Death Awaits Me (and You)

The religious fanatics assure us that there is a wonderful afterlife awaiting our entry.

The rest of us know better. Religion is irrational, and hence we intelligent individuals understand that the end of our lives will be met with nothing but annihilation.

My question to you is this: how do you come to terms with this fact? I rather like being myself, and the prospect of non-existence scares me shitless. Any advice?

I find the idea that after I die I just stop really difficult to understand or even believe, I mean I won’t even know that I’m dead! I guess the plus side that I won’t know that I’m dead. Some people have mentioned that it didn’t bother me that I wasn’t around in the 1800s so it will just feel the same in the 2100’s. I can’t really come to terms with this and I do hope that life somehow carries on after death but not in a religious sense. I am kind of partial to the idea that we live in a virtual reality and that all my questions may be revealed to me after I die. I know it’s wishful thinking but it’s my coping mechanism. This probably doesn’t help you much but at least know you know you’re not alone.

Ever fainted or been knocked out? Or had anaesthetic at the doctor? You just drift off and don’t wake up.

It’s easy for the one who dies; harder is the thought of what your death means to your loved ones - who, even though your consciousness won’t be around to care any more when you’re gone, are something you will care about as long as you live.

Or had a dreamless sleep? Really, everybody is unconscious every night, and who finds that scary? I don’t have any problem with the thought of non-existing, but find the idea of eternal life (which I don’t believe in) much more monstrous than ceasing to exist.

I had anaesthetic for the removal of my wisdom teeth and I imagine it is what death feels like. One moment I was getting the drug administered, my eyes closed and the next instant I was awake wondering when they were going to start. I had no feeling of time passing, normally when I go to sleep, after I wake up I still have a sensation that time has passed. With the anaeasthetic I could have been knocked out for 5 minutes or a billion years and I wouldn’t have known the difference. This experience kind of freaks me out when I think about it but it wasn’t painful or anything, it’s just the idea that I kind of “stopped” while I was under.

I just think about the fact that I’ll be dealing with far fewer douchebags.

I’m actually looking forward to it. Which is perhaps a little morbid.

I’m in no hurry, and my life isn’t exactly a horrendous string of terrible experiences by any means, but I have no particular affinity to it and am indifferent to its inevitable end.

Having said that, it is disappointing that I can’t stand and reflect on what it all means or get an explanation from some informative source, post mortem.

I don’t know why not being religious means you automatically think there is nothing after death. Just because you don’t believe the god-as-person heaven hell thing doesn’t mean there is nothing. Just the fact that matter and life exist, to me, points to a possibility that there is more. I find it so amazing and unbelievable that there is anything that I wouldn’t be surprised if something else happened after we die. Just because we can’t see it or prove it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. How arrogant that we think that there’s no way we could not know.

Other than that, if you cease to exist it will be like dreamless sleep. No more worries or pain and tiredness. Hopefully we all get to live long enough that we’ll accept the end.

Well I can’t speak for every non-religious person, but as you mention matter, that is my (and that of many others) main point why I don’t see that an afterlife could be possible. My consciousness depends on the physical/chemical processes of brain matter, so when my brain is rotting away, there can be no me.

I’d like to believe that my consciousness will continue after I die. I’ve gotten to know me so well. After reading Terry Pratchett’s novels I like the idea of his personification of death. Sadly I know better and my reasonable self knows only nothingness awaits.

I used to comfort myself with the altruistic idea that humanity and life would always continue. But then I read up on the end of the universe and learned that, in all likelihood, it’ll just keep expanding until nothing is close enough to form anything. I would like it if the universe could just keep going on. Stars, planets, and life constantly coming and going. But it appears all things are finite. Hmmm… :frowning:

Be that as it may, I am firmly resolved in my love of Life in all its forms and glory. To that end I intend to go out of this world the way I came in … … Kicking and screaming! :smiley:

Death doesn’t scare me. It used to when I was 10 or 12, but I’ve come to accept the fact that everyone dies, and I won’t be unique in that regard.

I like to think I still have 30 or so good years left in me and will be able to appreciate my final breaths surrounded by loved ones. However, I may drop dead tragically or accidentally at any moment. I don’t want that to happen, but if it does I won’t really know about it.

I don’t think dwelling on things that are out of your control is any way to go through life.

I’ve adopted the philosophy of extreme apathy.

My death scares me much less than the idea of my husband’s death. The only reason I ever get upset thinking about my own death is worrying about him having to cope with it without me.

My philosophy?
I’m going to live forever. Every time I shut my eyes I fully expect to open them back again later. If it happens that I don’t, I’ll never know, so why should I care?

I agree, dwelling on the infinite-or-not universe, whether you’ll be aware or not of your own death, if you’ll join a heavenly choir or burn in eternal flame - all this is unknown, and pointless to worry over. It’s how you live your life now. I am a really really lapsed Catholic but have gone through life with two principles: the Golden Rule, and the law of karma, and have tried my utmost to live that way, to do the right thing, to leave the world a better place no matter how miniscule (giving to charity, going out of my way to help someone in a bind, putting up with nattering chatter from an elderly relative when I’d rather be doing something a lot more fun). I think it’s these are things that are important, so if you are lying on your deathbed you can think back and know you’ve done your best and can die in peace. I think death is like going to sleep - you’re not aware, you are done. But if you SHOULD find yourself after death faced with joining the heavenly choir/burning in flames eternal, your efforts in this world should count in your favor, somehow. Right? Right? Whether you are nothingness, reborn on another planet, come back to earth as a blade of grass or a pony or a great scientist, whatever you believe - it’s how you live your life now that matters. Stop stressing. When it’s over, it’s over. You will face the great unknown at peace or you will be no more.

I like that! I never thought of it that way!

Try to do genuinely meaningful work, something that actually improves the world in some meaningful and distinctive way. For example, I’m a lawyer, and I’m trying to get into public-interest legal nonprofit work. But it can be whatever will actually make a difference - the key is to find work that you do for some greater reason than “well, if I don’t have a job I’ll die broke and homeless.” That’s always seemed horrifically pointless to me.

Cite, please?

There was a long time (14 billion years, give or take) when I wasn’t and more than that when I won’t be. But I want to stay around as long as possible.

I had a heart attack 45 years ago and I don’t imagine that very many people who did are still around. So I consider it all gravy.

The finite nature of life makes it bearable. To think I would go on forever, never being able to change anything about myself, but having to “live” with all the dumbass shit I’ve done is way more unappealing than just ceasing to be.