(April 16, 2014 at 5:04 pm)Ben Davis Wrote: That depends on what you think the point of life is. If you're the type of person who revels in new experience, it wouldn't necessarily matter how long you live for. In fact, a longer life would be better: more opportunity for new experiences.

Believe me, I get you. I completely understand where you are coming from. People, myself included, tend to think that they know exactly who they are, and who they always will be. But the truth is, people change, and in life, we are constantly finding out that many of the things we think we want are really things we've simply overrated.

Imagine for a second that you really enjoy shooting pool. You study it so hard, and you practice all the time, and you are constantly looking for other people to share a game with you.

Now imagine that some mysterious and magical force comes along and takes away the challenge of the game for you. Now you make every shot, you win every game, and you no longer need to study and practice.

Pool is no longer something you love.

Life is no different. It is death that gives it meaning.

Quote:Each of us perceives time slightly differently at different times. It's plausible that a longer life span would 'increase' the speed at which time passes but that wouldn't necessarily speak to its 'pointlessness' or lack thereof.

Actually, I wasn't suggest that one's perception of time would change or be accelerated. No, I was suggesting that being bound to eternal life would cause one to become bored and see life as pointless faster than one who was not bound to it.

If you think you will live only 500 years, you will be more likely to want those 500 years to be fulfilling.

If, however, you had no expiration date, 500 years would have no meaning for you, and neither would a thousand or ten thousand.

Quote:A lot of people seek out 'negatives', gain enjoyment from facing trials & challenges. For a minority, there are even pleasures to be gained from 'destructive' scenarios.

Like I said, people change. You can't assume that someone who has such an unorthodox perspective could sustain it indefinitely for even a few hundred years, much less the infinite amount of time in question here.

Quote:I'd suggest that the majority 'fight' for life and some people endure seemingly insurmountable struggles for the sake of staying alive as long as possible.

Of course, because they know death is imminent, so why not fight it for a while and try and put it off. I think we almost all do that, and we all should.

Quote:I think it's better to say that it's individualistic: for some it would be hell, for others, heaven and the majority would be cast somewhere in between on the distribution curve. Assuming absolute immortality, you might ask how I'd feel floating in space, alone in 800 trillion years time when the universe has expanded so much that it's reached its minimum-energy state. I'd respond by telling you that inter-universal travel across the multiverse had been developed shortly after my 1 billionth birthday so I have an infinite amount of time to enjoy an infinite number of experiences!

I certainly apprectiate your humorous analogy there, but I think anyone who reads that last statement would agree with me that you just described one of the worst hell's imaginable.

Quote:Look on the bright side

I am.

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(April 16, 2014 at 5:17 pm)sven Wrote: Well, except we don't get to rest easy... We don't rest any way whatsoever. We are just gone.
Scary, huh.

The rest I was referring was that of a parent who's raised and adequately equipped their child to experience life, and can now sit back and relax with peace of mind. This would hopefully be something experienced long before death.

Quote:I spoke with my mother today about the Christian afterlife. An eternity in heaven... Wouldn't that get a bit... boring?

The bible says that Lucifer finally got fed up with kissing god's ass all the time and started having thoughts of what it would be like to experience his own glory. For those thoughts--not actions, mind you--god punished Lucifer by basically disowning and disinheriting him.

Lesson: don't you dare think of yourself in the presence of god! You are there to toot his horn, and his horn only.

Oh, and the believing portion of your family will be there too, but you won't give a shit in your new and much improved robotic state of mind.

It's going to be a blast.

I never understood the need to have an eternal life. As human beings we are so afraid of dying it astonishes me. This life is filled with suffering so the fear of death should not be great since it is the release from suffering. The Qur'an gives a very detailed analogy of the Mushrikun in Surat Jathiyah "We live and we die and nothing kills us but time". This cannot be anymore true to be honest as we only have this life to live for certainty.
In the words of Mark Twain: “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
The only hope of an afterlife we have is one of greater suffering as a God who intended with full intention and will to promote our own happiness would have assuredly given it to us and comforted us with the hope of an afterlife.

(April 16, 2014 at 8:40 pm)Brian37 Wrote:

(April 16, 2014 at 7:16 pm)JuliaL Wrote: Life's limited span is an important factor in what makes it so precious.

Precious in what context?

Why, in the only context to which I have direct access.
The only one which I define and over which I have control.
The only one that really counts.


Mine