Who Actually Wants to Live Forever?

The 18th Century Irish satirist, author, and Anglican cleric Jonathan Swift once said: “Everybody wants to live forever, but nobody wants to grow old.” This question of living forever is an interesting one that does not actually have a universal answer. 

Certainly, materialists who believe there is nothing after death are split on the question. The nihilists want long, able-bodied life or perhaps to “just die already.” On the other hand, the transhumanists are looking for ways to push the boundaries of human life with the application of technology to “cure” disease, sleep issues, muscle degeneration, and ultimately death. 

For the believer, life after death is the goal or at least seen as an inevitability. For the Jewish people, historically anyway, there is a desire to accept the present as a gift from God and to let Him worry about the afterlife. In Christian eschatology, there is a firm rootedness in Christ’s promise to live with Him forever in Heaven.

Whether theist or atheist, there are prevailing tendencies to want to live forever. The question is: how? Do we want to live forever here on Earth - in what Catholics refer to as a “vale of tears”? The Buddhists, likewise, say that, “life is suffering.” It seems inevitable that suffering comes and the only answer offered to this problem of evil that is the least bit satisfying is the long arc of eternity. What is an injustice today might only be answered with real consequences in the life to come, for example. 

Countless movies and stories have centered around the quest for immortality. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade has the antagonist saying the line: “The search for the [Holy] Grail is the search for the divine in all of us.” Of course, those who drink from the Grail in the movie are only granted eternal life as long as they continue to drink from it every so often. So, even there, there is an indication that eternal life is not actually eternal. Vampire movies see immortality as lonely and a curse. In Lord of the Rings, the elves are immortal but can nonetheless die. Whether a strong sense of eternal life or a soft-immortality, human beings are obsessed with eternity and remaining alive. 

But, who actually wants to live forever? If we are talking about eternal life in Heaven, then I say, yes, sign me up! If we mean only bodily, earthly eternal life in this fallen state, then I would say it is certainly more of a curse. What I think it can lead us to ponder is this: our own death. We must keep our own death before us always, and, in so doing, will be able to better direct our lives towards eternity in paradise. This is not to be morbid or fascinated by death or even to devalue our earthly lives here and now. It is simply a recognition that this reality is passing while being restored. So, too, is fallen humanity suffering and languishing while being redeemed and brought to salvation.

We want to live forever, but that life has to be ordered to the one to come, even as we gratefully receive where our Lord has placed us here and now. Remember death. Understand that time is fleeting. Choose Christ. Aim for Heaven. 

Bonus content: for a discussion of “Seven Proofs for the Immortality of the Human Soul” from Tim Staples of Catholic Answers, please click here.