Does anyone else think an afterlife sounds awful?

[wednesdayweather]

I do. If after I die I find a wake up to an afterlife, I will be seriously pissed. I went to an evangelical church for a little bit many years ago, and knew it was not for me when the preacher said, ' why are you worried about what is going on?! (in the news) when we have ETERNITY!' And I thought, ' that sounds AWFUL. So I decided christanity wasn't for me as I just don't want their big payoff. It doesn't matter what the afterlife is like, I just don't want it.

I actively like the idea of life being time limited. You are here and then you aren't, and that suits me.

Anyone else think the same?

@IHateCoronavirus

I think this is the hellish bit with the suffering and the loss etc, with tiny glimpses of heaven thrown in. For example, high days and holidays, the very best bits of falling in love, snuggling your children etc.

I’m hoping when we die it is all the good bits. No one will feel jealous of husband number 2 because jealousy no longer exists. No one will get fed up of listening to great aunt Nelly because suddenly the woman will be riveting.

We will all be jolly, as high as kites and surrounded by loved ones (and those we suddenly also love but couldn’t have cared less about during life).

Disclaimer I’m determined to believe in heaven because I want to see my DD again. Thinking that I may not really would make this life hellish. Clinging on to hope is like my self protection to keep me going.

I hope so too 💗

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale

I'd like to see Dad and GP again.

Yep, more chance of seeing your GP in the afterlife than a face to face appt atm

@Hohofortherobbers Classic!

An afterlife where we are all better versions of ourselves, where everyone has learned from their mistakes in this life and behaves decently to each other and everyone has a chance to maximise their potential and expand their skills and interests - all that sounds good. OTOH, if death is just a permanent state of being asleep, minus the dreams, because we lose consciousness forever, that sounds OK too.

After my parents died I went to a spiritual church several times, looking for answers, but found none there. I ended up feeling quite cynical about the whole set up, and had the feeling that the "mediums" were a mixture of charlatans and well meaning but deluded people. I had theories that if I had created a false back story about people I'd lost, and had dropped snippets of info among the regular attendes, then no doubt eventually a medium would manage to channel those (non existent) characters for me, and come out with lots of pertinent "facts" that only those spirits could have told them. But I was fearful of messing with them - what if those mediums are being manipulated by evil entities? So, I have mixed feelings about it all, and try not to dwell on it, because it can play on my mind and my mental health is not great. I envy those who have strong faith.

@IHateCoronavirus I really like this idea, too. One of the most fascinating people I ever met was a man who was completely convinced that THIS was hell. (He was also from a country that has been at war for quite a long time and obviously had a form of PTSD). So he figured, he’d do the best he could in this life, then he’d die, and go to… life? Heaven? Seems to me like I read a book in which there was a group of people who believed somewhat of the same thing, maybe a fantasy or sci-fi book. Oh! I remember! It’s the Nac Mac Feegles in Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching séries. They think they must be dead already and in paradise. because their lives are so good (drinking, fighting, stealing sheep - they’re a happy folk) and so they assume that when you “die,” you actually get stuck going back to the land of the living, where there are things like accountants.

“Disclaimer I’m determined to believe in heaven because I want to see my DD again. Thinking that I may not really would make this life hellish. Clinging on to hope is like my self protection to keep me going.”

I’m sorry for you loss, @IHateCoronavirus. I’ve also lost a child, my DS age 6, and though I don’t believe in anything specific, I live in hope that there is some way to see my little boy again. Losing a child has meant a life of grief and joy walking hand in hand (we went on to have another child), and the heartache and yearning to see our DS never ends.

it does. Our youngest had also brought us so much joy. It is comforting to know we can manage both grief and joy simultaneously. I’m sorry for your loss also for your little boy.

I'd love an afterlife but I don't believe in it, and if you start to think about it, the idea makes no sense. The obvious ones mentioned above - hanging out with people you don't like, or what is there to talk about after 1000 years together.

"Well it would be just love" and that brings up to the most basic problem - we are nothing without our physical bodies. Even emotions/ideas that are seen as "above" our physical selves actually aren't. Love isn't some mystical thing. It is a physical thing we have evolved as it proved beneficial to passing on our genes. Same with familial love and friendship - evolved as community and altruism has been advantageous to staying alive longer and therefore passing on our genes. It's nothing more than that.

I remember being very bored in church when I was about 8, and the vicar saying that in heaven we would be praising God for all eternity. I couldn’t think of anything worse than a church service that lasted forever!

As a lesbian with a religious family, plenty of people have tried to ‘save me’ from going to hell. If there is an afterlife, I’d much rather go to hell with all the other lesbians and misfits than to heaven with these judgmental people!

I find the idea of just ending and going into dust comforting. Make the most of this flash of life!

If there is an after life, I am not sure where your spirit would be situated, when people usually think they go to heaven, but nobody knows where heaven is truthfully. An after life, is basically conjured up in peoples minds, and then they can just imagine what they wish for , for a loved ones after existence.

What I don’t get is people who are very strictly religious and deny themselves enjoyable things so they can enjoy the afterlife. I always feel like saying you don’t know that life exists, you KNOW this one exists, so enjoy this and worry about that if it happens.

On one hand I like the idea of life being finite, but then when I die I wouldn’t see my loved ones anymore. I don’t know. I suppose I liked the bit in The Amber Spyglass where Lee Scoresby sort of drifts away to join Hester. I wouldn’t mind that, my atoms just floating about near the atoms of all the people I loved but me no longer existing.

@Kanaloa

What I don’t get is people who are very strictly religious and deny themselves enjoyable things so they can enjoy the afterlife. I always feel like saying you don’t know that life exists, you KNOW this one exists, so enjoy this and worry about that if it happens.

On one hand I like the idea of life being finite, but then when I die I wouldn’t see my loved ones anymore. I don’t know. I suppose I liked the bit in The Amber Spyglass where Lee Scoresby sort of drifts away to join Hester. I wouldn’t mind that, my atoms just floating about near the atoms of all the people I loved but me no longer existing.

Oh god that passage in his dark materials absolutely destroys me every time.

Maybe for some people, it’s endless fags outside the pub

It would be endless fags “inside” the pub for me! The smoking ban doesn’t exist in my heaven! Plus, seeing as we’d all be dead anyway it wouldn’t be needed.

I don’t believe there’s anything after. You’re here then you’re not. People just want something to cling to. My mum is as toxic as they come. She’s made a complete mess of her life (all her own doing). She needs to believe she has another chance, she even says “in my next life”. I think for her to face up to this being it, would destroy her.

My life hasn’t been lived either perfectly or immensely successfully! But I raised 2 DC with love and kindness, and we have a great bond, I’ve not done anything awful to anyone. I’ve found happiness where I can. I don’t need a “do over”. Nor do I need the “reward” of an afterlife. I’m happy with how I lived this life.

@AlwaysLatte

I'm not keen on any thought of afterlife. I think it was just a concept to help people come to terms with death, and to help them believe in religion (which as an atheist I think was invented purely as an early form of policing). As for not wanting to accept finality and to wish for an afterlife, you have to remember that if there is no you then there is no you to wish to stay alive. It's not like dead you will say 'oh dear, that's a shame'. So life IS forever, in.a way - our own personal forever.

I have a theory that some sort of religion started way back, with very early Homo Sapiens, because of rainbows. How on earth would early man have explained them? Surely there must be some sort of powerful being up there who sent this amazing thing after the rain? Maybe s/he is sometimes very angry with us, that’s why s/he sends violent storms - I wonder how we can appease him/her? Gifts of fruit, flowers, meat? Or perhaps, how about sacrificing a nice juicy young virgin….

I think we get recycled as the Earth is already a fairly closed system where things are in cycles. Like water being rained, going into rivers, drank by living things and then back into the atmosphere where it will be rain again at some point (for example). Or autumn leaves being broken down and then feeding the following years plants with the nutrients.

So I think the elements of our physical bodies are used again by the Earth and our ‘spark’ or energy is reused in a new living thing. Whether we keep some semblance of ourselves in that and experience being different life forms/ new humans or not is something I guess we won’t ever know although I think there is something to be said about people feeling like they’ve met before and old/young souls etc. Maybe an old soul is simply someone who has more of their energy kept together from being alive before.

Because we don’t know I think it’s important to appreciate the uniqueness of being alive and alive in human form. Despite how hard life can be it’s something very different and so far something that we know has only happened on this planet. We have consciousness to see and experience the wonder of the universe.

This is a very interesting thread. Also interesting to see how many people feel confident to declare what the Bible says, and what Christians believe, with clearly no understanding of Christian theology. There are plenty of bad preachers and bad theologians calling themselves Christians, but they don't necessarily speak for Christ. Sadly it means that what many people have rejected is a straw man Christ.

If you haven't found the answer you were looking for, keep looking. Seek and you shall find.

It depends on the quality of life the person is living now - in this life.
If they haven't been blessed with the basics like speech, independence and freedom - then do they get another shot at it?

(Speaking as a heartbroken Mum of a very severely disabled adult son).

If when I pop off this shit starts again, I am going to be seriously pissed off.

@wednesdayweather

How's the afterlife supposed to work anyway? Do you have to get a job in the afterlife?

A preacher I heard speak said that there would definitely be work in the afterlife, which made me think, 'oh no, working forever without even retirement to look forward to! -Not even the Tories have proposed that!'

😂😂

@LastTrainEast nice explanation of what being remembered is all about.

I think when we die we turn to dust and that’s all there is. I don’t think there’s a soul that lives on. Sometimes I wish there were as I have people I’d like to see but, like someone said above, what would we actually talk about? Topics of conversation would soon dry up. OTOH if we’d just float around blissfully like in an MDMA trance, I could see the appeal maybe.

@Tumbleweed101

I think we get recycled as the Earth is already a fairly closed system where things are in cycles. Like water being rained, going into rivers, drank by living things and then back into the atmosphere where it will be rain again at some point (for example). Or autumn leaves being broken down and then feeding the following years plants with the nutrients.

So I think the elements of our physical bodies are used again by the Earth and our ‘spark’ or energy is reused in a new living thing. Whether we keep some semblance of ourselves in that and experience being different life forms/ new humans or not is something I guess we won’t ever know although I think there is something to be said about people feeling like they’ve met before and old/young souls etc. Maybe an old soul is simply someone who has more of their energy kept together from being alive before.

Because we don’t know I think it’s important to appreciate the uniqueness of being alive and alive in human form. Despite how hard life can be it’s something very different and so far something that we know has only happened on this planet. We have consciousness to see and experience the wonder of the universe.

I wonder if that's the same if you're cremated? Ponders.....🤔

Just to say I did seek, I was religious for years and read the Gospels and then went to synagogue classes, eventually I found atheism, or it found me after it became perfectly obvious that Christianity and Judaism are human creations. There is nothing more human than the idea of an afterlife - the idea that we must be still going after death. Makes no sense.

The thought of being in an afterlife for eternity sounds a bit depressing and would you have to encounter other people you didn't like on Earth?! However, I will keep an open mind! The thought of being in a beautiful paradise does have a certain appeal, however for eternity... not so sure about that!

I wonder how animals fit into an afterlife?

Some are highly intelligent - apes, whales, elephants - and clearly display emotions when they are grieving etc.

So it's easy to see how they should be included in Heaven.

Dogs, cats and horses build meaningful relationships with humans, so it makes sense for them to move to an afterlife.

But what about other animals?

Pigeons? Dodos? Battery farm hens? Guinea pigs? Fish? Spiders? Earthworms? Aphids? Head lice? Amoeba?

What are the deciding factors on who is worthy?

Good point @PricklesTheHedgehog ...will we enter an afterlife with T-rexes and Brontosauruses...and indeed dodos... sounds terrifying!! Haha and spiders please no -they can have their own spider afterlife