Is an afterlife pointless?

[Heloin]

with lives, as with marriages: finish your dinner before you worry about getting dessert

Unless your ordering take out.

[Chestaan]

What's the difference?

"Infinite void" is what I called the state of being Chestaan described: Awareness with nothing to be aware of.

"Eternal oblivion" is just the termination of your consciousness at death (which is what I believe happens). You literally cease to exist. No awareness. No thought. Not even a realization that you're dead. Just, blankness.

The second own doesn't sound all that bad tbh. Like infinite sleep

[Dominioan]

I feel like I would enjoy having eternal happiness. I mean, if you are eternally happy, then you can't really feel disappointment.

[Turelisa-]

No. I believe the 'afterlife' is nothing like existence on the physical plane. I imagine it is a state of being that transcends all time and space. The perfect moment of pure joy shared with others in a state which has no beginning and no end. I suppose the only way in which we can experience it bound in our flesh and temporality is as a man and woman in love newly married who having become physically united for the first time experience an orgasm together in their marital bed.
Of course, I also believe the afterlife is not guaranteed for all. After our physical death, our souls will remain suspended in sleep as it were awaiting resurrection and Judgment, when God will grant his elect eternal life in His Kingdom. The rest will be cast into what the Hebrewites called Ghenna, or in modern terms Hell. Ghenna was a burning rubbish tip outside of the limits of the city where the discarded sticks (faggots) were disposed of. Imagine the plight of torment of people perpetually burning alive in a lake of fire like faggots as their flesh smoulders for eternity, for spending their loveless, lustful lives burning in sin without repetence.

[La Paz de Los Ricos]

"Infinite void" is what I called the state of being Chestaan described: Awareness with nothing to be aware of.

"Eternal oblivion" is just the termination of your consciousness at death (which is what I believe happens). You literally cease to exist. No awareness. No thought. Not even a realization that you're dead. Just, blankness.

Strange

Which is what terrifies me about the whole thing.

I consider myself somewhat of a realist. My consciousness is just a series of chemical reactions in my ape brain that happen. So, upon brain death, the logical conclusion is that my consciousness sinks along with the rest of the ship. But that sudden termination of my being is so out of order with all I've known because it is, by definition, unknowable. You can't know what it's like to cease to exist because, well, you don't exist anymore. Fear of the unknown. Plus, that basically makes my life this little glass cube.

But the alternative, an afterlife, is terrifying as well. An afterlife means that my entire life, everything I've thought about existence is wrong. There is something beyond. Maybe not a deity, but it throws my whole life into uncertainty nevertheless. How can I enjoy myself in Heaven if I can't reason Heaven's very existence?

"Damned if I do, damned if I don't" sorta deal, you know?

[Page]

I don't believe in the afterlife but for the sake of philosophy, I would point out that many people hold to the idea that time does not flow in the afterlife in the same way it does in the world, that it is perhaps not linear at all, and in such a realm there would be no difference between 5 seconds and 5 trillion years.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

No. I believe the 'afterlife' is nothing like existence on the physical plane. I imagine it is a state of being that transcends all time and space. The perfect moment of pure joy shared with others in a state which has no beginning and no end. I suppose the only way in which we can experience it bound in our flesh and temporality is as a man and woman in love newly married who having become physically united for the first time experience an orgasm together in their marital bed.

Whoa, that was a twist i did not see coming.

Lmfao coming

[Borderlands of Rojava]

I don't believe in the afterlife but for the sake of philosophy, I would point out that many people hold to the idea that time does not flow in the afterlife in the same way it does in the world, that it is perhaps not linear at all, and in such a realm there would be no difference between 5 seconds and 5 trillion years.

Hard to comprehend how that would feel.

[Turelisa-]

I don't believe in the afterlife but for the sake of philosophy, I would point out that many people hold to the idea that time does not flow in the afterlife in the same way it does in the world, that it is perhaps not linear at all, and in such a realm there would be no difference between 5 seconds and 5 trillion years.

Hard to comprehend how that would feel.

If you can recall a time when you were so joyful that you'd lost track of time, during an interaction with a group of people, and then discovered subsequently how quickly time had passed, you might get some comprehension of it.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Hard to comprehend how that would feel.

If you can recall a time when you were so joyful that you'd lost track of time, during an interaction with a group of people, and then discovered subsequently how quickly time had passed, you might get some comprehension of it.

Interesting.

[The Lone Alliance]

Hard to comprehend how that would feel.

If you can recall a time when you were so joyful that you'd lost track of time, during an interaction with a group of people, and then discovered subsequently how quickly time had passed, you might get some comprehension of it.

Much like how dreams work then. A dream can last 15 seconds in real life but to your head it can go on for hours and hours.

[Cordel One]

I don't want to live an afterlife. Something about it's just not appealing, I want to cease to exist at some point (but hopefully not soon).

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Reincarnation sounds good on paper but in reality it would actually be fucked up.

[The Marlborough]

Across the world many religions depict there being a world after this one that a person goes to when they pass away. A place that for the most part is better than this one (except for hell)

I just want to point out this isn't true for a lot of ancient religion's. For example, according to the Ancient Greek religion, most people would spend their time in the afterlife in the Asphodel Meadows which were about a 3.6; not great, not terrible. The ancient Mesopotamian underworld was incredibly shitty because the station you held in life would often determine your station in the underworld. Die a slave and get a slave's burial? Your soul will basically live as though it is a slave though extra shitty since the only thing to eat, for anybody, is simply dust. That is assuming of course your soul isn't ripped to shreds by demons as you make the journey to the underworld.

[The Marlborough]

Reincarnation sounds good on paper but in reality it would actually be fucked up.

It's meant to be fucked up. Souls are supposed to work towards breaking the cycle of reincarnation.

[La Xinga]

Yes

[Exalted Inquellian State]

No. I'd rather be bored at the top of the electron, and even suffer in hell till our universe dies, than loose my own self-my thoughts, my memories, my feelings, my touch-to a dark void. I don't want to stop existing.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Reincarnation sounds good on paper but in reality it would actually be fucked up.

It's meant to be fucked up. Souls are supposed to work towards breaking the cycle of reincarnation.

But think of how much pain you would encounter over infinite lifetimes. Damn, people who hope for reincarnation really should be careful what they wish for.

[Unstoppable Empire of Doom]

Id love to live forever but an eternity in heaven is cool too. Purgatory would be fine. Hell would suck the most.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

Id love to live forever but an eternity in heaven is cool too. Purgatory would be fine. Hell would suck the most.

Hell is the place you go where they play Hey Ya on repeat over the sound system forever.

So it seems alright at first but after 10 minutes you say "I hate it here." Then Satan says "don't care, didn't ask. Plus your mom big gay."

[Neanderthaland]

Not useless at all. It's terribly useful for conning humans into doing what their local priest/shaman/imam says.

[Old Tyrannia]

I don't think the afterlife is pointless. I don't think it's the point either, however, something that many people- both believers and the militantly anti-religious- fail to comprehend.

I agree that if the "afterlife" was merely a never-ending extension of this life, that would be a terrible burden and not something to look forward to. However, I don't believe that the eternal life we will experience in the world to come will simply be a continuation of our lives on this Earth.

[The Marlborough]

It's meant to be fucked up. Souls are supposed to work towards breaking the cycle of reincarnation.

But think of how much pain you would encounter over infinite lifetimes. Damn, people who hope for reincarnation really should be careful what they wish for.

Yes, reincarnation in most religions that I am aware of do not treat it as a good thing. Rather it's a form of suffering that a soul goes through until it reaches enlightenment and can break free of it.

[Borderlands of Rojava]

But think of how much pain you would encounter over infinite lifetimes. Damn, people who hope for reincarnation really should be careful what they wish for.

Yes, reincarnation in most religions that I am aware of do not treat it as a good thing. Rather it's a form of suffering that a soul goes through until it reaches enlightenment and can break free of it.

My mom hopes reincarnation exists. She better stop that.

[Disgraces]

Everything is pointless.