Is immortality a good or a bad thing?

Discuss the February 2017 Book of the Month, The Diary of an Immortal by David J Castello.
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Lincoln
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Re: Is immortality a good or a bad thing?

Post by Lincoln »

Wasif Ahmed wrote:The posts on this forum show that many people would like to become immortal while some don't. Is immortality, according to you, a good or a bad thing?
Please share your thoughts on this topic.
I think it would be a strange thing considering it goes so firmly against every other facet of human life. It would change everything, and not for the better. But that doesn't make it inherently bad.
Lincoln's book, Raven's Peak is the OnlineBookClub.org April 2017 Book of the Month.

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Post by Sarah G »

I think i would be good at first but the lack of change I think would eventually ruin it. I think it would also depend on how it was used. Maybe with all that life experience you could help other people. I definitely think it would depend on who you spent the time with.
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Post by Jeyran Main »

Good or bad, does not seem to be the most important question, however, if I were to pick, I would say not a really good thing.

It is the fear of dying that makes us wish to live forever. Otherwise, the next chapter of life is actually better than the world we currently live in.
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Post by Rebeccaej »

The idea of immortality is terrifying to me. At some point, the planet is going to be destroyed--and you'll still be alive, floating in space, suffocating eternally. At some point, the universe will spread into cold, uniform dust. Plus you.

Ot maybe once that happened you'd become the most massive thing in your region for a while and dust would start settling on you. Eventually, you become trapped in the center of a star.

No thanks.
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Post by Adair McClain »

On the one hand, can you imagine everything you'd see being immortal? All the places you could go and experience? The people you would meet? At the same time, everyone you'd meet would age and die, you'd eventually see all the sights, experience everything their was to experience...Personally, immortality wouldn't be for me. I have a bucket list to complete "before I die". I feel like relationships would be more strongly built knowing you only have limited time.
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Post by Rebeccaej »

allee88 wrote:On the one hand, can you imagine everything you'd see being immortal? All the places you could go and experience? The people you would meet? At the same time, everyone you'd meet would age and die, you'd eventually see all the sights, experience everything their was to experience...Personally, immortality wouldn't be for me. I have a bucket list to complete "before I die". I feel like relationships would be more strongly built knowing you only have limited time.
I actually wrote a short story about this. It starts with the character free-falling through the atmosphere of a planet, landing, and commenting that there are a few furry creatures around, but nothing that looks like him.

He models behaviors that guides the creatures evolve into intelligent humanoids, tweaks their cultures to plant behaviors he wants, guides them to develop space-travel and meet other people, and then waits until the entire species dies off, the planet is swallowed by its star when it goes nova. He gets flung out into space and starts the whole thing over again for the kagillionth time.

People REALLY underestimate how long eternity is.
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Post by Pilar Guerrero »

I really believe that we create our own realities through our thoughts and beliefs. And from that point of view, I think iimmortality can be as good or as bad as a person's thought are, for that is the reality that they will create.
I think that each one of us is far freer than what we are willing to acknowledge, and many people tend to blame others for what happens to them. That type of person would have an awful eternal life... or maybe this person would have the chance to learn from others and change. Some lessons just need a long time to be learned.
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Post by MaricelBaby »

Immortality is a bad thing. Why? In the first place, the earth is a self-sustaining abode and if all of us will become immortal then no one dies. We have to consider and reconsider the posterity who will be supplementing us and continue whatever are the things we have started.
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Post by ifeoma obike »

Immortality is not good unless it will only be for the good people, the bad will remain mortal because it will be a living hell for bad people to be immortal as there will be no end to evil and no means of escape.
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Post by AlexisFerguson »

It's good if you can maneuver through time like many immortals do in novels. It's glamourous to know that you have all the time in the world to become anything you want to be. Then again, immortality I would say only becomes ambitious and trite people that have no possibility of becoming fickle. Then, I believe, it would just become torture. Never to have an aim to accomplish, getting tired of what the world offers, who could live through that?

Also to live in a world of perpetual evil, there's no fun in that. Thousands of years on earth are nothing compared to a perfect afterlife(if your soul is saved).
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Post by Lolly_Reader »

For those of you who think that immortality is bad, where does that leave you if you believe in a god? Is the existence of your god then "bad"?
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Post by Rebeccaej »

Lolly_Reader wrote:For those of you who think that immortality is bad, where does that leave you if you believe in a god? Is the existence of your god then "bad"?
The idea of immortality after death never sat fully well with me even when I was Christian. I'm an atheist now, so it's not an issue anymore.
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Post by olaiya oluwafemi »

Immortality is good. Is what God promised to us in Bible. An endless life is reserved for people who obey Him. So immortality is a wonderful thing if is given to responsible human beings.
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Post by csimmons032 »

I think it can be either. I believe in immortality in heaven, which I definitely consider to be a good thing, but if a person does not go to heaven, then the other alternative is not so good. If you are considering what it would be like to be immortal on earth than that could go either way as well depending on the person.
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Post by Meggie Lou »

I think that immortality is a bad thing. The whole human experience is subject to change. Without it, you could never grow as a person. The people you love would die and you would be left alone. Yes, new people come into your life, but still. I think that the inherent transient nature of humanity is why some people believe in the afterlife. By taking that away you take away a purpose that most people find behind their lives.
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