Eternal Life (thanks, but no thanks)

I browsed through some of this thread, and at first I got the impression that here were a number of posters musings about what they think they might enjoy or not enjoy in a completely different eternal state of mind and body unimaginable to humans in their present place of earthly existence. I was actually getting concerned for my own sanity, because I was sure I was awake while I was reading this, and I was pretty sure that the people who were writing about the state of mind they would have in this unfathomable realm were also fully conscious and experiencing the limits of our world the same as I.And then I finally exhaled with a great sigh of understanding, when I finally realized that no, it can not be possible that anyone, with even the least imagination or reasoning skills necessary to perform just the rudimentary requirements of life such as preparing food, or bathing one's self, could possibly be so delusional as to believe that they could forecast their state of mind in an unknowable state. No no, this could not be the present reality; that people are actually sitting in their chairs deciding what they might prefer in an ethereal afterlife, like squids contemplate perestroika. Wham! I had to hit myself rather stoutly with this frying pan to my forehead to jolt myself out of this nonsensical hallucination.How odd though, that the frying pan smack still hurt like hell. I had thought that cracking virtual frying pans to the skull would hurt a lot less and produce much less bruising in a dream state than it does in reality (boy was I wrong!) Oh well, at least I still have this text in front of me, to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that none of this silliness could possibly be real. The lucidity of my dreams is fascinating though.

Not to stray far off topic, but do you know, is there a place to nominate the stupidest post of the month on this forum?

Well, I can think of one scenario if I can just take a stab at it. The one in which the afterlife would be something you enjoy beyond anything you have ever experienced before, and which there is no definition for on our earthly world.That's just one of the scenarios I racked my brain with for weeks and weeks to come up with. Need another?

Did you accidentally respond to the wrong person? The reason I am assuming you are responding to the wrong person is because when someone says they read some of the thread they usually don't mean they read the whole thread (note the positioning of the word "some" in my text as opposed to the positioning of the word "whole" in your text for more clues), so when you said to me that I said I read the whole thread you surely either were referring to someone else or else you are not very precise with the English language.But if you were referring to me when you said that I said I read the whole thread, when I said I read some of the thread (I hope you don't mind me borrowing your tone of indignation for just a moment):There happens to be a pretty good reason why I didn't find it necessary to read the entire thread . Because when someone is going to start speculating that they are not so sure that they would enjoy the afterlife, because they might find or boring, or because they might be different at the age of 18 then they are at 28, and any other earthbound consideration for how they will feel about living in a non-earthbound world is in itself already such an inexplicably ridiculous philosophical stance to take, that there is virtually no text that could support the idea that what you are experiencing here on earth will make you capable of deciding the level of satisfaction you would have in a completely different universe or state of being.Its about akin to a 2 year old baby saying, you know I think kissing girls would be so so yucky, I would never ever ever want to do that. Only even more of an uninformed opinion because at least a 2 year old can see what woman look like.There is nothing you can say, there is nothing you would ever be able to say that would validate your conclusion that you don't believe that an afterlife is something that would be suitable for you. The concept is that its an experience that awaits you after you die, that you can't know about yet, but that is a state of eternal bliss , eternal satisfaction, eternal peace. You are certainly free to say that you don't believe that such a place exists, but to suggest that you don't believe you would enjoy eternal peace even if it did exist is worse than a baby trying to understand sex, its worse than a squid trying to understand perestroika, its worse than sloths debating Carl Jung. You know nothing about it, and nothing about what you would be like at that time-you are totally incapable of forming an opinion about the level of satisfaction you would get from a state of being that you know zero about.Nothing you or anyone else bound here on earth can possibly say would shed any light whatsoever on whether or not a entirely different state of being that is undefinable here on earth would be any fun for you particularly or not. You can't think of it in terms of what you know right now. You either believe that its eternally good or you don't, you can't go analyzing about well just how good is it.Whether or not you believe in a devil or not is one issue. But to say that you might believe in the concept of a devil or just pure evil, but even so, you feel that maybe evil wouldn't be so bad, and you actually might kind of like a devil character and just feel he is misunderstand and maybe he would be kind of amusing sometimes, plus I like the color red, and you know, I used to play with fire a lot when I was a kid, and those horns, they make me laugh.....would be a pretty stupid thing to say given the level of your present knowledge of the devil (which is very close to zero), wouldn't you agree?Where is that skillet, I need to whack myself in the head again, this is such a long dream. Edited by Bolder-dash, : No reason given.Edited by Bolder-dash, : No reason given.

Well, I would never really try to convince someone else about what their own personal beliefs should be, but let's suppose for a moment that in this afterlife is everyone you have ever known waiting there for you. Your family, people who have helped you in life, people who you have impacted positively without even realizing it, friends from your childhood. And along with these people are also all the secrets and mysteries of the world. Who built Stonehenge and why. Who killed John F. Kennedy. How did the Big Bang happen. Did that girl in your eighth grade science class really have a crush on you but was too shy to say so. Everything you ever wanted to find out you can know. Every memory that slowly faded from your blissful childhood can be retrieved and felt again. All the anger and regrets and mistakes you made you can wash away. You can chat with Einstein, and understand every math problem there is. You could hug your father who was sick and who you never made reconciliation with. You could go backwards and forwards in time. You could send your mind to anytime in history, and witness any event you choose. And better still, the next level of consciousness is just one step up an even higher rung of being. In the next level you have constant energy, you have alertness and brilliance of mind at will, while still maintaining your own unique imagination.Or you can say that you will prefer to just disappear into a black void of nothingness. Never find the answers to anything, and never see all your loved ones ever again. Are you really equipped in this world right now to make that choice?

Well, your father will be there, but in the form of a unicorn like shellfish. Your children were there for a minute, but then they said that they heard one guy named Modulous said that he would prefer nothing to eternity and they agreed, so your 4 year old daughters limbs were ripped apart and a thrown into a cold pit of acid (which is ok, because she was actually just an accidental mutation of a bacteria anyway), and your brother is not there because he was just a figment of your imagination as there is no such thing as a Hindu-Buddhist.The good news is that none of this means anything, because each individual only exists in their own set of circumstances, and has only the ability to accept their own truth.

Well, I just happen to believe that deep down, some Muslims, seem to be very horny and shellfish.Oh, and also I couldn't help noticing that your avatar appears to be a picture of your father in the afterlife. Edited by Bolder-dash, : No reason given.Edited by Bolder-dash, : No reason given.

Wait, I thought we were talking about what MY afterlife would be like.Admittedly I could never really know what a blissful eternity would be for you. If I had to guess? I don't know...endless reruns of Murder She Wrote?She always fools those criminals with her clever mind games.

"You like potato, I like potAHto...tomato, tomAHto, ...let's call the whole thing off. "Louis Armstrong.