Note we are voting NOT on what kind of afterlife there is (IIRC there have been several polls on that), but which one you would prefer.
I realize that there are some overlap between the above-if you choose either of the reincarnation options, you prefer to keep incarnating, and not strive to eventually get off of the wheel as per the Hindu/Buddhist end goals.
I personally love the implications of Defending Your Life which combines several of your choices. Reincarnation with Higher Planes of existence. This is also implied (sort of) by the by the Odd Thomas books by Dean Koontz.
Nonexistence. I’m tired, and just want it all over.
I’m glad so far nobody has picked hell for everyone.
Physical immortality, baby! I want to live, learn and love forever.
Immortality, but only because I’d suspect that many of the other options would be mostly symbolic, as in “oh, reincarnation? Sure, your soul is in that bee over there. But you don’t actually remember anything from your former life.” Even if there is some metaphysical reality behind this, without memories I would still argue that I am not the same being even if I had the same spirit/soul/whatever.
Reincarnation could be okay if the “soul” was in some way improved, so your next life was rewarded for previous good behavior. Obviously, real memory of the past life would make a hell of a lot more sense, but if a good person were reincarnated in a healthy body, to a loving family, while stinkards were crippled and hated… Well, that would make some vague kind of sense.
(The ugly danger, alas, is that if people believe this, it would prompt them to despise the very people who need the most compassion!)
Reincarnation would not be last among my choices in this poll.
Lutheran – went for #2 as the closest option available.
The idea of having an eternal, continuous, individual, discrete consciousness divorced from my physical existence and that could experience catastrophic changes in the material universe is horrifying to me.
Me too. The whole point of dying is that you don’t have to worry about shit like what happens to you after you die anymore.
I rather fancy the idea of reincarnation but I want to come back as a human, none of this coming back as a cockroach thanks.
Even now, Sithrak oils the spit.
(Comic linked SFW. Other comics on the site, not so much.)
Well, it depends on what exactly you mean by immortality-could you make use of any sort of opt-out clause when you finally tire of it all, and find some way to instantaneously vaporize yourself before you can regenerate all over again…
Nonexistence.
Or . . . there is a heaven, but only atheists are allowed in.
So far - Inspiration for my next song . . . “Nobody Wants to Go to Catholic Heaven”
I voted physical immortality, but if ascending to another plane means I get to be Q or the Beyonder I’d like to change my vote.
^This^
If I get to choose my afterlife, then I’m going to go whole hog and make it exactly the way I want it, with all kinds of rules and regulations to assure eternal bliss (eternal damnation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Trust me, been there, done that).
Those who say they are tired and just want to get life over with (Trinopus, I’m looking in your general vicinity) just aren’t considering all the possibilities. Maybe we do feel tired in the twilight years of our current lives, but, if we so choose, we can come back bright eyed and bushy tailed in our next life (perhaps even as a bunny).
The only way to avoid eternal boredom is to go with some type of reincarnation protocol. Hell, even eternity with 40 virgins would grow old after, oh, 40 days or so (I popped your cherry yesterday, you’re not a virgin any more, sweetie).
But, I don’t want the type of reincarnation where your memories are wiped totally clean each time (what’s the point, you’re essentially a completely different person), and I don’t want the type of reincarnation where you have 100% memory retention (I don’t want to be worrying about getting indicted by the IRS for tax evasion from some former life). I want most of my memories erased at the conclusion of each life, but retain enough core memory to have a sense of continued self.
And there must be strict rules about what type of critter I can come back as. I don’t want to come back as anything like a spider, where, if I look in a mirror, I think, ewwww! (No cracks about how I do that now, you moronic hyenas!). No, I want to come back as something somewhat human-ish each time I return. You can stick me on some other planet or alternate universe, but I just want 1 head, 2 arms, 2 legs, and a huge penis, like I have now.
I want the temporal progression of my reincarnates to be based on merit, not faith or anything else. If I lead a “good” life, I want to be rewarded with something positive in my next life…like an even huger penis. If I lead a “bad” life, I accept responsibility and wish to be demoted…a little (but, not to a spider, or a cockroach, or a used car salesman). I don’t want to come back as any creature that has to suck bug juice in order to survive (because that doesn’t pair well with red wine).
I also want people who I like in my current life, like my kids, to pop into my life in future lives. Perhaps some type of “attractor” quality would work (e.g. if I have a high attractor for my mom and she has one for me, we’d likely cross paths closely in many of our future lives). Alternately, I want “anti-attractors”, whereby my ex-wife shall be cast into some alternate universe, many branesaway from me for all of eternity and beyond.
And, lastly, I want a little R&R in between each life. Give me 40 days of sleep on a Beautyrest® mattress, followed by 40 days with those 40 virgins, then a solid week in something like that Star Trek Cantina, where we all have full retention of past lives and get to shoot the shit with accumulated friends and make predictions and bets about our next lives. Then shoot me out of some woman’s uterus once again, and let the adventure begin anew.
Oh, and I want my well-seasoned iron skillet in each of my lives—it took me a long time to get it seasoned perfectly.
Non-existence? Bah, humbug. That’s for wussies.
I’ll do my time, but when I die I want it to be the end. If not, Mike Callahan is behind the bar and shit gets weird.
Non-existence is not a form of afterlife.