Have you seen this? (Song made from talks by Sagan, and other scientists). I love it.
Death doesn’t bother me too much, but then I’ve had more experience with it than most people my age I know, and I’ve thought about it a lot. I don’t want to die anytime soon, there is so much I still want to experience. I hope I don’t suffer too much when I am dying, as suffering is truly horrible. But death itself is just… nothingness. It’s weird to think of my whole person ceasing to exist, but it’s a lot weirder to think of myself as old, or sick/weak, or ugly (as I am still young, fit, healthy, and in the full flower of my beauty, hah).
I seem to get less upset about the inevitability and reality of the death of others (even people I love dearly) than most people I know, as well. Which is weird, because most people I know are Christians or at least ‘spiritual’, and most of them believe in some sort of continuation of the individual or soul after death, or even a paradisiacal afterlife. I’m an unspiritual atheist and I belive when someone dies, they are over, and the only thing left is their body until it rots away. While I can mourn the loss of someone’s potential, and I certainly have a great deal of empathy for the grief of those they left behind, the fact that the dead person has been annihilated forever isn’t bothersome to me. Heck, if they were in physical or emotional pain, I am downright glad they aren’t anymore. And if they went suddenly and unexpectedly, I’m happy for them that they didn’t have to die in pain.
I agree with you even if no one else does. I would probably go even further to say that even if people remember you a thousand years from now, so what? You’re still dead. I remember a story about the Russian author Bulgakov where an associate said something to the effect that he would be famous after he was dead. Bulgakov couldn’t understand how that was supposed to make him feel any better. Of course it’s not like Russians are known for their cheery dispositions.
Yes. I was just watching it. His “star stuff” quote is in there and some of the others say similar things, “We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the Earth chemically, to the Universe Atomically.”
I don’t like this.
It’s less rational for an atheist to fear death than for a theist to look forward to it. You might say it’s less rational to be a theist in the first place. But, if it’s possible to consume irrationality (religion) in discrete quantities, then it might not be less rational all the time.
Suggestion: familiarize yourself with Caplan’s idea of rational irrationality and consider if consuming irrationality on the margin isn’t the smart thing to do. Otherwise, shut up about how smarter than other people you are.
Relevant quote:
Alice laughed, “There’s no use trying,” she said, “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
-Through the Looking Glass
I’m not 100% certain myself, but after having been unconscious a few times, and knowing that unconsciousness tends to accompany death, I concluded that the experience of death is probably exactly like experiencing unconsciousness.
No personal offense since I don’t know you, OP, but I snort at anyone who tries to tell me they know exactly what happens after death.
Advice? If you are scared shitless by your certainty your head is totally ruling over your emotions and creating an uncomfortable state in which to slog through our short existence. It hardly seems worth knowing the truth if it makes you miserable or causes you to avoid thinking about the whole experience of your life.
So, for that reason, I think you are as free as the preacher who insists that eternity means glorious bliss or as free as the scientist that demands belief that life is a meaningless cypher, ending in nothing, to chose your own definition.
Pick one which gives you some peace of mind and a state of acceptance in your human condition so you can be constructive and content while you are alive.
(Just don’t try to force it on anyone else. It’s your own.) 
Well except for the part where you wake up which does not happen with death. And the fact that your body is still functioning when you are unconsciousness. Your heart beats, you breathe, etc.
I plan to live forever.
I prefer to live in denial when it comes to my mortality.
I have struggled with my fear of death all my life. If you aren’t horrified by the thought of ceasing to exist, then you will never understand, no matter how eloquently I describe it.
I take comfort from two things: 1) The natures of time and space and matter are still largely mysterious to use. We have no idea where matter came from/began, and we don’t know why time runs forwards and not backwards. We just know that a huge bunch of stuff exploded into being several billion years ago. All that ambiguity leaves room for all sorts of scenarios.
2) Just striving to be zen. I mean, I enjoy my life and my me-ness most of the time, but when the mortal willies grab me, I try to concentrate on letting go of my self. I can’t explain it any better than that. But it is the only technique that calms my night terrors.
Well OK, there is something of a difference, in that in one situation you are unconscious and alive, and in the other you are unconscious and dead.
But I don’t see why the vital organs failing would alter the experience of unconsciousness.
Hypothetically for a specific situation, imagine you’re already unconscious - something that is experienced by people, and is usually described as experiencing nothing (or more accurately, a lack of experience), and then your heart stops forever - are you claiming something would suddenly change to that non-experience when the vital organs fail? To me it’s a a classic Occam’s Razor situation: why multiply entities? You are unconscious while alive, you remain unconscious when dead.
Then by extension, why should any other experience of death differ, since they all involve unconsciousness? As far as I can see, the only reason for anyone to think otherwise would be due to certain traditional religious beliefs, of which I have none.
No, no, no. This is uncharacteristically difficult; it is as if you and I (and our respective fellow thinkers) understand the question in entirely different terms, and thus can never reach a real conclusion…
Look, death is not unconsciousness. There is no waking up from death. Can you imagine an infinite number of years passing before you wake up? In other words, you never wake up.
Am I making any sense? This is the only topic on which words absolutely fail me, as I cannot explain the dread of this thought. Don’t you like being you? Of course you do, for otherwise you would have used a sharp implement to put wave patterns into the veins of your arms long ago. Existence is awesome! But then you die. And not just for a little while; it is no time-out. You die and you stay dead, forever! Isn’t this terrifying? Seriously?
It’s disappointing. Not terrifying.
Ask me again when I’m minutes away from the end.
Being scared of death is a good thing of course, it’s what helps keep our species alive. It is also probably largely responsible for belief in life after death. I wonder, how many here who are playing down the thought of death would be so pragmatic if someone was holding a gun to their head? I think some people are more able to conjure up the fear of imminent death just by contemplating the inevitability of it. This is why I avoid contemplating such things too deeply.
I disagree - it is unconsciousness - just an infinite variety. When you’re unconscious your brain largely switches off. And since, when in that state, you have no idea of the passage of time, the not waking up part is irrelevant, as you will never know anything about it. IOW, you no longer exist to experience anything. I don’t see why this is so difficult to grasp.
On the balance - there are some physicists who are theorizing that time runs both forwards and backwards. Perhaps it does. Perhaps we just keep cycling through. Now there’s an idea that is hard to get your head around. And a little frightening to me.
Maybe for some of us living with ambiguity, not being able to have the correct answer to things, is difficult. Think of how many of us were mocked or punished for not being able to produce the right answers during our educations.
Certainty is certainly more comfortable. Well, except when it leads to nonexistence.
But what people fear is the not waking up, the non-existence. Obviously they won’t be experiencing anything so it’s not a fear of a bad experience it’s a fear of only having a finite time in the world.
I am religious but I have no firm beliefs about the afterlife. I am quite prepared for the idea of nonexistence after death, if that’s what we get. I just figure I won’t notice, so it won’t bother me. It sounds flippant, but that’s seriously my response. Dying and being dead have never frightened me as such (although I have all the usual animal instincts about avoiding it as long as possible).
Personal preference. I know it is if you speak of the doctrine of the Real Presence.
I try to not get too bothered by things I have no control over, so just try to make my time as fun and useful as possible.