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Sometimes I think about eternity or the afterlife and just don’t know if I care about it. Maybe I’m fine just dying and staying dead, my consciousness and life just vanishing into thin air. What do I want with an eternity anyway? And with all the theories regarding what comes next, many sound scarier than nothing at all. Anyone else ever think about this? Maybe it sounds depressing and dark, but I don’t really think of it that way. An end to suffering and work and progression after a long life. Just peaceful dreamless darkness like being put out for surgery with nothing to ever worry about again.
Geez, this sounds suicidal and I promise it is not.
I often think about it, and my feeling is that if there is no life after death that is pretty awful I want to watch over my kids forever, and so the thought of not being aware of them, and them not being aware of me, is very hard for me.
Maybe this is one of the issues that I am happy to have the rose tinted spectacles on with.
With brit-exmo on this one. For much of our doctrine I’m in the “I hope it’s true” camp, and life after death in my mind would be a good thing. Like the OP said, there’s an awful lot we don’t know about that life and whether it would be happy, miserable, lonely, whatever, but the idea of all things ending at death is depressing to me.
Objectively I don’t believe it will happen. In a way this a good thing because I try to make the most out of my life *now* instead of some hoped for eternal bliss.
As somebody who’s spent a bit of my life being suicidally depressed (I’m bipolar), I’ve definitely thought about this. The idea of just ending my life to end the suffering has often been appealing, especially if there isn’t life after death. For people like me, who spend a lot of time suffering, suicide would be the rational thing to do if there is no life after death. It’s just not worth it to hang on when there’s no fear of judgement in an afterlife. Non-existence is a better option than painful existence, especially if the suffering isn’t going to teach me anything that I can’t take with me.
Not sure if that makes sense, but that’s where I land. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I have a great hope that there is life after death, because this life hasn’t been the greatest, and if I can’t take what I’ve learned with me, it will all be for naught.
:think: Brown wrote:Sometimes I think about eternity or the afterlife and just don’t know if I care about it. Maybe I’m fine just dying and staying dead, my consciousness and life just vanishing into thin air. What do I want with an eternity anyway?
And with all the theories regarding what comes next, many sound scarier than nothing at all…Anyone else ever think about this?Maybe it sounds depressing and dark, but I don’t really think of it that way. An end to suffering and work and progression after a long life….like being put out for surgery with nothing to ever worry about again.Personally I’ve never liked the idea that this is all there is but I think it is at least worth seriously considering the possibility to keep things in perspective and put appropriate value on this life (the only life we already know we have for sure). Even when I believed wholeheartedly in the Church I often wondered whether I wouldn’t rather just go to the Telestial or Terrestial Kindom simply to avoid worrying about everything the Church requires and expects plus there was always the nagging uncertainty and fears that I could try extremely hard to do everything right only to end up falling short anyway (D&C 58:26-29). One of my favorite comments I remember seeing on an ex-Mormon blog was some girl talking about how her mom was threatening her that her eternal salvation was at risk and she said something along the lines of, “Yeah right mom that sounds real fun to be around a bunch of Mormons forever.”
I choose to believe in some kind of continued existence simply because I don’t want to accept the alternative. I choose to believe in the concept and principle of exaltation (eternal progression) simply because it’s super cool and I want it to be true.
Conceptually…I can’t fathom it…living forever seems to me to lead to eventual insanity….how do you not eventually know everything? That being said I would love for it to be true so I can converse with the great minds and know the secrets of the universe.
At other times…I think just fading away would not be terrible….I have often wondered if there was a great intergalctic food processor you could jump into if eternity became too much to bare.
johnh wrote:Conceptually…I can’t fathom it…living forever seems to me to lead to eventual insanity….how do you not eventually know everything?
That being said I would love for it to be true so I can converse with the great minds and know the secrets of the universe.
At other times…I think just fading away would not be terrible….I have often wondered if there was a great intergalctic food processor you could jump into if eternity became too much to bare.
Glad I’m not the only one. The thought of eternity makes me feel a bit depressed. sure learning to be like God and creating worlds (populated with dragons of course) sounds like a hoot. But eventually you get bored of even things you love.😳 Oh, and the visual of a giant intergalactic food processor made me chuckle.
😛 Posted from my Note 2 using Tapatalk 2
I’ve recently been developing a deep sadness at possibility that this might be it. To not know of the innovations of the future or the experiences of my great, great, great grand kids. The history of the world is so immense and yet we only live a glimpse of it. But… I can’t get my head around ‘eternal’ life. For ever. No end. I’m not sure how that can work. Given the universe is also limitless there’s always room for another generation in the suburbs.
If we are endless… Why? For what purpose? It actually seems quite pointless. In some ways, being an accidental organism, a freak of biology, chemistry, physics makes a lot more sense than me needing to somehow justify and expand my existence unendingly.
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Unendingly…
Humans have a great conceit of themselves. We think we are the pinnacle of evolution and yet if evolution only exists to produce DNA we are a failure. Microbes are tougher and reproduce more efficiently than we do. Intelligence is not an evolutionary advantage.
Old-Timer wrote:I choose to believe in some kind of continued existence simply because I don’t want to accept the alternative.
I choose to believe in the concept and principle of exaltation (eternal progression) simply because it’s super cool and I want it to be true.
That is sort of the problem with religion in my mind. It allows you to believe in something just because you want to. Then you spend your life pursuing something that is more than likely false or at least misleading. Wanting to believe in something does not make it so. Then we pass those beliefs onto the next generation and the process starts all over again. We have only so much energy to expend in this life best use it wisely.
As for the post I guarantee you there is an afterlife. When you die the molecules in your body will break apart. The individual atoms will go there merry way. They will become the building blocks of new things and even people. In another 10 billion years your atoms may be part of a star being born. In fact this is an ongoing process even as we are living now. So you never really die you just change into something else. So in reality we do live forever.
Cadence wrote:That is sort of the problem with religion in my mind. It allows you to believe in something just because you want to. Then you spend your life pursuing something that is more than likely false or at least misleading. Wanting to believe in something does not make it so. Then we pass those beliefs onto the next generation and the process starts all over again. We have only so much energy to expend in this life best use it wisely.
Odd that you see choice as a problem. If we shouldn’t choose what to believe because we want to why should we believe something? Surely you’re not suggesting that we should only believe things that science has proven 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt? Everything we believe in life is a choice, regardless of the amount of supporting evidence. Science certainly doesn’t have the answers to everything. Life would be dull if we couldn’t believe things that don’t have absolute proof. I don’t know why a choice to believe in something (the after life) that gives millions of people hope is a problem. If people spend their life pursuing again not sure what this entails) the afterlife, what’s the big deal? So they believe that they have to “be good” to get there? Is that a problem? A bunch of nut cases believing they need to develop charity and be kind and loving to others? Please explain what exactly is “the problem.”Quote:So you never really die you just change into something else. So in reality we do live forever.
That is a great summary of how I view Mormon theology, albeit phrased in a way that doesn’t specify spirits or exalted beings with continuing consciousness.
Interesting, Cadence, that you would dismiss my wording by saying pretty much the exact same thing in the end – and I don’t say it that way in any sense of anger of being upset. I literally mean it is “interesting” to me that you believe a yearning to be better or more than we naturally are is the central problem of religion. I believe that type of yearning is foundational to what humans are, and religion (
which varies RADICALLY around the world and throughout time) is the attempt to make sense of that yearning. I believe religion is inevitable (literally unavoidable), and the only issue is finding the vision that makes the most sense and constitutes what each person wants to believe. In that sense, agnosticism or atheism is nothing more than one person’s manifestation of exactly what I said works for me. It’s that person’s “middle way” – nothing more, nothing less. Old-Timer wrote:Quote:So you never really die you just change into something else. So in reality we do live forever.
That is a great summary of how I view Mormon theology, albeit phrased in a way that doesn’t specify spirits or exalted beings with continuing consciousness.
Interesting, Cadence, that you would dismiss my wording by saying pretty much the exact same thing in the end – and I don’t say it that way in any sense of anger of being upset. I literally mean it is “interesting” to me that you believe a yearning to be better or more than we naturally are is the central problem of religion. I believe that type of yearning is foundational to what humans are, and religion (
which varies RADICALLY around the world and throughout time) is the attempt to make sense of that yearning. I believe religion is inevitable (literally unavoidable), and the only issue is finding the vision that makes the most sense and constitutes what each person wants to believe. In that sense, agnosticism or atheism is nothing more than one person’s manifestation of exactly what I said works for me. It’s that person’s “middle way” – nothing more, nothing less. What can I say, Mormonism and religion in general is not what gets me excited. It seems small and trapped in its own doctrine unable to push forward and learn new things. Maybe if I could travel the universe for 1 million years and see different galaxies and planets and different races that would be very exciting. That is something I would look forward to. But religion has too many trappings that go along with it that prevent you from getting from here to there So if there is eternal life my problem with religion and Mormonism particularly is that they put so many rules and regulations on getting there it hardly seems worth the effort
But that is just me. I am a science based individual that has little faith or belief in nuanced approaches to looking at things. I realize others find great joy in examining theology and wondering about things they cannot prove it, just does not do it for me I guess I will find out if there is an afterlife when I get there. Put in a good word for me if you get there before I do.
I think we equate “Mormonism” with “The LDS Church” when, in fact, they are very different things – just as “The Gospel of Jesus Christ” is another very different things. 🙂
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