Infinity issues

Hello again. Wanted to share something that always seemed nonsense to others, but quite logic for me. I always had trouble with the idea of eternal life after death. While others always seemed to find relief in this possibility, to me it`s been the most horrifying thing imaginable. Thinking about existing forever was always far beyond distressing, and the certainty that it is either that, or ceasing existence at all, would make me feel trapped, doomed, and that there was no solution available at all. It used to be so bad, that I couldn´t even sleep as a child, and stress caused me the feeling that someone was whisperng in my ears, like when someone is mad at you, but it was not a hallucination because I knew it was in my head. I would love to know if anyone else has had this kind of trouble with time, death and eternity as well.

Parents
  • I have read a lot of books where the protagonist has to deal with immortality and they’re all fairly horrifying so I agree.

    I also recall attending a funeral where one of the hymns had a line to the effect of ten thousand years in heaven is insignificant like a second.

    My literal brain immediately thinks: if I had an infinity of time I’d need an infinity of new things to stop me going mad from boredom and maybe after a while I’d even get bored of novelty.

    Maybe the idea is that when you’re a non-corporeal being not limited to physical space, time means something different or doesn’t exist at all.

    You’ll rarely get a good exploration of the issue from religion though.

Reply
  • I have read a lot of books where the protagonist has to deal with immortality and they’re all fairly horrifying so I agree.

    I also recall attending a funeral where one of the hymns had a line to the effect of ten thousand years in heaven is insignificant like a second.

    My literal brain immediately thinks: if I had an infinity of time I’d need an infinity of new things to stop me going mad from boredom and maybe after a while I’d even get bored of novelty.

    Maybe the idea is that when you’re a non-corporeal being not limited to physical space, time means something different or doesn’t exist at all.

    You’ll rarely get a good exploration of the issue from religion though.

Children
  • I agree with that about time. Those thoughts I referred to were there when I was 10, and now I understand time in a very different way (fortunately). But I have always been curious about the existence of others that find the mere idea of it extremely panicking, because I´ve always herard about concerns about boredom, or headeaches out of thinking of it, but no fear of eternity. My mum once told me that it was absurd to be afraid of it, as if in the case that we all could live happily together forever, but I found that very upsetting. She, or anyone else, just wouldnt understand why I felt that way.