That's the Way I Like it Baby, I don't Wanna Live Forever

All religions, it seems, are preoccupied with death. In fact, it is an explanation for death that is the most common feature of all faiths. Almost as common is the idea of an afterlife, either a place you go or a state of existence wherein your essence persists after physical death.

Does anyone else find this idea horrible?

It's understandable that people naturally fear death. We're supposed to. It's how we've survived as a species. A healthy fear of death keeps us alive long enough pass on our genes. But when we start spawning fantasies of an afterlife, I think we're working against ourselves.

First of all, I think the notion of an afterlife cheapens actual life. If our century on this planet is just a test or a rehearsal, then our motivation can not be to live it to its fullest. At best, the afterlife becomes a fall-back for the unsuccessful; at worst, it becomes the motivation for life outright. You'll never live the best life possible if you're focused on the next one.

You'll also never view the world with the healthy awe that something so complex and beautiful deserves, because afterlife ideation (especially the heaven-type afterlives) also cheapens your perspective. The world must naturally be a horrid place when compared to a perfect heaven. Even worse, it must naturally be unfixable, or it would be heaven.

Lastly, consider why I would have chosen a Motorhead lyric for this post's title. Would you really want to live forever? Think about it. The law of large numbers states (roughly) that over an infinite time line, any event that can happen will. This implies that if you were to live forever, you would experience everything. It also implies that at some point, you would have experienced everything there is. Sounds awfully boring after a while, doesn't it?

It's that life has a deadline built in that gives it purpose. I will die someday. I have a few decades to accomplish what I want to -- to create, to love, and ultimately to leave. If I thought I'd go on forever in a more powerful form than my piddling human body, why would I bother? At that point, I might as well just follow the orders of my deity and wait for the "sweet release" of death. Death isn't a sweet release, because if it were, life would have no meaning.

Be well,
Chris.