I can't stand to watch my pets get old and pie. I could only imagine watching all my loved ones age and die. How many loves can you bury before you go insane?
Depends on your outlook, I guess. Are we talking a scenario where you're the only one that's going to live forever? Or are we talking a situation where the technology to remain alive is ubiquitous? If the former, I could see a case for that argument. If it's a medical treatment that's not outrageously expensive, then it's boiling down to a choice of your loved ones, isn't it? I think a lot of the non-religious arguments against immortality are just recycled from other sources; they don't really stand up to a lot of scrutiny (at least objectively). Would it suck to be the only immortal and watch everyone around me die? Probably. But it wouldn't suck as much as dying.
So, you rub Aladdin's lamp, out pops the muscled genie, atop a cloud of smoke emanating from the spout. "Oh great genie," you say, "I never want to die. Can you give me eternal life?" The genie says, "Yes. I can grant you eternal life but you must first free me from captivity in this lamp." You quickly agree, make the appropriate wish and the genie steps down from the cloud of smoke. He stretches his arms and legs, turns his face up to experience the warmth of the sun. "Are you ready for eternal life?" he asks. "Yes. How will I know it has been accomplished?" POOF! You black out for a moment, waking inside a small room full of decorative pillows and incense. There are no openings. Suddenly, some strange force draws you off the ground toward the ceiling above, but instead of colliding with the ceramic surface you pass right through it to find yourself suspended in a cloud of smoke. The genie looks on, smiling. "You now have eternal life. You may grant three wishes to anyone who discovers your lamp but you may never escape the lamp unless someone wishes for eternal life. Only then, may you grant their wish, and return to a mortal existence. Enjoy your immortality."
Its a dream we all with otherwise, but alas not the human condition, Imortality, It doesn't work like that. Some people live more in twenty years than others do in eighty. It's not the time that matters, it's the person. And people who chase this fickel dream only accomplish to waste what little and precious time we have now. Life to death en full cycle. what is there to live for if we never know or fear the cold embrace of death. bah am done being philosophical for tonight lol. Let people dream. -cb
I would have to choose Mortality. You could not be human and immortal. To live forever I think that one would either be unable to change or have to be of change itself, carving out an existence in the turmoil of transition, nibbling on the detritus of other's change without hope of rest or stillness. Now if it was a question between Immortality or Immorality... .... I pity the man who had to watch the endless tides of 2.8 billion years of single-celled life and who knows that, eventually, he will have to watch it again as the clock of the universe winds down to it's conclusion. Living a long, though finite, time would be much better. I am so jealous of my descendents who may actually get to see alien life or peace on earth, whichever is first.
The only form of immortality that I'm prepared to deal with is reincarnation. I mean, without a regular memory wipe, I'm sure to get tired of eternity anywhere, and gradually lose my sanity. Any kind of single life eternity would be hell, which is just one reason why I'm an atheist. The vampire Lestat (although fictional) tried to off himself after less than the blink of an eye in the face of eternity, but not even the sun could kill him. . . I know that I would do the same - and I'd be doomed to fail just the same. What could possibly be worse than wanting to die, but never being able to? I think Anne Rice ruined immortality for me:S. So - give me rebirth or give me oblivion.
