Would you become immortal, if you had the choice?

Booman I like your signature: "Religion is a mystical interpretation of God. Science, is an explanation of God."
But I would suggest the following qualifications: "Non-fundamentalist religion is the metaphorical interpretation of God" (meaning, non-fundamentalist religion is the attempt to conceptually unify with God/Reality--religion=religare, to reconnect. Mysticism is the direct, intuititve realization of one's unity with God/Reality. Philosophy is the attempt to intellectually understand God/Reality, and Science/engineering is the attempt to control God/Nature. Actually, Science serves both the ends of philosophy and engineering.

I agree, Chai Tea.
I'll get the article, Andrew. Thanks.

The Pinnacle Queen reminds us (in the thread about Time) that Achilles said in the film, Troy, that 'The gods envy us because we're mortal, it makes everything more beautiful'


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Valid points J.L, sorta' like a break down of my simplistic, digestion friendly, statement.

Just found this thread. And I'm too lazy to read up on everything said so far, so I have a quick question. How is the immortality defined? Would it be a cursed sort of immortality, like vampires? Or maybe even more pleasant than mortality (like, no physical pain, mental clarity, etc.)? Or does it fall somewhere in between or even more extreme?

I think you'll have to read at least some of the previous responses, SC, to get a feel for diversity of definitions some of the posters have come up with. It's been a lively discussion for sure, for sure.

SCoates: The camps seem to be: 1) Yes, since anyone who could get bored by existence is an idiot.(Earlier in the topic) 2) No, eternal life would be a burden consisting of watching everyone die. 3) I already have a Utopia(mostly the old-timers ) 4) If I could decide when to die and never age, then yes.

I'm in between the 2nd and 4th groups. while I believe that eternal life would yield an interesting and beneficial perspective, I worry that living forever would take out the drive we as humans are provided by the prospect of death.

As far as you're concerned, you can do what everyone's doing and make up your own type of immortality. I generally go with eternal youth, but whatever you want, just let us know which type you're referring to so it doesn't get confusing.

i would want to age to a serten point like somwere in my 20s stop for awhile the let my self age

Simone de Beauvoir actually wrote a novel about an immortal man. It's a rather dreadful book that I couldn't wade through. Stephen King dealt with it a bit in The Green Mile.

Just think what a condemnation immortality would be. Those you love would die while you live on. you would have to continually invent new identities for yourself, and fake deaths. Awful.

I'm really spreading myself thin with all the threads I participate in but here goes:
Any one who really reads the first few chapters of the Bible must know that if Adam and Eve had not rebelled, they would still be alive and so would all of their descendents, including us. There would be no sickness, death, crime or war. Who wouldn't like to have an eternity exploring the earth and it's many opportunities for study. Who wouldn't like to have time to learn a musical instrument (something which would take centuries for me, I might add). And then, what about the possibility of the stars? To venture where no man has ever gone before and have time to get there (wherever there is) If you think the earth would become overpopulated, remember that God told them to fill the earth. If you told a waiter to fill your cup of coffee, would you expect him to overflow the cup onto your lap?
I'm for eternal life with my family and friends.

Neologist, have you read Aldous Huxley's "After Many a Summer Dies the Swam"?

Gulp! I always considered myself fairly well read. But no, though I have read Brave New World and Chrome Yellow. I will put it on my things to do list, however. Can you make your point without my having read it; or should I come back next week?

I was afraid of that. Well, the story, as I recall, was a serious satire on the desire for immortality. The hero was a Randolf Hearst type who spent part of his vast fortune on the quest for immortality. He ended up finding the diet and condition for the avoidance of ageing: living in a deep cavern, far from the rays of the sun and eating the guts of some disgusting creature. He, himself, turned into a monster, but a long-lived one. I must have altered a lot of the story, read it in the fifties.

I've since read a few reviews. I think I will try to find the book. It really doesn't strike me as a paralell to the wholesome life held out as a hope in the Bible.

neo -- Don't you think that man's desire for immortality prompted the creation of the Biblical story of Adam and Eve and the notion that "this was once ours"?

That would be a good reason to check it out. (John 17:3)

Immortality is possible
The way to achieve immortality is through human cloning and preserving a cell sample. For this to happen, you have to obtain a cell sample from the forehead area. This sample get applied to the cloned body by transferring your memory and personality to this new body. And yes, I would like to be immortal.

Just imagine the freedom immortality would offer. You could do almost anything. What the worst that could happen? You get locked up for a few years, when you know that your gonna live forever i doubt you would care! It would leave all concequences irrelevant. Because you would outlive anyone who would remember anything you have ever done. You'd have all the time in the world to do anything.

being immortal doesn't work, cause after a certain amount of time all your memory will go and you'll just start again going in circles LOL.

I think I've already said the following, or something like it: While I will not (and cannot) live "forever" ontologically, my life is phenomenologically eternal, in that I will (and cannot help but) live MY forever. Experentially, there is nothing before or after my life. I don't know why anyone would want to live forever, in the ontological sense. Imagine experiencing and surviving the supernova of our sun. Gasp.