Can someone explain why anyone should want an afterlife?

[The Night Owl]

I really hope there is no afterlife because even the most pleasurable existence, when carried on for an eternity, becomes a kind of hell. So, why should anyone want an afterlife? The only kind of existence I want in the afterlife is nonexistence.

[PassingFair]

1. So that I can watch you burn in hell.

For ETERNITY.

Nothing personal, of course.

Not YOU personally, you understand.

Just everyone, well, not ME.

Or exactly LIKE ME.

You understand.....

:evilgrin:

[AllegroRondo]

2. you know, I've known some fundies who seem to think like that

like an eternal afterlife will be their opportunity to look down on everyone who wasnt as pius as they were in their particular brand of christianity. an eternal "im better than you" moment.

[Deep13]

6. The OT encourages this view. nt

[Random_Australian]

3. I really hope there is no afterlife because bieng in heaven while others suffer would be like hell.

That's something I've never got. Are we supposed to sit around on clouds going "lalalalalala I can't hear the screams of people bieng horribly tortured" for eternity?


And there is a Religion/Theology section if you want more serious responses.

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. that's a really good point...

if someone was really pious enough to end up in heaven, the knowledge that many are suffering in hell would be too much to handle. For me the knowledge that so many people are suffering on earth is hard to live with, I couldn't imagine dealing with that for eternity.

[MonkeyFunk]

5. I never understood that

ANY eternity would become unbearable, no matter how nice the amenities.

[PassingFair]

7. I'll leave you my Cadillac, come the rapture....

Whilst I take pity from on high.

[amitten]

40. What if you didn't know it was eternity? What if it was a series of

lives (like the one you're having now) strung together for eternity? Eternal life without the feeling of eternity.

[Radio_Lady]

43. Too heady for me today. I just want to make it through TODAY, and there's no room for

speculation about what comes next.

We are the only animal that can even think in this mode.

Frankly, I find it pretty weird.

Who are we?

Where did we come from?

Where are we going?

(Now we hear the sound of silence, because there are no real answers....)

[hfojvt]

57. Who would want to keep starting over?

Plus, it would suck not getting to meet Joseph Loomis and my other immigrant ancestors, to say nothing of catching up with grandpa and vice versa.

I think I ran through a boredom phase in my 30s, before the internets. Now there are not enough hours in a day or days in a week, etc, and hardly even enough time to practice pianoforte.

[Deep13]

8. I dunno...

...if I could still do what I want and hang around with my Sweetie it might be good. We could watch the universe expand without hallucinagens.

[MonkeyFunk]

11. and after you watch that happen

a few billion times, you still haven't scraped the surface of eternity.

[Deep13]

14. Time is a product of the universe.

It will not last forever, so neither will time. Events will occur until ultimately there is so little activity that time will not exist in any meaningful way. If somehow eternity means surviving that, then whatever else comes next will be worth observing.

Plus, we'll still have fart jokes.

[SacredCow]

9. Interesting point....

I also wonder why the promise of 20 virgins in the afterlife is such a draw... I can only assume that STD's wouldn't be an issue, so I'd pass on the 20 virgins and take 10 sluts with SKILLS!!!! And an unlimited supply of mojito fixins.

[Kajsa]

17. ROFL !

" take 10 sluts with skills"

:rofl:

[Q3JR4]

36. Mmm... Mojito.....

[unpossibles]

10. it all depends

will there be cake?

And will all the great musicians be given the appropriate instruments, or do I have to listen to Jimi Hendrix play the kazoo for eternity?

[ForrestGump]

12. I've got a lot of

plastic models to build and detail -- WWII tanks and stuff but mainly aircraft and mostly of military jets from the '60s to the '90s) -- and it's been so long since I put one together, or even unboxed my airbrush and its compressor (I've yet to use the compressor, actually, in the almost 20 years I've had it), that all of those kits I have in storage may not get made in this lifetime.

I sure hope I can take them with me.

[Arugula Latte]

13. Yeah -- good question. I don't get that either.

I can understand wanting to be reunited with people who have died, but, sheesh, eternity would be, well, hellish ...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. I can only speak for myself...

I hate the thought that my bodily death might also mean the death of my soul...

I want some part of my consciousness to go on, and to be aware of having gone on!

I love living, and don't want to part from it....ever!

And I have those I love that I want to continue to be part of....even after death.

[Withywindle]

22. I'm with you on that one CP!

Existence, despite its drawbacks, is just so much damn FUN that 60 to 100 years of it is just a cruel tease.

Hell, I'd like three or four thousand years just to *read*. Then a few centuries to sit at a Blue Ridge Mountain overlook and just watch weather. Then another few to do the same thing from a beach in Malaysia. Then another few just to people-watch in London and Mumbai and Moscow....

I'd like to sample at least one lifetime as every possible different kind of animal, and that would probably take a few hundred thousand years at *least*, millions if you count every species of insect...

And that's just talking about Earth. There's a whole cosmos out there! I'm not convinced eternity actually would be long enough to see if all, if the physicists are right.

[The Night Owl]

28. Eternity is...

Eternity is, by definition, long enough to see everything there is to see in a finite universe.

[Withywindle]

39. But is the universe finite?

If not, then...

[kay1864]

41. Hell yes, me too!

The books to read, the movies to watch, the people to meet, the stuff to learn...60-100 years is not *near* enough time.

As near as I can tell, the only (slim) option is cryonics.

:scared: <--Me in 60 years




Edit: "cryonics", not "cryogenics": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryonics

[Mad_Dem_X]

29. I agree with you, CP!

I don't like to think that I will NEVER see my loved ones again.

[pitohui]

16. i'm not so sure

i have not had the chance to find out if it's true that the most pleasurable existence carried on for eternity becomes "a kind" of hell

i suspect it doesn't because "a kind" of hell at all, but even if it did, allow me to test the hypothesis and i'll get back to you

my experience is that we don't have near enough time to do the things we want to do and enjoy the things we want to enjoy and pursue the goals we want to pursue

[dysfunctional press]

18. well...i'm sure there will be plenty of diversions to keep people busy.

you could probably take classes, join a bowling league, travel...the universe is your oyster.

[jobycom]

20. Just think

bungie jumping without the bungie! :woohoo:

[jobycom]

19. With all that time, maybe Nicole Kidman would eventually get around to me?

:shrug:

An afterlife sounds pretty cool to me. Wish I believed in one. Actually, wouldn't even mind it being Hell, which sounds a lot better than not existing.

[Radio_Lady]

49. That will leave me some time with Hugh Jackman? I sure hope so...

[lizziegrace]

21. My own view?

For those who spent their lives in "hell on earth", I hope there's something better for them. Children who were abused, people who died too young, tortured, abused, sick, forgotten and alone. I'd like to think that they got more than just a horrible life here.

[jobycom]

23. I think for many believers, the attraction isn't their own eternity

but getting to see the people they lost again. That desire is multiplied when the lost one suffered.

[cobalt1999]

32. true.

Although I am an atheist, I would never try and talk someone out of believing because of that very issue. A parent who lost a child probably needs to believe the child is in a better place and they'll be reunited again. If it keeps them going, so be it.

Death is scary. Saying you'll never die means that religion has managed to push that fear back a little in some minds too.

[Radio_Lady]

50. Exactly, Cobalt1999. Many of you folks are right in line with my thinking.

"Death is scary. Saying you'll never die means that religion has managed to push that fear back a little in some minds too."

Excellent post! Thanks.

[SPKrazy]

24. meh, time is a created experience

i doubt in the presence of a surviving consciousness, but an energy death is as I understand impossible so the energy goes somewhere.

but i agree, i don't want to be me for eternity

i have had to stand being me for this life and sometimes that seems a bit much.

:D

[mitchum]

25. Chalk it up to the limits of man's imagination...

"it's gonna be just like right now, but better...and forever!"

[YankeyMCC]

26. I read in the book "Doubt: a history"

that an afterlife was not even part of many ancient religions including the predecessor to modern Judaism and even some early xian sects. I think it was a matter of different sects trying to outdo each other with what bennies you'd get from worshiping their god or gods in their way.

[otherlander]

27. Fear.

Fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear once you type the word fear enough times it starts to look really strange and foriegn. Fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear fear.

[Tyler Durden]

30. Maybe because they're SCARED SHITLESS of dying?

Some of us have legitimate Death Phobia, arising from unresolved abuse or childhood night terrors.

The knowledge of an afterlife of ANY kind would sure ease some of my panic attacks.

[EstimatedProphet]

31. How do you know it would be an eternity?

Time is a trait in this universe. If there's an afterlife when we die, how do we know we don't go someplace outside this universe, and time wouldn't apply anymore?

[montanto]

33. Heaven scares the hell out of me

for that exact reason. Think about it. If heaven is eternity then every event in it is also eternal. I think about having dinner with my fundie sister-in-law and having her say "Isn't God great" an infinite number of times before I get to take my first bite of food? No, thank you. I pray that dead is dead and gone. From my keyboard to God's ear: No After Life!!!

[Pithlet]

34. I don't think there is an afterlife, but part of me wishes there were one.

I try not to think about oblivion being ultimately what's in store. It's frightening to me. I can understand the appeal of believing death really isn't the end.

[Radio_Lady]

45. Pithlet, I agree with you 100%. I wish I could be a believer in things like....

an afterlife, some thing or someone who suffered for ME and is going to make all of this wonderment a reality if I just believe.

However, it's sixty-eight years and counting -- and I'm still terrified of death.

I can only tell myself that general anesthesia was pretty pleasant the few times I've had it. Sleep is restful (for the most part). I hope death is as just as good as that, and that succumbing to it won't be too awful.

[skygazer]

35. Well, I personally believe that when you die, that's it - the end

Which is fine with me. I look forward to getting some rest. :hi:

[Radio_Lady]

46. LOL. See my other post about this.

[Coventina]

37. I went through a childhood freak-out over eternal life.

My dad's a minister who believes in a literal heaven with streets of gold, etc. Life continues on much as it did here, except forever.......

Well, at 8 years old, that idea scared the crap out of me.

Now, I do believe in an afterlife, but I think that it unfolds in stages, and that ultimately there is such a change in consciousness that "eternity" doesn't mean what it means to us as time-bound creatures.

[urbuddha]

38. Re-incarnate

To me it makes more sense that we're all given more than one chance to figure things out.
I do sincerely believe that COMPASSION is the key and those who show more will have a better
existence in their next incarnation.

[Phoonzang]

42. Seems to me that

If just nothingness and non-existence awaits everything you do, and everything anyone else has done or will ever do is pointless. I mean in the end they're just going to cease existing. Eh, I can't really put my thoughts into words... I just think that non-existence at the end of life makes life meaningless since one never gets to see the fruits of one's actions. Anyone you help through actions taken during your life is just going to dissapear and cease to exist anyway. Eventually everyone will die and cease to exist along with any memory of you.

I don't know...I'm an agnostic. I can't handle the idea of non-existence. It's terrifying. I don't like or want to think about it. That's why I stay open to the idea of some kind of afterlife, reincarnation or whatever.

[Radio_Lady]

48. Well, although I've come to the same place as you, Phoonzang...

I don't have that kind of problem with my own identity.

At least my husband and other family members will remember me, for a while.

The bleakness of everyone dying (or the possibility of our species dying out) are not in the picture, at least not for today.

However, your last paragraph was the most appealing one:

"I don't know...I'm an agnostic. I can't handle the idea of non-existence. It's terrifying. I don't like or want to think about it. That's why I stay open to the idea of some kind of afterlife, reincarnation or whatever."

[SteppingRazor]

44. Self-preservation, of course.

You may have no problem with complete oblivion, but the vast majority of people (myself included) have mixed feelings about it at best.

[billyskank]

47. Because if this fucking useless life really is all there is

then I might as well give up today.

[Radio_Lady]

51. Billyskank, sorry you feel that way. Of course, we have NO PROOF of any other life space.

My thesis is, "What can we do to make THIS DAY better?"

No use in "GIVING UP" unless you want to give away the only real essence we have.

Hey, this is way to existential for me...

Is it too early for a beer???

[BarenakedLady]

52. Hey

:hug:

Have you chanted today?

[eyepaddle]

55. The great thing is we do not, and can not, know

so we get to carry on just in case!

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

53. I find it interesting that

I am equally terrified of both the idea of endless existence and the notion of simply not existing. I suppose I'm fucked.

[LaraMN]

54. Open bar?

:shrug:

[eyepaddle]

56. The thought I just had reading this thread,

what could possibly be stimulating for eternity? All I can think of is meeting EVERYBODY, not just your loved ones, but everybody's. It'd be much more interesting if it was every single person, y'know? You could sidle up to Hitler and just say, "Dude, what the fuck were you THINKING?" Since I'm just being whimsical that could be his personal penance having to explain over and over and over and over :wtf: he was thinking.

Of course it'd probably get old before you made through the whole "eternal phone book" but if you never got tired of meeting people it would stay fresh as long new humans lived and died.

There's probably an entertaining short story somewhere near that concept if somebody more ambitious than me wants to take up the challenge.

[hfojvt]

59. there's probably so many people

that I really don't want to meet. I know alot of them today and really wish I did not. I mean it would be disgusting to meet Hitler and listen to his unrepentant delusional, self-aggrandizing rants and excuses and justifications. Now, if he was, say, softened up for a couple thousand years, made sorry for the evil he had done, that would be another story.

I think variety is a key. Sometimes you hang out with people, sometimes you enjoy solitude and majestic waterfalls and long mountain hikes, sometimes you play chess, sometimes you play beach volleyball, sometimes ping-pong (although it's not really fair, because Moses has been perfecting his serve for over 2,000 years and he will break you like a clay tablet and playing chess against God is kinda pointless because he declares 'mate in 37' after your opening move) but if there is no limit to the things you can do, or the people you can meet or the places you can go, or perhaps create, then I think it would be awesome. At least I would be willing to try it for 100,000 years before declaring that it's hopelessly boring.

[Fox Mulder]

58. I kinda hope there is an afterlife...

I would like to think that after we die, we still exist somewhere on another plane instead of being nonexistent. Just not existing anymore is more depressing than being in a Heaven, IMO.

[Brigid]

60. Because after 2 terms of Bush . . .

we deserve it. We've already been to hell.

[quiet.american]

61. If that's what you want, that's what you'll get, no prob. :) n/t