something i got from a friend of mine..

May 6, 19993 posts by 3 posters
3 posts
CrtoonDude

i thought it was interesting. any ideas?

Life.  Life is short, life is temporary, like a lighted candle which
flickers and then is snuffed out. The effect that each life has on every
other is small, insignificant even.  Even if you are on national
television, what effect does it have.  Certainly the only people affected
are those who see you.  You have no effect, and never will, on areas
beyond our confined world which will eventually die like every other
world, every other civilization before it.  The human is born,
learns, works and dies, his only final achievement being producing one
more generation.  No matter what his deeds are, they die with him and are
obscured, even forgotten, with the passage of time.  Sure, your triumphs
live on in other people who they affected, but after they die, who is
left.  Fate for anyone who dies is always the same, they are forgotten.
Events are forgotten, achievements are forgotten, even failures are
forgotten.  At most a tombstone or a book or a memorial are left to
commemorate a person.  Since the beginning of time, man has struggled for
a way to continue living.  He has developed religion, a belief that says
he lives on, even after death, but what good does that do?  Even if there
truly is a heaven and hell, what effect does it have on the people left
behind?  It is impossible to make physical contact with the dead and thus
it is unimportant whether we live on else where after death.
	Now I ask you, what if immortality were a possibility.  Would you
accept it?  Would you lead a normal life and then perish like all before
you?  The prospect of immortality presents questions that man has asked
himself for thousands of years, but still is unable to answer.  Chances
are there will never be an answer.  But still, I present to you the
question, what if you did not have to die?  If immortality were possible,
there would almost definitely be a way to preserve youth.  The prospect
of seeing the future happen is bate enough for most people to wish for
immortality.  But what if, there truly is a heaven?  Then don�t we
ultimately lose out on the chance to live in eternal happiness.  Would we
take the chance to never see heaven in favor of living life on Earth.  To
accept immortality on Earth means a definite eternal life, but no
guarantee of happiness in this ever volatile world.  On the other hand,
what if life ends at death, then we have missed our chance at eternal
life only to die in vain, like the generation before us.  Or worse yet,
what if our destiny is hell, then we have missed the chance at eternal
life on Earthwith the possibility of happiness only to gain eternal
suffering.
	Imagine the trials of an immortal life, never knowing fear,
having no cares or worries.  Life would attain a level of dullness we
have never before imagined.  With no fear of death people would become
bored and probably even wish for death even though it will never come no
matter how much they desire it.  On the other hand, all of life�s
questions could be answered, experiments never before possible would be
able to take place, with the scientists who originally created them being
able to observe their findings 500 years later.  War would become
impossible because the main motivation behind war is to kill your enemy
and with that possibility eliminated it would be pointless.  Exploration
to far off galaxies would be simple, all we would need to do would be to
propel a person towads the planet, they would not risk dying in transit.
	I leave you with Hamlet�s famous quote �to be or not to be, that
is the question...�.  To live eternally and to endure the slings and
arrows of a thousand natural shocks to which the flesh is prone or to
allow death to take its course as it has for hundreds of years.  This is
the question which I present to you.  There is no true answer, there
never will be.  To question our motives in life is what this is meant to
do.  Are we secure in our religion to a point that we would choose death
and heaven without question or are we still nervous about the prospect of
dying.  To truly ask ourselves this question, without predetermining the
answer whether it be God and the grave or eternal life, tells us what
kind of people we truly are and what we truly value.  So which will it
be?  The choice my friends, is yours.
---
~Po

"Don't feel bad about not feeling good." ~TME

[email] (CrtoonDude) wrote:

<snip>

Actually, according to one of my genetics profs in undergrad, it was his opinion that death is as natural as not dying. His theory (and that of other researchers) is that species whose individual members died off were more successful (in that they could continuously evolve) than species whose individual members didn't die off (we're talking bacteria, BTW.) ISTR that there is a line of investigation that is searching for just how far back the "death mutation" as they refer to it-- goes. Some optimistic scientists say that they'll have a way to reverse the cascade that results in aging and death in the next 30 years.

That's as may be, but people will still die in car accidents or if they're skewered with a pointed stick. And cancer will always be a problem, as long as we are exposed to mutagens, cells will mutate until cancers form. So as long as we are "ugly bags of mostly water" (geek check), we'll be susceptible to breakage and the premature termination of biological functions. I won't delve into what's beyond, as that would be hubris on my part. (And I was taught that one of the subjects that you don't discuss in polite company is religion. <g>) Besides, some may find my views rather strange. <g>

rich.

Daria: "I always knew that I would die in Nowheresville"

Jane: "But I didn't think I'd die there quite so soon."

http://paperpusher.simplenet.com (new site) http://members.xoom.com/paperpusher (old site) (remove blah and numbers to send email)

Rich wrote:

Fresh fruit not good enough for you, eh? See how you like it when some great, homicidal maniac attacks you with a handful of loganberries.

Peace Kevin

Peace Kevin