Question for the anti's.......?

[ignoramus]

Ronedee, you do have an imagination!  I suppose you need to if you want to believe in God, etc.

"Now, with all the above fulfilled..... take all those negative aspects out of our "new" eternal lives. i.e. death, pain, suffering, lying, cheating, greed, hate, etc. etc. ETC..... The ultimate goal of humanity!"

What if the only reason we would want to live forever is because we want to live and strive for happiness because we understand all the above.
Take any of that away and we are just drones again.  What does "happiness" or any of the other emotions feel like with no frame of reference?

You are dreaming of a Rome. A Rome that never was and never will be. And never can be.
"Eternity" is a man made construct...   That word doesn't exist in "Practical Universes 101".

As we know religion has a very ugly and deadly side to it which is why I won't entertain the lighter philosophical side to it in discussions.
(Other than to make fun of it of course)

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I can't imagine anything worse to be honest.

[Ryantology]

Ok, anti's...... Do any of you wish for eternal life? You know? Live FOREVER?!

Seriously, if that is possible for any of you: I'd like to know the real reasons why you would NOT... which I'll assume most of you will answer.

And "IF" you do what to live forever. Why you would? 

Thanks ahead of time for your coherent, civil replies. 

I would like the opportunity to live as long as I want to. Having all that time on my hands would mean I have time to do pretty much everything I want.

The idea of eternal life implies that it could go on even if I don't want it anymore, and I'm not okay with that.

It's necessary for me to add that I would only want it as a corporeal being in a state like what I experience right now, and not as some ethereal, disembodied form in heaven, since I can't help but think this is where you're going with your query.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Life is fun because it carries an expiration date. We enjoy living because of the memories we make and how we spend parts of our lives doing various things. Living till infinity would mean any memory we make, any person we love or anything we do would be inconsequential and meaningless because of how infinitesimally small and insignificant each moment of life would be.

This.
*applause*

[Ryantology]

Life is fun because it carries an expiration date. We enjoy living because of the memories we make and how we spend parts of our lives doing various things. Living till infinity would mean any memory we make, any person we love or anything we do would be inconsequential and meaningless because of how infinitesimally small and insignificant each moment of life would be.

I don't think I agree with this. The fact that my life is finite doesn't really factor in why the memories I have are important to me. It's because they were momentous, exciting, impactful, and I feel like there's always room for more.

[Pat Mustard]

Ok, anti's...... Do any of you wish for eternal life? You know? Live FOREVER?!

Seriously, if that is possible for any of you: I'd like to know the real reasons why you would NOT... which I'll assume most of you will answer.

And "IF" you do what to live forever. Why you would? 

Thanks ahead of time for your coherent, civil replies. 

There is no such thing as a soul which "lives" forever, therefore no eternal life as you'd define it. So why pine for something you'll never have? Make the here and now better, rather than uselessly hoping for jam tomorrow.

[Esquilax]

I would like the opportunity to live as long as I want to. Having all that time on my hands would mean I have time to do pretty much everything I want.

This is pretty much my answer too, because frankly, why wouldn't it be? Humans are dynamic, constantly changing entities, and who we are today is most likely very different from who we were years ago: it's impossible to predict how we might change through eternity, given that. The me of twelve thousand years in the future, for example, might desire to stop living for any number of reasons, or he might desire to live for a series of reasons that might not even exist in the present day. And then, conversely, the me of the day after that might completely reverse those desires for other, equally unpredictable reasons.

"I want to live forever," is a completely irresponsible thing to wish for, really.

[MTL]

Great response! You've given the essence of my thoughts about the concepts we are divided on.

Obviously an unbeliever will relate eternal life to what is evident in their present state of existence. But, even our present s.o.e. provides constant change and new revelations, almost daily. Why limit yourselves to what you are today?

Imagine (thinking logically) for a minute that we are able to refresh our thought patterns, and renew our experiences (like updating the last/next 60 years in a minute or 2!). I believe a few in this thread alluded to that premise. Through some outside means of technology..... The possibilities are rather endless. Add to that; our limitless relationships we would have with others advanced minds, and personalities that we meet through the eons of time! I don't see much boredom in any of that. Also, the universe is a pretty vast playground! No. Realize that life "could" be pretty great and interesting with a constant supply of new and stimulating sources and adventures! 

All of a sudden things look a little better for a vote of not dying?

Now, with all the above fulfilled..... take all those negative aspects out of our "new" eternal lives. i.e. death, pain, suffering, lying, cheating, greed, hate, etc. etc. ETC..... The ultimate goal of humanity!

You then arrive where the believer is! Jesus basically tells us we cannot imagine heaven aka, "eternal life". And, if it only took God 6 days to create the universe and everything in it? Think about this: He's still working on heaven; ".....since the beginning of time!" 

Ok, so the stretch for you guys is the God thingy. But, I believe you can't refute the fact that eternal life would be interesting w/o all the trappings, boredom and bs called, the present human s.o.e.

Reverting to human logic here: Einstein is quoted, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

Just food for thought my friends. Thanks again for all...eh... the good responses! 

The difference you are missing is between living for a long time vs living for eternity.  No matter how many different ways you find to enjoy life, they all become meaningless and insignificant when you have to live for eternity.

Yes....and that the Bible is probably not actually God's Word, even if God does, by some chance, exist.

I can't buy into the idea of an omnipowerful being that logs 6 working Earth days to create the Universe,
and is still "working on" Heaven.  If you're that powerful, why bother separating the Universe from Heaven?

Why not just create Heaven and THEN create life in it, without all the BS of THIS life?

Why not skip evil altogether?

See, I have always theoretically allowed for the possibility   (if not the likelihood ) of the existence of God.

But what I cannot take even slightly seriously is all the absurd and contradictory religious claptrap that different dogmas ascribe to that mooted God.

To me, if there IS a God out there, that does not mean that He is what we think He is,
and it does not mean the Bible is actually His Word, at all.

Even if God does exist, it doesn't automatically follow that WE have Immortal Souls, too.

We could still be, and probably are, completely, 100% mortal.

Even if God does exist,
it does NOT automatically follow that "He resides in Heaven".

I can't buy into Heaven and Hell.

If there is a God, a Creative force that created the Universe,
then what I find far more likely is that He is more like the cell membrane around that Universe, if you will.

If there IS a God out there,
He probably didn't create the concept of "Sin", at all.

We did.

If He exists at all, He probably doesn't give a big rats ass about anything we do.

We are probably just by-product; an incredibly minute part of the picture.

[Pat Mustard]

The question is biased and unrelated to Christianity vs. 'anti's'
It is an argument putting yourself in the Christians foolish feelings of eternity.

I could just as easily state, hey religos, how do you feel about science finally discovering the answer to origins, would you like it? How can they answer yes or no!

If you wish to ask a fanciful question about Tinkerbell fairy dust giving you wings to fly around the rose garden as a tiny insect forever, I suspect you should first ask who in the hell would believe this crap (pretty sure the No's have it).

I cannot argue FOR the Christianity mythology. But if science is able to upload our internal minds to a supercomputer one day, I suppose yeah that would be good. But your ridiculous similarity idea with religion (as stated: Q for anti's) the BEST answer would be > That's ridiculous religious nonsense.

MY dreamlike state of ever lasting life would be FAR different to ANY religious misguided concept based on feelings!

I don't know where you got all that gibberish in my short question. If anyone is bias, it would be you. "anti" is a short for anti-theist. I've been around here long enough for people to point out their levels of non-belief might not mean complete atheism. Also, it would be fruitless asking a "pro-theist" if they want eternal life.

You can speculate my penchant for the afterlife.... but don't assume you are right.

My question was out of curiosity. And I appreciate the honest answers from most of you. I have some interesting thoughts provoked by the intriguing answers! I will comment later. thx R

Why are you allowed throw out bsaeless assertons as fact, then crib when we make speculation which has a decent chance of being right?

[Bob Kelso]

Fuck, I don't know. Depends on the conditions.

I certainly don't want to be trapped in immortality, at some point I'd imagine I'd like to vacate the premises as it were.