Comment by Mallory on May 7, 2011 at 11:24am

I've often had to ask myself if people who believe in an afterlife (heaven) actually THINK about what 'eternity' means. As far as we know, the universe itself doesn't even go on for eternity. A very long time? Yes. But not indefinitely, as least not the universe as we know it. Why would you want to "live" that long? Don't forget, ALL the other believers from thousands of years ago are there too. That's a lot of f*cking people!!! Who would want that?! I'd be content to live long enough to see what the human race becomes. I would certainly NOT want to live forever, either in this plane of existence or any other.

Comment by Heather Spoonheim on May 7, 2011 at 11:47am

If there was Youtube and Wiki in the afterlife, and maybe a political debate forum, well then I could handle eternity.

Comment by Keith J. on May 7, 2011 at 6:24pm

I once heard about a way of visualizing the "length" of eternity and liked it quite a bit so I'll share it here.

 

If you can imagine a gigantic ball of solid bronze the size of our sun with a single butterfly flying so close to it that its wings slap against the surface, then imagine eternity as the time it would take for the butterfly's wings to reduce the ball of bronze to dust just by the force of its wingstrokes.  I understand that's a finite amount of time so it can't really count, but I just think it's an interesting thought and probably useful for anyone who can't imagine how living for one trillion years feels.  

Comment by Heather Spoonheim on May 7, 2011 at 6:29pm

Or one might think of a recently failed marriage and the ensuing divorce proceedings. :)

Comment by Shamari on May 7, 2011 at 7:49pm

I think if I could I'd want to live long enough to satisfy my intellectual curiosity. And I agree with Mallory, I'd also like to see what happens to human beings in the future. Will we survive? Will we exterminate ourselves and our planet? I just hope that we go without religion, so that at least we'd have gone out with some dignity.

Comment by Andrew W on May 7, 2011 at 10:04pm

Thank you all for your comments.  :)

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