{"id":457,"date":"2009-05-18T09:03:25","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T13:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=457"},"modified":"2009-05-18T01:57:44","modified_gmt":"2009-05-18T05:57:44","slug":"the-meaning-of-afterlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/?p=457","title":{"rendered":"The meaning of afterlife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you noticed sometimes people who believe in an afterlife believe in it for the same reasons others don’t?\u00a0 And that reason is: what you do in this life is important and meaningful.\u00a0 I’ve heard atheists argue that if we lived forever in some afterlife, then why would today matter?\u00a0 We’d have an infinite amount of time to make up for it!\u00a0 But if you’re time alive is finite, then it’s infinitely more important.\u00a0 But to me, the opposite seems true: if we’re all going to completely stop existing one day, why would anything matter?\u00a0 “Well, you want to have a good effect on the next generation,” some atheists might say.\u00a0 But if that generation is just going to die and become nothing as well, what does that matter?\u00a0 On the other hand, if you live forever, all the consequences of everything you’ve ever done stay with you forever; you can’t undo the past with eternity.\u00a0 If you don’t live forever, then there ultimately are no consequences.<\/p>\n

\"\"But who really lives as if nothing matters?\u00a0 Only people with psychological problems, as far as I can tell.\u00a0 Those who don’t believe in an afterlife still believe their actions matter (I think).\u00a0 I suppose the goal then becomes to be as happy as you can now<\/em>, and the future really doesn’t matter, unless of course what you’re doing now would prevent you from being happy in the future.\u00a0 But the goal is all about pleasure<\/em> and while I’m alive to feel it<\/em>.\u00a0 How much pleasure and pain you felt throughout your life ultimately doesn’t matter in the end<\/em>, but it matters now, because you’re experiencing pleasure or pain now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But if that’s the case, there’s still no rational reason to go about caring for others, unless of course it gives you pleasure.\u00a0 But if it doesn’t, why should it matter?<\/p>\n

And what if two people’s pleasures conflict with each other?\u00a0 I guess one just has to suffer?\u00a0 After all, it’s only temporary.\u00a0 It won’t matter eventually.<\/p>\n

Then there’s the reincarnation belief . . . we live again, but we forget everything (or mostly everything) from our previous lives.\u00a0 Isn’t that just the same as never having lived?\u00a0 But then . . . what about those people who get brain damage and really do <\/em>forget much of their lives?\u00a0 Is it really like never having lived?<\/p>\n

What if there’s a criminal who sneaks into a rich man’s home, destroys his belongings, and kills him.\u00a0 Then, as he’s trying to sneak out, he slips on a marble staircase, hits his head, and forgets the past decade of his life, which was when his life of crime began.\u00a0 Without such memories, is he the same person?\u00a0 When the police come and arrest him, should he still be held accountable for his crimes?\u00a0 Even though now the man who will be sitting in prison is a confused man who can’t even remember what happened?\u00a0 What if he wasn’t held accountable, then one day the memories came back?\u00a0 Would he have to be accountable then?<\/p>\n

\"\"Or what if he could never get his memories back?\u00a0 What would happen to the man he used to be?\u00a0 Surely there can’t be an afterlife for that man.\u00a0 He just vanished completely.\u00a0 What was the point of all the pleasure and pain, of all the hard choices, of all the decisions within those ten years if memory of them just vanished?\u00a0 Just that he now has to live with the consequences?\u00a0 But is he really living with his own<\/em> consequences, or is he living with another man’s<\/em> consequences, becausing having his memories erased makes him a completely new person?<\/p>\n

Of course, science fiction stories have brought up these issues many times, but not many (none that I’ve read) come to any hard certain conclusions.\u00a0 (Really no new thoughts here.)<\/p>\n

So why do your decisions matter now?\u00a0 Because you want pleasure now (and while you’re alive), or because we’re going to live forever?\u00a0 And does that <\/em>decision matter?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you noticed sometimes people who believe in an afterlife believe in it for the same reasons others don’t?\u00a0 And that reason is: what you do in this life is important and meaningful.\u00a0 I’ve heard atheists argue that if we lived forever in some afterlife, then why would today matter?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[53],"tags":[93,92,91,59],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-7n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}