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Is living forever a fate worse than death?

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
I'd say it would depend on how one ages...

If I was to be immortal and always have the body of say a 30 year-old then great

But if I'd have a frail and elderly body then maybe not so great

But I think medical science can only deliver us the latter option!
 

ACEofALLaces

Active Member
Premium Member
Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?
I see immortality as a REAL potential nightmare. With no (apparent) "escape clause" in any of the more popular 'religious contracts, living forever could very well be a sentence WORSE than the so-called fiery hell.

Just think about it for a minute or so. At FIRST glance it sounds fantastic....time to do whatEVER you want to do, see whatEVER you want to see, go whereEVER you want to go, for freaking EVER.

THEN what? Start all over again and do them all over AGAIN......and AGAIN......and AGAIN......forever is really an awfully looooooong time.

I'd like to live longer than my appointed time of usually less than a hundred years.....a couple hundred more would be nice....by then, I probably would be ready to hang my hat up and flip the light off for good.

But living forEVER? With NO WAY OUT? I think I'll 'pass' on that one.
 

Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
The repercussions would be the same overpopulation problems and consequences we have now, only even worse. Instead of it being political suicide to talk about population control like it is in our world, it would be political suicide not to.
 

ACEofALLaces

Active Member
Premium Member
The repercussions would be the same overpopulation problems and consequences we have now, only even worse. Instead of it being political suicide to talk about population control like it is in our world, it would be political suicide not to.
Not so, when you realize that there is an entire universe out there to be explored, and even colonized in some instances. Living forever, makes space travel like a trip to the park.
 

shmogie

Well-Known Member
I see immortality as a REAL potential nightmare. With no (apparent) "escape clause" in any of the more popular 'religious contracts, living forever could very well be a sentence WORSE than the so-called fiery hell.

Just think about it for a minute or so. At FIRST glance it sounds fantastic....time to do whatEVER you want to do, see whatEVER you want to see, go whereEVER you want to go, for freaking EVER.

THEN what? Start all over again and do them all over AGAIN......and AGAIN......and AGAIN......forever is really an awfully looooooong time.

I'd like to live longer than my appointed time of usually less than a hundred years.....a couple hundred more would be nice....by then, I probably would be ready to hang my hat up and flip the light off for good.

But living forEVER? With NO WAY OUT? I think I'll 'pass' on that one.
You are assuming that you would still have the capacity to be bored. From the Christian perspective, you would not. Nor would you get depressed or have self pity.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
Absolutely horrendous!!!!

Imagine being incontinent for eternity.
Suffering of arthritis for ever
Being Grumpy for 99.99% of your life
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
You are assuming that you would still have the capacity to be bored. From the Christian perspective, you would not. Nor would you get depressed or have self pity.

So I would no longer be me. I would no longer have the range of emotions appropriate for being human. That sounds even worse, truthfully.
 

ACEofALLaces

Active Member
Premium Member
You are assuming that you would still have the capacity to be bored. From the Christian perspective, you would not. Nor would you get depressed or have self pity.
It is not my usual style to be asking for some sort of veracity for such a claim...however I must ask for it in this particular instance.
Can you back that up with some actual scriptural evidence, or did you simply make it up?
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
I've always thought that a lifetime of 10,000 years would be about the best. After that, you start seeing too many repetitions.

Perhaps 100,000 years could be endurable. But much more than that and I don't see it as conducive to mental health.

But this is a mere speck when it comes to forever.

Think of it like this. A billion seconds comes out to be about 31 years. A trillion second to about 31,000 years. Imagine every one of those seconds expanded out to be a full year. is there any way to keep from going insane from boredom?

And a trillion is nothing in forever. It is 'only' 10^12. After a googol years, 10^100, you are still at the beginning stages of forever. That's 10,000 trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion.

But you can then go to a googol googol googol googol googol googol googol googol googol googol, which is 10^1000. And this is still only the beginning!

Sorry, but the observable universe as a whole has 'only' about 10^80 subatomic particles in it and has been around for 'only' 4*10^17 seconds. Even if you devoted 1000 years to studying each and every combination of all of those particles, you would *still* only be starting on forever.

So, yes, eternal life would be a horrible, horrible fate. In and of itself, it would be hell.
 

1213

Well-Known Member
Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?

It depends on what kind of life it would be. If it would be life where unrighteous rule, like on earth nowadays, it would be nightmare to all righteous people. If it would be life where righteous rules, it would be nightmare for those who are unrighteous and want evil things.
 

osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Eternal life would be worthwhile if it were supernatural, with neverending things to explore and learn about, where the righteous rule, and virtue is all you could ever feel, and evil had no possibility of ever existing. If we could become co creators, and life had color and personality, if everyone was unique and there were endless worlds with endless self sufficient life, and endless challenges. Then i would gladly sign up.

If the universe as known is all there ever is, and eternal life existed. Yikes! Scary thought!
 

wandering peacefully

Which way to the woods?
Weither religious or not, what would be the repercussions be if immortality was possible?

Would it be great, or a waking nightmare?

Is Silicon Valley's quest for immortality a fate worse than death?
Yes! I love life but who the heck would want to do it forever? I think old people answer this more in the negative than youngsters who "know" life is long and they feel great physically. And older folkes have more wisdom and experience about what a long life entails.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
There are certain contingencies that the idea of "living forever" kind of ignores when being discussed generally/casually. For example, getting off of Earth and finding another place suitable to sustain human life - what if that never becomes a reality before the world is destroyed? You'd be destroyed along with it. So even "living forever" isn't necessarily attainable without various types of refreshment.

But, assuming one could eventually get off the Earth before ultimate destruction, personally, I think I could do living forever. You'd have infinite time (literally) to figure things out, study the universe, maybe be the one who gets out there. People keep mentioning repetition, but that old saying about change being the only constant is pretty much true when you look at how the universe operates. There would always be new things to discover, new things cropping up, as old things were destroyed. Shifting of culture, new people, new life-forms. you'd get to see life evolve as no human being has ever gotten to. You'd come to know the limits (if there are any) to the various forms of life possible/plausible. Imagine an eternity of experimenting in plant husbandry, breeding Venus fly traps under various survival pressures, trying to create a Little Shop of Horrors. Think of the breadth of mechanical/chemical/electrical/medical/etc. knowledge you could amass, very possibly coming to conclusions about pairings of various methods and technologies that no one has ever come to because they specifically couldn't see that "big picture" you would have. There would always be new things to see and new things to try. And there would always be other life-forms surprising you with new culture and twists on old favorites - because no one, no matter how much knowledge they have, has infinite imagination. And if you ever came to a point that you felt there weren't anything "new enough", you'd have your choice millions of lovely places you'd know to settle down and relax for a nice long while - and any number of other types of beings to interact with. Imagine knowing, for certain, that you had absolutely no responsibilities to attend to, no deadlines to meet.

Besides... if it really got as bad as everyone assumes it would, you just let yourself die with the next planet that sees its end, or chart a course into the nearest star. Yeah... I think I could handle it. No problem.
 

Daemon Sophic

Avatar in flux
Similar to a couple of the posts above, there are a few caveats that would be required before I accepted true mortality. The first would be that I would stay relatively young, say 18 to 40 years old and in perfect health forever. Also no chance of mental instability throughout my existence. But also very important would be some kind of super-powers, like flying beyond light-speed and being able to travel through any object. Without those two (at a minimum) you will likely become stuck inside a star or a black hole for billions or even trillions upon trillions of years.

That would suck.....big time.


Truly though, whatever form of immortality I might be granted, I would want some “escape clause” so that I could decide to die, and if after a few centuries of not changing my mind, I would return to being simply a mortal person and die.

After all, as an agnostic, regardless of all the things that I could study and see in all the places that I could travel to (with the super-speed mentioned above) I would never have the answer to the final question of ‘what exists beyond death?’
 

Terrywoodenpic

Oldest Heretic
I have now passed my 84 birthday.
there is no doubt at all that I am slowing down.
there will come a time when I am more an observer than a participant.
This is a trend that will inevitably continue. And not one to relish.

it is very obvious that there is not space or resources on earth for a race of imortals.

Fortunately it is unlikely to be possible.
 

George-ananda

Advaita Vedanta, Theosophy, Spiritualism
Premium Member
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