Eternity

[Fev]

Yesterday I just somehow happened to reflect about eternity, and it scared the hell out of me.
That was because I started to realize what real eternity, not as a matter of mathematics and numbers, but as a matter of life, means.
Basically from a human point of view, time will never end. It just goes on, and on, and on. Forever.
Now I suppose you know what eternity means, but just think about it. It never ends. Never. It just goes on and on...

Thinking about that, I realized that I probably wouldn't want to live forever.
I can't even bear the thought of having an endless life. Not being very religious, this wasn't that much of a problem for me so far. I thought I just die and that's it.
However I noticed a problem with that. When you die, you stop existing forever, while time just goes on. That's what creeps me out. "Your" Non-existence never ends, either.
None of us can tell how it is not to live, but I just can't imagine that there is really nothing after you die. And what's "nothing" anyway? How can "nothing" even exist after your death?
And even it there is nothing, an eternal nothing doesn't seem appealing either.

I find it very hard to bring my thoughts to a written form, but I hope some of you could follow them anyway. I just wanted to share them.

[Biggreenfellow]

No one knows what happens when you die. That's why the majority is so scared to death by death (har-har I has made a death pun har-har).

I wouldn't mind spending eternity in a heaven of my own making/choosing; I'd have a smashing good time with my mates, family, etc. I always find it amusing to hear people say 'I wouldn't want to live forever', when most people aren't even alive when they are alive. Who among us can say we are living life to the fullest? I certainly don't...

[Fev]

I wouldn't mind spending eternity in a heaven of my own making/choosing

I'm sure you'd be begging for it to stop after a couple thousand years. And that is not close to eternity.

[The spartan]

I'm sure you'd be begging for it to stop after a couple thousand years. And that is not close to eternity.

Depends on your definition of "heaven". To many, if it were truly "heaven", and a place of eternal bliss, it wouldn't get old ever.

[Torment]

No one knows what happens when you die. That's why the majority is so scared to death by death (har-har I has made a death pun har-har).

I disagree, I think most of us know exactly what happens when we die. It's just our inability to accept our finite time of existence that scares us into believing otherwise.

And yeah, eternity is a pretty scary idea. Mainly because I think we as a species still don't really understand the concept of it yet. Our entire perception of reality is based on the idea of time and the finite. Thinking outside that box just seems logically impossible.

[Col. Tartleton]

"I don't know how he does it, but he keeps making it better!" *mind explosion*

[Panzerbear]

I would certainly want to live forever, preferrably as a 30 year old.

the problems begin when you are 70+. you lose your family, then your health, then your friends, and then you are all alone and sick as .

as far as death is concerned, don't worry about it too much. you just fall asleep and never wake up. for all your relatives and friends you will just go home and never come back...

[The Million Dollar Prons]

But if you live forever and noone else does everyone you know will die and then you'll meet new people and they'll die too. Then I assume after a while noone will want to hang out with you because by then you'd be kind of a know-it-all for being around so long.

And if everyone lives forever that'd really suck, because then when you piss someone off in World of Warcraft they'll remember it forever. FOREVER.

It's better to burn out than fade away. ESPECIALLY BECAUSE EVERYBODYS GOT A PRICE, MUAHAHAHA

[Panzerbear]

But if you live forever and noone else does everyone you know will die and then you'll meet new people and they'll die too. Then I assume after a while noone will want to hang out with you because by then you'd be kind of a know-it-all for being around so long.

I disagree. you will be the most interesting man in the world, achieve a mega celebrity status and everyone would want to hang out with you. man will want to be like you, women would want to have your children, businesses would want to seek your advice, and so on and so forth.

[Shiloh]

I wouldn't want eternal life as I believe there is another phase beyond this one but I would like to live a bit longer, maybe to 200 years old or so.

[Helm]

I wouldn't want eternal life as I believe there is another phase beyond this one but I would like to live a bit longer, maybe to 200 years old or so.

You could cram 200 years into 80 or so if you put he effort into it.

[Khassaki]

I would certainly want to live forever, preferrably as a 30 year old.

the problems begin when you are 70+. you lose your family, then your health, then your friends, and then you are all alone and sick as .

as far as death is concerned, don't worry about it too much. you just fall asleep and never wake up. for all your relatives and friends you will just go home and never come back...

The constant pain, being half deaf and blind, loss of mobility all add up to death looking quite appealing.

[boofhead]

Eternity in heaven wouldn't be a drag, because it is a place outside of time.

[Hilarion]

Being united with God doesn't seem so terrible.

[Biggreenfellow]

I think I could make eternity work for me.

[removeduser_4536284751384]

Not existing for an eternity doesn't mean anything. Who knows what happens when you die? If you don't exist time is meaningless, and fo all you know, you mihgt actually go to a religious heaven, or be born again as some strange being in another crazy universe, or something else crazy, or nothing, or anything.

And certainly I wouldn't mind living forever if those close to me also lived forever. Although a couple of thousand years in I would probably get frustrated because I would never experience death.

[Helm]

The thing about literal nothingness is that seeing as it doesn't exist it's not something you can in fact experience, so essentially it's not something that can ever happen to you so it's not worth worrying about. The only real real problem is that death prevents you from getting stuff done though no doubt there are many alternate universes where we are all dead or were never born, we just happen to be in one of the universe where we're still alive.

[Torment]

The thing about literal nothingness is that seeing as it doesn't exist it's not something you can in fact experience,

Seeing as you were literally nothing before you were born, how does this make any sense at all?

so essentially it's not something that can ever happen to you so it's not worth worrying about. The only real real problem is that death prevents you from getting stuff done though no doubt there are many alternate universes where we are all dead or were never born, we just happen to be in one of the universe where we're still alive.

Yup. I was a dark jedi in this one alternate universe, unfortunately though I was killed by Obi Wan Kenobi. It's no biggie though, I'm one with the force there now.

[Helm]

Seeing as you were literally nothing before you were born, how does this make any sense at all?

The thing about the time before you were born is that you weren't there, you're here instead. So again literal nothinginess doesn't exist and so it's not something that you can experience personally it will never happen.

Yup. I was a dark jedi in this one alternate universe, unfortunately though I was killed by Obi Wan Kenobi. It's no biggie though, I'm one with the force there now.

The multiple paraelle universe theory is from quantum physics it's based on some fairly solid science confusing though it is. When they fire a single photon of light at two slits the photon appears to pass through both at once, but only if you don't look once you look it will pass through either one or the other. No-one really understands how this works.

[Torment]

The thing about the time before you were born is that you weren't there, you're here instead. So again literal nothinginess doesn't exist and so it's not something that you can experience personally it will never happen.

Us not being here before we were born =/= literal nothingness doesn't exist. Your premise doesn't make sense. Just because we can't experience it doesn't mean nothingness doesn't exist. In fact, if we could experience it it would contradict the meaning of nothingness.

The multiple paraelle universe theory is from quantum physics it's based on some fairly solid science confusing though it is. When they fire a single photon of light at two slits the photon appears to pass through both at once, but only if you don't look once you look it will pass through either one or the other. No-one really understands how this works.

I know very little about physics, so debating you on this point would be pointless. My only quarrel with you is this statement:

The only real real problem is that death prevents you from getting stuff done though no doubt there are many alternate universes where we are all dead or were never born, we just happen to be in one of the universe where we're still alive.

Please back this statement up with scientific sources which have been subjected to peer review. Because you just seem to be making things up on the spot.