The idea of lasting forever in some way can be found all across the world, and through different times. In our contemporary society, people attempt to become immortal through outlets like religion or legacy. Christians and Muslims believe in an afterlife, while Judaism is more complicated, since their idea of afterlife isn’t like Christianity or Islam but there is a possibility of immortality after this life. Other major religions also have an idea of immortality with Buddhism and Hinduism believing that people’s souls are united in a state called Nirvana. Unlike religious people, non religious people have no basis for a belief in the afterlife like religious people, but that doesn’t stop people from trying to become “immortal”. Today people try to live through their work or legacy. People also try to stop the process of aging through beauty products to look younger, to the extreme where people try to deage the cells in their body. But is this pursuit of immortality really worth our time? Is it really worth the effort and struggle that we put ourselves through?
If one were to succeed at becoming immortal, they would lose a vital part of life: death. While the fear of death is common in people, death allows a person to be free of their suffering. A common idea of death is that it is a release from everything. Someone who is immortal would still have to deal with all the problems in life, and more so since they would see the death of loved ones, war, disease, the end of humanity, and the destruction of the world. This everlasting suffering would ruin life. In an essay called “The Meaning of Life” by Kurt Baier, he explains that “It may be sad that we have to leave this beautiful world, but it is so only if and because it is beautiful. And it is no less beautiful for coming to an end. I rather suspect that an eternity of it might make us less appreciative, and in the end it would be tedious. Baier understands that death is necessary to truly embrace and enjoy life. When someone is obsessed with staying alive like Gilgamesh who instead of listening to the goddess Siduri who advised him to abandon his search and instead “fill your belly with good things; day and night, night and day, dance and be merry, feast and rejoice. Let your clothes be fresh, bathe yourself in water, cherish the little child that holds your hand, and make your wife happy in your embrace; for this too is the lot of man” (102), man loses sight of what makes life worth living. Living in the fear of death like Gilgamesh will only ruin the limited time you have.