Spirituality and Immortality

CerebralCortex

Hypathethically speaking if they where to discover how to prevent death does anyone think there would be any need for spirituality? I have read numerous places about sciences efforts to end death and I would like to know peoples views on what place there would be for spirituality in a world where people can live for ever (that is if they could live forever).

Thordon

I dont think science could ever make us truly immortal, lets say they find out how to stop aging, eventually we would die of disease/cancer/tragedy/etc, and we dont have infinite space in our brain to store memories.

I find it interesting that you think of spirituality as a solution to a problem. How can one claim to believe in something if they think that way. Im an atheist, I think spirituality does serve a purpose for a lot of people, but I could never believe in something I didnt think was real.

Goodshape

There's more to spirituality than 'life after death', so yes, hypothetically speaking, if we all lived forever spirituality would still have a role to play imo.

stevenmu

CerebralCortex wrote:

Hypathethically speaking if they where to discover how to prevent death does anyone think there would be any need for spirituality? I have read numerous places about sciences efforts to end death and I would like to know peoples views on what place there would be for spirituality in a world where people can live for ever (that is if they could live forever).

On the contrary I think that if we had limitless time, or at least less limited time, to live our lives, we would be able to dedicate more time and even probably a higher percentage of our time to spirituality. There are various people around the internet who claim to have had contact from spiritually enlightened aliens, I wouldn't be inclined to believe such a claim but a common theme to most of them is that the aliens achieved immortality or prolonged life before enlightenment. It makes sense in a if-you-ignore-the-bit-about-the-aliens kind of way.

Goodshape

[offtopic]
Seeing 'aliens' is a sign of our time. A hundred or so years ago the contacting entities would have been described as angels or other heavenly beings. These days we're 'smarter' than that.

What is actually doing the contacting, if anything at all, is more than likly outside either of these definitions.
[/offtopic]

I agree with steven anyway.. more time alive is more time to be spiritual.

Nevyn

<sctraches head>
ahh for some reason I read that as Spirituality and Immorality.

My Spiritual life is not about my death or earning brownie points for when that happens.
It is how I choose to live my life on a day to day bases.
It is how I interact with what is arround me, people, places, animals the earth.

Oryx

I think and hope that people would still have a need to reach outside of their limited selves for more than material things. Also we are spiritual beings on this plane, it is part of us here and now, not just for when we go - wherever.

McGinty

I agree that spirituality is an everyday thing, and for me the essence of my existence. Besides I have no wish to live forever, in actual fact the thought of that fills me with horror. Knowing I have a limited time on this earth enables me (when I think of it) to experience life at its fullest and to grab as much life and experience as I can. However if I was immortal, heaven forbid, then I would still be spiritual.

CerebralCortex

Yes indeed the prospect of immortallity is quite disturbing for me to that I also hope it never happens. Maybe I don't understand what spirituality is and should be asking instead what place is there for any religion in the realisation of immortality(hypothetically speaking)?

McGinty

CerebalCortex, like you I'm still not a 100% sure what the whole thing of spirituality is, I tend to go with what feels right, but I've been getting it wrong in the past and may still be getting it wrong, but I like the work and teachings of Anthony De Mello, he doesn't tell you what to think but classes spirituality with awareness, that is, being aware of who we are and how we interact with those around us. To be honest, for me I believe in focusing on the here and now, not always easy, I don't know what is going to happen when I die, I could be barking up the wrong tree and just die and that's it no God,nada. Maybe (oh horror of horror) that the fundamentalists are right and if you don't act a certain way I'll burn in hell, I doubt it as I don't see God as some sort of cop in the sky. So I take my chances on my own form of spirituality, muddling along trying to work something out.

judi

i agree that spirituality is not just about what happens to us when we pass over. spirituality for me enters my life everyday in many different ways. i dont think if they were to find a way to wipe out death that there wouldnt be a need for spirituality, but there would DEFINITLY be a need for mental instutions because nobody could live in this world forever without going absolutely "insane"!! the thought of becomming immortal would 'kill me' ha :eek:

CerebralCortex

Thanks for the input. I guess it is something that may have to be thought about for good long time to come.

Stabshauptmann

Id agree with most ppl here, spirituality (at least mine anyway) isnt neccissarily about the after-life, if there is one.
But what about those religions whose beliefs and moral codes are built around notions of after lifes or reincarnation. If I were going to be immortal, Id hate to be at the bottom of the hindu cast system

stevenmu

Yep, or an Egyptian slave who would have been buried with his master to continue serving him/her in the afterlife :eek:

McGinty

Lol, I was just thinking about the Egyptian slave and his master, they may have buried him thinking he/she would serve them in the afterlife, when it may have been a case of 'oh yeah' for the slave and 'oh ****' for the masters.

Afterlife? The biggest mystery there is I believe. No one truly knows what happens, it's all just belief, faith and guess work.

stevenmu

McGinty wrote:

Afterlife? The biggest mystery there is I believe. No one truly knows what happens, it's all just belief, faith and guess work.

I agree, I'd love to know what happens when we die, but for now there's only one way I can think of to find out for sure, but I think I'll contain my curiosity for now

UU

Hi all. If we all lived forever that would be bad as there wouldn't be enough room on the earth and the earth would be destroyed. Anyway, imagining George Bush or Sadam Hussein living for eternity :eek: ! Also, people who believe in afterlife or heaven, etc. would have nothing to look forward too.

Dades

Agree that spirituality is a here-and-now thing, and that it's religion that would be challanged by immortality.

I believe when you're dead - you're dead.

But I like to think of your "afterlife" as all the good memories of you the people you leave behind carry about with them. So how you act during your lifetime does affect your afterlife. Not so much as a an afterlife, as an aftermath ...

I always wonder following the assertion of a heaven-type afterlife, at what point in our evolution did we get one? Fish phase? Monkey phase? Standing up phase?

What about that snail I smushed in my garden by accident coming in drunk last night? :eek:

tj-music.com

I believe that we choose experiences in this life, even though we sometimes stray from those experiences, only to "come back" for more or different things or the same experiences even.

I did a past life regression and I know I have been here before. I also think that spirituality (although the term is vage) is in the here-and-now but you're not dead when you're dead - the body may rod but the soul is immortal.

Sometimes one suddenly knows places, recognices things and so on and often, I suppose, there are flash backs from previous live times.

I am absolutely convinced that no one ever dies