desire for afterlife

[Belacqua]

Like so many other Christian concepts, they just fail to think their heaven model through. 

Some think it through and some don't. Dante, for example, thought it through. 

I suspect most Christians deliberately avoid examining many of their concepts too closely for fear of having a loss of faith episode.

This is possible. 

Also, though, modesty and humility are considered virtues, and this includes that idea that difficult things may be difficult for us to understand. Maybe somebody else understands it and I don't. 

Trust in the knowledge of others (e.g. the engineers who understand how to keep the plane flying even though I don't) is pretty common in life.

[Sal]

Consciousness was evolved to deal with the circumstances of ordinary life.  Many eternal-life schemes are so different from ordinary life that people would go mad after a while.  Who would wish for that?

A mind that would be able to cope existing forever (or a very long time) would be radically different from a human mind.

[robvalue]

Consciousness was evolved to deal with the circumstances of ordinary life.  Many eternal-life schemes are so different from ordinary life that people would go mad after a while.  Who would wish for that?

A mind that would be able to cope existing forever (or a very long time) would be radically different from a human mind.

Exactly. Again, I wouldn’t be me.

[Mister Agenda]

My experience with pastors has been that they do a terrible job of making heaven seem like a place you'd want to spend a year in, much less eternity. That said, sure I'd like there to be an afterlife if it suits me well, just like I'd like there to be a Jinn that grants me wishes in the spirit I ask them in rather than twisting them around. Of course the reason such beings are jerks or stupid or too literal in fiction and myth is that there's no drama in having your wishes granted faithfully. It makes for a boring story. So do most versions of an eternal afterlife, whether intended to be pleasant or painful, they all sound like they'd get old before you do.

[Gwaithmir]

Just wondering, do Atheists like the idea of the afterlife? Do they wish that there was one? Or would they rather have eternal oblivion after death? This is not a troll question.

Well, I certainly wouldn't want to go the Heaven as described by my Catholic teachers. It sounds like an eternity in church, which would be a Hell in it's own right. To tell the truth, I can think of very few concepts of an afterlife that I find desirable, especially if they were to last for eternity.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Must not start "Desire for afterwife" thread.

[Rahn127]

If you don't lobotomize yourself and serve the Lord Marshall, how will you ever get into the underverse ?

An afterlife in which you abdicate all control to someone else isn't living, it's puppetry.