7 ms·

Why would you want to end death?

Towaway69 3y ago
I think it was Ayn Rand who said that with her death all life ends. Well it did for her thankfully not for the rest of us.
- csomar 3y ago
  From her perspective, it is still correct.
  - tetris11 3y ago
    Indeed, but it's a perspective shared primarily by sociopaths.
wiseowise 3y ago
Because not all want to die.
soligern 3y ago
Because I love life and there’s nothing after this?
- theodorejb 3y ago
  Jesus claimed to offer everlasting life to those who believe in him (see Gospel of John). Worth looking into?
  - ithkuil 3y ago
    So did Muhammad (see Quran). Worth looking into?
    - defrost 3y ago
      So do Yolngu and Wiradjuri Dreamtime stories that date back 70,000+ years. Worth looking into?
      - ithkuil 3y ago
        Yeah pretty much any pagan religion has some sort of post mortuary soothing story. Worth looking into?
        defrost 3y ago
        Seems redundant given 'pagan' means either * not Christian other religions in the Roman Empire, or (more generally) * not Christian religions. Easier to say most, if not all, religions have an afterlife story.
        ithkuil 3y ago
        Yeah I love picking nits too. I just meant to reaffirm that it's not an Abrahamic religion innovation.
        defrost 3y ago
        I have trouble working out who the pagans are: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/the-christian-converts-who-are-setting-fire-to-sacred-aboriginal/11527402 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/the-christian-convert...
        ithkuil 3y ago
        Pagan: "a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main or recognized religions." whatever that means
        FrustratedMonky 3y ago
        To the Romans, weren't Christians the Pagans. They were some fringe group from the frontier with some wacky ideas.
  - lucozade 3y ago
    All of the people that Jesus was referring to did, in fact, die. So that's not going to help the person you're responding to.
    - theodorejb 3y ago
      Eyewitnesses wrote that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and later rose from the dead himself. If this really happened it makes sense why none of the apostles were afraid to die for what they were certain was true.
      - lucozade 3y ago
        So? The followers still all died. Whether or not they may have been happy about dying doesn't change that. And I'm not sure what Lazarus has to do with this unless your suggesting that his raising means that he couldn't die i.e. he's still alive. That would be a very unusual interpretation.
        theodorejb 3y ago
        It shows that this death is like a temporary sleep which God will wake us from. None who believe in Jesus will perish (experience the permanent second death after the judgment). John 5:28-29
  - pfdietz 3y ago
    Flying Spaghetti Monster promises eternal meatballs. Worth looking into? Maybe I should hold out for "and everyone gets a pony."
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- proc0 3y ago
  You don't know that.
  - aydyn 3y ago
    You do know it. All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny points to you ending when your body dies. You dont treat any other piece of knowledge with the same demand as you do the (lack of) afterlife.
    - Bombinator 3y ago
      dude... whether it's jesus or eternal nothingness, it takes faith to believe in both. There's no evidence for any of this so the only correct answer is we don't know. > All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny Yes, I'm very curious to see empirical evidence of what happens post-death and someone who lived to tell us.
      - FrustratedMonky 3y ago
        Since religions come and go, there are hundreds, it can be empirically reasoned that it isn't Jesus, because Jesus is just the latest made up thing. IF there was one true god/religion, then why haven't we stuck with the same one for 200k years, right from the beginning. Why aren't we born knowing it? Why don't we know it from birth? Instead we believe whatever we were raised with. And that is a pretty flimsy basis to base some actual physical reality that exists after death. On other hand, guess since we don't know what is after death, we can't also say with complete 100% certainty that it is nothing. But for there to be something, then that would mean there is something in this physical reality that gets transported, and we should be able to detect it. And since there has been nothing detected after a lot of tries (experiments), at this time there is nothing.
    - proc0 3y ago
      It's not empirically testable. Nobody has truly died and come back and no one can. Even if all religions are false it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death. This is just a limitation of science, because we need a conscious mind to test and/or interpret the results.
- somenameforme 3y ago
  What do you think would happen if perpetual longevity were achieved? I mean realistically, not ideally? I think it's almost certain we'd see those at the top become [even more] vainly obsessed with their own mortality to the point of doing absolutely every single thing they could, with no norms of behavior, to ensure no other human could ever, under any circumstance - no matter how remote, pose a possible threat to them. You'd most likely have been born into society as something between a serf and a slave, with your life strictly by controlled to ensure you never might imperil the perpetuation of those who would almost certainly come to see themselves as Gods. And no, you wouldn't be immortal. That'd be too risky for the Gods. It'd be the absolute worst of humanity, frozen in time, due to the lack of death. And oh boy, imagine the punishments they could contrive for anybody who might indeed imperil (or even deny) their utter supremacy. How about a million years of torture, if for no other reason than to use you (and the millions of others granted similar accommodation) as warnings to the rest of society? I can say, with at least as much confidence as you express about there being nothing after this life, that this life will end. But the thing I can add to this, is that that's also a very good thing for all of humanity to come.
  - fractallyte 3y ago
    This is precisely Emperor Cleon's storyline in the TV series Foundation...
  - animal531 3y ago
    Would it be good for the species even if life was fair for everyone? One can easily imagine that it would create stagnation where very little would change over very long periods of time.
  - soligern 3y ago
    Since we’re doing hypotheticals how about this. We colonize mars and have large habitation modules flotations in space. Humanity has a large new space to expand into and doesn’t have to curtail growth rates.
    - inkcapmushroom 3y ago

I think it was Ayn Rand who said that with her death all life ends. Well it did for her thankfully not for the rest of us.

csomar 3y ago
From her perspective, it is still correct.
- tetris11 3y ago
  Indeed, but it's a perspective shared primarily by sociopaths.

wiseowise 3y ago

Because not all want to die.

soligern 3y ago

Because I love life and there’s nothing after this?

theodorejb 3y ago
Jesus claimed to offer everlasting life to those who believe in him (see Gospel of John). Worth looking into?
- ithkuil 3y ago
  So did Muhammad (see Quran). Worth looking into?
  - defrost 3y ago
    So do Yolngu and Wiradjuri Dreamtime stories that date back 70,000+ years. Worth looking into?
    - ithkuil 3y ago
      Yeah pretty much any pagan religion has some sort of post mortuary soothing story. Worth looking into?
      - defrost 3y ago
        Seems redundant given 'pagan' means either * not Christian other religions in the Roman Empire, or (more generally) * not Christian religions. Easier to say most, if not all, religions have an afterlife story.
        ithkuil 3y ago
        Yeah I love picking nits too. I just meant to reaffirm that it's not an Abrahamic religion innovation.
        defrost 3y ago
        I have trouble working out who the pagans are: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/the-christian-converts-who-are-setting-fire-to-sacred-aboriginal/11527402 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-20/the-christian-convert...
        ithkuil 3y ago
        Pagan: "a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main or recognized religions." whatever that means
        FrustratedMonky 3y ago
        To the Romans, weren't Christians the Pagans. They were some fringe group from the frontier with some wacky ideas.
- lucozade 3y ago
  All of the people that Jesus was referring to did, in fact, die. So that's not going to help the person you're responding to.
  - theodorejb 3y ago
    Eyewitnesses wrote that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and later rose from the dead himself. If this really happened it makes sense why none of the apostles were afraid to die for what they were certain was true.
    - lucozade 3y ago
      So? The followers still all died. Whether or not they may have been happy about dying doesn't change that. And I'm not sure what Lazarus has to do with this unless your suggesting that his raising means that he couldn't die i.e. he's still alive. That would be a very unusual interpretation.
      - theodorejb 3y ago
        It shows that this death is like a temporary sleep which God will wake us from. None who believe in Jesus will perish (experience the permanent second death after the judgment). John 5:28-29
- pfdietz 3y ago
  Flying Spaghetti Monster promises eternal meatballs. Worth looking into? Maybe I should hold out for "and everyone gets a pony."
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
proc0 3y ago
You don't know that.
- aydyn 3y ago
  You do know it. All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny points to you ending when your body dies. You dont treat any other piece of knowledge with the same demand as you do the (lack of) afterlife.
  - Bombinator 3y ago
    dude... whether it's jesus or eternal nothingness, it takes faith to believe in both. There's no evidence for any of this so the only correct answer is we don't know. > All empirical evidence from thousands of years of scrutiny Yes, I'm very curious to see empirical evidence of what happens post-death and someone who lived to tell us.
    - FrustratedMonky 3y ago
      Since religions come and go, there are hundreds, it can be empirically reasoned that it isn't Jesus, because Jesus is just the latest made up thing. IF there was one true god/religion, then why haven't we stuck with the same one for 200k years, right from the beginning. Why aren't we born knowing it? Why don't we know it from birth? Instead we believe whatever we were raised with. And that is a pretty flimsy basis to base some actual physical reality that exists after death. On other hand, guess since we don't know what is after death, we can't also say with complete 100% certainty that it is nothing. But for there to be something, then that would mean there is something in this physical reality that gets transported, and we should be able to detect it. And since there has been nothing detected after a lot of tries (experiments), at this time there is nothing.
  - proc0 3y ago
    It's not empirically testable. Nobody has truly died and come back and no one can. Even if all religions are false it does not follow that there is absolutely nothing after clinical death. This is just a limitation of science, because we need a conscious mind to test and/or interpret the results.
somenameforme 3y ago
What do you think would happen if perpetual longevity were achieved? I mean realistically, not ideally? I think it's almost certain we'd see those at the top become [even more] vainly obsessed with their own mortality to the point of doing absolutely every single thing they could, with no norms of behavior, to ensure no other human could ever, under any circumstance - no matter how remote, pose a possible threat to them. You'd most likely have been born into society as something between a serf and a slave, with your life strictly by controlled to ensure you never might imperil the perpetuation of those who would almost certainly come to see themselves as Gods. And no, you wouldn't be immortal. That'd be too risky for the Gods. It'd be the absolute worst of humanity, frozen in time, due to the lack of death. And oh boy, imagine the punishments they could contrive for anybody who might indeed imperil (or even deny) their utter supremacy. How about a million years of torture, if for no other reason than to use you (and the millions of others granted similar accommodation) as warnings to the rest of society? I can say, with at least as much confidence as you express about there being nothing after this life, that this life will end. But the thing I can add to this, is that that's also a very good thing for all of humanity to come.
- fractallyte 3y ago
  This is precisely Emperor Cleon's storyline in the TV series Foundation...
- animal531 3y ago
  Would it be good for the species even if life was fair for everyone? One can easily imagine that it would create stagnation where very little would change over very long periods of time.
- soligern 3y ago
  Since we’re doing hypotheticals how about this. We colonize mars and have large habitation modules flotations in space. Humanity has a large new space to expand into and doesn’t have to curtail growth rates.
  - inkcapmushroom 3y ago