Does the idea of your death ever creep up on you, and make you really uneasy all of the sudden? It's inevitable, of course... but I can't help but shudder at the realization that life will be over in the blink of an eye, as so much time has passed by already. We won't be here very long at all, and I don't know what part of the idea of death troubles me. It's not the pain, how it ends, when it happens, or even if I'll be satisfied with my life when the time comes. I consider myself an atheist, so I believe in nothingness after death. But really, what makes atheism any more logical than religion? What is nothingness? Isn't the idea of your consciousness just disappearing and everything ceasing to exist a far fetched idea too? I'm beginning to think nobody knows what they're talking about, and just choose something to believe in so they can be content with death to avoid this feeling of not knowing. But that's exactly what troubles me most about death; not knowing what it feels like or doesn't feel like after you die. The idea of ceasing to be anything is just foreboding to me. The only thing that eases the idea of the nothingness is that before birth, I was in the state of nothingness... and everything turned out OK so far. Anyone else troubled when they think about this?
Yep, down to pretty much everything you said. I'm convinced as well that people use religion and all the bullshit they fill their lives with (hectic careers they don't enjoy, unnecessary drama, stress, etc.) to distract them from the fact that ultimately we are here for a very short period of time, and then it's over... for good. I don't believe in a 'god' or whatever.. there is just too much going on for me to think that some magical being in the sky created everything that there ever was and ever will be. That is pretty much some fairy tale b.s... you couldn't get that past anyone today if religion was just starting up. The nothingness after death which is what I believe will happen is what scares me. The way I think about it is that before you were born, there was nothing. No experience, memory, feeling, just no consciousness. That's where I look at death and can't see how suddenly you're transported to some alternate realm where your "spirit" lives on or whatever... it just seems ridiculous.
Yeah, I actually edited before you posted and added that that's how I deal with the thought, before I was born I was nothing and it all turned out ok. But doesn't that pose the question of 'reincarnation'? If we came from nothing and are going nowhere, will we be again? Have we already been?
That to me is where you get into crazy stuff that nobody will ever know the answer to. I try to take all of my beliefs and views on the world from science.. something which is actually proven.. and basically everything that makes up the universe is ultimately just infinitely small particles of energy gathered together to form objects. When you die, your energy is broken down and taken back into the universe. We are ultimately a living manifestation of the mass of energy in the universe.. if that makes any sense... I've heard about this newer thing called "green burials." There aren't many locations, but some of them are in fields where they grow trees and flowers and you're just absorbed back into nature.. I guess that's gotta be one of the better ways to do it.. rather than sitting in a box in a field full of other dead people...
Not troubled. Not resigned. Accepting, yes. Willing? Not yet anyways. You are right imho. People are afraid of the unknown. It is a basic, primevil survival instinct. If a pack of cats sees a pack of dogs, the cats run. I have finally, at 37 years young, gotten past all the clutter and confusion of organized religion but HAVE to have faith that with the universe being as complicated and relatively fragile as it is, it MUST have been Engineered. I work in the Engineering field and have seen first-hand how the most minute of errors/mistakes/or crappy luck can be QUICKLY magnified into catastrophic failure. That being said, I don't believe in the notion that there is 1 true religion either. I choose to study them all and piece together all the positives I can find and leave behind the man-made crap. So death is at times welcome when I'm hurting very bad or having a rough time struggling through life. It's rest at very least and limitless possibilities at the very best. I look forward to my dying words being something similar to "I have lived a good life." And I just hope that I have helped more than I have hurt.
i personally believe in life after death. Not in the religious sense however, more in the the sense that our consciousness lives on after death. I meen no one really knows what consciousness really is. theres theories but not hard evidence suggesting if its even a physical thing. It could be some form of energy and as you probably know energy cannot be destroyed only transformed into another form..i.e some type of soul. But hey im stoned out of my mind so i may be chatting shit. But personally im keeping a very open mind till im at deaths door.
Without faith, the soul is already dead. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y2ItpKiabc]YouTube - Something To Believe In Poison Lyrics[/ame]
At this point science points towards the idea that the universe will either expand into nothingness, or contract int a singularity and re explode into another big bang. Maybe that's our reincarnation.
Me too. There's a place in the Bay Area here in Cali that does it. You can choose no box, cardboard, or pine. No embalming, no headstone. The ONLY thing you are buried with if you request that isn't readily biodegradable is a small plastic ball with an RFID tag so your loved ones can come visit, pick up a wand, and locate you exact plot.
Well if there is nothing after you die then there is nothing to worry about really. You wouldn't be conscious, you would just cease to be. It would be like you are in a dreamless sleep where you have no recollection of anything. Not really all that scary when you think about it. You could almost think of it as the big sleep.
One of the owners of my collective recently posted this. The man makes sense. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXdhHn8L65o&feature=player_embedded]YouTube - Dalai Lama Finding Purpose in Life[/ame]
Yeah I get the same shit!! Its not the fact of how it happens it the thought that iwont be hear doing what im doing. Even if its nothing, I know we wont know we aint here or watever cuz we will be dead but i dont wanna go!!
I sort of used to feel the same way... Smoke some DMT and your mind will open to the universe, i promise you will not have any worries after the experience. NOTE: I was an atheist my entire life...One night i smoked DMT, i had doe some research and was intrigued. After that night my life and my view on "life" changed forever.
There are two things that trouble me: 1) What is this whole universe we live in. Where does it exist? 2) Why do I exist? What am I? Why was I born and am I just going to stop existing when I die? What am I going to be when I die? Am I just simply a sophisticated object that thinks? Man, this is weird. I feel like an ant or something.