Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I dunno. I'm picturing being perpetually stuck in church for eternity.
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Is living forever a fate worse than death?
- Thread starter Twilight Hue
- Start date
It goes deeper than that actually.......if, as it is presumed, adults will never "age" since they never die.....one needs to ask how then exactly do children age, and if they do, what is the mechanism which tells the 'aging process' when to shut down?...and what "age" would that be?
Now THAT is really scary
Thief
Rogue Theologian
indeed....
and extreme solitude would make it worse
hence an old thread I posted long ago.....Is God Insane?
and here we are
All of this. Plus, people had better be prepared to give up procreation if they want to keep themselves on the planet. That's going to rub most people the wrong way.
Aye, let's go screw up the rest of the universe too!
In the short term it would be sad outliving all my friends and loved ones. In the long term. Hundreds and thousands of years in the future, what kind of being would I become?
It is a concept that is difficult to conceive. I have thought about it since I was very young and I still have issues wrapping my head around it. I have thought of it in terms of eating the same meal three times a day every day with knowledge and memory of other meals still in your head.
I read a post that claimed that we would be fundamentally changed to deal with it and I found that idea interesting to a point. That is an idea that I did not get from my education on the Bible and maybe it is one that I missed or speculation by another. After giving it some thought, I did not find as much comfort in that as I think the idea was supposed to invoke. In some ways, I wonder if such an idea would be counterproductive, removing the incentives for the effort by awarding the prize to some other being that does not yet exist, but may. If it is the me that I am that must toil to achieve the prize of immortality, then what have I really won for myself if it is not the me that I am that actually gets that prize?
I think that the difficulties in life make life worth living, by offering us challenges to overcome and to achieve. The continual challenge to overcome them and develop and grow throughout our existence is what makes life worth living in my opinion. If that is removed, what is there for us to do? Where is there someplace to go in an existence of sameness that goes on and on and on?
I know what I have been told, but, even if that is correct, I do not know what to expect of it from where I am now. It is impossible to actually compare what is with what may be. It could be that in order to sustain living in and with infinite bliss, I would have to be lobotomized and give up the person that I am. A prospect that has little appeal to me.
Dreary.
We are just not equipped to deal with each other - or even ourselves - for more than a few decades.
Dell
Asteroid insurance?
And married too, that would be hell... everlasting torment...
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
That is a really good question, and I do not think that there is an answer that would apply across the board. For some people it might be great while for others they might wish they had never been born after they die and then there are probably shades of gray in between those two.
I do not think that anyone can really know which category they will fall into although there are ways to increase our chances of having a good experience and preventing a bad experience.
But still, no matter how great it is, I cannot even fathom the idea of living forever because that is a long time and if I don’t like the scenery, the accommodations or the itinerary, it is not like there is a return ticket or a way to just “not exist” because according to my beliefs all souls continue to exist forever.
I am joking around about it now but this really isn’t a laughing matter, because it is as very serious matter, since the primary purpose of this life is to prepare for the afterlife. And if we are not prepared, there will be repercussions, although those have not been clearly delineated in the scriptures of my religion.
So why don’t more people take this seriously and spend time preparing? I guess that is because they do not believe what I do. The things people waste their time on never cease to amaze me, all the while the clock is ticking away. This life is not forever, but most people live as if it is. That’s rather sad because this is our one and only chance to prepare for the afterlife, where they will be spending eternity.
40: O MY SERVANT! Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come to thee no more. The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 36
And Jesus was on the same page...
Matthew 16:25-26 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
QuestioningMind
Well-Known Member
Extending one's lifespan would be desirable... but immortality would, as you say, be a waking nightmare. The first 500 years, maybe even 1000, might be interesting, but by the time you got to year 10,000 continued existence would be nothing but a burden to be endured. By the year 1,000,000 you'd be bat-sh*t crazy.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I have the SAME sentiments... Don’t tell any Baha’is on me though, they think that the proverbial afterlife is going to be so grrrrreat! My Baha’i husband and I have this conversation often... I tell him I do not want to GO to the afterlife and he tells me I have no choice... and round and round we go.
Baha’is call the afterlife “the Abha Kingdom.” When family member dies, they say “he/she went to the Abha Kingdom” as if he/she just took off for a trip to Europe or something.... It really ticks me off when I get those e-mails... No, he/she DIED... what about they do you NOT understand? I consider it disrespectful to celebrate when someone dies, even if they are going to “a better place.”
Then of course Baha’u’llah did not reveal jack squat about the afterlife, what the scenery, accommodations or itinerary will be like, and especially not what we will be DOING forever.
I am sure glad I am not the only believer thinking of these things, usually it is Nonbelievers who feel the way I do about it, NOT believers.
So I have been forced to look at non-scriptural sources if I want to know any details about the afterlife, and from those it does not sound half bad, if you go to the right sphere, but if not, well..... NOT a pretty picture.
As my dear husband always says, you cannot PASS on the afterlife because it exists whether you like it or not... He is right about that of course, so I have decided to pack my bags and buckle my seat belt and get ready for the ride, since I have NO IDEA where I will end up.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I know, I just keep showing up like a bad penny, but what can I say? The “afterlife” is one of my favorite subjects...
That is TRUE, you hit the nail on the head; living forever makes space travel like a trip to the park. You can GO anywhere you want to go whenever you want to go there just by thinking of where you want to go... And there are many worlds to explore.
I know I whined about NOT being told enough about the afterlife, but with all due respect, Baha’u’llah DID say quite a few things about it so there are quite a few passages from Gleanings that refer to the afterlife. I have quite a collection but I picked out a few that are representative...
Okay, let’s just say that there are Prophets OF GOD... Do you really think that they would suffer and sacrifice their entire lives if there was no afterlife? That would not make any sense at all, not only because THEY get a reward, but because they want us to KNOW about that reward, which is only fair, given all God makes us go through in THIS world to get the reward. The entire passage is longer, but here is the beginning part:
“Absolute existence is strictly confined to God, exalted be His glory. Well is it with them that apprehend this truth. Wert thou to ponder in thine heart the behavior of the Prophets of God thou wouldst assuredly and readily testify that there must needs be other worlds besides this world.” Gleanings, pp. 157-158
So what the following quote says is that nobody BUT God can comprehend the worlds of God we will experience in the afterlife, which Baha’is normally refer to as the spiritual world.
“As to thy question concerning the worlds of God. Know thou of a truth that the worlds of God are countless in their number, and infinite in their range.None can reckon or comprehend them except God, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.’” Gleanings, pp. 151-152
Now, here comes the promise which is supposed to give hope to some of us who suffered a lot in this world...
“O My servants! Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you. Worlds, holy and spiritually glorious, will be unveiled to your eyes.You are destined by Him, in this world and hereafter, to partake of their benefits, to share in their joys, and to obtain a portion of their sustaining grace. To each and every one of them you will, no doubt, attain.” Gleanings, p. 329
Now here comes the reason we are not told MORE about the afterlife... We might kill ourselves in our hurry to get there...
“If any man be told that which hath been ordained for such a soul in the worlds of God, the Lord of the throne on high and of earth below, his whole being will instantly blaze out in his great longing to attain that most exalted, that sanctified and resplendent station…. The nature of the soul after death can never be described, nor is it meet and permissible to reveal its whole character to the eyes of men.” Gleanings, p. 156
This is the other reason we are not told more, because we could never comprehend it. Our soul will take on a new form, a spiritual body, so we will not just be floating around formless...
“The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. When the soul attaineth the Presence of God, it will assume the form that best befitteth its immortality and is worthy of its celestial habitation.” Gleanings, p. 157
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
With NO physical body, you won’t have to worry about ANY of that... That is the beauty of the Baha’i version of the afterlife; we get spiritual bodies, not physical bodies like Christians get...
That would be hell if we had to take our physical bodies with us and live in them forever...
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
No, you will still be you. The only thing that you will leave behind is your physical body, but that is not who you are or where your thoughts and emotions come from. They come from your soul, which works through your body while you are alive in a body. But after your physical body dies, your soul leaves the body and goes to the spiritual world where it takes on a new form, a spiritual body.
“Physical death is nothing. There really is no cause for fear.....
You see, I was so little 'dead' that I imagined I was still physically) alive. Think of it a moment before we pass on. I had been struck by a shell splinter. There was no pain. The life was knocked out of my body; again, I say, there was no pain. Then I found that the whole of myself--all, that is, that thinks and sees and feels and knows--was still alive and conscious! I had begun a new chapter of life. I will tell you what I felt like. It was as if I had been running hard until, hot and breathless, I had thrown my overcoat away. The coat was my body, and if I had not thrown it away I should have suffocated. I cannot describe the experience in a better way; there is nothing else to describe.” Private Dowding, p. 14, 16
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
You just described the Baha'i version of the afterlife.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I am not all that excited at the prospect of living forever either... See what I just said to my friend Ace.
#34 Trailblazer, 10 minutes ago
That about says it all.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
I think that you and I are on the same page regarding the afterlife and what it will be like... It still frightens me though because it will be a big change, and it is forever.
The thing is that we won't be thinking in terms of time after we die and go to a spiritual world, we only think that way in this life... So after we die we won't be thinking "how long is this going to last?" or "when is this going to be over?" That might just be my saving grace...