"The Gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again."
-Achilles, Troy (2004)
Today, a young man approached me with a survey that he urgently needed me to fill. As was the case with most such people, one would dismiss them quickly, as they would usually be insurance agents asking if you were interested in one of their new policies.
However, this guy was a little different. Before I rushed past him, I stole a glance at what he was holding. It was a bright yellow survey form, definitely not something from an insurance company. Sensing that he was losing me, he tried his best line.
"Do you want eternal life sir?"
My answer, simply, was no. I thanked him, and walked on. I have a reason for that, but I did not have the time to share it with him.
But I might as well share it here, since this is my blog and anything shared here is not unnecessarily fettered by the constraints of time.
Humanity is easily tempted by greed, to the extent that they do not always see that too much of something is necessarily folly. Why would anyone with a rational mind desire eternal life? What would one do with it?
The quote I shared above from Troy illustrates this point. The reason why the ancient Gods of Greece were so prone to human folly was simply that they had grown bored of their lives in the high realms of Mount Olympus. When you live forever, with the same people, doing the same things, you grow bored of their company. In fact, to have eternal life would be something I would shudder to comprehend.
Assuming that one had many things to do with one's life, many of which are not accomplishable in a single lifetime, one would desire more time. I could understand that. Personally, I find myself wishing that there were more than 24 hours in a day, because I can never get enough time to sleep. There will always be insufficient time to get to another corner of the world you haven't seen, or to eat something you haven't tried. One will always wish for more time to spend with the one they love. And one will always wish for more time to see one's children grow up and become good people.
As for those of us who were more motivated, who sought more out of life, there will come a point when you have done everything you want to do, or seen everything that you want to see. What meaning would life have to you then, beyond that? You would become bored, but you would also be trapped in a state of living where nothing new excites you anymore, where another day would be more of the same. You would become a creature who stuck to the same monotonous routine, over and over, to try and use up time that you could never finish using up.
That to me, would honestly be the worst thing there could ever be. Have you seen those science fiction films where people are trapped in suspended animation in a parallel universe? To me, eternal life would eventually become akin to that.
With infinite time, no one would have to die. There wouldn't be a need for new lives, or a need for renewal, in every sense of the word. Life would become very simply, stagnant. People would lose their sense of urgency for anything at all. And eventually, the world as we know it, it would change, but I don't think it would be for the better. A world where no one dies is unsustainable. The eventual outcome, whether you like it or not, would be a very destructive war.
It is also the reason why scientifically, organisms are made to age by chemical processes.
Even if scientists were to find a way to reverse aging, which is becoming possible because it is still after all, a chemical process, they would be much harder pressed to reverse mutations as they occurred, as those occur randomly during cell division. It is arguable that the reason why all life has to eventually age and die is to prevent it from reaching a stage where the body will become so riddled with errors from genetic mutations (e.g. cancer) that it becomes impossible to function, or that it will pass on such traits to offspring. It is also the reason probably, why there is a reproductive window that favours the young.
For those who would argue that eternal life is one that is spent with God, and that a life like that is fulfilling in itself, I guess they have a point. I just wonder about this. If you had to spend eternal life with God, how awesome could it be? Isn't it funny that despite how eternal life is promised as the ultimate end in itself, no one has actually sat down and thought about what eternal life really means, or actually tried to parse it out in detail so more people would desire it as the end to aspire to?
It is almost as though people are actually afraid that they will just fade away into oblivion, so to assuage this fear, they try to convince themselves that maybe, somewhere, their consciousness will live on in an alternate realm.
But really, what would you even do with eternal life, even one spent with God? Sit at his feet every day and look at him? Bask in his love? In his glory? Drink and make merry every day? I guess that might do it for you, but I wouldn't desire it because it would quickly become meaningless to me.
I guess part of what makes God awesome is, nobody has to actually spend any real time with him. He's like that priest in the confession box. He's there to absolve your sins, but you don't have to hang around him once you're done doing so. You can get on with your life.
Or maybe those who are living eternal lives are too busy reveling in its awesomeness to make their way down to show you how awesome it is. But really, since it is eternal, couldn't they just spare some time to come down and tell us that it's really so awesome? I would love to hear about that. Darn selfish gits.