Immortality:- Is It All It`s Cracked Up To Be?

[Skyweir]

"Married men live longer than single men - they're just more willing to die"

rofl!!!!!! lols ..

well thats where an after-life has a better feel .. immortality and eternity combined!! Being an eternal being with friends and family and peace and happiness for infinity!!

[Biff]

I'd only be interested in immortality if my body never aged over 24 or so... For all the right reasons... and a few of the wrong ones too.

Not to mention, I don’t think a long grey/white beard would suit me well.

[variol son]

It's almost like living to be a very old age and all your friends are dead, and your kin is also dying....

david eddings deals with this in the belgariad/mallorean, where belgarath the sorceror & his daughter polgara the sorceress spend much of their time watching their close friends & family grow old & die. polgara spends half her life (3000 years or so @ the end of the last book) raising a long string of boys, getting them married, making sure they have a son 2 carry on the line of the rivan king, & then comforting their kids when they die. i think it would be horrible.

sum sui generis

[KaosArcana]

Lord Mhoram:

It's almost like living to be a very old age and all your friends are dead, and your kin is also dying...

The thing is, that will happen to most of us anyway.
Most of us will live long enough to see family members or
friends die.

Yeah, it will happen again and again...

But if you think about how many friends and people you've known
over the years who you've never seen again ... is that really any
different?

Your best friend from kindergarten may have died decades ago and
you may never know because you moved away and never saw him
again...


Most immortals in literature don't tend to have families ...

[variol son]

Most immortals in literature don't tend to have families ...

that would b aweful. wots the use of being immortal if u cant have wots really important, & u have 2 break off friendships when the other person is about 65 so u wont b sad wen they die?

sum sui generis

[Worm of Despite]

Now that I think of it, I'd choose to be immortal. I don't have any bonds with people that are so strong that it'd just kill me if they died. And, anyway, I treasure my own company .

But, most important of all, I don't believe in the existence of, well, existence after death--an afterlife. So, yeah, from my perspective, immortality is all it's cracked up to be. If I have to choose between living forever--even if its a depressing, sad life--I'll choose that next to non-existence any day of the week.

Following is an afterlife rant, for those interested:

Spoiler

Plus, if there IS an afterlife I don't want to go to it. First off, I don't want to spend eternity with the drunken uncle I hardly knew. Second off, short of being drugged/bereft of true free will/made into programmed robots, I don't see how we humans can attain peace and happiness for infinity if we can't do it here on earth for 2 years. Heck--the afterlife's just too hokey for me. It's just another man-made fable--story--a Sugarcandy Mountain.

I mean, I'd get bored with centuries and centuries of happiness and "all our dreams are true". I mean, that's great, but where do you go from there? It's lonely at the top. I'd get bored with it. I'd probably kill myself and suffer a second death! Ha! I mean, if the afterlife were a book, I wouldn't want to read it. Nothing interesting would happen. No plot. One-dimensional characters. And most importantly, no books or Internet. Boooring

[danlo]

As Lord Foul u have 2 "live" with immortality anyway...

[Worm of Despite]

If I could float through outer space on an eternal odyssey, much like the star child in 2001, then I'd oblige. What a journey that would be. Of course, Thus Spake Zarathustra would always have to be played--and blaringly loud and powerful, at that. Heh . . .

[[Syl]]

Even before trees rocks I was nothing
When I'm dead nowhere I'll be nothing

All the bad things I do will go up in smoke
And so will I

Here I am simply trying to get into your head
You think you were born you die what a pity

I won't die I won't go away I'll always be here
no good asking me I won't speak

you poor sad thing thinking death is real
all by itself

I'm alive! right? don't we say that?
we don't see the bones we walk on

nature's a killer I won't sing to it
I hold my breath and listen to the dead singing under the grass

long life
the wild pines want it too

[Worm of Despite]

nature's a killer I won't sing to it
I hold my breath and listen to the dead singing under the grass

That was one of your old sigs! Love that line. My favorite by Ikkyu is probably this poem:

A Fisherman

Studying texts and stiff meditation can make you lose your Original Mind.
A solitary tune by a fisherman, though, can be an invaluable treasure.
Dusk rain on the river, the moon peeking in and out of the clouds;
Elegant beyond words, he chants his songs night after night.

[[Syl]]

Yep. He manages to put an almost infinite amount of meaning in so few words.

[Fist and Faith]

In Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long challenges them to find a reason for him to stay alive; something interesting that he's never done before. Otherwise, he's going to kill himself. He's been around for a couple millennia.

[Worm of Despite]

I'll bet he falls in love!

[Fist and Faith]

Well, he'd done that before!!

[Worm of Despite]

Spoiler

You can tell me. I don't mind spoilers!

[Biff]

"Married men live longer than single men - they're just more willing to die"

rofl!!!!!! lols ..

well thats where an after-life has a better feel .. immortality and eternity combined!! Being an eternal being with friends and family and peace and happiness for infinity!!

Two very interesting thought processes here...

Should I desire to be an earth bound immortal clothed in flesh... so I might get married, have know the anguish of putting up with a nagging wife for 50 years only to have the option of doing it over and over and over again till I figure out how to do it right... (Thank God I don’t have this luxury).

Or to transcend, shed off my flesh, and become one with God and the eternal bliss he offers... forsaking those whom I knew in the former life, seeking only to glorify my maker.

Hmmmmm? I think the latter appeals to me more and it seems like a whole lot less work!

[Worm of Despite]

Let's say that the existence of a God or an afterlife can not truly be known or answered by us. Let's say that, perhaps, that it could be one of these two:

A) You wind up becoming one with God/super happy afterlife/tra la la for eternity!

Or

B) Turning into dust, decomposing, atoms dispersing . . . no afterlife. Nothing--period!

I believe in the latter. Not because I'm pessimistic about life or that I see that there's no point in life. Does there have to be a point to life? Is there any meaning? No. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to enjoy it! I'm just saying, B makes more sense to me, whereas all the stuff in A comes from human lips, human books. Sounds like fairytale myths to me. Till we can send CNN reporters to the afterlife and they do a story on it, then I'm not jumping from my beliefs. But, anyway, that's why I'd choose to be immortal--because it's better than what my view of death offers: no awareness or existence at all whatsoever.

[Biff]

Hey Lord Foul...

You know that little guy jumping over the little goblin under you name... I know he believes in life after death...

I have watched him go on for hours tempting fate, teasing death by that nasty little beast.

He would not be so flippant with his life if he felt nothing was waiting for him once the little bugger gets him.

[Worm of Despite]

It is a total misconception if one believes that atheists and those who do not believe in life after death don’t enjoy life to its fullest. We do, just like everybody else does. Maybe even more, because we know this is our one shot of awareness and that we are very lucky that we're living in a pretty much lifeless universe. And I actually feel better, because I feel I know the truth.

Yes, and look at what believing in life after death has gotten my bouncing avatar into! He probably will die for thinking his life is nothing because there is some mystical afterlife when he dies--BUT, when he does die, it'll be "welcome to the worms", not "welcome to heaven"! Silly people! Quit making up devices like "the afterlife" and then saying it’s real a thousand or so years later!

Anyway, God, religion, the afterlife, spiritual yada yada comes exclusively from humans who have had yet to die. So, basically, ALL that stuff is made up. Should I base my view of death on human inventions?

[Furls Fire]

Something tells me I shouldn't jump in here, but I would like to say something. And that is...

No one has the right to tell someone else what to believe. Each of us has our own feelings and faiths in what we perceive as truth. Whether it is God, Buddha, Allah, or nothing at all. Afterlife or dust...some believe death in this life is just the first step to the next...and some do not. So be it.

The choice is the individual's. And the masses should let it be.

Peace,
Furls Fire