Phat writes:
Tell me though---do you have no problem with simply dying and ceasing to exist?
Well I'd really rather not have it happen, but as dying is still a necessary part of living, I'll have to put up with it. It bothers me more that I wasn't born in 500 years time when dying will probably be optional.
If the answer is no do you feel that you will continue to live vicariously through your offspring?
No, of course not. I'm me, they're them. I'll be dead, dead.
Is that not a different way of defining eternal life---living through the next generation?
No, see above.
All this worrying about the continuance of life after death is why it was necessary to invent gods that could do it. Once you accept that we're just another form of life that is totally disposable, life gets easy. You're not important in the scheme of things - you are only important to the people who's lives you touch.
Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien.
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.