do you want there to be an afterlife?

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

is it something you look forward to? is it something you wish you could believe in, but don't find credible?

[John Dibble]

Would I like there to be? If it's something I'd enjoy in some form or fashion, sure, but otherwise I think I'd rather just cease to exist. Especially if I have to talk to psychics on television.

As far as believing in it, I don't. I have no reason to believe in it, and so I don't. I'm open to the possibility, but until some good evidence is presented I don't have any reason to think such a thing exists.

[useful idiot]

I believe in it, but it's not something that affects my life very much directly. I don't spend my time thinking about it, anyway.

[Bo]

I believe in it and I am looking forward to it.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

While the idea is compelling, it is certainly false.

[Bo]

While the idea is compelling, it is certainly false.

Certainly? What makes you 100% sure about that?

[Derek]

What is life after death? Bodily resurrection or an eternal soul? The Christian idea is simply based on hope of a better world to live in. Origen would've thought that the soul goes back to the heavens after enough repentance in comparison to Plato's theory of the forms. If there is an afterlife, I can't see there being any free will as free will can always lead to impurities.

[Free Palestine]

There's no way to prove whether or not there is an afterlife, but I tend to believe that there isn't one.  Would I want there to be an afterlife?  Sure.  It's better than incomprehensible nothingness as the electrical stuff we perceive as our consciousness dissipates.  I'd probably favor reincarnation, so long as I'd still be insane in other lives.  The thought of going through the misery of childhood and possibly growing up to be a normal person terrifies me.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     If I could continue to exist as a sort of fly on the wall, enjoying music & science throughout the ages yet to come, I would like there to be an afterlife. Otherwise, I would rather just rot in the ground.

[minionofmidas]

Absolutely not. As far as I can see, nobody really wants an eternal, fully formed afterlife. What most people seem to want is to be some kind of presence that somehow records information about the rest of the lives of the people they really cared about when they were alive. (Though more than for themselves, that's what people want for their dead friends and relatives.) And maybe seem them once more in the flesh when they die. Or not really in the flesh - more an idealized representation of the person through the years they knew each other.

[k-onmmunist]

For me, the greatest proof that there is no afterlife is the fact that before all of us were born, we were essentially dead for billions of years. There was no life before we were born, so why should there be afterwards? Most people believe in an afterlife because they fear death. However, I do believe it may be possible for there to be a sort of rebirth as someone else, but you would not remember any lives previous to that life. I don't know, it is something I've considered before.

As for whether I want there to be an afterlife, it would depend really. I wouldn't want to spend eternity in Hell, which is probably where I'm going if the Christians are right. But at the same time, I think it would get pretty boring in Heaven too. I mean, after a certain point, I don't think there is much left to live for, except maybe other people who you care about.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

What is life after death? Bodily resurrection or an eternal soul? The Christian idea is simply based on hope of a better world to live in. Origen would've thought that the soul goes back to the heavens after enough repentance in comparison to Plato's theory of the forms. If there is an afterlife, I can't see there being any free will as free will can always lead to impurities.

wasn't that the point of the doctrine of purgatory, to work through the impurities of the will?
maybe the afterlife isn't pure. maybe it is full of uncertainties and contingencies, working gradually toward the progress of love and enlightenment.

[fezzyfestoon]

Yeah, that'd be pretty sweet.  I'm not delusional enough to think it's real though.

[Dr. Cynic]

I'd actually prefer reincarnation.

Even still, I don't believe it to be possible. Sure, it's a nice comforting thought for people, but I'd like to know how it could even be possible.

[bullmoose88]

Yes.  Absolutely.  I do, however, have questions about it...many of which have already been enumerated.