Do you WANT there to be an afterlife?

[TDAS04]

Yes, especially if we all get to go to heaven, which is what I hope.  If there’s reincarnation, that’s not as good as heaven, but better than eternal unconsciousness.  However, eternal unconsciousness would be preferable to being on fire, or far worse, in hell for eternity.

It’s hard to argue against non-religious people when they ask, “how can you be so certain that your beliefs are correct?”  However, I would ask the same question to those who think they know for sure that there is no afterlife.

[HisGrace]

I am a little afraid of the concept of the "lights going out" and just being gone. People who've been dead for a significant amount of time and been revived have often reported a degree of consciousness similar to when you're asleep so it's possible your consciousness just continues indefinitely without a body to host it. Mind/body duality is a tricky thing.

[Kingpoleon]

Whether you want an afterlife is deeply irrelevant. This is equivalent to asking, do you want to die in New York City? Do you want to have legs? Do you want to have wings?

It is not entirely clear that a prescriptive view on the afterlife is possible and reasonably defensible, whereas a descriptive view almost assuredly is.

[Agonized-Statism]

If it's a generic cartoon Abrahamic Heaven, definitely. Hellish realms and purgatories like the Asphodel Meadows obviously wouldn't be so great to spend eternity in. And if it's the Buddhist concept of suffering through reincarnations until the sweet release of obliteration, that's just regular depressing atheism with extra steps.

[PSOL]

Sure

[Just the facts]

The afterlife sounds like a pain in the backside. Constantly fulfilling eternal life on earth, on the other hand...

[John Dule]

Whether you want an afterlife is deeply irrelevant. This is equivalent to asking, do you want to die in New York City? Do you want to have legs? Do you want to have wings?

It is not entirely clear that a prescriptive view on the afterlife is possible and reasonably defensible, whereas a descriptive view almost assuredly is.

Communication is a two-way street, you know.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Yes, in the sense that it seems the redemption of history would require something like that.  But when I think about eternity I tend to start to feel kind of tired and freaked out a bit.

[Samof94]

Absolutely.  It would be cool to have an ultimate fate that doesn't involve you becoming worm food.

But this life is the only shot you get, kids.  

It seems to be the one that seems the most logically consistent and doesn’t require supernatural intervention. It seems to fit the “the dead don’t come back” narrative best too.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

There maybe reincarnation but the whole purpose of Rapture is to live as living souls, the Astral plane we don't know what it is, but it's not a regular life

[Kingpoleon]

Communication is a two-way street, you know.

It can be. But the sort of philosophical thinking which asks “Do you want X?” strikes me as, in some way, fruitless. If so, then what? If not, then what? I do not believe anything follows from this premise.