Would you choose to live forever?

[We Never Know]

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. It would be like in with the new but never out with the old.
I would assume after long enough it wouldn't be fun anymore.

 

[Trailblazer]

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

Okay, I guess you have made up your mind about this so I am not going to try to convince you of my views.
Nobody really knows what the afterlife will be like, so I am just taking my beliefs and trying to imagine what we might be thinking.

At this point I think you will just have to wait and see what happens after you die. You might be surprised.

 

[Alienistic]

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?

Here, not a chance. Already feel that have outgrown it all and am bored. Familiar places and familiar people everywhere. All worn out. Seen it all and have seen enough. This coming from someone who was born with what what would be considered an easy and good lot in this existence.

If such were possible, ideal eternal life for me would involve being completely and responsibly free, the ability to design myself however I pleased and program, code, script my own world and laws. Travel freely wherever I please to other fellow beings designed worlds.

 

[Trailblazer]

I would assume after long enough it wouldn't be fun anymore.

Depending upon your idea of fun it might not be fun at all, even in the beginning.

 

[Trailblazer]

Here, not a chance. Already feel that have outgrown it all and am bored. Familiar places and familiar people everywhere. All worn out. Seen it all and have seen enough. This coming from someone who was born with what what would be considered an easy and good lot in this existence.

I have a lot of years on you but I have traveled and seen a lot of this country and some other countries, and I have lived in nine states, all by the time I was your age. But there is still much more I would like to see, although I probably won't be able to owing to life circumstances.

This coming from someone who was not born with what what would be considered an easy and good lot in this existence.

If such were possible, ideal eternal life for me would involve being completely and responsibly free, the ability to design myself however I pleased and program, code, script my own world and laws. Travel freely wherever I please to other fellow beings designed worlds.

I believe some but not all of that will come true in the afterlife.

 

[Bird123]

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 could go on for a long time. There is still much to Discover. At some point one could always enter Heaven through the back door!!

Through my travels I have been asking people that if they made a pill that would turn you into a 19 year old, would you take it. To my surprise out of all the people I asked only 1 person said they would. She was a 90 year old lady. She said the next time around she was going to get a Rich husband.

Well, OK! To each their own. On the other hand, I think most are ready for a change after a lifetime.

That's what I see. It's very clear!!

 

[Trailblazer]

Well, OK! To each their own. On the other hand, I think most are ready for a change after a lifetime.

Some are, some aren't. Those who are attached to this material world aren't.
I am ready for whatever God has in store for me and it is not as if it will be a choice.

 

[RestlessSoul]

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.

If at the moment of physical death, we were to find that, having relinquished ego, memory, learned behaviours, beliefs, values, status, gender, race, and all the other things that make us who we think we are, then anything left of us might appear as new and fresh as the outside world appears to a newly released prisoner.

 

[We Never Know]

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."

Isaiah 65:17 says, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

 

[Trailblazer]

Isaiah 65:17 says, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.”

What do you think that verse in Isaiah 65 means?

I think the verse has to be read and in context in order to understand what it means, so I went to read the whole chapter. I believe that the key to what Isaiah was talking about is in the final verse, In the new earth:

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

 

[Bird123]

Some are, some aren't. Those who are attached to this material world aren't.
I am ready for whatever God has in store for me and it is not as if it will be a choice.

Perhaps, it is more of a choice than you realize.

 

[We Never Know]

What do you think that verse in Isaiah 65 means?

I think the verse has to be read and in context in order to understand what it means, so I went to read the whole chapter. I believe that the key to what Isaiah was talking about is in the final verse, In the new earth:

25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

I think its can be taken many ways. I knew someone who said in heaven there would be no memory of life on earth.
When I asked them why they said because if people in heaven retain their memory from living on earth,,,, they would be sad and miss the people on earth ... same as they are sad and miss tge people that go to heaven.

 

[Trailblazer]

If at the moment of physical death, we were to find that, having relinquished ego, memory, learned behaviours, beliefs, values, status, gender, race, and all the other things that make us who we think we are, then anything left of us might appear as new and fresh as the outside world appears to a newly released prisoner.

I believe that is how it will be after we die, we will be like a bird that was finally let out of a cage to fly freely.
I believe our values will remain with us because those are embedded in our soul, but none of that other stuff you listed will remain.

 

[RestlessSoul]

I think its can be taken many ways. I knew someone who said in heaven there would be no memory of life on earth.
When I asked them why they said because if people in heaven retain their memory from living on earth,,,, they would be sad and miss the people on earth ... same as they are sad and miss tge people that go to heaven.

Hard to imagine life without any sadness at all. Just to act as shadow for the joy, it almost feels like we need a little sorrow.

Only a little though, if you’re listening God.

 

[Trailblazer]

I think its can be taken many ways. I knew someone who said in heaven there would be no memory of life on earth.
When I asked them why they said because if people in heaven retain their memory from living on earth,,,, they would be sad and miss the people on earth ... same as they are sad and miss tge people that go to heaven.

I believe there is some truth to that. I think we might remember life on earth for a time, but after a while our memories will fade and we will move on and begin walking a new spiritual path.

Death and Dying in the Bahá'í Faith

 

[Aštra’el]

The worst fates involve existing forever. Imagine being chained to the bottom of the ocean unable to die, or trapped in concrete. Imagine being trapped in the sun or Jupiter and unable to escape with no chance of anyone ever able to find you. Imagine having your consciousness trapped in a simulation and someone designs/ programs it to literally be Hell.

No, Death is a mercy. I am grateful for it.

So I would probably not want to become immortal, unless it came with the powers to avoid these horrible fates. Even then though... probably not. Mortality is a blessing. I would, however, be down with extending my lifespan long enough that I could see as much of the world as I could, learn as many languages as possible, master all the subjects I wish I could in one life, and then build/ create/ develop all the things I wish I could by utilizing that all that knowledge and experience.

Then I would welcome death, like a vampire welcoming the sunlight upon his face after having lived a long and fulfilled life.

 

[Trailblazer]

Hard to imagine life without any sadness at all. Just to act as shadow for the joy, it almost feels like we need a little sorrow.

I believe that the next life has the potential to bring only joy and no more sadness... I said potential.
That word joy made me think of this passage:

“It is clear and evident that all men shall, after their physical death, estimate the worth of their deeds, and realize all that their hands have wrought. I swear by the Day Star that shineth above the horizon of Divine power! They that are the followers of the one true God shall, the moment they depart out of this life, experience such joy and gladness as would be impossible to describe, while they that live in error shall be seized with such fear and trembling, and shall be filled with such consternation, as nothing can exceed. Well is it with him that hath quaffed the choice and incorruptible wine of faith through the gracious favor and the manifold bounties of Him Who is the Lord of all Faiths…” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 171

P.S. I do not think that "they that live in error" is a reference to atheists, I think it refers to people who committed really evil deeds. Also, I think that "the followers of the one true God" refers to anyone who followed the one true God and is not specific to any one religion nor does it necessitate being a religious person. God is God.
All Imo of course as scriptural meanings can be elusive.

 

[Trailblazer]

The worst fates involve existing forever.

In my opinion that would all hinge upon what that existence is like.
But I agree, it sounds rather frightening to exist forever.

 

[Trailblazer]

Perhaps, it is more of a choice than you realize.

Choice is for this life and that is the reason we are here, choice and Discovery.
Imo.

 

[Polymath257]

Okay, I guess you have made up your mind about this so I am not going to try to convince you of my views.
Nobody really knows what the afterlife will be like, so I am just taking my beliefs and trying to imagine what we might be thinking.

At this point I think you will just have to wait and see what happens after you die. You might be surprised.

If anything happens at all, I will be surprised.