I honestly don’t think about it, because it is my intent to open my eyes some time after I close them, every single time. It may be that this plan will fall through one of these days…but nobody is going to be able to tell me I was wrong.
And I mean, honestly, science doesn’t really help answer this either. Science can tell us what stuff there is, and to a certain extent, how there is stuff, but the why… well existence makes no sense no matter what paradigm you try to slap on it.
I kind of like Asimov’s answer - “What could be better than an eternal dreamless rest?”
I’m not afraid of not having existed before I was born. Why be afraid of not existing after I die?
Death troubles me. I’d rather not die and go to some foreign despotic dimension, nor simply die and rot either. The best way would be anti-aging technologies becoming successful enough to prolong life on Earth indefinitely. I’m sure I’ll eventually just want to be done, but I’d prefer more than 100 years. 1000 might be more like it, especially if I’m in decent health and some of my friends and family can stay with me.
See, I like this about life. Life’s meaning is what make of it. I don’t have to ascribe to a meaning defined for me. I find meaning and value in life because I choose to believe it’s there, and the meaning can change over time as I change.
Death worries me. I enjoy life too much to give it up. Being halfway done scares me- I’m not nearly ready to be moving towards the end. And the fact that’s there us nothing I can do to avoid dying frustrates me.
I always figured they’d invent immortality the day after I die. It’ll be cheap, too. So… there’s that.
Only once, but I practice the effect almost every night. I rarely remember my dreams and on the rare occasions I do it’s usually as I transition to and from sleep. From a consciousness standpoint I completely power down and reboot slowly on waking.
I worry about meaning while alive more than I worry about the likelihood that there’s nothing after.
That… that right there is the trick. “Be in the moment,” is a lot harder to do than it is to say. But IMHO, there is nothing more important.
Yeah, it bothers me. Since I’m pretty sure there’s nothing after death, I’m figuring I won’t be worried about anything once I’m dead. But if I have any awareness that I’m about to die right before it happens… that’s actually a terrifying thought for me. A poster upthread mentioned anesthesia, and I hate anesthesia because it’s like being sucked down into a bottomless abyss where I can’t even breathe. I’m afraid that the moment right before actual death is going to be sort of like that, knowing that I’m being sucked under, can’t breathe, and there will be no “recovery room,” if you will.
Plus I just don’t wanna miss out on things after I’m gone. :smack:
I was not before a certain date in 1937 and will not be after a certain date in the not-too-distant future. Sure I’d like to remain conscious after, but I know I won’t. I don’t spend time thinking about things that cannot change.
Intellectually it doesn’t bother me, but yeah - it bothers me some.
So many people seem to get comfort in believing they are going to “heaven” or wherever. I like how almost all of them seem to think that is where they are going. I tend to think if I had a terminal illness - I’d take it pretty well. I’ve had a full life. If the afterlife was the equivalent of eternal bliss - I suppose I’d want that.
If it is hanging around with Jesus or some other deity - I think that would get pretty boring real quick. I mean even my closest friends - or girlfriends I’ve had - I still like alone time.
I think I’m more comfortable with the idea now than I was when I was younger.
So I try and think of it as eternal rest too - or the “I didn’t exist before I was born” thing others have mentioned. Although my brain accepts that logic - part of it still doesn’t like the idea - I suppose the will to survive is so strong - even in some of those that aren’t big fans of their current existence.
This. Annihilation is better than being tortured forever, or spending eternity grovelling or as a brainwashed praise-machine. Or floating forever in some void.
The older I’ve got the less I’m able to get my head around the concept of an afterlife anyway. I’m really not a major fan of harp music, every part of what Heaven is supposed to be like sounds like hell to me.
I’m not terribly happy about it. I mean, oblivion sounds like it sucks. But, I’m not happy that I can’t take a weekend trip to Mars also, and I can’t do much about that either.
It honestly bothers me not the slightest. I have absolutely no concern whatsoever about the idea that if I die, that’s it.
An actual Paradise in the afterlife sounds terrific; the “oh, it’d be boring, I’d hate it” stuff is kind of stupid, really. The whole point of the Christian “Heaven” is that it’s Heaven. It is by definition a place you’re in paradise. So if it existed I’d be cool with that. But it does not exist, so there’s no point worrying about getting there.
I’m not thrilled about certain ways of dying, (like airplane crashes and drowning) but I have no problem with being dead. And none at all about going in my sleep.
I get to miss all the crap that might be going down, that’s a good thing.
The billions of years I didn’t exist preceding my birth don’t bother me, why would the time I won’t exist after?
As far as dying goes, I expect to be aware of it. In fact I want to be, really; I want to experience it. When I was in labor with my kids I did some “toe-digging” into myself into places I didn’t know I had. Same with my medical crises—I drew on…base? resources I didn’t know were there. Intensely personal connections to life. I’d hate to miss my last lesson.
I also think that when I’ve died it’s going to be like before I was born. Nothing.
I used to think that as I was slipping away I’d ask the all important question “Why?” Now I’m pretty sure the answer would be “It doesn’t matter.”
No life after death doesn’t bother me at all - I prefer that to the hell I would probably end up in, if there were such a thing. And if I didn’t end up in hell, I would probably participate in any rebellion going, a la Satan, so I would end up there anyway. Who needs it?
I don’t have any deceased loved ones that I’m aching to see again. Maybe my grandfather, but now that I’m almost as old as he was when he died, I don’t think we’d have much in common.
I do have a fear about death, which I have sort of faced with retirement - that I would slip away and no-one would notice or care. I found that wasn’t true for leaving work, and I suppose it won’t be true for leaving life either. But it does give me a motivation for making the most of the opportunities I have left.