# Those not believing in an afterlife, would you live forever? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 5, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221 "2006-11-05T23:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TristramAiblins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@TristramAiblins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TristramAiblins)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/1 "2006-11-05T23:01:36Z")
Let’s say that you have to choice to become a permanant 25 year old that cannot die. If you sustain any major wounds, they will heal. If your head is somehow chopped off, you will grow a new one. If you are somehow thrown through a wood chipper, you will meld together ala Terminator 2. And, just to make it a bit more attractive, let’s also say that when humanity comes to an end, you will die with it. Would you do it? Or would you cut your losses and go back to the nothing from whence you came? ---
**Author:** ![the\_PC\_apeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_PC\_apeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_PC_apeman)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/2 "2006-11-05T23:26:38Z")
Wanting immortality strikes me as being egotistical and/or greedy. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/3 "2006-11-05T23:30:43Z")
I think I would, assuming there aren’t any nonobvious catches. Bear in mind that i’ve never been in love, though, so I can’t say with experience that I wouldn’t miss people too much to bear when they died and I didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/4 "2006-11-05T23:34:57Z")
No, thank you. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/5 "2006-11-05T23:39:21Z")
Eternally 25? With no opt-out? Oh, hell no. Watching my friends, my lovers, my \*\*kids \*\* grow old and die? That sounds pretty much like the opposite of fun to me. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2006, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/6 "2006-11-05T23:59:15Z")
Yeah, sometimes I feel as if life is unbearably painful and dreary, and I’m only 34. I expect that by the time I’m 90 or so I might be ready to call it good and go on to feed some lower life forms and re-enter the food chain. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/7 "2006-11-06T00:07:09Z")
I’d take it. My only caveat would be wanting the possibility of changing my mind in case I got tired of living at some future point. In fact, I see the seed of an interesting SF story in the OP. An immortal being who wants to die but the only way for that to happen is “when humanity comes to an end.” So obviously he has to kill everyone else so he can die. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/8 "2006-11-06T00:31:55Z")
Only if I could have a bunch of other people in the same condition to hang out with. Watching everyone else I know grow old and die does not strike me as pleasant. **Little Nemo** , I like that idea. I wonder if it’s already been used. ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/9 "2006-11-06T01:33:09Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] Only if I could have a bunch of other people in the same condition to hang out with. Watching everyone else I know grow old and die does not strike me as pleasant. [/QUOTE] I don’t know if you’ve ever seen _Dead Like Me_, but this topic and this quote together remind me of the characters in that show (a group of immortal reapers in charge of taking the souls of the dying, but they’re also living their own undead lives). I’d quite gladly take a situation like that - I don’t even mind watching most people I know grow old and die, but there’d have to be SOME companions to keep things sane. ---
**Author:** ![Daffyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daffyd/32/8923_2.png) [@Daffyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daffyd)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/10 "2006-11-06T01:50:18Z")
I’d love it… Although the idea of going back to being 25 is a little rough… Do I have to be as stupid as I was then forever? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/11 "2006-11-06T02:41:00Z")
“I’d rather die happy then not die at all.” I forgot which song has that in it. ---
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/12 "2006-11-06T03:43:38Z")
I suppose I’d want to reserve the option of suicide if things got too bad, but yeah, I’d take it. Staying physically young but growing ever wiser. The best of both worlds. But I’m sure the nothing from whence I came is fine too. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/13 "2006-11-06T04:20:38Z")
I’ll echo **DianaG** ’s “hell no,” for those same reasons, but _mainly_ due to others. Although your perfect age is 25 ( ::: shudder ::: ) and my brain got all fucked up three years later than that, I still wouldn’t want to take the chance of eternity repeating said mental illness. And since you only talked about the physical anyway… Gah, no matter what I’ll prefer death pretty much over any option. Plus, an afterlife that isn’t sounds like my idea of heaven. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/14 "2006-11-06T04:29:28Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] In fact, I see the seed of an interesting SF story in the OP. An immortal being who wants to die but the only way for that to happen is “when humanity comes to an end.” So obviously he has to kill everyone else so he can die. [/QUOTE] I had thought it would be an interesting SF story as well, but in my version the protagonist is remember the great times, eventually the human race evovled beyond him, and he ends being a pet for the future species with no escape by death. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/15 "2006-11-06T05:48:11Z")
Hmm could you put yourself into a sort of suspended animation? Freezing yourself deep inside a glacier? You’d be revivable but your consciousness would not function while you’re a popsicle. Of course you wake up thousands of years later, find the entire human race to be extinct, and spend eons waiting for the aliens to show up so you could tell them about the people and civilization you used to know… ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/16 "2006-11-06T05:51:50Z")
[QUOTE=archmichael] I had thought it would be an interesting SF story as well, but in my version the protagonist is remember the great times, eventually the human race evovled beyond him, and he ends being a pet for the future species with no escape by death. [/QUOTE] Holy shit. That just gave me a chill. Yeah, like I said, I would prefer having a group to hang out with so we could be all dark and cynical together. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/17 "2006-11-06T07:46:26Z")
[QUOTE=Fern Forest] “I’d rather die happy then not die at all.” I forgot which song has that in it. [/QUOTE] The Band = “W. S. Walcott Medicine Show” ---
**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:** [November 6, 2006, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/18 "2006-11-06T11:15:49Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] In fact, I see the seed of an interesting SF story in the OP. An immortal being who wants to die but the only way for that to happen is “when humanity comes to an end.” So obviously he has to kill everyone else so he can die. [/QUOTE] Hey yeah! And they could cut off each other’s heads with swords! I am actually looking forward to death. Sort of wish it would happen sooner rather than later, without actually wanting to cause it myself or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/19 "2006-11-06T14:37:55Z")
If I were single and had no attachements, I’d take it with the opt-out clause. There’s just so much that I want to see and do still. But I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![archmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/20 "2006-11-06T14:41:45Z")
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee] Holy shit. That just gave me a chill. Yeah, like I said, I would prefer having a group to hang out with so we could be all dark and cynical together. [/QUOTE] I’m just glad you understood. Apparently 2 jobs, a 65 hour work week and lack of sleep make for incoherent posts. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221.md?page=2)