Would you choose to live forever?

[Jainarayan]

At what age would I stop ageing? Now, I suppose. It wouldn't be a very appealing future for me. I have no friends. I have a hard time meeting people to become friends with. I'm actually quite friendly and likeable (so I'm told ) but it's an effort for me to maintain friendships. I (will) have no descendants. The family I have (mine and my husband's), while large, will pass on. The generations coming won't know me. My nieces' and nephews' children, my siblings grandchildren, barely know me now. Some I haven't even met. I will be very much alone. So no, I would not want to live forever in one body. However. Hindu belief is that we do live forever.... it's our ātma, the soul, our real self, that lives forever. Per the Bhagavad Gita, we just discard the old worn body and take on a new one. At some point, however, we are released from the cycle of birth and death in this material existence. That's what I look forward to.

 

[Polymath257]

Yes, if I had the option of self terminating whenever I desire.

THIS^^^^^.

Being *forced* to live forever would eventually be a version of hell.

But being able to extend life to any arbitrary length would be fascinating.

I would just want to the option to die when the repetition got crazy-making.

 

[Polymath257]

Atheists say that a lot but I never figured out why they say it. I mean why would you think that we would be doing the same things over and over again in the spiritual world for all of eternity? Can't you imagine that there would be unlimited possibilities in the spiritual world? Why would you think that a spiritual world would be like a material world?

This would be fine for long *finite* periods of time. Say, a few million years.

But a true infinite amount of time would lead to insanity unless you can forget. And you would have to forget to the point that the old things *seem* to be brand new.

At some point, the newness itself will get tiring. Just another variation of one of the trillions of schemes you have already seem trillions of times.

Even if you extend to infinite dimensions or so
something like that, *eventually* it will get exhausting. And once it becomes exhausting, doing it a trillion times more will produce insanity.

And that would only be the beginning. Even living a googol years would only be the fleeting start. Repeating that a googol times over would *also* only be the fleeting start.

I can readily imagine things could be variable enough to allow 100,000 years to be tolerable. I can push ink that a few billion could be made to be acceptable.

But no, past that, I cannot even imagine there would be enough variation in enough different directions to be tolerable unless you are allowed to forget and see things as new. And eventually, that would be equivalent to dying and being reborn with no memories.

 

[robocop (actually)]

Suppose it’s the end of the 21st century. Technology has advanced enough, to where now it is possible to never die. Human beings can artificially extend your lifespan indefinitely.
Would you take the offer to live forever?
I have death anxiety, but I don’t think I would. I believe in Heaven. I think I would choose to die naturally over living forever. I’m not sure though, if it ever comes down to it.
Would accepting the offer be any different than accepting a healthy diet in order to prolong your lifespan?

I would choose to live forever in a heartbeat.

 

[Nimos]

Suppose it’s the end of the 21st century. Technology has advanced enough, to where now it is possible to never die. Human beings can artificially extend your lifespan indefinitely.
Would you take the offer to live forever?
I have death anxiety, but I don’t think I would. I believe in Heaven. I think I would choose to die naturally over living forever. I’m not sure though, if it ever comes down to it.
Would accepting the offer be any different than accepting a healthy diet in order to prolong your lifespan?

I would, that would be amazing. Especially once we learn to space travel easy and quickly, then I would pull a Cartman on Earth and all the crap that is going on here....

 

[RestlessSoul]

I would choose to live forever in a heartbeat.

This may be the only way we can experience eternity; by focussing on a single heartbeat, we escape the illusion of past and future time, and step into the infinity of now.

 

[robocop (actually)]

This may be the only way we can experience eternity; by focussing on a single heartbeat, we escape the illusion of past and future time, and step into the infinity of now.

I don't believe in time.

 

[Nimos]

I don't believe in time.

Maybe spend a few minutes thinking about that?

 

[robocop (actually)]

Maybe spend a few minutes thinking about that?

But I don't have a few minutes to think about it; there is no time

 

[robocop (actually)]

I want to live to 103...

Statistics show very few people die after 103

Copied that from another board.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Suppose it’s the end of the 21st century. Technology has advanced enough, to where now it is possible to never die. Human beings can artificially extend your lifespan indefinitely.
Would you take the offer to live forever?
I have death anxiety, but I don’t think I would. I believe in Heaven. I think I would choose to die naturally over living forever. I’m not sure though, if it ever comes down to it.
Would accepting the offer be any different than accepting a healthy diet in order to prolong your lifespan?

No. Something will always kill you eventually.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

While such a scenario would be Ideal for intergalactic travel. It would bring with it untold problems for world populations.

Indeed. Perhaps it would be best that the deal also automatically comes with the "cost" of becoming infertile.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Suppose it’s the end of the 21st century. Technology has advanced enough, to where now it is possible to never die. Human beings can artificially extend your lifespan indefinitely.
Would you take the offer to live forever?
I have death anxiety, but I don’t think I would. I believe in Heaven. I think I would choose to die naturally over living forever. I’m not sure though, if it ever comes down to it.
Would accepting the offer be any different than accepting a healthy diet in order to prolong your lifespan?

I think it would depend on who else accepted the same choice.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

Suppose it’s the end of the 21st century. Technology has advanced enough, to where now it is possible to never die. Human beings can artificially extend your lifespan indefinitely. Would you take the offer to live forever?
I have death anxiety, but I don’t think I would. I believe in Heaven. I think I would choose to die naturally over living forever. I’m not sure though, if it ever comes down to it.
Would accepting the offer be any different than accepting a healthy diet in order to prolong your lifespan?

First of all, I find in the Genesis account that 'to never die' was offered to humanity.
Adam and Eve could live forever on Earth unless they broke God's Law.
Heaven was not offered to anyone before Jesus' died.
Then, Heaven was only offered to some people who would have a first or earlier resurrection to Heaven.
They will govern with Christ for a thousand years over Earth or over earthly subjects.
The majority of people can gain 'everlasting life' (to never die) on a beautiful paradisical Earth as Eden was.
Since one's 'death' stamps the price tag of sin as Paid in Full, then the dead can have a resurrection.
Not just a heavenly resurrection for some, but for the majority a physically happy-and-healthy resurrection to live life on Earth.

 

[URAVIP2ME]

THIS^^^^^.
Being *forced* to live forever would eventually be a version of hell.
But being able to extend life to any arbitrary length would be fascinating.
I would just want to the option to die when the repetition got crazy-making.

In Scripture I find Adam and Eve were Not 'forced' to live forever.
They had the choice to obey God and live forever on Earth.
So, yes, anyone can opt out of everlasting life, the choice is ours.
Even physically resurrected ones during Christ's thousand year reign over Earth could still opt out.

 

[Trailblazer]

Well, I'm not an atheist. I say it because when you are dealing with an actual infinite measure of time, it is absolutely inevitable that you would eventually begin doing the same things over and over.

Even if you did some things over and over, why do you think that would that be so bad, as long as you could still do other things that were different? Aren't there some things you do in this life over and over that you enjoy?

 

[Trailblazer]

This would be fine for long *finite* periods of time. Say, a few million years.

But a true infinite amount of time would lead to insanity unless you can forget. And you would have to forget to the point that the old things *seem* to be brand new.

At some point, the newness itself will get tiring. Just another variation of one of the trillions of schemes you have already seem trillions of times.

You are thinking in terms of life in this world and how you would feel from that perspective because you have no other perspective to think with, but I don't believe the spiritual world (afterlife) will be anything like life in this world. Do you think a child in the womb could ever *imagine* what it would see and experience after it was born into this world?:

“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 From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 157

According to my beliefs, time as we know it here, as it is measured by the sun, does not exist in the spiritual world, so we won't be thinking in terms of never-ending time. I mean we will simply keep continuing to exist but we won't be thinking that eventually we will get bored if this goes on forever. Aside from that, I believe there will be an *infinite* number of things to do, places to go, so it will never be boring.

“A friend asked: “How should one look forward to death?”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá answered: “How does one look forward to the goal of any journey? With hope and with expectation. It is even so with the end of this earthly journey. In the next world, man will find himself freed from many of the disabilities under which he now suffers. Those who have passed on through death, have a sphere of their own. It is not removed from ours; their work, the work of the Kingdom, is ours; but it is sanctified from what we call ‘time and place.’ Time with us is measured by the sun. When there is no more sunrise, and no more sunset, that kind of time does not exist for man. Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.” Abdu’l-Bahá in London, pp. 95-96

 

[Polymath257]

You are thinking in terms of life in this world and how you would feel from that perspective because you have no other perspective to think with, but I don't believe the spiritual world (afterlife) will be anything like life in this world. Do you think a child in the womb could ever *imagine* what it would see and experience after it was born into this world?:

I disagree. I am NOT assuming the after life would be the same or similar to life now.

But, I *am* assuming that I would be similar enough to myself to be able to say I am the same person.

And that is quite sufficient to say that an eternal after life would be torture eventually.

 

[Trailblazer]

I disagree. I am NOT assuming the after life would be the same or similar to life now.

But, I *am* assuming that I would be similar enough to myself to be able to say I am the same person.

And that is quite sufficient to say that an eternal after life would be torture eventually.

I believe that in the afterlife you will be the exact same person you were in this life, but I still do not understand how you think you can know about a world *so completely different* from this world will be like. You would have to know that in order to say "eventually it would be torture."

 

[Polymath257]

I believe that in the afterlife you will be the exact same person you were in this life, but I still do not understand how you think you can know about a world *so completely different* from this world will be like. You would have to know that in order to say "eventually it would be torture."

I know *me*. The nature of the external world is less relevant than the nature of the internal world.