The Afterlife has to Suck

[bigfatcarp93]

I've been thinking: the afterlife, no matter what it is, has to suck, right? I mean, because it goes on for eternity, you know? Look at it this way: let's say the afterlife is heaven, in the traditional christian view. And let's say that once you're there, you can have and do whatever you want, and be happy forever. But the problem is just that: FOREVER. As in NO END. Eventually, you'll run out of things to do. Even if that takes, let's say, a trillion years. Now, a trillion years is a madly, insanely huge amount of time, far beyond what any human can concieve. But let's say it takes that long for you to do everything you can imagine for fun, to burn through every inch of happiness heaven has to offer, and get bored. Well, okay, that's just boredom, whatever. But what do your have to look forward to after that? Another trillion years of the same. And another. And another. And on and on until you go insane. And even when you do go insane, IT STILL CONTINUES. For eternity.

I mean, that's the theory, right? That the afterlife goes on forever? Well, forever is A FUCK OF A LONG TIME. Even if the afterlife is something horrible like hell or something. That gives you adversity, which will take longer to get boring, but the same principle will apply.

This is kind of a scary thought, right?

Captcha: They ate it.

...

...Yikes.

 

[Jedoro]

Assuming there is a paradise in the afterlife, maybe the deity that created it removes boredom from that realm of existence? Bam, something that's cool for ten seconds is now cool for a trillion years.

 

[theparsonski]

We're simple beings at our cores, we can imagine neither eternity nor what it would be like to not exist. Our brains simply cannot process it. Therefore we will not be able to comprehend death until we experience it.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

My thinking is that when you get to heaven, or whichever afterlife you prefer, you won't care when you get there, and the concept of boredom is non-existant.

There's no way we can use human understanding to something we have no clue about, or even what the experience will be like there.

 

[krazykidd]

You assume it is never changing . This could change couldn't it ? Add new and different stuff. And you also assume that we would have the same mental state that we do now. We may be able to percieve things differently who knows. No use worrying about this stuff, when it happens it will already be too late.

Capcha : With bells on . Thats true, everything is more fun with bells on .

 

[TheIronRuler]

There is no after-life.
Enjoy your life on earth. Drink heavily. Get a Wife/Husband or a cat. I personally prefer dogs.
Relax. There is nothing there. Nobody returned to tell us how awesome or crap it had been because there is no return from the dead.

 

[Asita]

Well, I feel obliged to point out that you're limiting the possibilities based on preconception. Who's to say that if our consciousness survives the death of our bodies that it remains so for all eternity? Why does an afterlife necessarily have to last from death to the end of time itself? It's certainly a possibility, but in the end it's one of many.

The afterlife could be eternity, it could be oblivion, it could be another life (or series of lives) followed by oblivion. Heck, even eternity doesn't even have to be consistent in nature or quality, nor does it require that your memory be fully functional. Given that we have little-to-nothing to work with, it's entirely possible that a person in a given afterlife could very well develop anterograde amnesia, and thus be incapable of creating long-term memory. An afterlife could be fully under a given person's control like in What Dreams May Come. There's even the possibilty that the world we're in right now is itself an afterlife experience, in which case memory before this life is hardly a given.

Now of course my point in all this is that I consider it folly to speak of the experience of an afterlife in such broad terms with any kind of certainty. There's simply too much variation between claims and sparse evidence to support any of them, so the only real certainty we have about it is our uncertainty.

Captcha: fire + Brim stone

*slowclap* Well played, Captcha. First time I've gotten one so close to the subject matter on the first go.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Some versions of the afterlife are very different and avoid this trap, which unless your god selectively lobotomises you (as some posters have suggested) youre going to get bored. Also i think surprise lobotomy of any of my emotions is very rude. Just saying. Heres one i saw the other day that i thought was good.

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1125043/pg1

Its called the "egg". Its a fantastic little read. The afterlife might be like this instead! As an atheist this is the most interesting concept of afterlife ive ever come into contact with.

 

[Esotera]

What I want to know is whether any potential God would let you sleep up there, and if they didn't, how they plan to get around that. Because sleep seems pretty essential for a healthy mind, and if there are billions of dead people up in the sky who have been jacked up on caffeine/amphetamines for the past few thousand years, then I'll quite happily burn in hell or go to purgatory.

 

[eggy32]

In that infinite time someone would create some sort of memory erasing thing that everyone would use to erase their memories of fun things and make everything new and fun again.

 

[Rawne1980]

Well, i'm taking over Hell so i'd imagine i'll find something to entertain myself with for an eternity.

 

[Psykoma]

Maybe the longer you're there the more intelligence/abilities you gain, and eventually you're potent enough to become a 'god' and make your own universe to have fun with and watch over.
Then when that universe ends, however many billion or trillion of years it takes, you do it over again, changing a few characteristics and watching what it does, continually gaining knowledge.

 

[Silent_suicide]

In reply to Psykoma's post, maybe that's the "proof" behind the multi-verse theory, billions of "gods" allowing their creations to play out in different ways and learning from each other's mistakes and decisions?

Personally, I'm fairly certain that the Afterlife doesn't exist, but that Egg story was a beautiful little read

 

[Psykoma]

In reply to Psykoma's post, maybe that's the "proof" behind the multi-verse theory, billions of "gods" allowing their creations to play out in different ways and learning from each other's mistakes and decisions?

If so, it would do something I wouldn't have thought possible, which is to make the marvel/DC multiverses seem simple in comparison.

 

[geK0]

You assume it is never changing . This could change couldn't it ? Add new and different stuff. And you also assume that we would have the same mental state that we do now. We may be able to percieve things differently who knows. No use worrying about this stuff, when it happens it will already be too late.

Capcha : With bells on . Thats true, everything is more fun with bells on .

Installing Heaven patch 1.8.6

patch notes:
-Removed Hitler due to popular demand
-Removed the requirement to believe in Jesus' existence in order to gain entry
*those denied entry for this reason will be re-evaluated
-You can now ignore prayers from loved ones by blocking their prayer requests
-fixed glitch where souls could phase through the pearly gates before being granted entry
-and more

OT:

Well if there were an afterlife, and you could have whatever you wanted, I suppose one could have their memory erased when/if they get bored.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Huh, the responses have all been decent points. In retrospect, I should point out that I myself don't nesessarily believe in an afterlife, but you know...

 

[Necron_warrior]

You assume it is never changing . This could change couldn't it ? Add new and different stuff. And you also assume that we would have the same mental state that we do now. We may be able to percieve things differently who knows. No use worrying about this stuff, when it happens it will already be too late.

Capcha : With bells on . Thats true, everything is more fun with bells on .

Installing Heaven patch 1.8.6

patch notes:
-Removed Hitler due to popular demand
-Removed the requirement to believe in Jesus' existence in order to gain entry
*those denied entry for this reason will be re-evaluated
-You can now ignore prayers from loved ones by blocking their prayer requests
-fixed glitch where souls could phase through the pearly gates before being granted entry
-and more

OT:

Well if there were an afterlife, and you could have whatever you wanted, I suppose one could have their memory erased when/if they get bored.

My drink.
It came out my nose.

-Anyone attempting to an instance into god's home will be nerfed.
*Related note, all true believers are being nerfed for balance with semi-believers.

OT: Meh, its kinda like Immortality. If you don't think about it too long, you still want it.

 

[M920CAIN]

I'd rather not think about it. I don't think I'm afraid of death. More of the experience of dying, but wondering about how afterlife is... I'd rather not think about it. I'll just see it for myself or not . I'll say this though: if the afterlife has good food and entertainment (movies, videogames, music)... boy it's gonna be one sweet trillion years for me!

 

[Breaker deGodot]

Let's look at it from a theological point of view, specifically a Judeo-Christian one. Let's assume for a moment that there is a God. Now, if he's God, then logically he should be completely all-powerful and able to do absolutely anything, right? If that's true, then it should be too hard for him to keep us entertained for all eternity. Does that make sense or am I just talking out of my ass?