If you don't believe in life after death...

[Homerboy]

Previous Thread of Inspiration:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=2053187&forumid=1

Nocturnal's thread got me thinking (as maybe it did other posters/readers). If you don't believe in life after death, do you hope/wish there is life after death? The 2 are not mutually exclusive.

 

[ntdz]

I don't believe in life after death...I don't know if I want life after death, probably..It's kinda scary to think that you'll be dead and never be conscious again.

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
Previous Thread of Inspiration:http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=38&threadid=2053187&forumid=1

Nocturnal's thread got me thinking (as maybe it did other posters/readers). If you don't believe in life after death, do you hope/wish there is life after death? The 2 are not mutually exclusive.

Obviously I would like to live eternally, be able to fly around the universe or chill on a bunch of clouds, but the concept of afterlife is stupid.

Just curious to those who believe in heaven... what are the age requirements to get into heaven? Do they have to be born or are there a bunch of aborted baby fetuses there? A bunch of infants or old people?

 

[yowolabi]

I can't think of anything that i'd enjoy doing for eternity. The prospect of it scares me much more than being dead.

 

[Homerboy]

Obviously I would like to live eternally, but the concept of afterlife is stupid.

Just curious to those who believe in heaven... what are the age requirements to get into heaven? Do they have to be born or are there a bunch of aborted baby fetuses there? A bunch of infants or old people?

wait I said "afterlife" not "heaven" they are not the same.
Feeble attempt at a troll.

 

[edro]

I do not believe in life after death, but I wish there was a heaven, especially the fictional Islam heaven with 72 virgins.

 

[Descartes]

I don't believe in it, so I'm indifferent to it. I plan to maximize the only life experience I know to be certain and let the rest follow as it may.

 

[Jeff7]

Wish? Yes. Hope? No. Hope implies that an idea is regarded as a possibility. I do not regard an afterlife as a possibility. I see us as simple primates with sentience. That sentience dies when the "host" organism (your body and brain) dies.


Do I wish there was something else? Sort of - I'd like longer lifespans. These little ~75 year lives are just so short. There are things I'd like to live to see, but likely won't. Efficient, controllable nuclear fusion, an end to poverty, major advances in medical science and nanotechnology, sentient robots, the derivation of the Grand Unified Theory, advances in particle physics and computer modelling, and others. Nuclear fusion, I think I may see that. But there are so many other things yet to see.
I also don't like how people can spend so much of their lives to become truly versed experts in something, only to find themselves then in old age, with little time to put that vast knowledge to good use. Then, when they die, so much of that investment seems lost. Granted they can make an impact on the world before passing, but still, it's a lifetime of learning gone, trapped, and then lost, in a dead, decaying brain.

 

[Kadarin]

I hope there is some kind of life after death, but I do not believe that there is (in the absence of evidence, there is no point in belief).

 

[bignateyk]

I dont see how the idea of some kind of existence after this one is any more unrealistic than how my current existence came to be.

In fact, to me, the more confusing issue is how I came to be in the first place. I think of all the billions of humans, all the trillions of other creatures, all of which have to have their own existence, and then I think, "why me". What the hell are the odds that I ended up here? Out of the infinite number of creatures, how did I get so lucky as to be a human?

Would I have been here at all if a different one of the millions of sperm cells had gotten to the egg before the one that fertilized it with me?

Then I begin to think even bigger than that...

The concept of life itself is hard enough to understand, let alone the concept of the origen of the universe out of nothing.

Yet people sit here and act like others are stupid for thinking there are other planes of existence when they dont even have a damn clue what their current existence is.

 

[dullard]

My definition of hell: being conscious for an eternity (before or after death). After having the same conversation for the millionth time, doing the same task for the millionth time, reading the same book for the millionth time, watching the same rerun for the millionth time, etc, I will go insane. This is even true once I reach the billionth time of banging J.Alba. I literally would beg and plead to end that eternity of monotony. So clearly, I do not hope that there is an eternal life after death.

Also, having an eternity later completely devalues life now. What is the importance of a insignificant ~70 years here when you have an infinite amount later? Just kill us all early on and get the stupid before death part over with if you believe in an eternal after life.

I would like a long life after death, hundreds or thousands of years. But I certainly don't want the typical eternal ____ after death (insert any religious views into the blank).

Note: I also do not believe in the after life.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: dullard
My definition of hell: being conscious for an eternity (before or after death). After having the same conversation for the millionth time, doing the same task for the millionth time, reading the same book for the millionth time, watching the same rerun for the millionth time, etc, I will go insane. This is even true once I reach the billionth time of banging J.Alba. I literally would beg and plead to end that eternity of monotony. So clearly, I do not hope that there is an eternal life after death.

That presupposes that your consciousness transfers over to eternity unchanged, though. If your consciousness is altered in the process, it's possible that it could be different.

 

[xSkyDrAx]

most people just forget to hit the any key to respawn

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
it's possible that it could be different.

But, if we are to assume conscious ability is completely different, how are we to know if it is a pleasant experience or not? If things are that radically different and are not understandable by us at this point, why would I hope for it?

Suppose you had an empty box. Inside is either a dollar bill or a piece of dog crap that will fly all over you. Would you hope to open the box? I wouldn't. Sure, this change in consiousness may lead to something better (the dollar bill). But it could just as easilly change to something worse (the dog crap). Since I wouldn't be able to know which change will happen, I can not hope for the change.

If it is eternal and if consciousness is somehow changed so that boredom isn't possible then I would want an eternal after life. But without that latter condition met, I won't hope for it.

 

[jjones]

I don't believe in life after death, nor do I wish for one. I can hardly keep myself entertained and/or amused now, why would I want an eternity of that?

 

[BurnItDwn]

Sure, I want to be immortal. But, just because I want it, that doesn't make it so.

There is no life after death. There is nothing after death. Death is the end of the road.

I wish it wasn't so.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: dullard
My definition of hell: being conscious for an eternity (before or after death). After having the same conversation for the millionth time, doing the same task for the millionth time, reading the same book for the millionth time, watching the same rerun for the millionth time, etc, I will go insane. This is even true once I reach the billionth time of banging J.Alba. I literally would beg and plead to end that eternity of monotony. So clearly, I do not hope that there is an eternal life after death.

Also, having an eternity later completely devalues life now. What is the importance of a insignificant ~70 years here when you have an infinite amount later? Just kill us all early on and get the stupid before death part over with if you believe in an eternal after life.

I would like a long life after death, hundreds or thousands of years. But I certainly don't want the typical eternal ____ after death (insert any religious views into the blank).

Note: I also do not believe in the after life.

One episode of Voyager featured a member of the Q Continuum who wanted to die. He'd done everything else. Death was the only thing in the Universe that had hadn't done. Eternity does seem like a very long time.

When the various religions were sprouting up ages ago, it was probably a game of one-upsmanship. "Oh yeah, well OUR afterlife is 10,000 years."
"Well, well, my afterlife will be forever!!! Beat that!"

Originally posted by: bignateyk
I dont see how the idea of some kind of existence after this one is any more unrealistic than how my current existence came to be.

In fact, to me, the more confusing issue is how I came to be in the first place. I think of all the billions of humans, all the trillions of other creatures, all of which have to have their own existence, and then I think, "why me". What the hell are the odds that I ended up here? Out of the infinite number of creatures, how did I get so lucky as to be a human?

Would I have been here at all if a different one of the millions of sperm cells had gotten to the egg before the one that fertilized it with me?

Then I begin to think even bigger than that...

The concept of life itself is hard enough to understand, let alone the concept of the origen of the universe out of nothing.

Yet people sit here and act like others are stupid for thinking there are other planes of existence when they dont even have a damn clue what their current existence is.

Anthropic principle - if things didn't happen in a way that would have made you, you wouldn't be around to ask, "Why me?"
I'm sure if one of those other millions of sperm cells had gotten there first, the result of that would still say, "Why me?" If "you" had been born as a snake, you wouldn't have the self-awareness necessary to think of the idea of "me" much less the ability to formulate a question as complex as "why."

If there were an "afterlife," I'd also like to be something less limited than a flesh-and-blood human. Something with greater consciousness, greater mental capacity, and fewer physical and temporal limitations.

 

[torpid]

Related question... if you could transfer all your memories and experiences to your children by having them drink some laced water created by drowning a giant worm, would you want to? I'm not sure I would. I think them having that would make them jaded, as I believe ultimately all people are inevitably doomed to become once they have enough life experience.

 

[Leros]

It would be nice, but I don't believe in it.

 

[Dumac]

I don't believe in an afterlife, but would give almost anything for one.

 

[DainBramaged]

I believe in life after death but I wish I didn't. :\

 

[AbAbber2k]

Don't believe and wouldn't care either way. I don't remember my past lives so my consciousness probably wouldn't carry over to my next one.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Astaroth33
I hope there is some kind of life after death, but I do not believe that there is (in the absence of evidence, there is no point in belief).

 

[wahoyaho]

Don't think there is life after death, and I don't care either way

 

[Luthien]

Your poll sucks it should be;

NO and Yes

not No I hope not and Yes I hope so