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How are kids - in any way, shape, or form - an afterlife? They are an independent person, with independent thoughts + suffering. When my Dad dies (for example

How are kids - in any way, shape, or form - an afterlife? They are an independent person, with independent thoughts + suffering. When my Dad dies (for example)... he's not going to somehow magically continue to enjoy the work, and relationships, that he's enjoyed while alive.

asdf21 7y ago
His DNA continues.
rscho 7y ago
Username checks out, as they say. See the writings of Plato for an argument on the forms of immortality. Having children is one of them. Of course, one can disagree but it's not a new concept.
gourabmi 7y ago
Sort of depends on your opinion about what "constitutes" a person. Is just the physical body? Is it the genes? Is it the bonds they form and the memories they make? Is it the difference they made in the lives of their kind ; effected social change, contributed to research or in general been a good influence on other? All of these tend to live on after the physical body is no more. There is no mystic element to it. Just plain facts.
metalliqaz 7y ago
“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” A legacy is the closest we really get to an "afterlife". Children offer two kinds of legacy. One is the memory of you, the other is the continuation of your genes.
AlexTWithBeard 7y ago
My kids are me. When I see them walking like me, taking like me and arguing with me like I did with y parents... That's my afterlife.
- rubicon33 7y ago
  Yea............ With respect, we are truly two completely different people. I'll just never understand the narcissism behind procreating to extend ones own life / legacy. I totally understand btw that it's you who is normal, and me that has the strange perspective on this. My hypothetical kids, that I could have, are certainly not "me". They'd be actual real people. People who suffer, and hurt, and struggle. People who have a not insignificant chance of ruminating in the same way I do, about the state of the universe, but still aren't me.

asdf21 7y ago

His DNA continues.

rscho 7y ago

Username checks out, as they say. See the writings of Plato for an argument on the forms of immortality. Having children is one of them. Of course, one can disagree but it's not a new concept.

gourabmi 7y ago

Sort of depends on your opinion about what "constitutes" a person. Is just the physical body? Is it the genes? Is it the bonds they form and the memories they make? Is it the difference they made in the lives of their kind ; effected social change, contributed to research or in general been a good influence on other? All of these tend to live on after the physical body is no more. There is no mystic element to it. Just plain facts.

metalliqaz 7y ago

“I mean, they say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.” A legacy is the closest we really get to an "afterlife". Children offer two kinds of legacy. One is the memory of you, the other is the continuation of your genes.

AlexTWithBeard 7y ago

My kids are me. When I see them walking like me, taking like me and arguing with me like I did with y parents... That's my afterlife.

rubicon33 7y ago
Yea............ With respect, we are truly two completely different people. I'll just never understand the narcissism behind procreating to extend ones own life / legacy. I totally understand btw that it's you who is normal, and me that has the strange perspective on this. My hypothetical kids, that I could have, are certainly not "me". They'd be actual real people. People who suffer, and hurt, and struggle. People who have a not insignificant chance of ruminating in the same way I do, about the state of the universe, but still aren't me.