# What would your personal afterlife be if you died tonight? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 20, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377 "2010-07-20T18:28:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/1 "2010-07-20T18:28:49Z")
Oops. You’re dead. Game over. Shuffled off this mortal coil. What’s next? Are you still conscious? Would you remember this life at all? Would you be knowingly or surreptitiously drawn to the beings you now love? Rewarded? Punished? Forgotten? Would the end be everlasting or cyclic in nature? Would you be able to die again and again, reaching different planes of the hereafter? Is there a being or beings that you will be united with? Will you still be an individual? (Do include your religion/spiritual practice/overgeneralized philosophical outlook/lack thereof. Or leave us guessing. For all eternity.) ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/2 "2010-07-20T20:00:53Z")
It’s one of those unknown unknowns. ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/3 "2010-07-20T20:04:54Z")
Dust unto dust, ashes unto ashes. We’re living our hereafter right now. No second acts. Agnostic. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/4 "2010-07-20T20:09:47Z")
If I die and go to hell real soon it will appear to me as this room and for eternity i’ll lay in bed in my boxers half stoned on the pillows under my bed (Or at least that’s the outlook from the seminal band Say Anything.) ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/5 "2010-07-20T20:09:59Z")
Worm food. Atheist ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/6 "2010-07-20T20:12:23Z")
> [@Loisseau](#): > > Dust unto dust, ashes unto ashes. We’re living our hereafter right now. No second acts. Agnostic. Does this scare you? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/7 "2010-07-20T20:17:12Z")
All the little gut fauna yell “Paaaarty!” and the anaerobic digesting begins. Atheist. ---
**Author:** ![This\_Just\_In\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@This\_Just\_In\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/This_Just_In_2)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/8 "2010-07-20T20:17:56Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Does this scare you? I think I will spend the time after I die much the same as I spent it before I was conceived and born. The time before I was born to the world doesn’t particularily scare me, so why should the time after I die? The world will keep on going as it does, my body will rot and my molecules that make it up will go on to be part of other things. Some words to live by: “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” - Gandalf (I take the quote as meaning the time we have to spend on Earth or in Frodo’s case, Middle Earth. I realize Gandalf is some sort of fictional immortal.) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/9 "2010-07-20T20:22:49Z")
I look around Valhalla, find Oakminster, and form an alliance. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/10 "2010-07-20T20:27:47Z")
Quiet very quiet. Athiest. PS, the last moments of my life would have been a lot more satisfying if **Sklad the Rhymer** would have bought my soul. Damn Canadian hater. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/11 "2010-07-20T20:28:41Z")
I’ve often figured I would emerge into some other kind of individual existense where I STILL really didnt know what the hell was going on, what was or was not important, or why… ---
**Author:** ![GHO57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df788c/32.png) [@GHO57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GHO57)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/12 "2010-07-20T20:30:12Z")
Oh, pretty much business as usual… just hanging around, meeting new people, eating their brains. ---
**Author:** ![Loisseau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Loisseau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loisseau)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/13 "2010-07-20T20:38:29Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > Does this scare you? Not at all; the only reason I’m not an athiest is I’m not sure how all this order in the universe happened. Has to be something beyond our crude intellect. It’s hubris on the other hand to think we are unique and special-just two many suns, with planets and galaxies for us to be alone. Do the golden rule thing, enjoy your life, leave behind some ideas, products or kids to insure the only immortality you’ll ever have. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/14 "2010-07-20T21:23:43Z")
I’m a theist, but I don’t believe in an afterlife. ---
**Author:** ![NetTrekker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nettrekker/32/2909_2.png) [@NetTrekker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NetTrekker)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/15 "2010-07-20T21:51:02Z")
If consciousness is outside of or beyond the brain, how can a living person ever be unconscious, as when knocked out, under anesthesia, in a coma, etc.? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/16 "2010-07-20T21:56:36Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m a theist, but I don’t believe in an afterlife. So what do you think happens? ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/17 "2010-07-20T22:25:50Z")
In a worm’s belly with Kayaker and the rest of us atheists. Actually, I’d rather be fish food as long as I don’t die from drowning. Drowning would suck. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/18 "2010-07-20T22:27:29Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > It’s one of those unknown unknowns. wouldn’t it be a \*known \*unknown? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/19 "2010-07-20T22:36:58Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m a theist, but I don’t believe in an afterlife. That’s the classic Jewish tradition, no? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377/20 "2010-07-20T22:37:15Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > So what do you think happens? You die and that’s it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-your-personal-afterlife-be-if-you-died-tonight/547377.md?page=2)