Is this one where Ra tells me i have to marry and knock up his ugly 12 year old sister while building a tower of blocks in the desert?
Think i’d have to decline on multiple principals.
Or do we have a giant fiery pillar telling me “I am the Lord your God”
Or is it Odin saying hey if you get stabbed really good and entertaining like, you can come drink beer with us.
Or do we have Hera scolding me telling me if im not a good boy i dont get to go to the elysium fields?
Or is it Eru Iluvatar offing me a boat ride to the undying lands?
I would probably get depressed and frightened. I’ve never so much as heard a description of an afterlife that wouldn’t be horrible and horrifying. Yeah, I know, “heaven, happiness forever, blah blah blah” - how would it work?
I was taught that you should always live as if this is your last day. Your things are about to be split among your relatives while you go in front of the Ultimate Judge (or don’t): keep your paperwork and your conscience clean. There’s many other teachings I didn’t take to heart, but that one kind of took hold. I’m definitely not perfect about it, but I try.
Yet again I am the oddball here like me being odd is a surprise to any regular Dopers ---- I probably would still go to work.
Readrers Digest version – unknown to us my Dad knew he was in his last days. The day he passed he got up, went to church as usual, came home and had his usual piece of nutroll, crumpled the napkin into his coffee cup and died. Had he still been of working age my bets is he would have probably done that; gone to work. Somehow since then that has been my “ideal” way to check out – doing the same things I enjoy the same way I enjoy them. Give me the date and time and I may do a few things before then but tell me in the morning that “today/this week you die” and I’ll probably stick to my routine.
I like my job, but I like it on the scale of things I’d expect remuneration for doing. Would I want to be in my cube at work during my last hours, or with my wife and son? Easy choice.
The flip side of this is, if I knew these were my last hours on earth, and I went off to work rather than spending those hours with my wife and son, I’d be depriving them of the chance to spend those last few precious hours with me. Can’t speak for my son, who is at an age where he can be hard to read, but my wife would be both grieving and pissed if I chose to spend my last few hours at work rather than with her. Wouldn’t blame her - I’d feel the same if roles were reversed. Not that I’d have to worry.
I enjoy being on vacation, myself. Main reason I go to work is to pay for tomorrow’s fun. If there’s no tomorrow, well…
(To somewhat vaguely tie this back to the actual thread topic, I do operate on the assumption that working until my last breath will not pay dividends in the per-OP-real afterlife.)
Can I dunk? I heard that in heaven you can dunk. Really good. Like Jordan in his prime.
Otherwise, pfft. This being is obviously not omnipotent (since he needed to come tell me, rather than just making it so I know), so he might be wrong. And who wants to live their life banking on an afterlife that isn’t actually real?? Not me.
I wouldn’t live my life much differently because I already believe that there’s an afterlife, want to end up there, and live accordingly. However, I would probably be more cheerful if I knew for absolute certain I’ll see my mom again.
I snipped it VERY HEAVILY because I agree with you for you. But my goal/plan would be not to tell my wife (like Dad didn’t tell mother or us) and I don’t have kids. For most normal people you would be right; I’m just a little on the “Abby” side of the equation.
