Amaranth

I have to wonder exactly what is so grand about life after death, especially of the type commonly described: eternal, peaceful, blissful.

I don't want to live forever. I'm a fickle person, prone to boredom. I'm only nominally sane because I'm exceedingly easily amused. The very idea of having to exist forever is horrifying. There are already times where sleep becomes preferable to facing the yawning boredom and repition life can become. Why do people see it as such a blessing?

Peaceful existance? This, as well, sounds horrible. This is once again very subjective, but I am only able to focus and bring all of my ability to bear when under stress. I only feel complete when I believe that anything less than everything I have will result in failure. Strife, competition, and even failure are the lifeblood of my existance, as I see it.

Blissful? How would that reconcile with the first two, in my case, without somehow changing who I am?

*shrug*

I don't want to live forever, and I would much rather cease to exist than be sent to the modern portraits of heaven/paradise. I don't care if my "essence" is recyled or non-existant; both are equally meaningless to everything that is me.

Why does the afterlife have such a pull on people? Did I just miss a big dose of survival instinct, or what?

Amaranth

Volker.Doormann

It is not about you to decide that, because you was born. If you know that there is a causality law in nature, then you do know, that this, what do argue 'I don't want to live forever' is an effect and there is a cause because you was born. It was not your decision. But now you are here for some time and you can (must?) think about, why you was born here as a naturally effect of causal cause.

Volker

Vitalij

Perhaps you will find some answers (some fresh thoughts for the brain that is) here and here, as well as in the rest of the materials from the shock-site.

"As soon as the soul leaves the crude physical body it immediately faces its Karma (debts to be payed) and its wishes which cannot be realised. And you find yourself surrounded by your former fellow-actors and the public, those you robbed, killed, ate round and tortured. They have been looking forward to meeting you. While you had your body - you were an actor, the one not to be touched. Public seldom kills actors during their performance so as not to spoil the fun, they satisfy themselves with booing and throwing rotten eggs. But after the play... "God knows what may happen!.." The minds acting on the stage are somehow tend to forget that they and their partners are just actors, they overact, and the reality, in the form of Karma, slashes out at them after spectacle.

God takes no part in various actors' parties: each consciousness has its own opinion and claims to the former performer of the part. Such disputes bring about the truth, as well as sharpen awareness of one's own actions and actor's skills. Usually, though, all ends in a scramble to some quite nook. The consciousness is overburdened with its bad teeth (wishes) and its Karma, the debts to be paid. While the creditors, all birds of a feather, will devour him in a matter of second for they are, as a rule, Shiva-consciousness types representing the First Type of Selfconsciousness. They understand and obey only the strong force of those above - but not the pain and suffering of those below. Mercy and compassion are strange to them. That's why in indian mythology they portray god Shiva trampling the weak underfoot."

Enjoy the reading (and afterwards)!

Vitalij
shock-site "Earth - the planet of biorobots"

emotional

Bait for the fish, fish coming...



This description of the afterlife is the way religions describe it. Religions have been wrong about many things, so there's no reason to trust them on the afterlife too. The spiritualist description of the afterlife is that of a copy of earthly existence, with room for personal evolution, strife, struggle and conflict, only without the material body. I for my part honestly don't know, but I'll readily take the spiritualist description over that of mainstream religions any day.



And I don't want to cease existing. The fact is that neither of us is given a choice.



I can only state my own, subjective reason as to why I find the afterlife attractive: the knowledge of continuance. The idea that Mozart is now alive and enjoying his, and others', music. It makes life have a point, while the prospect of oblivion makes life pointless. When I first gained awareness of this world I thought it was good, for all its sorrows; but when I learnt about the fact of death (and I was taught it is oblivion) then I thought the world was sad for all its joys.

If there is no life after death then the world for all its joys is a sad work; but if there is life after death then the world for all its tragedies is a good work. That is where I stand.

Inconnu

It cant be that good or there would be no christians, not for long anyway.

Jamie_L

I can't honestly say if I would want to live forever or not. However, I think I'd like to have the choice. If existence were ideal, we'd all at least get to live until we were so bored with it that we wanted to check out. And those that didn't want to check out, could keep doing the same things over and over again, if that was their thing.

Of course, as with God, wanting it don't make it so.

Jamie

braces_for_impact

I have never understood this point of view. Why is life pointless because it, like everything else is going to end? Many activities we take part in during our lives will end, but that doesn't stop us from partaking in those activities. In contrast, it seems to make life that much more precious. How lucky are we to have been born, how many never get that chance? You need a purpose to your life? Make up your own reasons! It seems sad to me to place my entire worth in life on some unproven idea that there is another life after this one. In the next life, is yet another one required to make it worth living? Does it ever end?

Shadowy Man

Zero.

GeoTheo

I'm easily bored by routine but If I had the freedom to explore and persue my own interests I would like to live forever. After taking the personality test on the other thread, I read a profile of INTP's and it says they commonly have enough intellectual curiosity for several lifetimes. This makes sense to me because I have a lot of broad intersts and have actually come to the realization that I simply will not live long enough to adaquately explore them all.

emotional

The end of one's life, of one's consciousness, is not just like any othe end. It is the end of everything, the end of the universe. The universe as I know it is the one I can observe by my consciousness. If my consciousness ceases, then the universe will be no more. Objectively it will be, but as far as I'm concerned it will be no more.

I just try imagine myself now, aware, and then I try to imagine myself with my consciousness switched off, which is what death will be like if materialism is true. The very thought of it makes my head spin with gripping fear! I can't stare death in my imagination and not feel overwhelming fear. I'm so used to being myself, to being aware, that the thought of all awareness being switched is so unacceptable to me. I can't compute it.



I have no problem with activities ending -- there will always be new ones. I do have a problem with the universe ending. That is the end of all activities.

I don't plan for the afterlife; I live for this moment, trying to do my best towards other human beings, and all I hope is, like Thomas Paine did, for a good future life. I'm not attracted by promises of the Christian heaven, or the orgiastic promises of Islamic heaven, or anything like that. I don't care if after death I get to an astral plane or get reincarnated into another body; all I care is that my self will stay. It is not love of the afterlife, but fear of final death, that fuels my belief in it.

Certainly I try to learn as much as possible about what mode the afterlife may be. From what I've learnt so far, it's nothing to worry about. According to the spiritualist literature, if you are good as a human being and do good works towards others, you are all set. It doesn't matter what you believe, just that you do good works.