This is a question about eternity. Sometimes you come across people who say they don't want to live forever.
Remove religion from the equation and focus exclusively on the idea of eternal life by whatever means you think is possible.
Given the choice to live forever, would you take it?
I think many people say no because they'll get bored eventually. For me, I don't think the desire to live depends on how entertained we are, but rather how socially satisfied we are. It's about loving and being loved. It's all about who you're with. Interacting with other people. Spending time with those you love, that is what this life is about, and that is what eternal life is about.
Consider the sad reality of suicides. Why do people end their life? Not because they got bored, but typically because they didn't feel loved, they felt excluded, or were experiencing heartbreak. We are social beings, and therefore social reasons are at the forefront of suicide.
So I posit that eternity is not boring, but rather the craving of every heart that's found love.
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That's an interesting one. This forum is the first place I've ever heard anyone else ask this question.
When you look at eternity from a distance it can certainly seem very unappealing, or even terrifying. But if you're in an eternity of bliss or whatever, at what point would you decide to pull that plug?
eternity is a beautiful thing if you have God, Basking in his presence as the book of revelation suggest is a thing to comprehend. we will never grow tired, or weary in his presence.it will be eternal bliss.
"it will be eternal bliss."
Sounds boring.
"Given the choice to live forever, would you take it?"
I think this is a decision that our descendants may actually face in one or two generations. I can see lifespans increasing exponentially as medical science improves, but we'll also need to ask some serious questions about what to do with all that time.
Here's another question. Would you choose a dramatically extended lifespan made possible by science, or an uncertain life-after-death eternity offered by religion?
I would take eternal life but it is going to get spooky when the sun goes red giant and we begin to collide with the Andromeda galaxy.
Good point, chimp. I'd take an extended life but definitely not eternity. As for "baskimg in God's love", I would rather stand on my own two feet than spend eternity on my knees groveling at the feet of a tinpot tyrant with an inferiority complex.
Suicide is caused by many factors. Certainly, a life that has no love by others is 1 factor but not the only one. Physical pain, pressure from various sources are also factors. Take PTSD for one.
I for one don't contemplate eternal life. I take life as it is. We grow old. That is just a fact. We die. That is also a fact. Why worry about things that do not and cannot happen. The best we can do is to live our respect lives the best way we know how.
The idea in "basking in the presence of a god" is just ridiculous. It offers no satisfaction and isn't reality.
When religious people offer it, they are not offering anything. They are asking people to relinquish reality, to relinquish self-determination, and to be obedient to a political authority that has a greedy agenda. (Mind control slavery).
One must have a reason to live to want to stay alive. When they have lost that reason, forgotten that reason, or never develop that reason, they lose the desire to go on. Some cannot cope with the pressures of life. They can't cope with the challenges of life. Others are in so much physical or mental pain that death is a relief to them.
I marvel at people who choose to stay alive when by all accounts they should be dead. Teddy Kennedy willed himself to stay alive for one vote on the Senate floor. My father willed himself to stay alive as long as he possibly could for my mom. The saddest thing is when people die with unfinished business. They have the will to live but they just can't physically do it.
Some people accomplish all they want way before the actually die. They are satisfied with how they lived their life and find no reason to continue.
As far as any evidence can prove, there is no eternal life. There is no reason to live one's live based on what happens beyond one's death. The fear of damnation, the thought of eternal glory, are just carrot and stick propaganda to force obedience and enslavement of the living.
If you do choose to live forever, remember the lesson of Tithonus from Greek mythology and ask for eternal youth as well.
"Tithonus, in Greek legend, son of Laomedon, king of Troy, and of Strymo, daughter of the river Scamander.
Eos (Aurora) fell in love with Tithonus and took him to Ethiopia, where she bore Emathion and Memnon. According to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, when Eos asked Zeus to grant Tithonus eternal life, the god consented. But Eos forgot to ask also for eternal youth, so her husband grew old and withered."
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tithonus-Greek-mythology
Relative to what; a contrast with life as a human and continued into an eternity in similar form in the company of the same species? Heck no. Give me an outrageous ride of infinite dimensions and experiences and I might give a nod to eternity. In other words, give me god status, which is basically what the question alludes to, and I might entertain something versus nothing. Contrived ideas of eternity can make one man shun it and another invite it. It comes down to the individual psyche, which is the same psyche that conjures up notions of the one god in one person that will always be different to another. The question begs an unlimited imagination from a person, which must fail from the asking.