Do you hope you're wrong?

[TomFoolery]

My mom asked me this today. She's coming around to the idea of me being godless, but mostly seems perturbed at the idea that I don't think we'll be spending forever together in Heaven.

I don't really know. I personally would be horrified to discover virtually any major organized religion was true. I hope to God (pun intended) that they aren't.

But some non-specific idea of enteral existence? I don't know.

[1liesalot]

My mom asked me this today. She's coming around to the idea of me being godless, but mostly seems perturbed at the idea that I don't think we'll be spending forever together in Heaven.

I don't really know. I personally would be horrified to discover virtually any major organized religion was true. I hope to God (pun intended) that they aren't.

But some non-specific idea of enteral existence? I don't know.

I absolutely, positively, whole-heartedly hope I am right. I don't want to go to heaven and have to spend all eternity muttering "holy, holy, holy" to  the mass murdering deities of this world's religious movements. And I clearly have no wish to go to an eternal lake of fire. So yeah, there being no afterlife (least ways not one described in any sacred text I am aware of) is a good thing.

[jonb]

I am not driven by greed. A meal however good or bad comes to a end, going on eating pudding forever is not a nice prospect.

[Baruch]

But there is always room for Jello ;-)

TomFoolery ... it is interesting how parents relate to us, and we relate to our own children.  I don't dream of relations very often, but I am always happy to see my Dad who has been gone for 30 years now.  My mother dreamed of her own obituary a week ago ... and the date in it has already passed a few days ago.  Afterlife is one of the perennial fantasies of people:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwkHnjS4_yo

... I have books on Egyptology by Budge in my own library.  The idea of Last Judgement is very old.  "Mummy" is the name given by the apothecary to the ground up remains of Egyptian mummies, given to much later Europeans, as a medicine.  It was the natron in it that was medicinal.  The Chinese had something similar ... dragon bones ... that in fact were animal bones/carapaces holding the oldest readable Chinese writing, that were being ground up as medicine by their apothecaries.

I have a lavish copy of the scroll of Ani ... and look forward to visiting many times and places ... in lives to come.

[Termin]

 
  It would indeed scare me to think that any one religion was right, as that could mean (depending on what that religion is the right one ) millions if not billions of people could end up suffering through no fault of their own.

  So I don't hope I'm wrong, the alternative is not very good for a lot of people.

 

[Baruch]

People's thinking is too linear.  Their imagination is almost non-existent ... enervated by the vast quantity of high quality mythology produced by the media.

[dtq123]

I kinda do. My loli god would be nice to worship. Perhaps I should tell everyone the dream I had once.

[Shiranu]

If I am not to go to hell? Then yes, being wrong would be interesting. Eternal bliss sounds quite wonderful, as do some of the other interpretations of the after life. Reincarnation not so much; you are far more likely to be born in a very shitty situation than a favourable. Frankly I don't want to be born as a starving homeless kid in Africa or a refugee in a wartorn middle Eastern country, or work in a sweat shop in Asia... or beheaded and carved into 5 pieces by cartels in Latin America. And don't even get me started on how animals have to live. To say I "won" the roll of the dice, relatively, in being born a human in a lower middle class family is an understatement.

Eternity I don't think is that bad though; if we have that sort of divine power, surely we have the power to forget what we have seen and done and enjoy it as it is new as many times as we want. That sounds nice.

[CrucifyCindy]

Actually I do hope I am wrong since I am what could be considered a dystheist.

[Johan]

I don't really know. I personally would be horrified to discover virtually any major organized religion was true. I hope to God (pun intended) that they aren't.

But some non-specific idea of enteral existence? I don't know.

I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return. - Frida Kahlo

I think many theists are theists because the thought of living without a belief in an eternal afterlife terrifies them. What terrifies me is the thought that there will be an eternal afterlife.

I've never done it. But I'd sort of like to try this thought exercise on a theist.  Start by asking them if they know how long it would take to count to one billion, (just under 32 years if you don't stop to eat, sleep or use the toilet). Then ask them to picture the largest number they can possibly imagine. Maybe mention that Bill Gates is worth about $79 billion or that the federal budget is about 4 trillion. Once they say they've got a grasp for just how large the largest number they could imagine is I tell them ok, now multiply that number times itself. And then take the result and times that by itself and do that again and again for a few hours. And then consider this. That new final number you end up with however long it is does not represent days or years. Each tick of that final number is a hundred years and even then, you're just getting started. Now what the fuck are you gonna do for that long? How many Mattlock reruns are you gonna watch?

The thought of an eternal afterlife truly frightens me and it should frighten anyone who understands what the word infinity really means.

[CrucifyCindy]

I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return. - Frida Kahlo

I think many theists are theists because the thought of living without a belief in an eternal afterlife terrifies them. What terrifies me is the thought that there will be an eternal afterlife.

I've never done it. But I'd sort of like to try this thought exercise on a theist.  Start by asking them if they know how long it would take to count to one billion, (just under 32 years if you don't stop to eat, sleep or use the toilet). Then ask them to picture the largest number they can possibly imagine. Maybe mention that Bill Gates is worth about $79 billion or that the federal budget is about 4 trillion. Once they say they've got a grasp for just how large the largest number they could imagine is I tell them ok, now multiply that number times itself. And then take the result and times that by itself and do that again and again for a few hours. And then consider this. That new final number you end up with however long it is does not represent days or years. Each tick of that final number is a hundred years and even then, you're just getting started. Now what the fuck are you gonna do for that long? How many Mattlock reruns are you gonna watch?

The thought of an eternal afterlife truly frightens me and it should frighten anyone who understands what the word infinity really means.

I really don't like the concept of eternal life. After the first billion years you would run out of things that wouldn't bore you to death. There are only so many possible actions one can take and after that you would be living in "Groundhog Day" forever and ever with no way to escape.

[stromboli]

I spent 2 years tunneling out of Mormonism and 16 years as a Christian and studied religion forwards and backwards in that time and I still am. The more I learn the more certain I am of being right. The brightest minds of human kind are atheists. All the great men I respect are atheists.

tl:dr; no.

[Shiranu]

I think you are viewing eternity far too much as a mortal would; since we are discussing the supernatural, than surely we can supernaturally find a way to enjoy it until the end of time. Or perhaps time does not even exist once one becomes an eternal; that an minute will be as a million years and a million years as a minute.

You are viewing an irrational concept just far too rationally :P.

[CrucifyCindy]

I think you are viewing eternity far too much as a mortal would; since we are discussing the supernatural, than surely we can supernaturally find a way to enjoy it until the end of time. Or perhaps time does not even exist once one becomes an eternal; that an minute will be as a million years and a million years as a minute.

You are viewing an irrational concept just far too rationally :P.

When I look at the concept of eternal life I see that those who desire it equate the concept with the concept of eternal happiness. It is like you have no choice but to be happy and to me that contrdicts that concept of free agency. So I really do not see it as anything good. Basically what you get is a robot...a program doing that same thing over and over agian but programmed to say it is happy. Where does agency fit in to this concept of eternal life?

[stromboli]

None of the religious I have known ever mentioned or opined, so far as I know, on the manner and nature of the afterlife. They seem to get to "meet god" and their musings end there. So I don't think conceptualizing about heaven is a big deal with theists.