quest for immortality;would you be happy if you were immortal?

Answer 1

You certainly could be happy if you didn't know you were immortal! Perhaps you are and you don't know it yet.

So the answer is yes.

You could never know for sure you were immortal...perhaps you can be killed only a particular way...like kryptonite or something?

Now, assume you somehow do become certain. If you knew you were immortal, that would have some serious consequences. I imagine I would have a lot of fun trainsurfing and climbing everest and cliff diving.

Side question: can you be hurt badly/ at all?

Is the time-limit on life what makes it worthwhile? I'm gonna go outside the norm and say "no"! Most younger kids have no real conception that they will ever die. I doubt mortality/immortality even has an appreciable effect.

I also doubt that you would become "eternally bored". I don't think you could ever exhaust yourself of everything in the world now, and all the things humans will invent in the millenia to come.

Answer 2

Death gives us a reason to be motivated. We all have a time limit, some tomorrow, some in the next fourty years. It's more of an inspiration then an ending. If we were immortal, we would just roam the earth with no purpose. I would much rather die then be around forever. I don't want to live to see what the human race is going to do to itself eventually anyway.

Answer 3

Happy? I'd be overjoyed! 70-80 years is far, far shorter than the blink of an eye in the cosmic scheme of things. There is soooo much that I want to see, do, learn, grow, experience, and become that a lousy three-quarters of a century would never allow time for.

I want to see and be a part of mankind's eventual growth and evolution into a more mature species, not just technologically but intellectually as well. We consider ourselves civilized compared to the barbarians of millennia or even a few centuries ago, and yet humans are still regularly killing each other, oppressing one another, and reliant upon inherently corrupt and inefficient institutions such as governments. We are still an emotional, dogmatic species for whom rational thought is still more the exception than the rule. I don't believe it will always be like this, but growing into an enlightened, rational and peaceful species won't happen over the course of one or a few lifetimes, but more likely many centuries or millennia. But when it does happen, humanity will flourish and advance like never before, and our descendants will know the _real_ meaning of civilized, and of truly living.

Life is simply too good to give up on so soon. There are countless things I want to learn, professions I want to try for a few decades or centuries at a stretch, literature to read, movies to watch, friends to make, relationships to kindle, places to travel and explore, foods to sample, cultures to visit, hobbies to take up, etc. I can't imagine ever being bored for too long in an immortal life!

As for missing out on an afterlife, I'm an atheist and the afterlife is just more ancient mythology from the past, utterly unsupported in reality. And quite frankly, heaven & hell are what we make here in THIS life. I, for one, think my life is rather heavenly.

Answer 4

Hrmm...

The theistic people respond by saying "death is a part of life" because it's easier to accept "fate" than having to think things could be different from how you've been brainwashed to believe.

The uneducated and unimaginative people respond by saying "you'll eventually run out of things to do and see" because they never pondered how the universe is infinite and thus has infinite things to do and see...and that this will be possible since we already have primitive space travel today, let alone in the future.

The dependent people respond by saying "but everyone I know will be eventually die" because they're too concerned with being a member of the "herd" rather than focus on personal discovery, achievement, and excellence.

Also, it's important to distinguish immortality from invulnerability, because these two will more than likely illicit very different responses from people. For instance, one should keep in mind that being invulnerable might involve drowning but not dying and hence extremely long periods of suffering.

Answer 5

We already are. We are spirits having a human experience. When the body dies, the soul still lives on. Yes, of course I am happy to be immortal....means I will see my mom, dad, grandparents and son again some day.

Answer 6

I never quest in my life since i was 32 ,(now I am 42) for immortality ,because if you know what means by life and the all false philosophy or our all made believe eschatology ,i preferr to death rather than to prolong my damn life full of pain and hard working daily to find a piece of bread and to buy a new car or many other ......thus for me to be immortal is to be cursed and damned .i never seek for it but death.

Answer 7

I don't think I would wan't to be immortal. But I would like to live for a long time.

I would want to see how things progress in the world. Of course everyone I love will die. But that is going to happen anyways.

But I would love to live a long time and never die, but be able to be murdered or commit suicide when I get tired of it.

But then every couple of years I would have to change my name and identity....I guess it would be difficult.

Answer 8

I thought the religions taught us that our bodies may be mortal but that our souls are immortal and its what happens to our souls after death that's important (hellfire etc) seems to me that the religious and the irreligious are both confused about the issue. Now why would an almighty God allow confusion ? and why would he let us sin in the first place?

Answer 9

All religious ideologies promise both as the reward for adhering to their belief system.

I would not be any more happy or unhappy than I am now. The difference would only be that I would experience many births and deaths of those around me and the cycles of civilizations.

Answer 10

No, I think mortality is part of God's plan to our lives. However, our souls are immortal - I am happy about that!