In this culture its painful for just about everybody. And we unnecessarily make it so. It's just so stupid.

Excessive weight is a problem. But being a little curvy isn't. And ugly is as ugly does. Beauty comes from the inside out. Sometimes the most favored are really ugly on the inside. ANd it shows.

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I was thinking of this quote I jotted down in my scriptures by Parley P Pratt. He talks about how the spirit affects a person and among lots of other great effects, he says the spirit...."develops the beauty of the person; form & features."

I was also reminded of what my MTC Elders said about being in the temple with all the sisters. They said that everyone became beautiful and that the attitudes of the world inside of them kinda faded away. So Bytor, maybe there is hope for all shallowness in all of us.

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Often physical beauty can be as much of a curse as acne. In high school sometimes the girl everyone things is the most gorgeous is the one all the guys see as "out of their league" and she isn't asked to prom.

We all have our own trials and struggles and what the world considers physical beauty can be one of those.

Besides.... pretty is as pretty does. Its really what is in the heart that counts the most.

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Personally, I think we will perceive physical beauty differently in the eternities - maybe not at all. Perhaps the appearance of our physical faces and bodies will be irrelevant.

That is a good point. When our senses and perceptions grow in an eternal progression, why would more primitive feelings from primal memories of sexual survival still bind us? Would we not see beauty in higher truths instead? I ask this not to stifle any dreams of Jessica Alba harems in the hereafter, but as a serious question.

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Nah, all the guys are gonna choose to look like Johnny Depp. :P

Elph

I hope not..I'd be swooning all over the place. Never in an actual conscious state. Not that I ever am now..but well...

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I think our perceptions of beauty will change. But I also think our perfected bodies will be as beautiful as we want them to be.

Since our perceptions of physical beauty are the result of the biological need to reproduce and have healthy offspring. Our perception of certain characteristics being more beautiful than others stems from from the genetic health of those people with those features.

Since the process of reproduction with perfect bodies is unknown, I can only guess that, since the need/desire to reproduce with a genetically healthy partner will probably be gone, our perceptions of physical beauty will be different.

(how's that for a run on sentence)

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Often physical beauty can be as much of a curse as acne. In high school sometimes the girl everyone things is the most gorgeous is the one all the guys see as "out of their league" and she isn't asked to prom.

Me being a band nerd in high school, it wasn't until my mission that one of my companions put me on to this fact.

It sure would have put a different spin on things had I known it back then. But then your talking to the guy who, in high school, got rejected everytime he asked a girl on a date. My prospective Senior prom date said she was waiting for someone else to ask her. And that after it took me weeks to get up enough courge to ask her. I better stop now before all those horrible repressed memories come flooding back.

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I'll take a stab at this...

Okay, so you know how media greatly controls what you perceive as beautiful. If you look at the paintings in the louvre, you'll notice that women used to be much much more rounded than the Elle magazine covers these days.

In general, the thing that makes somebody beautiful is not the form and shape of the body parts but the perception of good health. Somebody with acne, for example, has a health concern that makes him/her imperfect healthwise. Similarly with obesity. When our bodies are perfected (okay, this is not doctrinal), we would achieve perfect health which would eliminate these factors.

But, regardless of what we may think is beautiful, a lot of the "considered ugly ones" by virtue of the arrangement of their body parts (i.e., nose too big, etc.) are married. So, somebody must have thought them beautiful. I believe "love is blind" is not an accurate description of this state. It is more like, "love has an extra sensory perception that sees the good in another and find it beautiful". I think (although again this is in no way doctrinal) that when we are perfected, we become capable of such love that we gain that extra sensory perception that make us see beauty in everybody.

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I believe "love is blind" is not an accurate description of this state. It is more like, "love has an extra sensory perception that sees the good in another and find it beautiful". I think (although again this is in no way doctrinal) that when we are perfected, we become capable of such love that we gain that extra sensory perception that make us see beauty in everybody.

I love this! Love isn't blind. Love actually sees more! Love it Anatess!

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Why do some people seem to have flawless features and others are drab and ordinary or even repulsive in their appearance? Those born with incredible good looks....perfect skin, great smile, awesome physique....some seem other worldly because they are so seemingly perfect. Yet, others struggle against acne or other skin conditions or have challenges with different areas of their bodies or are prone to weight gain or are just obese.

The movie Shallow Hal comes to mind when I ponder these issues. Will those who were not born with the beauty and body of Jessica Alba (insert your ideal woman) or Brad Pitt (again insert your own ideal) be made perfect in the Eternal realms or will what we perceive as physical beauty be completely different? Most women do not look like Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and most men don't look like gymnasts.

I imagine that life can be very painful if one struggles with excessive weight or is thought of as just down right ugly.

Natural selection by mixing of the gene pool or causes-n-affect of mortal life [accident, war, so forth].

It really doesn't matter when we are glorified, our external celestial presence will surpass anything in this realm that is considered beautiful.

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HEY! Life isn't necessarily easy for us really, really, ridiculously good looking people, either. :(

Thankfully, I realize that I am a blessing upon others and give them permission to be really, really, ridiculously good looking as well.

Thanks for your humble benevolence. :P

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