An afterlife or no? You choose (for athiests and agnostics)

Faced with the possibility of there being no afterlife of any description (the atheists are right) and an afterlife (the atheists somehow got it wrong) where you had no idea whether it was going to be 'good' or 'bad' (insert own defintions of good and bad here) what would you prefer to be the case and why?This message has been edited by iano, 09-Feb-2006 11:17 PM

Although no one could know what an afterlife might look or feel like until they get there, there is at least one model of it which excludes linear time as an intrinsic property of it. Whilst I don't think anyone living in linear time can get their head around the idea of eternity, the model gives little clue as to what its like. For a person living in eternity looking at time, our linear yesterday, today and tomorrow are all present tense for them.I think it is reasonable to prefer oblivion to linear time life never ending. But is it preferable to a life of no time? It could be exciting with no time to dull things unto boredom I don't think it's a matter of choice to be honest. The OP just respects the views of athiests

A very sensible choice I think

One does what one can and this is about all that is available. Although why someone who believes they are not going to exist would care about how they are viewed when they don't exist is a question worth asking.

Was just watching a video of an AMG Mercedes vs a Yamaha R1 on the Nuremburgring racing circuit. The merc led the whole way and kept nigh on the same distance in front of the R1 - just about out of range for an overtaking manoevre. It reminds me of mankinds pursuit of 'something'. The something suggests that it is close enough to obtain but when we think we've obtained it, it turns out to be just a little further off than we thought. And we keep on going after it. Thus I reckon nothing will change much between now and then.This message has been edited by iano, 10-Feb-2006 03:01 PM

The assumption in the OP appeals to the somewhat whimsical notion that an afterlife is possible (we can't know there isn't for sure until we die so its probably not all that whimsical at all). If an afterlife exists and it apparently provides no objective evidence of itself then to insert boundaries on what is possible in such an afterlife is somewhat futile - as you do here. That you cannot imagine movement/life without time is simply the reckoning of someone locked in in their model (time enables movement) saying (without knowing) that that is so. But to assign natural limitations onto something patently supernatural (if it exists) is unreasonable.An afterlife is potentially capable of being anything at all for want of any inkling as to what it is about - if it existsThis message has been edited by iano, 10-Feb-2006 04:13 PM

Agreed. Like Buddhism etc

Not my mates version. He mustn't be mainstream then. Does that make him a non-fundementalist buddhist?

Double postThis message has been edited by iano, 11-Feb-2006 12:53 AM

Nice avatar TC.The Bible describes nature itself yearning for the day it will be restored to full glory. Like fallen man, fallen nature struggles ever upwards but finds its efforts ever thwarted and at best, like man, just a shadow of its former glory. There is afterall, nothing new under the sun. All is vanity (copyright Ecclesiates).To observe nature is to see a revealing picture of life as we know it. And we are told that by the Bible too in Romans 1

yeah...but do the wenches want to cart beer. One mans meat...

Point me to a man who isn't a coward in some area of his life and I show you a liar or a self-deluded. But maybe valhalla has no problems with admitting the liars and the deluded. Doesn't sound like much fun to me though. Maybe that explains the necessity for all that beer.This message has been edited by iano, 11-Feb-2006 11:55 PM

If that existance included:- intense self-loathing
- perpetual, aching and deeply intense regret
- fear indescribable
- indescribable pain, not just physical but to the innermost of your being
- hopelessness of an infinite variety - never any, not even oblivion
- no pleasure of any kind not even those we take for granted: cool air in our lungs, warmth on our skin, birdsong,
- no sense of peace - everThe above is only the Biblical view of it. It could be worse. Not to debate, but just to point out what an unknown afterlife might entail and whether you feel the same way in that light.Personally, Chiroptera seemed to me to have the most sensible take on it. Along the lines of "If even the merest chance (of the above) then oblivion

Oh Robin....

We were out (my girlfriend and me) hanging up some poxy posters this evening in the town to supplement the signs we put up during the week. She texted a local radio station during the week "whose behind all those signs on the Windgates Road" only to ring up when they read it out to explain a course we're running in the church starting monday. She got 10 minutes on air (and a big hug from me for her ingenuity. "Cunning as foxes" he said)All so that folk wouldn't have to experience what you're settling for ...in spadesFuck.....