Death and Eternity

[Liquid Blue]

Have you ever tried to think about how long an eternity would be? Whether you believe in an afterlife or not, have you ever tried to wrap your head around such an infinite amount of time? What is your opinion how it, on how to understand it?

I saw this a few minutes ago and thought it was pretty cool-

"Try to imagine our whole country is a mountain of sand. A mountain
of sand so high that it reaches to the clouds, and so wide that it stretches
from one ocean to the other.... Now suppose across the ocean there is a
Flat country. The ocean is very wide and it takes weeks to cross it, right.
But you want to move this huge mountain of sand from here to there....
Let me tell you how you have to move that enormous mountain of sand.
And it is not with a boat.... A little sparrow is going to move that
mountain for you. It has to pick up only one grain of sand, fly all the way
across the wide ocean, put down the grain of sand, then fly all the way
back for another grain of sand. It takes the little bird weeks just to fly
across the ocean, and each time it carries only one grain of sand."

"Is that how long eternity is?" Agnes asked bravely.

"No...when the little bird has moved that mountain of sand across the
ocean, that is only the first day of eternity."

[Scurvy]

today is the first day of the rest of eternity

[Squeezer]

I try really hard not to think about what comes after death, becuase that lasts forever....And forever is a reeeeeeeeeaaaalllly scary thought. I don't wanna do anything forever, even if it is blissful.

[Ignominy]

I don't think there's any benefits to trying to grasp what it'd be like to exist forever, and so I don't waste my time.

It's not possible for humans to truly fathom anything infinite, so just accept it as what it is and move on and don't make things up to try and stifle your fear.

[Troll King]

I'd like to thank Liquid Blue for not starting this thread until AFTER Blueblaze got banned.

[CrvenBan]

There is also that story of a sparrow that every 1000 years comes to a mountain of diamond to sharpen his beek (guess it's not THE SAME sparrow), and when that mountain is worn out to the ground it has just passed one second.



No one will ever know what comes after the death so there is no point in trying to figure it out, instead I choose to live my life with the knowledge that this most likely, is the only time I will see this world through these eyes, and with the gratitue of my dice roll (imagine being born in some african ghetto, like [insert tw name here] - now that would be a major bummer)

[Pandagirl!]

I've thought about eternity before, and it really is a concept that is impossible to grasp. When you think about how long it is, it just boggles the mind. Yes, it sounds stupid to think about how long eternity is, because you know it's forever and ever, but actually stopping to think about forever and ever.... It's mindblowing. It reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend once about going to heaven for eternity. They didn't want to be in heaven for eternity - is it really all it's cracked up to be? Wouldn't it get boring? Couldn't they just sleep instead, and have their life just end? According to the bible heaven is so awesome that it's not going to get boring after 10 minutes. It better not - because I have ADD.

[CrvenBan]

Don't worry Panda, I hear that in heaven, they have all kinds of cures for venereal diseases

[Mr. Peanuts]

I think there's something in all of us that makes us scared of and incomprehensive of the concept of eternity. I have thought about living forever and that depresses me, yet I don't want to die at the moment, or rather, cease to exist.

I believe in the afterlife but I haven't put much thought into it, except when I'm watching ghost programmes on TV. It's something I just don't want to even try to think about. I prefer to cut out anything that isn't metaphysical and keep it out of my mind and I think its a natural instinct in all of us to do that.

[Galleleo]

I don't believe in the afterlife or whatever.

But thing is, you are all looking at eternity from a time point of view, a day of 24 hours, a week of 7 days, a year of 12 months, etc. What if during the eternity in afterlife you have no concept of time and a year will have gone by while you might feel it has only been seconds (though you can't really feel that if you have no concept of time). What I am saying is, if there is an afterlife and it lasts for eternity, do you think we would have a concept of time and we could count the eternity day by day and year by year?

[Zeebu]

eternity is:

limit |1/x| as x -> 0

afk

[HeavenSent]

Death as we know it is an illusion. It's merely 'game over' in this world.
It's like the physical world is a tank of water and for us to interact in this environment we have to put on the biomechanical garb of this world; beit animal or human. Death in this world is the incapacitation of the vehicle, not the driver.

Eternity/Afterlife is without the boundaries of this physical universe. Time & space are optional along with the methods of travel. Physicality is an option like turning on the TV. We are concentrated energies of thought. We're like flames that have detached from the Greater fire. To die would be to be absorbed back into it. Like dreaming, we can create our own landscapes and adventures within. Or we can bond with each other and network our mental creations.

[Jerome Scuggs]

death is the non-existence of life

therefore, life should be the standard of value, seeing as value is something that is given forth via existence

[Liquid Blue]

I don't believe in the afterlife or whatever.

But thing is, you are all looking at eternity from a time point of view, a day of 24 hours, a week of 7 days, a year of 12 months, etc. What if during the eternity in afterlife you have no concept of time and a year will have gone by while you might feel it has only been seconds (though you can't really feel that if you have no concept of time). What I am saying is, if there is an afterlife and it lasts for eternity, do you think we would have a concept of time and we could count the eternity day by day and year by year?

Yea I pretty much decided a few years ago that there is no real way to gauge time in eternity and figured it would be like you said- a day could be 100 earth years, or a thousand, whatever.