The Afterlife has to Suck

[scw55]

The thing I have pondered, but not for long because the idea of death scares me; If the Afterlife is so great, what's the point of living?

 

[Kopikatsu]

Then you have to wonder what about all of the children who die in the womb, immediately after birth, or in childhood before becoming fully aware?

 

[kuyo]

One of the stipulations of the afterlife is normally an ascension, so presumably it's not boring because we're above boredom. Maybe that same uplifting also solves the problem for famous people who're pretty much sentenced to an eternity of unknown drones pestering them for face-time.
Also, the afterlife is filled with humans, which implies a human society. This means that the afterlife would have all the trappings and faults of this world, except it would probably be worse because the only commodity is the face-time with celebrities and no one ever dies, so the same dumb-fucks who make everything worse just stay around unable to kill themselves off in a Darwinian proof. Maybe they're enlightened to not be so stupid.
Of course, the there's reincarnation and all that suggesting that rather than the afterlife being some ethereal wastebin, it's more of a revolving door or maybe a blender deconstructing and recombining souls into new ones.
Or, you know, consciousness could just end at death. The body decays, the energy disperses. It's at least equally likely.

 

[SD-Fiend]

My guesses:

It would be like the SMT: Strange journey Law ending

Spoiler

in which your identity is stripped and all that you care about is prayer

Or:
Time is hardly a thing in the afterlife. As I remember from Sunday school time passes differently for god from that perspective thousands of years could pass and it would feel like a second. I could only imagine time being irrelevant once you get there

 

[Loonyyy]

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.

This guys got it. Coping with the idea of not existing is almost impossible, so we make up an eternal afterlife so we don't have to think about it. Now, even if an eternity would drive me completely batshit insane, I'd still rather, and indeed hope for that. Oblivion probably awaits us, but that's not exactly something that's easy to understand or come to grips with.

 

[speakstrg17]

Psst, if I knew I had to live another life after this one, I'rd kill myself right now!

Then you would be reborn afterwords

 

[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.

I think the afterlife is one of three things:

1. There is no afterlife. After you die, your memories and experiences are wiped clean and you begin a new life instantaneously. That is what that light at the end of the tunnel is: a new life.

2. There is limited afterlife. Depending on how good of a person you were, you may either get plugged into a new life immediately, or get a brief "ghost period" where you can go around and do whatever you like; see the cosmos, follow movie stars, watch stars explode, etc. After the ghost period, you get plugged into a new life (with the memory wipe of course) and then resume living.

3. There is unlimited afterlife. For this one, I think you are plugged into what you think is paradise, or a blank slate that you perceive as paradise, and just fill it with your perceptions of paradise. Either way, I think that as soon as you enter paradise, you undergo a change that removes greed, desires, and other things, so that you can enjoy infinity without going loopy. That is somewhat troublesome because I like myself the way I am, and don't want to be changed against my will.

And then of course, there's the belief that when you die, you just stop existing and the person you were is nothing but a memory and food for worms. But that is a very boring way to look at death imo.

Either way, just the thought of you not being you in the afterlife is a frightening thought, and who knows, it might not even matter when we get there.

It's terrifying to think that what makes you 'you' will be wiped away and the only thing that will live on is just the memory of what you were like among the living. Not something I like to think about just because it's so soul crushingly depressing, especially being worm food.

 

[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.

That was one of the worst fanfics I've ever read, and I've read some pretty bad ones.

Anyway, going to the judeo-christian heaven would have to alter your mind in some significant way because there is supposedly no suffering, which presumably includes mental torment. What about the people you loved who didn't make the final cut and are suffering in hell? What about the traumas you suffered while you were alive? Do you forget them? Do you accept it all and move on? What becomes of someone's character when all negative qualities are removed as would be necessary if they are freed of "sin", the very thing that makes us human?

Sure the writing isnt stellar but its the only concept of afterlife ive ever seen other than "nothing" that doesnt cause all these silly inconsistancies and problems to arise. No "paradise" really holds water because the idea of a perfect "paradise" is basically impossible because of the human condition. Especially with selective entry based on arbitrary life rules.

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

- snip

I know this is totally off topic, but my god your avatar is pretty. Who is she?

OT: I've had this thought OP and that's why I now wish there is nothing after death and I longer possess consciousness. Just simple oblivion.

 

[Bassik]

Anyone saw that one Twilight Zone episode? A Nice Place to Visit, I think it was called.

Ah, here's the plot summary:

Henry "Rocky" Valentine is robbing a pawnshop after shooting a night watchman, but before he can get away he is shot by the police. He wakes up to find himself seemingly unharmed by the encounter and in the company of a pleasant individual named "Pip" who tells Rocky that he is his guide and has been instructed to grant him whatever he desires. Rocky is suspicious, having never received anything for free in his life. He believes Pip is trying to con him and asks him if he is a cop. Pip proceeds to quote personal information about Rocky's tastes and hobbies from a notebook. Irritated, Rocky demands that Pip give him his wallet. Pip says he has no wallet but obligingly gives him a large amount of money and is willing to give him as much as he desires. Rocky believes Pip wants him to commit a crime on his behalf and that the money is an incentive.
Rocky holds Pip at gunpoint, following him to a luxurious apartment that Pip insists is Rocky's. Demanding to know what he must do to acquire all this luxury, Rocky remains skeptical when he is told that it's all free. Despite his suspicions, he begins to relax, changing his clothes and taking a shower, after which he is presented with a meal served on a silver platter. He abruptly becomes suspicious again and demands that Pip taste the food, believing it to be poisoned. When Pip claims he can't remember how to eat, Rocky shoots him in the head but finds that the bullets just bounce off, leaving Pip unharmed. Rocky now realizes that he is dead and immediately assumes that he has died and gone to Heaven and that Pip must be his guardian angel. Pip replies, "Yes, something like that."
Later, we see Rocky in a casino, surrounded by beautiful girls and winning every game he plays. Outside he sees a tall policeman and is able to make him smaller and thus pick on him. After returning to his apartment with Pip and the "dolls" (as Rocky refers to them), Rocky asks to see some of his former friends who have died. Pip says that won't be possible, as this "paradise" is his own private world, and none of the people are real except for Rocky and Pip.
Rocky becomes curious as to why he was allowed into Heaven. "I must have done something good that made up for all the other stuff. But what? What did I ever do that was good?" With Pip, he visits the hall of records, but it merely contains a list of his sins. Rocky is puzzled but he decides that if God is okay with him being there, he won't bother worrying.
After a month, Rocky becomes thoroughly bored by always having his whims satisfied and predictably winning at anything he attempts. He tells Pip, "If I gotta stay here another day, I'm gonna go nuts! I don't belong in Heaven, see? I want to go to the other place."
Pip retorts, "Heaven? Whatever gave you the idea that you were in heaven, Mr. Valentine? This IS 'the other place!!"
Pip begins to laugh as Rocky unsuccessfully tries to escape his "paradise".

 

[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.

So instead of people getting bored eventually, they're mindless slobs who get entertained by the local cardboard box.

There's really no variation of 'heaven' that appeals to me. Either I'm free to eventually go completely nuts or I'm unable to feel all emotions because God gave me a lobotomy.

Plus, it's Heaven. Supposedly you get inside for being a do-gooder and staying away from sin. Well I like 'sinning'. It's fun to do stuff on Sundays, I enjoy eating shellfish and saying "GOD DAMNIT" when I hurt myself. The heavenly guidlines are too strict for my taste.

According to Ephesians, the guideline is just to believe. "Not by works, so that no one can boast." Guess when you die, you just have to explain why you didn't live a good little life.

And maybe God just makes it to where things you enjoy now don't get boring. Doesn't have to be a cardboard box, I'd be happy if I got a shotgun and endless things to destroy with it.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Fugue yourself and start again.
Problem solved.

 

[BENZOOKA]

You die: you cease to exist on any level. Apart from your physical dead body, of course.

The dilemma talked about in the original post is one of the points why I personally prefer and find it even soothing, this actual death that happens, over any imaginary afterlife theories, that don't make any sense anyways.

 

[castlewise]

Sort of the flip side to this is that, assuming there is an eternal afterlife, it cant suck too much either, for many of the same reasons. If you were immortal and a bird was pecking at your entrails how long would it take you to get used to it? 100 years? 1000? 1000000? Doesn't matter though, because you are there for eternity.

 

[FURY_007]

That's my philosophy

 

[Rowan93]

I take issue with the idea that you'll get bored of immortality. People talk about it regarding the afterlife, or regarding transhumanism.

Seeing as (probably) none of you have lived even a pitiful 100 years, how do you know you'll get bored of life? Have you got any reason to believe this?

Personally, I think that even if it were possible to get bored of living forever, to the point that you're so bored you would rather not exist, you would never get to that stage because human memory is so bad. Hopefully that wouldn't actually turn out like alzheimer's, but if the last time you did a particular activity was 100 years ago, how would you remember it well enough to be bored of it?

 

[MrFalconfly]

The idea of an eternal afterlife hasn't been thought through.

Sure the first 100 or 1000 years could be fun. But what about 1 million years? What about the next million years? What about the 100 million years? What about the billions of years?

Surely it'll get repetitive at some point.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

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.

Interesting, but flawed from so many angles, and it?s been done before.

But, you see, despite being an Anti-Theist Atheist, this is one part that I actually like about religion. A lot of the mythology and philosophy is genuinely thought-provoking, even if it?s not necessarily real in the end. By the way, you guys should read or watch Dragon Ball. Their afterlife and god hierarchy is pretty cool too.

On the topic of whether or not the afterlife will suck, since I don?t believe in, well, anything (except, maybe, reincarnation), I wouldn?t worry about it. There are multiple interpretations of the afterlife that may or may not be the ?right one?, and I?ve personally given up on trying to grasp the concepts of Heaven and Hell (I think Satan, in how he?s depicted in various fictions, isn?t as bad as the biased perspectives make out). If Heaven was meant to be a paradise, I don?t think any god would make it so you?d go insane out of boredom, unless it?s the worst practical joke in history and you?re actually in Hell.

 

[Guffe]

That's why it'd be nice with a afterlife like in the Lionherths brother story were there's an afterlifes afterlife and so on. Every place is new, sort of like an reincarnation but never to the same planet/place/dimension/whatever.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

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.

I recommend that you watch the Supernatural episode titled Dark Side of the Moon, Season 5, Episode 16. Aside from all the things that are going on in the plot, it is more or less a certain perspective of heaven, which I believe would be the coolest if it were true.

Long story short, everyone that dies gets their own slice of heaven, i.e. they get to relieve their most memorable and happy times in their life up to their own death (which is where the expression "your life flashed before your eyes" ties in). Everyone else's heaven is connected by some personal highway, be it a road, a river, etc. You can actually go to other people's heaven and soul mates get to share a heaven together. Since you are reliving your own memories, it doesn't feel like an eternity, but like you are reliving your life with only the good parts highlighted.