ax345 Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Assuming there is no continuation of our consciousness after death, does anyone here feel let down by that belief? I don't claim to know the nature of our being, but I am "open" to the idea that this visible life on earth is it for each of us, and beyond that we have no memory, no awareness, nothing...like our "self" never existed in the first place. I say I'm "open" to it, because I have simply need to accept it if that's just the way it is...but I really don't like it. I'd prefer to be "me" forever, and to have eternity to get to know the rest of you. I think this is a big lure to Christianity...but I can't just say that there's eternal life because I wish it was true. I need a real, personal sign - and ten very devout years as a Christian didn't convince me it wasn't all just in my head. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Furball Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 I thought about that a couple weeks back. Yeah it depressed me that when i am dead, i'm dead. Who knows, maybe there still is life after life, just not in the christian context. -peace 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodsy Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 Welcome, ax345!! Glad you are here. Like you, I have this distinct feeling that this life is all there is. I don't like it,for sure. Here's what Mark Twain said about it: When we believe in immortality we have a reason for it. Not a reason founded upon information, or even plausibilities, for we haven't any. Our reason for choosing to believe in this dream is that we desire immortality, for some reason or other, I don't know what. But I have no such desire. I have sampled life and it is sufficient. Another one would be another experiment. It would proceed from the same source as this one. I should have no large expectations concerning it, and if I may be excused from assisting in the experiment I shall properly be grateful. Annihilation has no terrors for me, because I have already tried it before I was born—a hundred million years—and I have suffered more in an hour, in this life, than I remember to have suffered in the whole hundred million years put together. There was a peace, a serenity, an absence of all sense of responsibility, an absence of worry, an absence of care, grief, perplexity; and the presence of a deep content and unbroken satisfaction in that hundred million years of holiday which I look back upon with a tender longing and with a grateful desire to resume, when the opportunity comes. Twain is asking, what was our consciousness before we were born? Maybe that is what happens when we die. Deep thoughts, I know. I've been thinking about this alot lately. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax345 Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 Man, those are some very interesting thoughts from Twain. I, too, feel a kind of peace with this annihilation. Because, as Christians often say, I simply want to live according to the truth (although I use a lowercase "t"). But the presence of another person, or the feel of a late summer evening in a grove of trees...that's the kind of thing that makes me long for some continuation. I guess it's enough to be grateful for having the freedom to enjoy those things now. Many people never get even that much. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax345 Posted November 26, 2014 Author Share Posted November 26, 2014 PS - Thanks for the kind welcome...I've posted here before, but I'm not here that often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted November 26, 2014 Super Moderator Share Posted November 26, 2014 While there is no evidence that we're somehow still alive after we're dead, most people still wish for immortality and try to find reasons to believe. If you're unconscious, anesthetized or dead you won't be thinking about it. If one day you wake up dead, bonus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted November 26, 2014 Share Posted November 26, 2014 I was disappointed at first. But I got over it. Now my knowledge helps me make more of this life. Also this year I lost a beloved grandmother and honestly for me it was easier to get over morning without the belief in an afterlife. When my grandfather died I was a fanatic Christian and I became depressed for about half a year afterwards. When my grandmother passed I didn't have all the delusions to fight so I could realistically look at if for what it is. It was still sad that my grandmother was no more but I didn't have to pretend that she was in a better place or pretend that I would be so happy when I see her again. For my grandmother I felt loss, not depression but still sad, and that lasted for about a month. Now I try to make the most of my time with my family in a way I never did as a Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilith666 Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 Yes, I know what you mean about needing proof. I'd like to believe in Thor and Freya and the Aesir and Vanir because it sounds cool, but I can't unless there is a good deal of solid evidence. I hate reading or thinking about there not being an afterlife because it's terrifying. I want to be me and get to know all the great people I'll never meet on earth or know well. I look at it this way: the universe is so amazing that there has to be something behind it. It's incredible, not only that we exist, but that we have come as far as we have. This can't be all there is. Try reading about spiritual experiences? So many people swear that spirits exist, and they aren't even close to schizophrenic. Maybe they're on to something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25YearsLater Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 Personally I'm appalled that this life is all there is. I love life. I love truth. I love seeing technology evolve. I want to live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, to see how it all works out. I'm gutted that I won't. Does this make me want to return to faith? No. It doesn't make me any happier not to be immortal, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RipVanWinkle Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 25Yearslater I know what you mean. To some people the possibility or probability that there is no life after death takes a while to get used to. With me it's not the realization that my life will truly end that is so hard, but the loss of relationships I have with people in this life. But when I think about it, I realized that once I die I won't have any knowledge or awareness of anything. I will not have any pain, mental or physical. So it is not my death I fear. It is my friends' and relatives' deaths that I dread. But almost all of us have had to or will have to deal with that, and yet we get by. Rip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llwellyn Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 I think it is probably a good and natural thing that the living would want to continue living. That desire to see another day is certainly appropriate given that you will certainly endure another day. The impulse to live tomorrow is a subset of the impulse to "live forever." This impulse keeps you from giving up, committing suicide, checking out. For yourself, and your loved ones, I can ratify the desire for continued existence. It is fitting that you would want to live another decade, year, month, day. Hopefully when the candle of your life has burned to its end, your desire to continue living will have also depleted. But I'm pretty sure that once you are dead, you will no longer have a desire to "live forever." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
par4dcourse Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 People get bored after 5 minutes in a drive thru. Eternity? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax345 Posted November 27, 2014 Author Share Posted November 27, 2014 Every reply here is thought-provoking. It has occurred to me that when one is nearing a natural death, the desire to keep living diminishes, and if lucky, one might die very peacefully even without the reassurance of any continuation of life afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax345 Posted November 27, 2014 Author Share Posted November 27, 2014 PS - Lilith666, I have listened to a long lecture given by someone who claimed to have had a profound near-death experience, which did not involve the CReator directly, nor of any judgement. It sounded very hopeful, yet the same skepticism I have for religion kept me from getting too excited about it. I have catalogued it inmy mind it as another possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RipVanWinkle Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Every conscious or unconscious thought we have is from our brains. Every thing we hear. touch, smell, see or smell is as a result of our brains, It is sole source any anything we dream, perceive or think or think we think. Therefore, any near death "experience" people have comes from within themselves, not from some deity. Rip 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gall Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Personally I'm appalled that this life is all there is. I love life. I love truth. I love seeing technology evolve. I want to live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, to see how it all works out. I'm gutted that I won't. Does this make me want to return to faith? No. It doesn't make me any happier not to be immortal, though. Unless everyone else is living that long as well you would probably get truly depressed when all your friends keep dying and you outlive all your lovers. So you are not immortal. You never were. You are not out anything you ever had. I love my life to but instead of pining for more later I use what I have now to make it worth my time. Fill your life with life and you won't worry so much about death or having more life after. It seems hollow to say I know but really since there is no proof of anything else I would suggest your pour yourself into this life like a never ending glass and over flow it any chance you get. I use to want to live for ever but the prospect now just seems ugly to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodsy Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Personally I'm appalled that this life is all there is. I love life. I love truth. I love seeing technology evolve. I want to live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, to see how it all works out. I'm gutted that I won't. Does this make me want to return to faith? No. It doesn't make me any happier not to be immortal, though. Unless everyone else is living that long as well you would probably get truly depressed when all your friends keep dying and you outlive all your lovers. So you are not immortal. You never were. You are not out anything you ever had. I love my life to but instead of pining for more later I use what I have now to make it worth my time. Fill your life with life and you won't worry so much about death or having more life after. It seems hollow to say I know but really since there is no proof of anything else I would suggest your pour yourself into this life like a never ending glass and over flow it any chance you get. I use to want to live for ever but the prospect now just seems ugly to me. Well said, gall! After living a life of "faith," I guess it's just hard for me to realize what might be the truth of no after life. I'm scared of dying but, like you said, "fill your life with life." And I'm going to try and do just that. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
25YearsLater Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Unless everyone else is living that long as well you would probably get truly depressed when all your friends keep dying and you outlive all your lovers. So you are not immortal. You never were. You are not out anything you ever had. I love my life to but instead of pining for more later I use what I have now to make it worth my time. Fill your life with life and you won't worry so much about death or having more life after. It seems hollow to say I know but really since there is no proof of anything else I would suggest your pour yourself into this life like a never ending glass and over flow it any chance you get. I use to want to live for ever but the prospect now just seems ugly to me. Yes, I know all that stuff. I'm 52, so well over half way, in all probability. I think I'm qualified to know whether I've had more than half the fun and learning I want out of this life - and I haven't, not by a big margin. You may be right, and immortality would get boring. I'd settle for 'as long as I want'. But 70-80 years with a significant likelihood of disease and disability towards the end is crap, and nowhere enough - for me anyway. Maybe it is for you, I'm not stopping you from deciding when you've had enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burny Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Immortality is terrifying to me. Can you imagine actually existing forever? Humans like to throw around the 'forever' word like it's no big deal but if you spend enough time (ha ha) meditating on existing in some form, forever, you will quickly realize how terrible that would be. No matter what you believe, I think it's pretty obvious that you won't have your body after you die. This means you're stuck with your thoughts. It's like the worst kind of prison - a prison of the mind that can never die. I would go mad within days. I remember Neil deGrasse Tyson saying that when he was young and his mother told him about Heaven, he started crying because of how awful he thought it sounded! Better the eternal sleep. IMHO. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VahnBlue Posted November 28, 2014 Share Posted November 28, 2014 Ahhh there's a phobia for this by the way. Just like its a fear of the opposite. I have a paradoxical fear of both infinity and the finite. I fear dying and losing everything but I also fear living for eternity and shit never ending. I want an end, but at the same time, I don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ax345 Posted November 29, 2014 Author Share Posted November 29, 2014 It never occurred to me that eternal existence could be maddening. Except when I try to imagine the Christian ideas of the "beatific vision" where we will be praising God non-stop for eternity. Now that just doesn't compute for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leo Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 Stephen King's The Jaunt. I have no fear of eternal sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 Since I really can't imagine non-existence, I cannot say disappointment or non-disappointment. It seems to me that I came to be suddenly and don't see why if it happened once it can't happen again. Simplistic, maybe, but that is how I see it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 To me: I do not know if there is a continuation of individual life after death. I cannot confirm that there is no continuation of individual life after death. I choose to believe that there is such a continuation. I may be completely wrong in that belief. If I am wrong I will never know. If others choose to believe the opposite to me, that is their privilege If they are right they will never know. Either way, there's nothing any of us can do about it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdelsolray Posted November 30, 2014 Share Posted November 30, 2014 To me: I do not know if there is a continuation of individual life after death. I cannot confirm that there is no continuation of individual life after death. I choose to believe that there is such a continuation. I may be completely wrong in that belief. If I am wrong I will never know. If others choose to believe the opposite to me, that is their privilege If they are right they will never know. Either way, there's nothing any of us can do about it. Well, there is something that we can do about it - determine whether the claim of life after death of particular carbon-based life organisms is correct or incorrect, if such a determination is eventually possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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