# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/21 "2006-11-06T14:47:51Z")
I’d do it. You’ve eliminated the major problem that Swift’s _Struldbugs_ had with the eternal health and youth. Seeing the world change out of recognition? Watching friends and family die? Heck, I see that already, without the benefit of immortality. Given my druthers. I’d be immortal. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/22 "2006-11-06T15:07:17Z")
[QUOTE=TristramAiblins] . . . the nothing from whence you came? [/QUOTE] What, exactly, does this mean? (apart from the glaring grammatical redundancy) ---
**Author:** ![TristramAiblins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@TristramAiblins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TristramAiblins)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/23 "2006-11-06T16:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] What, exactly, does this mean? (apart from the glaring grammatical redundancy) [/QUOTE] Well, if there is no afterlife, then I take it for granted that there is no before life either. Nothing before, nothing after. ---
**Author:** ![Pabitel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbce88/32.png) [@Pabitel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pabitel)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/24 "2006-11-06T17:58:39Z")
[QUOTE=TristramAiblins] 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? [/QUOTE] I would accept that deal for curiosity’s sake. There are several predictions of climate change and solar activity and glaciation that will take hundreds of years to test. I want to be around to see if Florida is underwater and Manhattan is a forest of half submerged sky scrapers. That’s just one example, there are a lot of other long term trends that I would really like to hang around and check out as they unfold. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/25 "2006-11-06T20:10:21Z")
I’m thinking no. The boredom would really pile up. What I really hope for is reincarnation. I’d love to come back as a kitty. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/26 "2006-11-06T20:43:46Z")
What happens if you’re strapped down to the conveyer belt at the saw mill and your body is sawed exactly in half from head to crotch? Which half grows the other half back? Could you create infinite copies of yourself this way? Or is there always a dominant half and the other half dies? What happens if someone encases me in concrete and drops me into the ocean? What happens if someone puts me through a wood-chipper, they pour me into a bunch of one-pint containers and shoot all the containers off into space in different directions? Or into the sun? Or a black hole? Can I have kids? I could probably get used to everyone growing old and dying. You can always have more kids and make new friends. As long as I could remain a free man, I might go for it. ---
**Author:** ![Dragwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dragwyr/32/2855_2.png) [@Dragwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragwyr)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/27 "2006-11-06T20:51:08Z")
Heh, with my luck, I’d develop a sinus infection that eventually would be invulnerable to all known antibiotics. Then I’d have a perpetual headache that would just get worse and worse and never stop and I’d be crabby until the rest of humanity fell out of existance. No. I’d rather have a lifespan of… say… 300 years rather than be immortal. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/28 "2006-11-06T20:54:36Z")
With the minor caveat that I’d prefer to be 29 than 25, absolutely. In a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/29 "2006-11-06T20:59:20Z")
[QUOTE=Fiveyearlurker] With the minor caveat that I’d prefer to be 29 than 25, absolutely. In a heartbeat. [/QUOTE] Me too. I was fine at 25, but I think I was at my prime at 30-35. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/30 "2006-11-06T21:08:27Z")
Absolutely, but if **and only if** there’s an opt-out clause whereby I can choose death when I wish to. Another thing that would be really cool is to be able to freeze oneself for a thousand years at a time – sort of “time-hopping” – just to see what the world looks like down the line without waiting too much time for it to happen (my main reason for wanting immortality, anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/31 "2006-11-06T21:12:42Z")
You can have my immortality when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Or something like that, anyway. I personally can’t understand how anyone would actually prefer to die, if offered immortality. Boredom? Remember how bored you used to be, as a kid, when you had an hour to wait? As an adult, however, an hour is _nothing_. Imagine what an hour will feel like after a few millennia. And just think of all the neat things you’d miss if you died. Don’t you want to see What Happens Next? I know I do. I fully intend to be alive, and still having fun, a million years from now. Hell, if you _really_ get tired of hanging around, just launch yourself into a black hole- the relativistic effects’d get you to the end of the universe in no time (from your point of view). It’s claimed that we achieve immortality through our children, or through great acts. I’d prefer to achieve immortality by dint of _not dying_. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/32 "2006-11-06T21:53:40Z")
I’d take it with the caveat that I could also do it comfortably. A thousand years could get quite tedious broke. I’m also one of those people who has to see What’s Next. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/33 "2006-11-06T22:29:28Z")
I’m one who does not believe in an afterlife. 25 and healthy eternally? In a heartbeat. I’m drooling over the long term compounding right now! Would I have to always carry a sword? _“There can be only one!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/34 "2006-11-07T00:16:52Z")
No way. We get whatever time we get and that knowledge is what propels us ( me ) up out of bed every day. The corollary question, pardon the hijack, is this: Do you live your life as though you could die today? How differently would you live if you knew without doubt that you would never die? I don’t believe in an afterlife, but to me that’s besides the point- nobody’s come back to confirm or deny so each of us has to plod along, NOT knowing. I’d rather die. Preferably around 53 ( I’m 44 ), before things really start to get fugly. 😉 Upon Preview, I kinda feel like that last sentence might mightily offend any Dopers older than 52. Not my intention at all. I was referring to my corporeal existence, knowing what I am and how I feel at 44. I didn’t mean that everyone should be dead by 52 :eek: Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/35 "2006-11-07T00:33:25Z")
[QUOTE=Noone Special] Absolutely, but if **and only if** there’s an opt-out clause whereby I can choose death when I wish to. [/quote] Same, otherwise the situation is just begging for a nightmare scenario. Like : \*Being captured by religious fanatics who regard your immortality as sinful and unnatural, and being tortured for thousands of years by them and their descendants. \*Being crushed and trapped under a landslide, unable to die but unable to heal properly because of the pressure. \*Discovering the hard way that the human mind can’t tolerate an indefinite lifespan, going insane and staying that way forever. \*Being trapped in some stable totalitarian nightmare like _1984_. [QUOTE=Noone Special] Another thing that would be really cool is to be able to freeze oneself for a thousand years at a time – sort of “time-hopping” – just to see what the world looks like down the line without waiting too much time for it to happen (my main reason for wanting immortality, anyway) [/QUOTE] Now, there’s an idea that’s been the source of some great sci-fi. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/36 "2006-11-07T01:01:33Z")
I’ll pass on the living forever gig. If there’s an afterlife, then maybe I’ve got a date with a Viking wnech on a winged horse…or else I can get started on my conquest of Hell. If no afterlife, it’s just as well. I’m tired enough to sleep forever. ---
**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 7, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/37 "2006-11-07T01:06:41Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] I’m one who does not believe in an afterlife. 25 and healthy eternally? In a heartbeat. I’m drooling over the long term compounding right now! Would I have to always carry a sword? _“There can be only one!”_ [/QUOTE] The novel _Flying Dutch_, by Tom Holm, had a humorous subplot on how the titular captain of the ship accumulated interest over several hundred years equivalent to more money than existed in all the markets of the world. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/38 "2006-11-07T02:31:12Z")
I was thinking about the accumulated interest thing. You could probably become comfortably wealthy in one extra-long lifetime, but after that banks, people, and governments would notice and laws would probably get passed which specifically prevent the lone immortal from becoming ridiculously wealthy. You could end up paying 99.9% in taxes or something. Also, in another two or three hundred years who’s to say artificial intelligence, automation & personal robots won’t make the accumulation of personal wealth somewhat meaningless? Also, in another three hundred years maybe everyone gets to be immortal. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/39 "2006-11-07T03:46:14Z")
I would take it, no question. I could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow without worrying that the money would be better spent saving for retirement since I will never retire. I can move from place to place, recreating myself over and over again as someone new. I can learn everything I have ever wanted to know and beyond. I would definately choose immortality. (Wait, I don’t want to be a vampire or another creature that is undead, I would rather choose death. No dealing with draining people for food or only coming out at night or anything.) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221/40 "2006-11-07T04:01:41Z")
What he said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-not-believing-in-an-afterlife-would-you-live-forever/379221.md?page=3)