# Death Awaits Me (and You) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 12, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406 "2010-11-12T09:56:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/41 "2010-11-13T01:22:03Z")
I (try to at least) trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem me from sin and thus after death enjoy eternal bliss in His Presence. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/42 "2010-11-13T01:33:21Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I (try to at least) trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem me from sin and thus after death enjoy eternal bliss in His Presence. You won’t be disappointed one way or the other. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/43 "2010-11-13T01:46:22Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I (try to at least) trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem me from sin and thus after death enjoy eternal bliss in His Presence. Small aside-I never know which parts to capitalize when it comes to religi-speak, but is “Presence” in the context above supposed to be? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/44 "2010-11-13T01:49:33Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Small aside-I never know which parts to capitalize when it comes to religi-speak, but is “Presence” in the context above supposed to be? I’m not sure. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/45 "2010-11-13T03:24:32Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > I rather like being myself, and the prospect of non-existence scares me shitless. Any advice? It bugs me too. I hate the idea that the world will go on. It’s like seeing a movie you like and not finding out the ending. Of course this fear has already been covered by _[the Family Circus](http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/7224/familycircus1776.jpg)_ ---
**Author:** ![pohjonen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pohjonen/32/423_2.png) [@pohjonen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pohjonen)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/46 "2010-11-13T04:10:16Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > I agree with you. Life and existence is beautiful. Not existing is very sad and terrifying. > You can try making yourself feel better with some platitudes about how you’ll “live on through your accomplishments, your children, and the people whose lives you’ve touched” but deep down we all know that’s bullshit. I want to be around to experience and enjoy these things for myself! Ditto. I agree with Woody Allen - I don’t want to live on through my accomplishments - I want to live on in my apartment (or whatever precisely he said). And as an aside, they say animals are unaware of their mortality, but I’ve never agreed with that. There’s a reason the gazelle runs like hell to get away from a predator. They don’t want to be eaten and die either. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/47 "2010-11-13T04:23:46Z")
> [@pohjonen](#): > > Ditto. I agree with Woody Allen - I don’t want to live on through my accomplishments - I want to live on in my apartment (or whatever precisely he said). If I may: [Quote=Woody Allen] I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work… I want to achieve it through not dying. [/Quote] ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/48 "2010-11-13T04:44:38Z")
There is always cryonic suspension. It’s a fairly crude technique at present, but since there is a real need to find a way to freeze human tissue without damage so as to provide a ready store of harvested organs, there is a fair amount of research being done into tissue vitrification. If that becomes a reality, then the term “suspension” really will be apropos. Right now it’s more like putting every cell in your body through a blender. OK, not quite that bad, but close. Alcor I think is the only organization in the US still doing that but I haven’t checked in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/49 "2010-11-13T04:53:44Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > You’ve a non-sequitur here: theism does not mandate an afterlife. Many religions say there is one, of course. Likewise, aren’t there also religions that believe in an afterlife, but not a god? (Before anyone asks, I’m sort of a vague theist – I believe there’s a god, and an afterlife or whatever but hell if I know the details. Basically, I believe there’s _something_ there.) ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/50 "2010-11-13T05:49:50Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > 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? It’s the strangest thing… we fear nothingness. But… it’s nothing. We won’t know it’s nothing! (And if it’s not nothing, I don’t believe for a second that we retain our earthly personality in the beyond… THAT would be torture, knowing you’re dead. Better to just become part of a great spiritual thing that doesn’t relate to the personality you were in life.) I am constantly torn between wanting to die suddenly and instantly so that I never have to contemplate the reality, and wanting very much to have the chance to take care of communications, whatever. I think I’ll probably be better off with the instant unexpected death. But at the end of the day, here’s what counts: living every day like it counts. Because it does. The biggest mistake people make is tuning out the fact of their mortality, it makes them take life for granted. Then death is a real tragedy. And the best advice I can give you (from the ripe age of 52) is this: don’t hold on to resentment and make sure you freely share and express your love and appreciation. And finally: remember to enjoy things. Even mundande things. Maybe especially mundane things. If you knew for sure you were going to die next week, you’d probably be much more aware of how delicious the wind feels, how marvelous the grass smells, how funny and wonderful your goofy dog is. Live…and death will be easier to take. It’s the waste of life that is unbearable. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/51 "2010-11-13T05:52:49Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > …in His Presence. It’d be crowded. ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/52 "2010-11-13T06:05:57Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’d be crowded. Seriously? You must know a better class of people than I do. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/53 "2010-11-13T06:22:34Z")
I was basing that on how many people _expected_ themselves to be There. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/54 "2010-11-13T07:06:50Z")
I like Carl Sagan’s take on it. We all are made of “star stuff” (stuff spewed out by dying stars in the distant past) and we will eventually be engulfed by the sun and become star stuff again. Death used to scare me and if I really think about it, really dwell on the certainty of death, then it still scares me, but most of the time I’m cool. I do find it disappointing that some people change their belief system just to provide comfort on the topic of death. You weren’t much of an atheist if the death of a loved one makes you turn to a belief in the afterlife just so you feel better. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/55 "2010-11-13T08:21:18Z")
It looks like a lot of people are going with variations of “I didn’t mind pre-life, so I won’t mind post-life” theme. I’ve heard this philosophy before, and I understand it, but yet, it just doesn’t do anything for me at all. Like **lavenderviolet** , I see the stuff that occurred before my existence as a “prelude.” I did not mind the wait, since I did not exist yet. Now I exist, and I would really prefer to exist for as long as possible. And yet, I can keel over any moment, and that’s the end right there. Never again will I enjoy anything, never again will I kiss my fiance, nothing. Nothingness. The thought fills me with existential dread. The fact that I won’t know of my non-existence doesn’t make this any better; it makes it WORSE. The last thing I want is lack of awareness and “selfness.” Honestly, I would take the stereotypical Judeo-Christian hell over that any day! Pass the brimstone and the iron maidens; just let me keep my identity. Dammit, this topic never fails to depress me. I wish I were stupid enough to believe in theist post-death rewards, I really do… ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/56 "2010-11-13T08:33:07Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > 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. But, you see, if death equals nothingness, then the “meaningful work” you suggest is completely meaningless! Think about it… Let’s take public interest, which we both have a passion for. SSI/SSDI, immigration, wage-and-hour claims, housing, etc. What does it matter? If we are annihilated upon death, all our work dies with us. We die, the people we’ve helped die, the people that remember them die. One thousand years from now, all the public interest we can ever do is completely irrelevant. What then? Sure, you can say that our work today can better the clients’ issue in perpetuity, but what of it? Their grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-children will also die, rendering our work irrelevant. If I am correct, and I believe that I am, then everything we can ever do is meaningless. All beneficiaries will one day die, so what’s the point in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/57 "2010-11-13T15:08:51Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > If I am correct, and I believe that I am, then everything we can ever do is meaningless. All beneficiaries will one day die, so what’s the point in the first place? But you want to be alive, so isn’t that the point? You could kill yourself, but you want to be alive. You think there’s a point or you would jump off a bridge. For me, I’m alive. I’m happy. Other than being allergic to the whole damned world, I’m healthy. Each day has sorrows and joys and surprises. Humanity’s day has sorrows and joys and surprises, some big, some small, and because I know that I want to live, I know that the gigantic organism of humanity wants to live and be happy like I want to be happy and be healthy like I want to be healthy. I don’t look at humanity and derive meaning for myself from it. I look at myself and derive meaning for humanity. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/58 "2010-11-13T15:12:52Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I like Carl Sagan’s take on it. We all are made of “star stuff” (stuff spewed out by dying stars in the distant past) and we will eventually be engulfed by the sun and become star stuff again. I love this idea. I love being part of the universe rather than apart from it. Don’t get me wrong, entropy sucks. But we’re stars! And nebulae! And planets and water and comets! Sometimes, I just look around and say, “Damn. That’s neat.” ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/59 "2010-11-13T16:05:58Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > But, you see, if death equals nothingness, then the “meaningful work” you suggest is completely meaningless! > > Think about it… Let’s take public interest, which we both have a passion for. SSI/SSDI, immigration, wage-and-hour claims, housing, etc. What does it matter? If we are annihilated upon death, all our work dies with us. We die, the people we’ve helped die, the people that remember them die. One thousand years from now, all the public interest we can ever do is completely irrelevant. What then? Sure, you can say that our work today can better the clients’ issue in perpetuity, but what of it? Their grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-grand-children will also die, rendering our work irrelevant. > > If I am correct, and I believe that I am, then everything we can ever do is meaningless. All beneficiaries will one day die, so what’s the point in the first place? "No, I can’t help you find a cheap place to live! What do I care you want to get on SSI so you can buy food? So you’re pregnant - what a waste of time, why bother? I’m a- gonna die, you’re a-gonna die, your future offspring …meh, what’s the point???.. I’m going home now and sit there like a potted plant, waiting for sweet, merciful death to whisk me off to utter oblivion. " Dude! It’ll take longer than you think, and you might end up waiting for your ultimate exit in the day room at your local mental hospital. Is that the best way to deal with that tedious interval we get, between periods of nothingness? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406/60 "2010-11-13T16:29:07Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I love this idea. I love being part of the universe rather than apart from it. Don’t get me wrong, entropy sucks. But we’re stars! And nebulae! And planets and water and comets! Yeah. I’m not a particularly spiritual person but I did have a slight “aha!” moment when he talked about that. To be honest I can’t remember how much he actually said and how much I extrapolated. He talks about the Cosmos being within us, that we are made of star stuff, in the introduction to the TV series “Cosmos”. I can’t remember if he explicitly follows through with the idea that we will ultimately return to the stars though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-awaits-me-and-you/560406.md?page=4)