Hell is eternal life

[Brian37]

I'm an atheist, but I wasn't always. I was once a devout Christian. And, as such, I believed in some magical and blissful eternal life. I believed that I would spend an infinite afterlife worshipping god constantly and somehow that end would give me fulfillment, purpose, and everlasting and constant happiness.

Then one day I woke up. Okay, okay, so I didn't exactly just wake up. There were a number of events and developments that preceded my exodus, so to speak. But I think it is accurate to say that I finally woke up. I finally realized that so things in my religion simply didn't make sense.

Instead of going into all of those things right now, however, I just want to focus on eternal life, and not just the Christian version of it. No, my thoughts here apply to any version of eternal life that involves our current consciousness remaining in tact perpetually.

Now, I understand that, on the surface, such a thing as eternal life sounds amazing, and even seems like it should be a normal and vital goal for anyone that values individual survival. And, as far as the survival part goes, I cannot argue against that, but have you ever stopped to think that maybe individual survival is better off with it's evident limits?

Think about that for just a second. Think about the happiest moment of your life, and imagine dwelling within that moment FOREVER. Can you really imagine being happy there forever?

Speaking personally, I have some absolutely wonderful and exciting memories: getting married to my wife. Things her and I have shared together. Our success in marriage and life. Watching our kids grow up and succeed. The list goes on and on.

But you know what, those things, if they could somehow be lived over and over again, could not sustain happiness for an eternity. In fact, I'm not sure they could sustain happiness for even more than a few lifetimes, if that. And part of the reason for that is simple, we value many things in large part because we know deep down this is our only chance to experience them. For that reason, those experiences are treasured.

And maybe that's the beauty and irony of mortality, the fact that it gives us the ability to truly experience things, both good and bad. It makes us live life and experience life.

I just don't think immortality could offer that, no matter how it's proposed by the seemingly infinite number of religions that have attempted to speculate (more like decree) it's dimensions and merits.

Honestly, people, what would we do with eternal life? Constant sex? Drugs? Love forever? Sing? Do you really believe these things could hold value for more than a few hundred years?

Oh, I know, the mysterious higher power will transform our consciousness to an eternally blissful state which is completely mechanical and no longer held back by autonomy, right?

I happen to think that notion is not only unappealing, but fairly ridiculous. But, for argument sake, let's say it's possible. Wouldn't such a transformation be the same as dying? I mean, if you are no longer you, and your ability to decide has been taken from you, aren't you really dead?

In conclusion, let me say this: I think it's a wonderful thing for a person to aim to live well, contribute positively to humanity, experience life to the fullest, and then rest easy with the knowledge that the next generation will have the opportunity to do it all over again, and perhaps even better.

First off congratulations on your escape. It also took me some time too.

But the issue of eternal life in my 12 years of online debate has come up countless times. I agree the idea that eternity would be automatically blissful is disturbing to me because I would simply be a robot at that point if I could not feel pain or get board.

Hell is just as bad a concept too. This isn't simply putting someone in jail to contain them, this is an act of torture and revenge.

But the entire God concept is disturbing even in life. You are watched every second and your only "autonomy" is the choice of either kissing his ass or having him kick your ass. Once you swallow an unmovable character you have subjected yourself to a dictator.

This character always has the final say no matter how good or bad you are, does not need your consent, does not have to explain himself to you, you cannot vote him out of office, or change any laws he makes, you cannot impeach him. You cannot leave him.

The God character as Christopher Hitchens rightfully describes this character as the leader of "a celestial North Korea".

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And maybe that's the beauty and irony of mortality, the fact that it gives us the ability to truly experience things, both good and bad. It makes us live life and experience life.

I do believe you've got it.
In a finite universe, eternity results in every permutation of events happening an infinite number of times. No activitiy can retain meaning after that kind of repetition. See Wowbagger the infinitely prolonged for a valiant but failed attempt at fighting this. Wowbagger
Religion's best promise turns out to be worse than empty. Sort of a bait and switch.

Life's limited span is an important factor in what makes it so precious.

Precious in what context? From the human point of view yes, but in cosmic time life is a blip and the universe has no cognitive capability of caring about us. In that context, and even in evolutionary terms, we most certainly are not "precious". If I had not been born some other sperm and egg would have. If a meteor had not wiped out the dinosaurs life would have evolved differently.

Macbeth act 5 scene 5 "life is a flurry of activity, full of sound and furry, signifying nothing".

Actually lately I have been thinking that if we would stop collectively as a species thinking we are "special" or as you put it "precious", we could work to extend our finite ride. Our species problem is that we don't want to see ourselves as merely one aspect of nature and one species in evolution.

I do agree though that since this is your only shot, we should feel lucky that any of this even got as far as it did.