A being appears to you and convinces you that he or she is the ultimate being and has ultimate power. He/She offers you two options. Die now and there will be no afterlife. You’ll completely cease to be. No soul, no nothing. Or, you can go on living, but when you do die, you’ll only have a 50% of eternal paradise, or you’ll end up in eternal torment, and it’s completely random. It doesn’t matter how you live your life.
So, which option would you choose? I think that the 50% chance of eternal torment would frighten me enough to take death right then and there.
Yikes, that’s quite the gamble, but a hell of a payoff. And I have to keep on living in uncertainty? I’d risk it, but I’d probably end up killing myself just to find out the result straight away.
How long into your stretch of “eternal torment” would it be before it all became dull and mundane; same goes for that “Paradise” place? Unless they were both infinitely inventive in the experiences they provided. Either way, both would be preferable to the uneventful non-state before I existed, which is where I’m likely headed back to anyway. Yes, of course I want a non-corporeal afterlife. Anything is better than nothing.
I’ll just cease to be, please. 50/50 odds that I might end up being tormented for forever is not a fun prospect, I don’t care how good the possible reward is, I’m not going to risk that.
Tell the message-bearing being that this is unacceptable behavior in an omnipotent entity and that you expect more. Refuse to make a choice. Ask which choice the being would PREFER that you opt for, and why. Tell the being how YOU’D set things up if YOU were promoted to supreme being.
No contest : I’ll have my oblivion now, please. The whole concept of eternal “life” after death freaks me out to no end. Eternity is a damn long time. Especially towards the end.
Then I’d want to know where my friends and family are now or will be sent as well as some statistics on what kinds of other people are in each place. Would it really be torment if I spent eternity in the same place as all the women of easy virtue from throughout the ages? Could it be heaven if Pat Robertson is there?
Lastly, I would have to know why the being has to be such an ass. If it can’t tell me that then I’d just as soon check out for ever than go through eternity dealing with a fickle omnipotent being.
Just assume that your soul wouldn’t have the ability to adapt to its new environment. If you’re suffering, it will never get better, and if you’re happy then you’ll stay that way for eternity.
Maybe I don’t have any imagination, but I just can’t see enjoying eternal paradise. Maybe the first quadrillion years would be alright, but after that I’d have a long long time to wish I’d taken the welcoming oblivion when I’d had the chance. I’d probably take immediate death even if I was able to rig the vote.
This. I’m going to assume that this omnipotent being somehow created us. If he/she made us the intelligent things that we are, then he/she’s gotta expect that we’re not just gonna take this shit lying down and that we have STANDARDS for our omnipotent beings, goddammit. :mad:
Counter Proposal: I get to continue after death with a non-corporeal existance in which I can visit (but not interact with, with the exception of other non-corporeal forms) any point in the space-time continuum, for as long as I desire to continue doing so. At that time, I will cease to exist.
