# Atheist's Afterlife! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718 "2011-02-17T17:17:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/41 "2011-02-18T20:14:20Z")
Among other things, I want the ability to create for myself–so everything from “the time and ability to perfect any art form I care to” to “an appreciative, honest audience for any works I do create” to “the ability to carve off a slice of multiverse and become, for the purposes of that slice, an omnimax deity” would be super. ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/42 "2011-02-19T03:37:38Z")
One of the problems I have with an afterlife is the concept of eternity. Forever. The infinite. I think about it like this: when talking about infinite numbers, the number one and the number eleventy million are just as far from the end of infinity as any other number. In fact, the numbers, (when compared to infinity) the difference between them would be infinitely small. Meaning the difference between something like 1 and 100 trillion would be nothing compared to how far away they are from infinity. Eventually it would be as if all the numbers ran together. I think eternity would be the same way, it wouldn’t matter if you spent 10 seconds or a googol-plex worth of years doing something, time would no longer have meaning. All things would happen at the same time. Just as infinite speed would mean occupying everywhere at once. That being said. I would want to spend it experiencing it as every individual who has ever lived and ever will live and every permutation of those lives. I don’t think a lot of people realize just how mind-boggling crazy infinity and eternity are. I mean if I were going to live out the permutation of every life for infinity, it would mean something like this: I’d live the life exactly the same except that on June 24, 1986, I drink a diet Pepsi at 10:26 a.m. The rest of the life proceeds exactly the same after this. Then in the next life, I drink that same diet Pepsi at 10:27 a.m. Or maybe next time it’s a diet Coke, or coffee, or maybe I’m in a different location but it’s still diet Pepsi. Yeah, I have thought about this a lot… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/43 "2011-02-19T04:48:05Z")
> [@Shawn1767](#): > > I don’t think a lot of people realize just how mind-boggling crazy infinity and eternity are. You might think it’s a long way down the road to the Chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to Infinity. ---
**Author:** ![BigDadWolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@BigDadWolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigDadWolf)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/44 "2011-02-19T17:26:24Z")
I pondered this question for a while and decided it would be entertaining to be allowed to relive my life with the ability to change one decision I made each iteration just to see what would have happened. What would my life had been like if I chosen a different major, if I had the not broken up with someone, if I had been more bold at some key time, etc. There are so many big and small decisions made that if done differently could have resulted in who knows what - I think it would be entertaining to explore the possibilities. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/45 "2011-02-21T04:45:24Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Also I’d like to see the various pets we’ve lost over the years. We’ve been through at least a dozen (probably two dozen at this point) fish in just the last year (still on a learning curve when it comes to taking care of them), at this rate, by the time I die, it’ll be hard to get around without having to be hip deep in my own dead pets. > [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I think I’d like to become part of the internet. Not like a fixed address or anything. Just able to bounce through the wires, see what everyone else is seeing. Porn, duh! > [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > I’d like a college movie montage of all the people I’ve met, with subtitles telling me what they all did with their lives after I lost touch. Watch the end credits of Animal House much? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/46 "2011-02-21T05:46:16Z")
> [@Double\_Foolscap](#): > > I’d like a college movie montage of all the people I’ve met, with subtitles telling me what they all did with their lives after I lost touch. So… Facebook? ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718/47 "2011-02-21T06:21:09Z")
I haven’t read it myself, yet, but I understand that in Neil Gaiman’s _Sandman_ comics, there exists a supernatural library containing every book ever written…or conceived of, but never finished or written down. I’d kill to spend time there. I mean I’d kill _innocent_ people to gain access to a place like that, I think. If that was the afterlife, I could do worse. On a grimmer, though more serious note…really, one of the worst things (I’ve always thought) about being an atheist? The lack of a _Hell_. Not that I’d want to end up there myself, but it’d sit a lot better with me if a lot of _other_ deserving people did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-afterlife/571718.md?page=2)