Paradise for ordinary people

[Sensei]

Just a thought. Let's say there really is an afterlife, a paradise even. Now, I can understand if there's an afterlife for philosophers. Then they can meditate upon the mysteries of existence and creation for eternity. But an afterlife for ordinary people? How are they supposed to spend eternity? Buy a new house and a new car? Eat snacks and watch docusoaps? Have barbeques and gossip about their winged neighbours? Buy the latest iPhone Eternal Edition and post pictures of what they're having for dinner on Facebook Infinity? It doesn't really make sense, now does it?

 

[ocd is bad]

I really hope there's no afterlife, even if it is a paradise. My ideal afterlife is nonexistence, I just fade away.

 

[Sensei]

I really hope there's no afterlife, even if it is a paradise. My ideal afterlife is nonexistence, I just fade away.

Agreed. When I go to bed it means I want to sleep.

 

[Fragile]

Probably just an eternal state of "feeling good" that never gets old. Maybe freedom to wander around time and space and never suffer from consequences.

 

[less than]

It's a really good question. May be for religious people, life after death is that what they have got told from their preachers. Most of them don't scrutinize things. May be ordinary people believe in life after death, too. But they deny their mortality so much that they never have thought about what an afterlife could mean for them.

 

[Sensei]

Probably just an eternal state of "feeling good" that never gets old. Maybe freedom to wander around time and space and never suffer from consequences.

Sounds like a nice existence. However, the concept of an afterlife doesn't rhyme well with the laws of physics, so I would have to assume that it would be the design of a divine entity. Why would it offer such an existence to people randomly? It's like giving a particle accelerator to a child.

It's a really good question. May be for religious people, life after death is that what they have got told from their preachers. Most of them don't scrutinize things. May be ordinary people believe in life after death, too. But they deny their mortality so much that they never have thought about what an afterlife could mean for them.

Indeed. I think that most people just can't handle the thought that they will cease to exist one day and their belief in an afterlife is nothing more than an instinctive psychological defence mechanism.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

I think paradise for a philosopher is finally knowing the capital-T Truth.

Paradise for religious people, maybe even "ordinary" people, is a reward for having suffered through whatever they did in life. Like having a permanent banquet of whatever they were missing or lost. Or maybe just a permanent, ultimate, blissful high, which is what it seems to me like most "ordinary" Western people seek or wish anyway.

Paradise for some males in some religions is a bunch of virgins -- a permanent, ego-stroking, STD-free orgasm fest.

 

[less than]

Paradise for some males in some religions is a bunch of virgins -- a permanent, ego-stroking, STD-free orgasm fest.

That's a thing which I will never understand. Some (or most) of these men are not able to handle appropriate only one woman. So why to hell should they get this gift of so much virgins after their death? Only to abuse they and to waste? That's only the paradise for these men, yet the hell for the women.

 

[agentgeez]

I have to agree that the idea of an afterlife only works when it hasn't really been thought out, as a defense mechanism. I just can't think of an 'ultimate happiness', because there's bound to be flaws with anything. Conceptually, a permanent state of 'feeling good' is hard to find fault with, but it would mean no one would bother doing anything, other than just exist in a 'high' state. Of course, nobody would care that that would be the state of things since they're already satisfied, but it's just unimaginable to me, since for humans happiness is tied to certain events and processes; it needs a context, so that sort of afterlife may as well be a different existence. But then again, human existence inherently contains moments of suffering, since the 'context' for our happiness is mostly the alleviating of suffering. I don't see the chasing of arbitrary goals for eternity as ultimately satisfying, but existing in a permanent state of 'completeness' doesn't seem appealing either. It just seems like the only true closure to life would be to cease to exist. Maybe I just don't like the idea of permanent happiness since it would mean the erasure of my identity/ego since we all have an attachment to our sense of self, but I suppose it wouldn't matter once I'm in that state. I guess I just don't see a difference between eternal bliss and nonexistence at that point.

 

[Matthias_k]

Why must people always do something ? Just chill and enjoy paradise.
Most philosophers already spent their entire life talking a lot but doing nothing...So no real change for them

 

[Sensei]

Why must people always do something ? Just chill and enjoy paradise.

Yes, but what are they supposed to enjoy? Unless it's some kind of eternal and oblivious morphine trip, something must happen in paradise.

 

[Nada]

Just a thought. Let's say there really is an afterlife, a paradise even. Now, I can understand if there's an afterlife for philosophers. Then they can meditate upon the mysteries of existence and creation for eternity. But an afterlife for ordinary people? How are they supposed to spend eternity? Buy a new house and a new car? Eat snacks and watch docusoaps? Have barbeques and gossip about their winged neighbours? Buy the latest iPhone Eternal Edition and post pictures of what they're having for dinner on Facebook Infinity? It doesn't really make sense, now does it?

Aren't you confusing "paradise" with "hell"?...

 

[Sensei]

Aren't you confusing "paradise" with "hell"?...

I'd say both are subjective. One man's paradise can be another man's hell.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

idk if there is an afterlife it might be very different to what people imagine. People talk about the afterlife as if it is basically like being a human with all your senses and emotions but there are no problems for you, but that's a big assumption. Maybe you won't even have the same emotions you have now. Maybe the concept of thinking and feeling in general would be totally altered.

 

[Sensei]

idk if there is an afterlife it might be very different to what people imagine. People talk about the afterlife as if it is basically like being a human with all your senses and emotions but there are no problems for you, but that's a big assumption. Maybe you won't even have the same emotions you have now. Maybe the concept of thinking and feeling in general would be totally altered.

Maybe paradise is about total ego death. You're just part of one big oneness.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

Maybe paradise is about total ego death. You're just part of one big oneness.

yeah who's to say individuality even exists after death. Honestly the possibilities are endless and we don't even know enough about what the rules are to theorize.

 

[so tired or manic]

they can't really prove how our brains create life and thought, just that it happens, so a soul drifting from body to body is just as likely a scenario as anything else.

would explain when some people don't feel right with the body they're given. be it trans or body dysmorphia.

 

[Brick In The Wall]

I have a strong belief in the afterlife. While some of us may live normal or dull lives here on earth I also believe that we're all extraordinary beings.

I think when we die a profound shift in consciousness will occur. This shift will negate our materialistic and earthy desires. This is of course just purely my opinion.

 

[Green Destiny]

I put way way more stock in there being nothing after we die, that we're not ethereal beings with a place to go after we die. However if there really is some form of afterlife paradise then I'd like to think it's something you can mold it into, an example for me would be living out a world based off of JRR Tolkiens Middle Earth living a simple peaceful life in the Shire.

 

[Morphinekiss]

I'd like the afterlife to be a cafe on a rainy day and never ending supply of books. But I imagine it's just darkness, nothingness, quiet.however, I don't know how to reconcile that belief in darkness and nothing with the fact that I'm a medium and spirits come to me often. There has to be something for them to exist.

Or I'm just on drugs.

 

[Joey]

 

[Sensei]

That's truly beautiful and food for thought. I happen to be a fan of Kurzgesagt actually, but I've never seen this particular video before.

 

[Joey]

That's truly beautiful and food for thought. I happen to be a fan of Kurzgesagt actually, but I've never seen this particular video before.

Makes me really wonder too. What if it was true? Who knows.