Isn't eternal life just as bad as eternal death?

[Boner_Jones]

What if there was an afterlife somewhere... maybe it was a peaceful place full of light and joy but... then what?

Would we live and grow old like now or... would we be young and healthy forever without any problems? It sounds great at first but... try to imagine living like that for a million, billion, trillion...

trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion years.

And then after that... living the same number of years after that... forever.

I like life and I dont want to die because I fear it but... I think when I experience something I want an ending even though I am irrational and sometimes want to keep living.

So if there is an afterlife how will life be different than now?

[emh]

What if there was an afterlife somewhere... maybe it was a peaceful place full of light and joy but... then what?

Would we live and grow old like now or... would we be young and healthy forever without any problems? It sounds great at first but... try to imagine living like that for a million, billion, trillion...

trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion x trillion years.

And then after that... living the same number of years after that... forever.

I like life and I dont want to die because I fear it but... I think when I experience something I want an ending even though I am irrational and sometimes want to keep living.

So if there is an afterlife how will life be different than now?

I understand where you're coming from and have had similar thoughts. Of course, if there's a heaven or whatever you want to call it, no one knows what it's really like. The one speculation that I've read (that makes some sense to me) is that in the afterlife there's no experience of time. Physicists claim that time doesn't really exist, it's just our brains trying to make sense of our worlds. So I could see how there would be no time in an afterlife.

[jamesbond]

The one speculation that I've read (that makes some sense to me) is that in the afterlife there's no experience of time. Physicists claim that time doesn't really exist, it's just our brains trying to make sense of our worlds. So I could see how there would be no time in an afterlife.

I have heard the same thing, that time really doesn't exist, it's just our brains trying to make sense of the world. Some people who have had near death experiences, say that time was standing still and they had no concept of time.

I guess we will have to wait and see what happens!

[ladislav]

Well, we are supposed to reincarnate and get a fresh new body and then repeat the cycle. That is unless you become an arhat and then you live in a beautiful and light astral body that does not get old in the astral world.

[Boner_Jones]

Well, we are supposed to reincarnate and get a fresh new body and then repeat the cycle.

But that would suck if you live another life putting up with shit all over again... and then repeating the cycle over and over again.... forever. If bad people get punished with a shitty reincarnated life then why does life suck for good people? Is that punishment for something they did?

[Banano]

WHat if we keep on living life after life and never die?
Then wht is point living if your life is shitty(no p***y) and you work hard for little money to pay the bills, would it make sense to terminate your life and see maybe next one will be better, and keep on killing yourself until you are born as a male supermodel or in some rich family so you could enjoy all the goodness

[ladislav]

Well, we are supposed to reincarnate and get a fresh new body and then repeat the cycle.

But that would suck if you live another life putting up with shit all over again... and then repeating the cycle over and over again.... forever. If bad people get punished with a shitty reincarnated life then why does life suck for good people? Is that punishment for something they did?

If you practice a good religion, do good works and study spirituality then your life will be continously improving from body to body and also because not all dreams can come true in one lifetime. We have too many of them for the short time we are here on earth. So, some people reincarnate to pay for their sins, and some to make more dreams come true; most do for both reasons.

[Boner_Jones]

I understand where you're coming from and have had similar thoughts. Of course, if there's a heaven or whatever you want to call it, no one knows what it's really like. The one speculation that I've read (that makes some sense to me) is that in the afterlife there's no experience of time. Physicists claim that time doesn't really exist, it's just our brains trying to make sense of our worlds. So I could see how there would be no time in an afterlife.

Yes... I've heard it before too. Isn't that how we could wait so long to be born... waiting millions, billions, trillions of years...

and not feel the long infinite passage of time?

Actually... if you think about it... we waited FOREVER to be born... because you can go backwards in time to infinity...

So in a sense... we have already experienced infinity... and death... and it wasn't so bad. So we have a preview of what's ahead.

[DarkMinxMish]

I don't think think eternal life and death are exactly what we think.

As human beings when trying to wrap our minds around such a thing as eternity it's murky at best.
There have been some great works on the subject though that give us glimpses to the possibility of what happens on the other side.
I think from my personal experiences that we do experience eternity, but it's drastically different in the concept of living vs dying.
See I believe in reincarnation and past lives, so I really don't think we actually "die". What we perceive as death is just the ending of one life or period and the beginning of another. Or better yet the closing of one's eyes to one existence and the opening of another.
Whether your religious, spiritual, atheist, or whatever in almost every text concerning the afterlife we have been told our souls are eternal things, but our bodies are not. It's been said that the bodies of those who past actually feel lighter. As if a heavy weight or density as been dropped.

I believe in biology and evolution to, but I don't believe humans exist by some accident. The way our world works is amazingly complex yet it's almost as if by design. The human body is more then flesh and blood it's a small copy of our universe in it's own right. It's capable of amazing things, it's just that our spirit has to align with our matter to make it work. There are many things in this world that we have yet to believe or agree on. Subjects that cause people to dismiss them entirely, because they do not conform to the physical laws of this world. Eternity is what slip into when we sleep and dream, when someone has a vision, or takes a drug that causes them to have a extraordinary trip. It's the absence of time and all that time permits. There's no rushing or calendars, because eternity seems to blend all of the past, present, and future into a stream of nothingness. We're in the material world and we are bound by the rules of time. There has to be a reason for this.
Humans always had to go through what time brings life, death, hardships, trials, and pain.

For example in astrology time is represented by Saturn/Chronos; he rules hardships and the material with an iron fist, he leaves nothing undone and can be quite harsh to us in a sense, but he is fair. Time brings pain, but along with that understanding, humility, patience, and discipline. These are lessons that some humans would rather avoid, but they are needed for the next world.
Plus there was something interesting I remembered reading in the bible. Adam God's most beloved creation out of all men didn't even live a day in his eyes. Adam lived to be 999 yrs. short of 1000 and a day for God and all heavenly beings is a 1000 yrs. (He "died" in a spiritual sense the lost of immortality, but still lived on in the physical.)
Now imagine how we live only into our 70s, 80s, and 90s how does that look to the creator? Our life span is shorter than flies...hell we only live for 5 mins that's depressing.

And for those who don't believe in eternity what about all of the little things that happen in life that we often ignore or we give a second thought to only to shake them off. Things like love at first sight, de ja vu (meeting or experiencing something that has already occurred), coincidences, meeting someone you felt like you knew forever, or even family karma. These are all glimpses of eternity in the illusion of time. How nothing is actually gone it only change places, faces, and situations until....~shrugs~ ;p

[Boner_Jones]

If the only reality is the material... then there is no such thing as "evil" or "vice" or "cruelty"... they are just phenomena... like the weather... that can be explained scientifically but... it's so hard to believe that... can science really explain everything? Richard Dawkins is an evolutionist... he tried to explain morality in evolutionary terms but he didn't sound very convincing imo...

[DarkMinxMish]

If the only reality is the material... then there is no such thing as "evil" or "vice" or "cruelty"... they are just phenomena... like the weather... that can be explained scientifically but... it's so hard to believe that... can science really explain everything? Richard Dawkins is an evolutionist... he tried to explain morality in evolutionary terms but he didn't sound very convincing imo...

Sup Boner,

I think science is reliable and can explain quite a bit about our world, but it can only explain what it can see, measure, or sense in physical terms.
Evolution does happen and we see it in our environment how animals, plants, and people (possibly) adapt and change. But people have to remember when science first came on the scene it was seen as a crackpot hobby, sorcery, and/or highly unreliable. People didn't understand it and I'm sure some people still don't...Most of it is hypothesis, ideas/theory, and guessing. The only difference is we back it and believe in it's assumptions and they are often proven to be true. It's helped to shape, create, change and explain our world in a way unlike any other subject before it. Now I think the only negative about it is when it becomes the end all be all and nothing is beyond it. Like how it can explain the process of things, but not know why or how it came to be. What or why and etc...Science and spirituality should go hand and hand when discussing our world. They are seen as separate and opposite when they're not. They are complements. It should be how can we explain the mind and the material, but not the spiritual aspects as well. Science is only meant to validate what can be seen by our eyes and to prove what otherwise would be seen as myth.

It can't prove the divine or eternity and maybe it can who knows, but we still have a long way to go. Where science ends is where spirituality begins and that should be understood by people. For example astronomy and astrology long ago weren't separate they were used to describe our universe as a whole. Men who knew the sciences also were aware of the esoteric and it gave their works greater meaning and understanding.
I think Icke explains it best how reality is like a hologram, it's a collective illusion that all people take part in. Our views form the world and if we only believe in a negative hostile world, then so shall it be. If we were all positive I think our collective image would be quite different. That's why I think evil does exist, because it's main purpose is to keep people in the dark, scared, and oppressed. If we can't imagine anything better than how are we ever going to succeed in changing anything?
Though Richard Dawkins is a very intelligent man, but he solely seems to solely rely on science. And that's ok as well, because thats his reality.