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QUESTION Would You Opt for Immortality? - Quillette

The idea of living forever, in fact, is not such a radical idea when you consider the fact that the vast majority of people already believe that they will do so in the next life. Since the late 1990s Gallup has consistently found that between 72 and 83 percent of Americans believe in heaven. Globally, rates of belief in heaven in other countries typically lag behind those found in America, but they are nonetheless robust. So powerful and pervasive are such convictions that even a third of agnostics and atheists proclaim belief in an afterlife. Say what? A 2014 survey conducted by the Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture on 15,738 Americans between the ages of 18 and 60 found that *[13.2 percent identify as atheist or agnostic, and 32 percent of those answered in the affirmative to the question:] “Do you think there is life, or some sort of conscious existence, after death?”

zblaze 7 Mar 9
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54 comments (26 - 50)

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1

I would live forever if possible. They will have to drag me out kicking and screaming.

1

As long as I had all my senses, and was physically able to take care of myself (and could still have a healthy sex life)... yes, I wouldn't mind living forever.

You might change your mind after a couple million years.

@zblaze By that time, mankind very well may be extinct... So I may actually enjoy it. 😉
In reality, however, nothing - NOTHING lasts forever. Change is constant.

1

No Never I want to die - I have had enough, life, really. there are all teh people i love but if it was a choice - live or die - (give you a week to think it over ) I'd go for die1

1

I'd like to live for as long as I want - but if I had a choice between mandatory immortality and a regular life, I'd choose the regular life.

1

I have no interest in living forever, and I've seen no convincing evidence of an afterlife. I figure, I was nonexistent for billions of years before I was born, when I die, there won't be a "me" to be bothered by the fact of my nonexistence again. That said, I do want people to remember me well if they remember me at all, or at least have good things to say about my life.

1

No. Could you imagine waiting in line for eternity?

SamL Level 7 Mar 13, 2018
1

As usual, What is generally wished for and/or believed is probably; Impossible, ill advised or problematic. I do not think it is so, or could be. I have wished most of my life that it could be so. An endless existence where one could learn and experience all that this universe had to offer. Sometime after I had acknowledged the futility of such a wish, It occurred to me that I really had always thought of it as me, going on forever without others doing the same. When I contemplated always going on with others doing the same it started to seem dreadful. I had thought of it as a sort of escape. The same way others think of death. I suppose that it is likely not so and never so is probably just as well. What could it even mean? Changeless existence? Carrying on and on whilst falling apart in bits? When the earth is swallowed by the Sun or grows cold and dark? Immortality would have to be a sort of death, How could one carry on, without air, food, water etc., but to be something that no longer conforms to definitions of life, of living.?

1

I could get into immortality as long as I didn't have to live in South Dakota.

1

[news.com.au] The youth of today have a real chance to live forever without magic.

1

Well, unlike the article suggests, this atheist doesn't believe in any kind of afterlife or heaven or anything else associated with ideas like that. Having said that, yes, I would jump at the chance of being essentially immortal. I say essentially because any sudden major trauma to the body, especially the brain, would end your life. It is immortality barring major incident, and that makes it enticing. There is so much yet to learn, to experience that would keep me interested in living for a very, very long time. If it ever became tedious, I know there are ways out.

1

Hell yeah id chose Immortality I would finally Start my Legaue of Shaodws/Court of owls. And bring Humanity together and end all of this hatred

1

I only believe in a continuous energy field and after my body returns to ashes, who knows where the smoke goes? And, no I would not want an endless, life! What is the point? It appears to me that everything has a cycle, I want something even more adapted, to follow after me or from my demise!

1

I believe Humankind will eventually achieve biological immortality. IF there is such a thing as an afterlife, I am far more likely to believe it will be our "essence" uploaded somehow and preserved for download into another vessel (by technologically advanced entities, let's call them Aliens). I have no belief whatsoever in a mystical afterlife.

1

If it weren't for the period in human history known as the Dark Ages, humans would be so far technologically advanced in medical technology that we would already be living to several hundred years. My thoughts on an afterlife are not open to interpretation so I do not share.

1

In a heartbeat!

skado Level 9 Mar 9, 2018
1

No after life but would love to live forever I would pick a subject or hobby get good at it then try something else or explore or travel there's so many possibilities

@WizardBill the way I learn things that would take me half way

1

I am having enough trouble wanting to live, I really have no desire to live forever.

JK666 Level 7 Mar 9, 2018
1

No existence after death-no evidence to support this theory.

0

Lots of people say things when they're young like... I don't want to live to be an old person. It's funny though that you never see someone who's an old person say oh I can't wait to die tomorrow.

I consider myself and immortalist. I was introduced to the idea back in my spiritual days buy Leonard Orr and his crew. But the health benefits of it really resonated with me, perhaps a bit more than some of his other students.

0

I believe we are like bubbles in a bath, when popped the essence goes up to the great collective and the physical descends back to the earth. Consciousness after this life has been proven by people, through past life experiences, while others say it can't be proved.

Consciousness has never been shown to be an "essence", and the "great collective" is another word for universal consciousness, which has never been shown to exist. I don't believe it does, along with my disbelief in reincarnation or past life experiences.

But is consciousness and a spirit or soul different? God has never been 'proven' to exist either yet trillions of people down through the centuries believe in one, am I right?

0

I don't know and nor does anybody else

The hypothetical isn't asking if you know something 77, it is asking whether you would choose immortality if it was an option available to you.

@zblaze Hey Z, I answered the question exactly as it was posed at the bottom of the paragraph "Do you think there is life, or some sort of conscious existence, after death?”

Answer - I don't know etc.

@ipdg77 my apologies, I forgot about that question. But again, it doesn't ask if you know there is life.... , but if you 'think' there is.

I don't think there is. I don't have to know one way or another to think that.

@zblaze It's one of those questions that doesn't easily fit with a simple answer. With regards to immortality, were it offered, there would be a few conditions, not the least of which would be my current health and well being in some sort of stasis to enjoy immortality. And I'm not being bloody minded but the answer to the other bit is still 'I don't know' but it might be fun to carry over memories into a different realm.......and there lies another question 🙂 Thx Z

0

Only 32% believe in life after death, yet over 86% believe in God. That does not compute. Isn't the whole point of religion , on a personal level, is to promise something after you die?

0

Why wouldn't I? Hell yes I would if I could.

0

I’d go for it only if omnipotence came with it so I could right a couple of wrongs. Otherwise, I choose death.

0

Immortality? It's working so far.

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