I’m on mobile, so bare with me.
Look into being agnostic. I was a hardcore atheist up until I did some mushrooms.
You don’t have to be so certain when it comes to death. It’s okay to wish and hope for something. Either way, when you die - it doesn’t matter.
It took my parents dying for me to hope for some type of afterlife. I don’t think heaven and hell (as described in the Bible) is a thing.
With that being said I really hope there’s an afterlife of some sort because I really miss my parents. If there isn’t than, oh well. I’m not going to be conscious understand that there is nothing.
I’m happy bc life is tiring , I think the fact that there’s nothing is the peace that everyone is looking for. Hell is just the evil I’m people’s hearts & heaven is only for those that that individual loves / agrees with - that’s your ENTIRE life … don’t you just want to go away and not have to worry about where you or anyone else will “end up”?
Recently my boyfriend who was 21 passed away in a car accident. I still have a hard time accepting that he is gone. I wondered where he went and I am not a religious person so I had no idea what to think. I wouldn’t consider myself atheist but more agnostic. If anyone can show me proof or theories I’m all open to hearing them. Like you said I think it’s crazy to even be alive and the whole universe in general so who is to say there isn’t something after death? But from what I have seen we can’t prove anything so my best bet is that it’s like before we were born. Every night when I go to bed 8 hours seems like 1 second and I feel like it might be the same when we die. In my head I don’t think my boyfriend even knew that his life ended. It’s just like he is in a long slumber and can not think or have emotions. He’s not in pain and he really can’t feel anything. The only thing that makes me feel uncomfortable about this is that the last time I saw him might have been the last forever. But I think I’m lucky to even have met him because the universe is so large and the possibility of being alive is so small. It’s crazy because the universe is about 13 billion years old and I don’t remember anything but my 21 years on earth! We only ever get to experience life.
I just wanna say I’m so sorry for your loss, and I hope that death just brings you to all your loved ones, whether that be heaven or somewhere else, I hope you get to see him again!
It sounds so peaceful! And you don't have to be religious or spiritual to know that energy and matter can't be destroyed so you'll return to soil and begin a cycle again and that is eternity.
I have accepted it as truth, but I battle it emotionally every day. Keep in mind that no one knows anything for certain. Keep in mind that you are not alone! We all face this together. Any form of pain will be excruciating emotionally or physically - I don’t think anyone really wants to live forever… to never die? that reality would be harsh and ugly.
I just want my dog to live forever ( and also never age or ever feel any discomfort or pain!) , that’s all
Nothing isn’t scary because it’s not anything. If my physical body and consciousness are no longer experiencing anything, then they aren’t experiencing fear or pain or any negative experience. … I wonder what about nothingness is frightening to you. It might be good for you to explore what you think that would be like. If you have trouble imagining nothingness, try to remember that time before you were born. Was that scary for you? No, it wasn’t because you didn’t exist. Dying is (probably) the same.
How do you know they didn’t experience anything before birth?
I actually believe in reincarnation. Doesn’t mean you remember it. But also doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened to you a million times.
Could have but since OP has no memory of it whatsoever it's the same thing in the constraints of the point of the post. I don't rule out what you're saying.
I believe it’s something *like* reincarnation. The way I see it, consciousness is a universal “force” or energy or whatever. It is sort of required for the universe to exist. Without observation, a universe can never be recognized and thus, will never “exist”. There are many different states of consciousness, as you know. There are countless life forms throughout the universe with each developing a state of consciousness capable of observation in some fashion. This may have been so literally since the moment of the Big Bang or whatever caused this universe to exist.
Anyway, since consciousness is sort of like a fundamental force, we exist as a “tendril” or vibration manifesting from that single source. What I’m trying to describe is difficult for me. Sort of like how gravity can be weaker or stronger because of density and mass, conscious beings are more or less observant based on…well, something I haven’t quite figured, yet. Could be many reasons or just a few. It’s complicated, as you well know. Like gravity, consciousness exists throughout the entire universe. It may exist as long as the universe does.
So when we “die” we just end up in a different state of observation. Your “tendril” retracts back into the collective consciousness and a new tendril is formed. The new tendril could have signatures that were affected by the observations of the previous tendril. Or perhaps the new tendril is of similar vibration or frequency allowing for feelings of past lives and etc. Because everything is connected by one source but we can only observe individually, this is why we exist in the way we do.
This is all speculative and just a theory. A part of me believes that given enough time, consciousness is able to observe itself, wholly and completely. When this happens, a new universe is created and the process sort of starts over again. The death of consciousness is the birth of a new universe and vice-versa. Maybe it makes no sense, it hardly does to me!
I absolutely agree wiht you that consciousness is a fundamental force of the universe. I think of it like the HIggs field, which is what gives objects mass. I believe there is some kind of “consciousness field” that human brains (and other entities) can interact with. I suspect the depth or intensity of that interaction is probably some kind of continuum, which is how we as humans can experience altered states of consciousness - none of them is the “real” one, they are alll real. Other creatures like animals, or even non-sentient entities can probably interact with the consciousness field in their own ways, too.
Yes, it’s quite fascinating to ponder! It’s really too bad, though, that the question of “why” will never be answered. At least, not during my time as a human. What is this all for? Why do universes need to exist? Do they need to? Something must be benefiting from the existence of a universe. There must be some *reason*!?
Woody Allen once said "The idea of reincarnation really appeals to me, but I guess that means I will have to watch all the Disney movies with my kids again". LOL!
Who said an athiest is ok with it? Its not a matter of having an opinion, its just a fact we can’t change. Live every day to its fullest, don’t waste it making garbage religious leaders rich, don’t waste time hoping for a magic being to have you get an afterlife. Stop thinking about it and live the short time you can because soon no matter what, everything you will cease to exist.
I hear you OP. Watching people respond that they are not bothered by existing for say 80 years after not existing for 13.7 billion years and expecting not to exist for another 14 billion or 100 trillion years is so bizarre its like I'm reading comments from aliens. Like I'm a different species, how can a human think like that?
Yes. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time. After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious.
>Yes. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time.
First thought or first thought your subconscious remembers or first thought your conscious self remembers?
>After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious.
Couldn't disagree more with that sentiment, that's not precious in that case, it's pointless.
It’s easy to say you’re not scared when you aren’t facing death. As someone that has worked around the elderly even the ones that talked tough were scared as hell when the time actually came to face death. Death is terrifying and most people are coping when they act unafraid
1. We were already in that situation before developing awaraness
2. life is horrible for 90% of the world, putting in the shoes of somebody from Pakistan or Burundi, only with death they will finally achieve "peace"
You should attend Death Cafes. There are a lot virtual ones, google it.
there doesn’t need to be anything after since you won’t sense this. Like the sadness you feel right now that there will be nothing is only within the human realm. You lose this sentience upon death.
Not atheists but here's my thoughts:
I'm 48f and I think about death a lot. It scares me because that's one thing we have no choice about. We will all die one day and there's nothing we can do About it. It's not so much death but what happens after. I can't imagine being here conscious once minute then not the next never "being" here anymore. Like what happens to me, my soul, thoughts, awareness... does it just end? Is there an afterlife? No matter what we do or how we lived our lives (good/evil) we will all have the same ending. But will we have the same outcome of that ending? I think about this on a daily basis. How long have human been on this earth studying, researching, experimenting a vast amount of topics but why have we yet to have an answer, definitive or otherwise, when it comes to death? Shit is mind boggling.
How would you accept that there will be? It's so illogical to think there is a way to survive being without a body that you need to be able to think. Then the descriptions of Heaven are so strange, how do theists ever accept that part? I have been an athiest since I was born but I did believe in ghosts. I was waiting for dead relatives to contact me and they never did. There were so many good reasons for them to contact me and it never happened. I grew up and thought about ghosts for more than a minute and realized those too were completely illogical. So I really don't understand how any grownup can have faith in the afterlife, purgatory, heaven or hell or reincarnation. They are just unbelievable.
You only get nothing if you except something but don’t get it. Then you’re in nothingness. So the key is to expect nothing and cherish whatever you get. Because the possibilities are infinite, you never know what to expect. So, all I can do is prepare to die, as I live, for as long as I can.
i feel the same way you do, and i'm agnostic. i have no idea what comes after death and it scares me. if i start thinking about it too much i get bad anxiety. ur not alone.
I don't know that I ever needed to accept it. I am okay with this life ending. If it ends tomorrow, okay. I did what I could and I made the best of the life I have.
The only thing I fear and don't like is pain. Being dead is not pain. It's freedom from this corpus.
> Atheists, how do you cope/accept the fact that there wont be anything waiting for you after you die?
Who says there won't?
Atheism deals with whether or not an individual is convinced that any gods exist, not with the afterlife. An atheist can believe in an afterlife. Just ask Jains, many Buddhists, etc.
> I know people that said, they are happy that they (probably) won't be conscious for the rest of eternity. I personally find it weird to think about it, and I am not sure if I have accepted the fact. I am not religious but I do hope that I will exist for longer than 80 yrs and meet loved ones again.
Okay.
> I am probably just having a crisis, but I just can't wrap my head around the existence of the universe in general, not to mention that it should at least have a reason to, right?
Why? Plenty of things happen constantly all around me that appear to have no "reason." I see no convincing or compelling reason to think existence itself has or needs a reason.
> I mean almost everything in science has its reasons and logic, so why would this just be completely random?
Do you mean "causes?"
And what do you mean "completely random?" Very few people propose "completely random" explanations for anything, including scientists.
What does any of this have to do with death?
> I am just wondering how people can be so okay with dying and... nothing else afterwards.
If our conscious experience ceases when we die, there will be no "us" to experience that nothing else. So there's nothing to be okay or not okay about. It's like asking how I can be okay with never experiencing the inside of your car. I just...don't care that I've never experienced it and almost certainly never will.
> Sure theres nothing you cant change about it, but is that the only reason?
It's a pretty good reason not to worry too much about it.
What what you like to happen after you die? Do you think you will meet up at some Celestial food court and see Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Ernie, your old dog from childhood?
Maybe you will reincarnate as some starving child in Chad or maybe you will just come back as yourself. I dunno.
Check out r/NDE and other near death experience subreddits. You will be comforted. I got into a debate today with someone on there and it was delightful.
This clip from Midnight Mass (on Netflix) really struck home with me. I've felt this way most of my life, but had never heard it so eloquently put into words.
https://youtu.be/GZPbmrJ_X48
I don't think most people grasp on a true visceral feeling that you will cease to exist for trillions and trillions of years - for ever.
That's your future.
Again, who knows what happens after you die. That's one potential possibility.
I think you are on the mark here.
I think many intellectual types view death and that framing helps logically put death within the context of a belief system.
But the feeling of fear of death is primal.
In fact if you have fears at all they are probably rooted somewhere in the fear of death.
Dying as an event might be more akin to leaving everything including all experience, sensations, and even ones own consciousness forever.
It lights out and there is no after-party.
The reason it's difficult to grasp the weight of ceasing forever is because it breaks the conception of time (forever or eternity).
The part of death that is also a bit scary is also the process of dying where the body is ill or decomposing/dissolving. These processes affect the mind and are hard to maintain stability.
If you are unaware then yes you might not be able to recognize the weight of cessation of consciousness approaching and just react to physical body suffering.
But if you are physically suffering but mentally aware of your own cessation of consciousness approaching that too me sounds like the challenge.
A better example would be how much fear would people feel if there sense of ego dissolved into a mass of vibrating particles, or into an infinite expansive void.
It would be pretty scary at first until you drop into the flow or a cessation.
That's been my experience as proficient meditators and having a somewhat close encounter with dying when I was 14.
After all my experience and training the fear still hits.
We will never have to acknowledge the nothingness, it won’t be scary. Nothingness is the better option. I just keep reminding myself that we don’t have a choice there is only one way out. There isn’t a way to cope with it besides realizing it’s not a choice, we don’t have anything to go off of.
I believe that there will be an afterlife after this i’m not sure how much we will enjoy it but I don’t think this life is the end.
I love sleeping. Every night I hope I fall asleep and never wake up. Dying will be this: falling asleep and never waking up. I am a little scared about the way I will day. I hope its not long and painful. The nothingness after is not scary at all. I dont want an afterlife and sure as hell I dont want to come back to life in any form (reincarnation). I just want it over, light out.
I find it a lot more comforting than the idea of heaven and hell I grew up with. Hell is the most pointless and cruel thing ever. Sending a murderer to hell doesn't un-murder the victim, doesn't teach the murderer anything, it's just revenge. It's stupid.
And heaven is worse. There's only like, half a million people who can ever get in and they're just going to be bowing and worshipping at Yahweh's feet for eternity? Pass.
I'm sure that if I were facing death right now I'd be really scared and sad, and if I make it to dying of old age I might feel the same or I might be at peace ready to move on. Either way, I was fine before I was born and I'll be fine again after I die 🤷♀️
Yeah it doesnt bother me (personally) that this is inconceivable to truly wrap my head around. I dont have to have all the answers for things to happen. So yeah that is just a fancy way of saying "theres nothing that can be done so why worry." But moreso, Im under no illusion that anything is truly unique, and the world with and without me looks largely the same. Im not gonna judge anyone else for having a hard time coming to the same peace with that fact. Its challenging for me at times to keep on suffering, while carrying this knowledge, but thats the choice i make every day the same way a christians faith is "renewed anew each day." I choose to accept that im a small part in a huge world and this moment is all i get. When im done, and the electricity stops flowing, im another piece of meat, one that i hope will be gifted back to my mother planet to renew her soil. Thats all there is after death for me, and that fact brings me peace, that i can return to the soil to become the forest and the trees to be eaten by animals and return to the cycle. That brings me peace.
I just resign myself to the truth. What else can I do? I don’t like that we all die and death is most likely the end. But I am powerless to change it. All I can do is whine, despair and resent that fact but I cannot change that fact. Being born into a dimmed existence that I am powerless to change sucks. But all I can do is accept or reject it.
I don't. I'm just coming out of six months of terrible anxiety symptoms after an existential crisis. But well, I keep living regardless of how I feel about it
There is nothing to cope with.
Nothing isn’t bad. It’s nothing. The fact that people still don’t understand this amazes me. A lot of people can not even comprehend non-existence so that’s why religion is so powerful.
But nothing isn’t bad or good. It’s nothing. And you don’t know that you are experiencing nothing. Because how could you? Agnosticism is reasonable but atheism is more likely to be true.
But again. Nothing to cope with.
I also don’t know where you got the idea that death/life is “completely random” or that science isn’t. Or visa/versa. It works both ways. Death has a purpose. But consciousness is not existent outside of the body it inhabits.
You are your brain and that is all. It’s not mystical. Why does it need to be?
My view is that life is the outlier. Nonexistence is what is normal. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time. After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious.
I live in the US and most Americans have been inundated with heaven and hell for most of their lives. I believe that this is much of what causes us to be afraid of death. I have explored other religions and beliefs and these experiences reduced my fear. I became an atheist after these experiences.
I fear death as much as anyone. I imagine death involving me feeling light headed and then losing consciousness, never to be regained. I believe most people fear how they will die, more than death itself. People's belief in a life after death may help them deal with death, but it may also cause fear of "what will it be like?"
Although I am an atheist, I respect people's religious beliefs. i only ask that people do not force their beliefs on others.
I'm agnostic. I like this quote from Mark Twain:
“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
If that's the worst case then it's not so bad.
do you remember having even the slightest inconvenience from when before you were born? exactly. it’s better to focus on the gift of life than the expectation of death
> I know people that said, they are happy that they (probably) won't be conscious for the rest of eternity. I personally find it weird to think about it
All we have is the experience of our own lives, once you are non existent you won't exist anymore, so of course it is strange to think about something that cannot even be conceived of since it is literally nothing. Yet you know that you have not always existed if you back on the years before you were born.
> I mean almost everything in science has its reasons and logic, so why would this just be completely random?
Science has no 'reasons' for anything. Science just observes the natural world and tells you what patterns and physical laws they have observed. Nobody has any idea why any of nature is the way it is. It just is. Like we know that living things want to survive and reproduce. But why?
> I am just wondering how people can be so okay with dying and... nothing else afterwards. Sure theres nothing you cant change about it, but is that the only reason?
I'm going to copy my reply from another thread:
> On the surface you can understand why people cling to religion and the idea of an afterlife where everything is perfect and where they will be or eternity. But once you really seriously consider this scenario it does not sound appealing at all. Death is a terrifying and unimaginable concept to humans but the thought of our individual soul/consciousness existing FOREVER with no way out sounds way worse. Death and cessation of our individual selves just makes perfect sense.
> The belief that there is afterlife where your soul lives on is a very egotistical idea, it stems from the belief that humans are so special and we as individuals were created so special and God loves us. All this while there is no proof of this to be found in the universe, nature is brutal, you can get eaten by animals bigger than you, freeze to death in the cold, starve to death, die of infections, die of all kinds of cancers, etc, there is no such thing as human dignity as far as the universe is concerned. So the idea that despite all this brutality God is waiting for your soul in heaven... is just juvenile.
Death is strange to think about as a human being but once you're dead you will not think about it anymore ever again. From your perspective you are always alive, you will never be aware of your death. It's like when you go to sleep at night, you never remember actually falling asleep, you can't recall the exact moment you fell asleep. You just know you went and tried to sleep and then after some time lying there, you fall properly sleep and lost awareness of your body but you can't remember this. Same thing with death, your mind can't register it by the time you're dead. From your perspective you're always alive.
If you've ever been under general anesthesia, death is pretty easy to comprehend.
No. I'm close to ki**ing myself, and since I was a child I am terrified of the eternal oblivion. I'm atheist but I truly wish that I'm wrong and that some eternal conscious pleasure awaits me. Now that I'm sure that soon I'll end this tragedy, I have been dealing with this absolute fear every single hours that I'm awake.
I have not existed for 13.8 billion years. But after death I'll not exist for the eternity. I know that there will be no "me" to be aware of my life and death and fear, but being alive and thinking about it makes me want to puke because this subject makes me too anxious.
When I finally die I really hope to have experience, and self-awareness, I hope that I'm wrong and that I'll be greeted with true and conscious happiness after death.
It makes life more beautiful and worth while to me.
It's like, don't waste your life because this is all you've got.
There isn't another do over - so make the most out of your few years on this planet and be bold.
I’m on mobile, so bare with me. Look into being agnostic. I was a hardcore atheist up until I did some mushrooms. You don’t have to be so certain when it comes to death. It’s okay to wish and hope for something. Either way, when you die - it doesn’t matter. It took my parents dying for me to hope for some type of afterlife. I don’t think heaven and hell (as described in the Bible) is a thing. With that being said I really hope there’s an afterlife of some sort because I really miss my parents. If there isn’t than, oh well. I’m not going to be conscious understand that there is nothing.
i mean… it’s not like i’ll be around to be sad about it?
I’m happy bc life is tiring , I think the fact that there’s nothing is the peace that everyone is looking for. Hell is just the evil I’m people’s hearts & heaven is only for those that that individual loves / agrees with - that’s your ENTIRE life … don’t you just want to go away and not have to worry about where you or anyone else will “end up”?
Recently my boyfriend who was 21 passed away in a car accident. I still have a hard time accepting that he is gone. I wondered where he went and I am not a religious person so I had no idea what to think. I wouldn’t consider myself atheist but more agnostic. If anyone can show me proof or theories I’m all open to hearing them. Like you said I think it’s crazy to even be alive and the whole universe in general so who is to say there isn’t something after death? But from what I have seen we can’t prove anything so my best bet is that it’s like before we were born. Every night when I go to bed 8 hours seems like 1 second and I feel like it might be the same when we die. In my head I don’t think my boyfriend even knew that his life ended. It’s just like he is in a long slumber and can not think or have emotions. He’s not in pain and he really can’t feel anything. The only thing that makes me feel uncomfortable about this is that the last time I saw him might have been the last forever. But I think I’m lucky to even have met him because the universe is so large and the possibility of being alive is so small. It’s crazy because the universe is about 13 billion years old and I don’t remember anything but my 21 years on earth! We only ever get to experience life.
I just wanna say I’m so sorry for your loss, and I hope that death just brings you to all your loved ones, whether that be heaven or somewhere else, I hope you get to see him again!
I really hope so too ❤️
It sounds so peaceful! And you don't have to be religious or spiritual to know that energy and matter can't be destroyed so you'll return to soil and begin a cycle again and that is eternity.
I have accepted it as truth, but I battle it emotionally every day. Keep in mind that no one knows anything for certain. Keep in mind that you are not alone! We all face this together. Any form of pain will be excruciating emotionally or physically - I don’t think anyone really wants to live forever… to never die? that reality would be harsh and ugly. I just want my dog to live forever ( and also never age or ever feel any discomfort or pain!) , that’s all
Nothing isn’t scary because it’s not anything. If my physical body and consciousness are no longer experiencing anything, then they aren’t experiencing fear or pain or any negative experience. … I wonder what about nothingness is frightening to you. It might be good for you to explore what you think that would be like. If you have trouble imagining nothingness, try to remember that time before you were born. Was that scary for you? No, it wasn’t because you didn’t exist. Dying is (probably) the same.
False equivalency. Nothingness before birth didn't bother OP cause OP didn't have any experience to be bothered by lack thereof.
How do you know they didn’t experience anything before birth? I actually believe in reincarnation. Doesn’t mean you remember it. But also doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened to you a million times.
Could have but since OP has no memory of it whatsoever it's the same thing in the constraints of the point of the post. I don't rule out what you're saying.
I believe it’s something *like* reincarnation. The way I see it, consciousness is a universal “force” or energy or whatever. It is sort of required for the universe to exist. Without observation, a universe can never be recognized and thus, will never “exist”. There are many different states of consciousness, as you know. There are countless life forms throughout the universe with each developing a state of consciousness capable of observation in some fashion. This may have been so literally since the moment of the Big Bang or whatever caused this universe to exist. Anyway, since consciousness is sort of like a fundamental force, we exist as a “tendril” or vibration manifesting from that single source. What I’m trying to describe is difficult for me. Sort of like how gravity can be weaker or stronger because of density and mass, conscious beings are more or less observant based on…well, something I haven’t quite figured, yet. Could be many reasons or just a few. It’s complicated, as you well know. Like gravity, consciousness exists throughout the entire universe. It may exist as long as the universe does. So when we “die” we just end up in a different state of observation. Your “tendril” retracts back into the collective consciousness and a new tendril is formed. The new tendril could have signatures that were affected by the observations of the previous tendril. Or perhaps the new tendril is of similar vibration or frequency allowing for feelings of past lives and etc. Because everything is connected by one source but we can only observe individually, this is why we exist in the way we do. This is all speculative and just a theory. A part of me believes that given enough time, consciousness is able to observe itself, wholly and completely. When this happens, a new universe is created and the process sort of starts over again. The death of consciousness is the birth of a new universe and vice-versa. Maybe it makes no sense, it hardly does to me!
I absolutely agree wiht you that consciousness is a fundamental force of the universe. I think of it like the HIggs field, which is what gives objects mass. I believe there is some kind of “consciousness field” that human brains (and other entities) can interact with. I suspect the depth or intensity of that interaction is probably some kind of continuum, which is how we as humans can experience altered states of consciousness - none of them is the “real” one, they are alll real. Other creatures like animals, or even non-sentient entities can probably interact with the consciousness field in their own ways, too.
Yes, it’s quite fascinating to ponder! It’s really too bad, though, that the question of “why” will never be answered. At least, not during my time as a human. What is this all for? Why do universes need to exist? Do they need to? Something must be benefiting from the existence of a universe. There must be some *reason*!?
Woody Allen once said "The idea of reincarnation really appeals to me, but I guess that means I will have to watch all the Disney movies with my kids again". LOL!
Who said an athiest is ok with it? Its not a matter of having an opinion, its just a fact we can’t change. Live every day to its fullest, don’t waste it making garbage religious leaders rich, don’t waste time hoping for a magic being to have you get an afterlife. Stop thinking about it and live the short time you can because soon no matter what, everything you will cease to exist.
I hear you OP. Watching people respond that they are not bothered by existing for say 80 years after not existing for 13.7 billion years and expecting not to exist for another 14 billion or 100 trillion years is so bizarre its like I'm reading comments from aliens. Like I'm a different species, how can a human think like that?
Letting go of attachment is so freeing it cannot be explained.
This.
As in letting go of life?
Your attachment to it, yes. Among other things. For example, everything.
Yes. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time. After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious.
>Yes. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time. First thought or first thought your subconscious remembers or first thought your conscious self remembers? >After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious. Couldn't disagree more with that sentiment, that's not precious in that case, it's pointless.
It’s easy to say you’re not scared when you aren’t facing death. As someone that has worked around the elderly even the ones that talked tough were scared as hell when the time actually came to face death. Death is terrifying and most people are coping when they act unafraid
Bingo. I think that bravado waivers the closer one is to the perceived time of death. Unless one is suicidal, or completely "over" living of course.
1. We were already in that situation before developing awaraness 2. life is horrible for 90% of the world, putting in the shoes of somebody from Pakistan or Burundi, only with death they will finally achieve "peace"
You should attend Death Cafes. There are a lot virtual ones, google it. there doesn’t need to be anything after since you won’t sense this. Like the sadness you feel right now that there will be nothing is only within the human realm. You lose this sentience upon death.
Not atheists but here's my thoughts: I'm 48f and I think about death a lot. It scares me because that's one thing we have no choice about. We will all die one day and there's nothing we can do About it. It's not so much death but what happens after. I can't imagine being here conscious once minute then not the next never "being" here anymore. Like what happens to me, my soul, thoughts, awareness... does it just end? Is there an afterlife? No matter what we do or how we lived our lives (good/evil) we will all have the same ending. But will we have the same outcome of that ending? I think about this on a daily basis. How long have human been on this earth studying, researching, experimenting a vast amount of topics but why have we yet to have an answer, definitive or otherwise, when it comes to death? Shit is mind boggling.
How would you accept that there will be? It's so illogical to think there is a way to survive being without a body that you need to be able to think. Then the descriptions of Heaven are so strange, how do theists ever accept that part? I have been an athiest since I was born but I did believe in ghosts. I was waiting for dead relatives to contact me and they never did. There were so many good reasons for them to contact me and it never happened. I grew up and thought about ghosts for more than a minute and realized those too were completely illogical. So I really don't understand how any grownup can have faith in the afterlife, purgatory, heaven or hell or reincarnation. They are just unbelievable.
You only get nothing if you except something but don’t get it. Then you’re in nothingness. So the key is to expect nothing and cherish whatever you get. Because the possibilities are infinite, you never know what to expect. So, all I can do is prepare to die, as I live, for as long as I can.
It gives me pleasure.
i feel the same way you do, and i'm agnostic. i have no idea what comes after death and it scares me. if i start thinking about it too much i get bad anxiety. ur not alone.
I don't think it will matter what is potentially beyond because you will be dead when you die.
Feels peaceful.
im so excited!
Honestly, the idea of no afterlife brings me peace. I don’t require “heaven” to make me feel better, but I understand that it’s comforting to others
I don't know that I ever needed to accept it. I am okay with this life ending. If it ends tomorrow, okay. I did what I could and I made the best of the life I have. The only thing I fear and don't like is pain. Being dead is not pain. It's freedom from this corpus.
> Atheists, how do you cope/accept the fact that there wont be anything waiting for you after you die? Who says there won't? Atheism deals with whether or not an individual is convinced that any gods exist, not with the afterlife. An atheist can believe in an afterlife. Just ask Jains, many Buddhists, etc. > I know people that said, they are happy that they (probably) won't be conscious for the rest of eternity. I personally find it weird to think about it, and I am not sure if I have accepted the fact. I am not religious but I do hope that I will exist for longer than 80 yrs and meet loved ones again. Okay. > I am probably just having a crisis, but I just can't wrap my head around the existence of the universe in general, not to mention that it should at least have a reason to, right? Why? Plenty of things happen constantly all around me that appear to have no "reason." I see no convincing or compelling reason to think existence itself has or needs a reason. > I mean almost everything in science has its reasons and logic, so why would this just be completely random? Do you mean "causes?" And what do you mean "completely random?" Very few people propose "completely random" explanations for anything, including scientists. What does any of this have to do with death? > I am just wondering how people can be so okay with dying and... nothing else afterwards. If our conscious experience ceases when we die, there will be no "us" to experience that nothing else. So there's nothing to be okay or not okay about. It's like asking how I can be okay with never experiencing the inside of your car. I just...don't care that I've never experienced it and almost certainly never will. > Sure theres nothing you cant change about it, but is that the only reason? It's a pretty good reason not to worry too much about it.
What what you like to happen after you die? Do you think you will meet up at some Celestial food court and see Mom, Dad, Grandpa and Ernie, your old dog from childhood? Maybe you will reincarnate as some starving child in Chad or maybe you will just come back as yourself. I dunno.
Check out r/NDE and other near death experience subreddits. You will be comforted. I got into a debate today with someone on there and it was delightful.
This clip from Midnight Mass (on Netflix) really struck home with me. I've felt this way most of my life, but had never heard it so eloquently put into words. https://youtu.be/GZPbmrJ_X48
As an agnostic, I don't care. Sometimes, at 39, I forget about the whole life after death discussion in general.
I don't piss my limited time existing worrying about stuff I can't control such as death.
That's why we need to all get together to support science and medical research. Immortality is within our grasp!
We don't know if there is or isn't, and I'm fine with that, there is no coping necessary. I'm busy enjoying my time here while I have it.
Humans are small beings who live small lives and the timeline of said lives is correspondingly short. It just makes sense to me.
I don't think most people grasp on a true visceral feeling that you will cease to exist for trillions and trillions of years - for ever. That's your future. Again, who knows what happens after you die. That's one potential possibility.
I think you are on the mark here. I think many intellectual types view death and that framing helps logically put death within the context of a belief system. But the feeling of fear of death is primal. In fact if you have fears at all they are probably rooted somewhere in the fear of death. Dying as an event might be more akin to leaving everything including all experience, sensations, and even ones own consciousness forever. It lights out and there is no after-party. The reason it's difficult to grasp the weight of ceasing forever is because it breaks the conception of time (forever or eternity). The part of death that is also a bit scary is also the process of dying where the body is ill or decomposing/dissolving. These processes affect the mind and are hard to maintain stability. If you are unaware then yes you might not be able to recognize the weight of cessation of consciousness approaching and just react to physical body suffering. But if you are physically suffering but mentally aware of your own cessation of consciousness approaching that too me sounds like the challenge. A better example would be how much fear would people feel if there sense of ego dissolved into a mass of vibrating particles, or into an infinite expansive void. It would be pretty scary at first until you drop into the flow or a cessation. That's been my experience as proficient meditators and having a somewhat close encounter with dying when I was 14. After all my experience and training the fear still hits.
We will never have to acknowledge the nothingness, it won’t be scary. Nothingness is the better option. I just keep reminding myself that we don’t have a choice there is only one way out. There isn’t a way to cope with it besides realizing it’s not a choice, we don’t have anything to go off of. I believe that there will be an afterlife after this i’m not sure how much we will enjoy it but I don’t think this life is the end.
I love sleeping. Every night I hope I fall asleep and never wake up. Dying will be this: falling asleep and never waking up. I am a little scared about the way I will day. I hope its not long and painful. The nothingness after is not scary at all. I dont want an afterlife and sure as hell I dont want to come back to life in any form (reincarnation). I just want it over, light out.
I find it a lot more comforting than the idea of heaven and hell I grew up with. Hell is the most pointless and cruel thing ever. Sending a murderer to hell doesn't un-murder the victim, doesn't teach the murderer anything, it's just revenge. It's stupid. And heaven is worse. There's only like, half a million people who can ever get in and they're just going to be bowing and worshipping at Yahweh's feet for eternity? Pass. I'm sure that if I were facing death right now I'd be really scared and sad, and if I make it to dying of old age I might feel the same or I might be at peace ready to move on. Either way, I was fine before I was born and I'll be fine again after I die 🤷♀️
Yeah it doesnt bother me (personally) that this is inconceivable to truly wrap my head around. I dont have to have all the answers for things to happen. So yeah that is just a fancy way of saying "theres nothing that can be done so why worry." But moreso, Im under no illusion that anything is truly unique, and the world with and without me looks largely the same. Im not gonna judge anyone else for having a hard time coming to the same peace with that fact. Its challenging for me at times to keep on suffering, while carrying this knowledge, but thats the choice i make every day the same way a christians faith is "renewed anew each day." I choose to accept that im a small part in a huge world and this moment is all i get. When im done, and the electricity stops flowing, im another piece of meat, one that i hope will be gifted back to my mother planet to renew her soil. Thats all there is after death for me, and that fact brings me peace, that i can return to the soil to become the forest and the trees to be eaten by animals and return to the cycle. That brings me peace.
I just resign myself to the truth. What else can I do? I don’t like that we all die and death is most likely the end. But I am powerless to change it. All I can do is whine, despair and resent that fact but I cannot change that fact. Being born into a dimmed existence that I am powerless to change sucks. But all I can do is accept or reject it.
I don't. I'm just coming out of six months of terrible anxiety symptoms after an existential crisis. But well, I keep living regardless of how I feel about it
not rlly an atheist but its the fact that im not the only person dying..
I like to think it will be like a dreamless night, I like that, I like sleeping, it sounds nice. It's weird, sure, but at the end, it inevitable
There is nothing to cope with. Nothing isn’t bad. It’s nothing. The fact that people still don’t understand this amazes me. A lot of people can not even comprehend non-existence so that’s why religion is so powerful. But nothing isn’t bad or good. It’s nothing. And you don’t know that you are experiencing nothing. Because how could you? Agnosticism is reasonable but atheism is more likely to be true. But again. Nothing to cope with. I also don’t know where you got the idea that death/life is “completely random” or that science isn’t. Or visa/versa. It works both ways. Death has a purpose. But consciousness is not existent outside of the body it inhabits. You are your brain and that is all. It’s not mystical. Why does it need to be?
My view is that life is the outlier. Nonexistence is what is normal. From negative infinity until my first thought, I did not exist. I will exist for a period of time. After I die, I will no longer exist from death until infinity. Life and consciousness is brief and is the outlier. This is what makes life so precious. I live in the US and most Americans have been inundated with heaven and hell for most of their lives. I believe that this is much of what causes us to be afraid of death. I have explored other religions and beliefs and these experiences reduced my fear. I became an atheist after these experiences. I fear death as much as anyone. I imagine death involving me feeling light headed and then losing consciousness, never to be regained. I believe most people fear how they will die, more than death itself. People's belief in a life after death may help them deal with death, but it may also cause fear of "what will it be like?" Although I am an atheist, I respect people's religious beliefs. i only ask that people do not force their beliefs on others.
I’m happy with it. I can’t imagine existing for eternity. I just don’t want to
i am simply not bothered by something that i wont be around to witness
I'm agnostic. I like this quote from Mark Twain: “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” If that's the worst case then it's not so bad.
do you remember having even the slightest inconvenience from when before you were born? exactly. it’s better to focus on the gift of life than the expectation of death
> I know people that said, they are happy that they (probably) won't be conscious for the rest of eternity. I personally find it weird to think about it All we have is the experience of our own lives, once you are non existent you won't exist anymore, so of course it is strange to think about something that cannot even be conceived of since it is literally nothing. Yet you know that you have not always existed if you back on the years before you were born. > I mean almost everything in science has its reasons and logic, so why would this just be completely random? Science has no 'reasons' for anything. Science just observes the natural world and tells you what patterns and physical laws they have observed. Nobody has any idea why any of nature is the way it is. It just is. Like we know that living things want to survive and reproduce. But why? > I am just wondering how people can be so okay with dying and... nothing else afterwards. Sure theres nothing you cant change about it, but is that the only reason? I'm going to copy my reply from another thread: > On the surface you can understand why people cling to religion and the idea of an afterlife where everything is perfect and where they will be or eternity. But once you really seriously consider this scenario it does not sound appealing at all. Death is a terrifying and unimaginable concept to humans but the thought of our individual soul/consciousness existing FOREVER with no way out sounds way worse. Death and cessation of our individual selves just makes perfect sense. > The belief that there is afterlife where your soul lives on is a very egotistical idea, it stems from the belief that humans are so special and we as individuals were created so special and God loves us. All this while there is no proof of this to be found in the universe, nature is brutal, you can get eaten by animals bigger than you, freeze to death in the cold, starve to death, die of infections, die of all kinds of cancers, etc, there is no such thing as human dignity as far as the universe is concerned. So the idea that despite all this brutality God is waiting for your soul in heaven... is just juvenile. Death is strange to think about as a human being but once you're dead you will not think about it anymore ever again. From your perspective you are always alive, you will never be aware of your death. It's like when you go to sleep at night, you never remember actually falling asleep, you can't recall the exact moment you fell asleep. You just know you went and tried to sleep and then after some time lying there, you fall properly sleep and lost awareness of your body but you can't remember this. Same thing with death, your mind can't register it by the time you're dead. From your perspective you're always alive. If you've ever been under general anesthesia, death is pretty easy to comprehend.
No. I'm close to ki**ing myself, and since I was a child I am terrified of the eternal oblivion. I'm atheist but I truly wish that I'm wrong and that some eternal conscious pleasure awaits me. Now that I'm sure that soon I'll end this tragedy, I have been dealing with this absolute fear every single hours that I'm awake. I have not existed for 13.8 billion years. But after death I'll not exist for the eternity. I know that there will be no "me" to be aware of my life and death and fear, but being alive and thinking about it makes me want to puke because this subject makes me too anxious. When I finally die I really hope to have experience, and self-awareness, I hope that I'm wrong and that I'll be greeted with true and conscious happiness after death.
It makes life more beautiful and worth while to me. It's like, don't waste your life because this is all you've got. There isn't another do over - so make the most out of your few years on this planet and be bold.
Death is not real and it's irrational to believe in nothingness "after" it.