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[wamberz1]

Honestly, the idea of nothingness gives me comfort.

The idea of infinite existence scares me far more than infinite oblivion.

 

[HelloMeow]

I've been under general anesthesia and I think it's probably exactly like that, minus the waking up part.

It's not the same as sleeping. There's no thought, no dreaming and no perception of time. You're just not there.

 

[slit]

But you aren't aware that your brain is working. So it feels exactly the same as if it wasn't at all. It's just the easiest reference point for a child.

When parents say that they're not trying to explain how the childs brain is going to work when they're dead. They're just looking for the easiest, simplest, least scary way to convey that you won't be aware that your consciousness is gone.

How do you know what you are aware of if you don't remember it? I know why parents do it, I'm saying it isn't really saying anything since lack of memory isn't exclusive to sleep.

 

[Majmun]

I have no idea what people expect of "life" after death. Will I still stay on earth? Can I leave earth to roam the universe? Do I have to get a job? Can I play games or have sex? How will I look like? Like my 10 year old, 25 year old, or 70 year old self?

People take comfort of the idea that there will be life after death to make them feel better. But any way of life after death just sounds silly to me.

 

[Doctoglethorpe]

Reincarnation without memory retention. It's essentially what science has shown anyways, should work just fine for an atheist. Your matter is recycled into new stuff, so a more eastern or Buddhist way of looking at it is that your soul is reborn but it forgets it's past life to experience the world anew again. Maybe you don't believe in a soul but you can still use the term as a metaphor. When they get older you can explain the intricacies of how your matter is split up and becomes a small piece of many other things rather then just all reorganizing into another single being (the typical western interpretation of reincarnation) and that, assuming you don't believe in a soul, how you believe that the brain is the true "soul" but it too recycles so all that you are never really dies, it just returns to the world and recycles like every other part of you.

Make them watch some Alan Watts on YouTube. Good stuff.

 

[Fudgepuppy]

Those of you who believe in the after life, how can you be sure that the after life you're believing in, is the right one?

The evidence is there, that all religions are man-made, as the answers to all the things we used to be uncertain and afraid of. So how can you pick and choose which of them is correct? Seems like putting all your eggs in a basket you have no idea is the correct one.

I'm atheist/agnostic, and although death freaks me out, it makes me appreciate life so much more.

In general, being non-believing, makes life so much more fascinating to me. How evolution has shaped our world by natural selection and circumstances, is a lot more impressive and awe-inspiring than "god did it".

My mom never said anything about heaven, she just comforted me when someone dear to me died and ensured that I felt safe. In due time you get over it.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Interesting question. The point I was making was a bit different than retention, so I have a hard time answering the nuance of your question. To give an example, think of rain, and then the thought "oh, I hear the rain." Didn't your ears hear of it before the thought? We think it starts with the thought, in most cases, that without that impression there's a type of "blindness." This sounds very loose and odd, but if one meditates and studies the mind, you see how this becomes an issue. I am probably very awful at articulating the nuance here, so I apologize if I am appealing to those in "authority." I think Jiddu Krishnamurti covers the point I was trying to get with greater detail, so I'll just quote him directly.

Is there any relationship between the thinker and his thought, or is there only thought and not a thinker? If there are no thoughts there is no thinker. When you have thoughts, is there a thinker? Perceiving the impermanency of thoughts, thought itself creates the thinker who gives himself permanency; so thought creates the thinker; then the thinker establishes himself as a permanent entity apart from thoughts which are always in a state of flux. So, thought creates the thinker and not the other way about. The thinker does not create thought, for if there are no thoughts, there is no thinker. The thinker separates himself from his parent and tries to establish a relationship, a relationship between the so-called permanent, which is the thinker created by thought, and the impermanent or transient, which is thought. So, both are really transient.

Pursue a thought completely to its very end. Think it out fully, feel it out and discover for yourself what happens. You will find that there is no thinker at all. For, when thought ceases, the thinker is not. We think there are two states, as the thinker and the thought. These two states are fictitious, unreal. There is only thought, and the bundle of thought creates the 'me', the thinker.

A self, generally speaking, as if as you feel you are a subject in addition to processes, hence the thinker analogy. Trying to define a self is very difficult to do, because the self is a concept, not a thing. It's a think, a unit of thought. For this reason, I find it a bit hard to look at examples to say "is this a self?" because the question can be seen in a way to assert it as a thing. It being perceived as a thing is what gives it the illusory power ascribed to it, such as free will. One simply has to see how they're not in control to start seeing the image of the controller break down. Meditating and observing thoughts is an easy way to start.

Sorry if I didn't answer your inquiry clearly. It's a very fuzzy topic, as you can imagine. Even entertaining the self as a survival mechanism, it is a pattern and habit of thought and still not a thing.

Honestly you've lost me.
What difference does it make whether or not it is possible to isolate a single bundle of nerves or an organ or a specific process or a feeling or whatever and call that a self?

A car is not an engine, nor a system of gears nor an axle nor wheels and tires etc. It is all those things combined in a certain order working together in a certain way that make it a car. Some parts may be superfluous such as backseat doors or a roof but that doesn't mean the "essence" of the car is not a complex system of interrelated mechanisms operating together.

Edit: listened to the Sam Harris meditation link... I've had better frankly.

 

[sikkinixx]

My cynical mindset thinks then that all the hardship people go through to be a good person (because I do think in life to be a good person is ultimately a more difficult path to take then being a selfish prick) is really for nothing. It would be nice to naturally be an asshole who abuses the goodwill of others with no guilt or fear of any divine/cosmic/karmic reprisal. I know many feel the "lights out is all that happens!" is comforting in a way or leads them to try to make the most of life because there is nothing after or whatever but I find it utterly demoralizing.

But what can you do right? It happens to everyone.

 

[UpDownLeftRight]

I'll never understand why death is a problem. We live for a limited span and that's all it is and it's fine. Would an afterlife actually provide anything? All of humanity that ever existed sitting around on a cloud doing literally fuck all has never been apealling to me.

 

[Zen_Arcade]

How do you know what you are aware of if you don't remember it? I know why parents do it, I'm saying it isn't really saying anything since lack of memory isn't exclusive to sleep.

This is the entire point of the comparison. It's supposed to be a calming way to convey that you won't feel being dead. You won't remember anything. So you won't be aware of the life you lived or have anything to worry about.

And yes, while lack of memory isn't exclusive to sleep, literally every child has experienced sleeping. So it's the most logical example you can use because there is no chance that even a child won't be able to understand the comparison.

 

[slit]

This is the entire point of the comparison. It's supposed to be a calming way to convey that you won't feel being dead. You won't remember anything. So you won't be aware of the life you lived or have anything to worry about.

And yes, while lack of memory isn't exclusive to sleep, literally every child has experienced sleeping. So it's the most logical example you can use because there is no chance that even a child won't be able to understand the comparison.

That wasn't the point of the conversation I was having. Again, I know what the parents are TRYING to convey, that isn't what i originally questioned. I said it never made sense to me and it still doesn't since there are gaps in my sleeping memory as with my waking memory. It isn't a question of understanding why people use the comparison, It's that it isn't ultimately a valid one. Saying how you "felt" before being born is the much more apt comparison. I have vivid memories in a sleep state and very vague ones. That isn't death though.

 

[Linkup]

I have no idea what people expect of "life" after death. Will I still stay on earth? Can I leave earth to roam the universe? Do I have to get a job? Can I play games or have sex? How will I look like? Like my 10 year old, 25 year old, or 70 year old self?

People take comfort of the idea that there will be life after death to make them feel better. But any way of life after death just sounds silly to me.

No. Yes you can roam. Yes as much of either as you like. You will look good. 33 years old.

Heck yeah, life without hope of the injustices of this life being corrected?

I don't want to live in that kind of unfair world were status and birth dictate lives.

 

[RoadHazard]

To follow up, my grandmother died a few hours ago.

There was no anger, no wishing for a deity to save her, no change in my understanding or acceptance of the reality of death and the cessation of existence. Just sadness, tears and loss.

Atheists are far stronger when facing death than many seem to believe. I wish those people could feel as I do at this moment, to understand what living on reality's terms is like. It's not scary, just heartbreaking at times. But we deal with reality as it is. There's your answer, OP, from at least one atheist.

My condolences.

When my dad died, my religious sister wandered around the house muttering "he's gone to a better place" completely unable to actually help my mother. Frankly, I think most religious people, deep down suspect that the afterlife is a crock of shit. They certainly act that way when someone dies, rather than rejoicing that they've moved on to a rewarding afterlife. I think we can feel our future non-existence in our bones, see the skull under the skin, and no amount of our parents, neighbors, schools, and offices telling us otherwise ever really convinces us.

Condolences on the loss of your grandmother.

I read (don't remember where, maybe Dawkins) that studies have shown​ that on their death bed, religious people are often much more afraid to die than non-believers. Makes sense to me.

 

[RoadHazard]

Those of you who believe in the after life, how can you be sure that the after life you're believing in, is the right one?

The evidence is there, that all religions are man-made, as the answers to all the things we used to be uncertain and afraid of. So how can you pick and choose which of them is correct? Seems like putting all your eggs in a basket you have no idea is the correct one.

I'm atheist/agnostic, and although death freaks me out, it makes me appreciate life so much more.

In general, being non-believing, makes life so much more fascinating to me. How evolution has shaped our world by natural selection and circumstances, is a lot more impressive and awe-inspiring than "god did it".

My mom never said anything about heaven, she just comforted me when someone dear to me died and ensured that I felt safe. In due time you get over it.

They believe in the version they were brought up in and indoctrinated with. Truly religious people don't have the ability to think rationally about their religion and beliefs, or they would realize how nonsensical it is that they believe in the certain flavor they grew up with and reject all others, simply because of where they were born.

 

[Lothar]

I'll never understand why death is a problem. We live for a limited span and that's all it is and it's fine. Would an afterlife actually provide anything? All of humanity that ever existed sitting around on a cloud doing literally fuck all has never been apealling to me.

Did a robot write this post? I certainly can't be a human being with emotions that has loved ones. When you go to a funeral, do you think "What's the big deal?" If you're a human, human beings dying is not fine. It's the furthest thing in the world away from fine.

 

[azyless]

Did a robot write this post? I certainly can't be a human being with emotions that has loved ones. When you go to a funeral, do you think "What's the big deal?" If you're a human, human beings dying is not fine. It's the furthest thing in the world away from fine.

Yes the concept of life and death is fine and accepted by most people. No one is saying you can't be sad when someone you love dies.

Death is a pretty depressing concept for an atheist.

Not for everyone.

 

[nkarafo]

Death is a pretty depressing concept for an atheist. There is no eternal life, no ultimate reward. It means you don't exist, just like you didn't exist before you were born.

As an atheist myself, it's the worst thing. I would love to believe the nice fairy tale of religion but i can't fool myself like this.

Not for everyone.

You don't like experiencing things?

Death means that you don't experience the universe/space/time anymore. Your rotten matter still exists but you don't.

Also, you will miss a lot of stuff on earth. I do want to experience how things will be in 400 years from now. Bad or good.

 

[Lothar]

Yes the concept of life and death is fine and accepted by most people. No one is saying you can't be sad when someone you love dies.

No, most people are so terrified of it that most people make up religious stories and believe in them without any evidence because they so badly want to think something happens afterwards. Death can only be fine if you do not enjoy life or you do not have people you care about.

 

[mcz117chief]

I'm from Czech Republic, which is mostly an irreligious country but is surprisingly spiritual, mostly because we have been responsible for some very important religious reforms and have been very religious until the communist cunts hunted the church into almost extinction. People in majority still believe in the after life, they routinely say "he/she is in a better place", "he/she is looking at your from above", "he/she is in heaven", etc.

Spiritual needs are important part of everyday life for most people, so despite the fact they are not affiliated with any church most people are conscious of their spirituality and work with it.

 

[All Possible Ways]

When you think logically, of course, we know there is nothing to fear from not existing because there will be nobody there to experience it. However to me, at least, this is not the what is bothersome about death. It is the sadness that comes from being cut from those you love, or being deprived from the opportunity to learn new things, to do new things, to be happy or sad, well, to live, in short.

I would like to think that when the comes I will be fulfilled and happy and be able to say "well, that is that, I had a good run", but I cannot of course guarantee that I won't be in despair, because I would like to live more. In the end all we can do is try to live a good life so that we have no regrets in the end.

The fact that the matter that makes my body was part of uncountable things in the past, came temporarily together to form me, and later I will have to give it back to become a part of uncountable other things in the future is indeed beautiful and comforting, but I absolutely cannot view this as a form of "immortality", since death is not at all about energy and its conservation, but about entropy.

Saying I live on through the matter that made me is like saying a demolished house lives on in the rubble, even though from the rubble it would be very difficult to recognize or put back together the exact same house. The important thing is how everything is organized in a pattern, which is latter completely scrambled. From that scrambled mess, we could never tell what the original thing was in the first place. That to me is what death is.

Anyway, that was a big digression. To answer the main point, I often think about what I would tell my future kids when they ask about things like this. I also think the best approach is probably not to give ready-made answers, but instead to expose then to a variety of ideas and encourage then to think critically about them and come to their own conclusions. If in the end, they turn out to be religious, then so be it, but I won't stand for mindless indoctrination.

 

[nkarafo]

No, most people are so terrified of it that most people make up religious stories and believe in them without any evidence because they so badly want to think something happens afterwards. Death can only be fine if you do not enjoy life or you do not have people you care about.

This. Heck, i don't even enjoy my life that much. I don't have a career and my social life sucks completely. But i do enjoy the whole existence thing. Experiencing things, even bad ones, is still something.

I understand how some people can't stand it when they are in constant pain or suffering. But other than that, i don't see how anyone would not afraid of death.

This was like a big slap to my face when i realized religions are bullshit. I wish i never did.

 

[patapuf]

This. Heck, i don't even enjoy my life that much. I don't have a career and my social life sucks completely. But i do enjoy the whole existence thing. Experiencing things, even bad ones, is still something.

I understand how some people can't stand it when they are in constant pain or suffering. But other than that, i don't see how anyone would not afraid of death.

This was like a big slap to my face when i realized religions are bullshit. I wish i never did.

I love living and existing too but life being finite doesn't depress me. To me it's what gives it meaning in the first place.

I've never found an everlasting existence in the afterlife a comforting thought. If it's a perfect life, it won't have any meaning and if it isn't, it's just the struggles of life repeated in perpetuity. Not super appealing either.

I'm more worried about losing loved ones than dying myself. When i die (i don't want to, though i will) i'll just be dead.

 

[Lothar]

I love living and existing too but life being finite doesn't depress me. To me it's what gives it meaning in the first place.

If the secret to immortal life was discovered, I doubt you would turn it down because life would lose meaning. Because I think you would know that isn't really true.

 

[azyless]

No, most people are so terrified of it that most people make up religious stories and believe in them without any evidence because they so badly want to think something happens afterwards. Death can only be fine if you do not enjoy life or you do not have people you care about.

There are plenty of people in this thread who've expressed not being particularly afraid of death.
I don't know why I'm engaging with you anyway when all you've contributed to this thread so far has been :
- atheists are big meanies for telling their children the truth
- atheists are robots
- atheists are apparently critically depressed and unable of love

If the concept of judgement day and the possibility of eternal damnation is somehow more reassuring to you than what basically amounts to sleeping forever then I'm really happy for you but stop acting as if atheists were shells of human beings traumatized by their own mortality.

You don't like experiencing things?

Death means that you don't experience the universe/space/time anymore. Your rotten matter still exists but you don't.

Also, you will miss a lot of stuff on earth. I do want to experience how things will be in 400 years from now. Bad or good.

Sure I do. When I think of death I'm often frustrated by the fact that I'm gonna miss out on a lot of shit happening with humanity/Earth. I don't drive myself crazy over it though, it annoys me for 10 minutes and I move on, it's fine. I lived and I'll die like everybody else before me and everybody else after.

I'm sorry you have these issues but you have to be aware of the fact that msot people don't feel the way you do :

 

[CharminUltra]

Eh, it's something inevitable, so I don't think about it much. When it comes, it comes.

I've always found the aphorism "There are no atheists in foxholes" to be bullshit in my case. I've had at least three extremely close calls in my life (2 of them due to civil war in my country.) I've never once thought "please invisible supreme being, save me!" Instead it was "ah, welp." Luckily, it hasn't happened yet... or has it!?!?

 

[patapuf]

If the secret to immortal life was discovered, I doubt you would turn it down because life would lose meaning. Because I think you would know that isn't really true.

I'll take medicine that makes me live longer or cures my sickness but that alone doesn't give me infinite life. Immortality isn't a thing that can be obtained. People that think it can are.... religious, usually.

And honestly? I'll take living a hundred years, even 200 hundred.But I don't need to live until the sun dies.

 

[Possumowner]

Brain dies,cells die etc etc turn to dirt...and all those toxins I have been taking all those years seep into the earth where I have my toxic vengeance

 

[nkarafo]

And honestly? I'll take living a hundred years, even 200 hundred.But I don't need to live until the sun dies.

Why not? Maybe before that happens humanity will conquer the whole universe and colonize every single planet that's similar to earth. Maybe we will be able to create our own artificial planets. Maybe we will interact with alien civilizations as well and exchange things. And after you get bored from the whole universe, maybe we will discover things beyond that as well.

Or maybe we will kill ourselves. Whatever it may be, it bums me out that i won't experience any of this. Just like how people who lived in the middle ages never experienced the things we take for granted today, for instance.

 

[Maintenance]

When you die, it's over. Not exactly rocket science.

 

[Lothar]

There are plenty of people in this thread who've expressed not being particularly afraid of death.

I don't know why I'm engaging with you anyway when all you've contributed to this thread so far has been :
- atheists are big meanies for telling their children the truth
- atheists are robots
- atheists are apparently critically depressed and unable of love

If the concept of judgement day and the possibility of eternal damnation is somehow more reassuring to you than what basically amounts to sleeping forever then I'm really happy for you but stop acting as if atheists were shells of human beings traumatized by their own mortality.

We're not talking about fear. We're talking about death being fine with death. That's close to not understanding why people are sad at funerals. Death is not fine. No, I will not stop saying that people who say that are sounding like robots.

If you're making a post and say don't know why you're talking to me then please delete the post to save me the time from reading it. I'm atheist, so this post doesn't even make any sense. It's like you just decided to address a imaginary person in the middle of talking to me.

 

[azyless]

We're not talking about fear. We're talking about death being fine with death. That's close to not understanding why people are sad at funerals. Death is not fine. No, I will not stop saying that people who say that are sounding like robots.

People are sad because they're never going to talk to someone they loved again, it doesn't mean they're rejecting the concept of death. It's an invariable fact of life for every single organic being out there, humanity has had time to be "fine with it".

 

[patapuf]

Why not? Maybe before that happens humanity will conquer the whole universe and colonize every single planet that's similar to earth. Maybe we will be able to create our own artificial planets. Maybe we will interact with alien civilizations as well and exchange things. And after you get bored from the whole universe, maybe we will discover things beyond that as well.

Or maybe we will kill ourselves. Whatever it may be, it bums me out that i won't experience any of this. Just like how people who lived in the middle ages never experienced the things we take for granted today, for instance.

I'm curious about our future and i'd like to know how things go on but there will never be an "end" to life unless everything is dead.

Also, while lots of things improve and change a lot about life is circular. And the change depends on the old dying off. That's how life and evolution works. Death is an important part of it.

Most religions think death is key to ascendance and life too.
Souls or whatever are mostly assumed to leave earth eventually, since earthly life isn't important or they interpret it as merely a test. Alternatively everyone is assumed to reincarnate as part of an endless cycle not unlike what we observe in nature. Here too, the current you dies along with your memories.

We're not talking about fear. We're talking about death being fine with death. That's close to not understanding why people are sad at funerals. Death is not fine. No, I will not stop saying that people who say that are sounding like robots.

Not being fine with death has a lot to do with fear and denial. Accepting mortality says nothing about your empathy or feelings it means accepting reality. You will die. That's a fact. Everything does. Even the sun, even galaxies probably even the universe.

 

[DragonGirl]

Your "flame" carries on in the form of your progeny and/or your ideas.

Simple as that, really.

Makes you want to reevaluate not having kids if you plan on not having them. Or work just that much harder to have a lasting impact on society at large.

Er, no, no, and no. Flame references life after death. If you don't believe people go anywhere after they die the flame is a decent illustration of how to describe this. And no, children are not an extension of yourself and as someone who indeed has no children and no intention of having them, no, nothing makes me want reevaluating my position but thanks all the same.

 

[patapuf]

Everyone that doesn't understand what accepting mortality means should play through SOMA.

It's a fantastic take on the hope of eternal life and what that means eventually. And don't worry, it won't pontificate about how eternal life is afwul.

 

[Amikami]

For all those saying that it's nothingness after death. Do we really know for sure? Wasn't there a study once that talked about consciousness at that point when you die could be stretched out and perceived as lasting much longer than what is actually happening? It was a theory of possibility.

Your brain doesn't necessarily have an on/off switch and the effects that chemicals have on your brain are so profound, there are diseases like schizophrenia. We have drugs like ecstasy and marijuana changing our perceptions of time and the world...it seems reasonable that the consciousness of some people going through death is not so cut and dry as a light switch going out. There very well could be a subjective afterlife for some people.The fact of the matter is, we don't know, and I believe our death might be experienced very differently. And if that theory of prolonged seconds of death has any truth, whose to say and atheist doesn't experience darkness and blackness or a Christian doesn't experience heaven or hell. I don't think theirs any reason to act like the authority on what death is like regardless of your beliefs.

 

[Alcotholic]

I imagine the feeling of being dead similar to being asleep. Floating in nothingness and not aware of your body since your consciousness doesn't exist anymore. I'm not concerned about dying, I'm more concerned about the pain of dying and the effect my death would have on others.

 

[Rembrandt]

I'm an atheist and find the idea of heaven comforting, though I don't believe in it. I see death and aging as a part of life. I have more difficulty accepting the aging aspect and everything that comes with that than I do death, tbh

I won't go out of my way to raise my kids to be religious, but I'll take them to church or temple or whatever the fuck they decide to believe in. I honestly have no idea how I'll tackle the subject of death, so I'm glad I'm not a father yet.

 

[besada]

Death is a good thing, not for individuals, but for people as a whole. No one in their right mind WANTS to die (unless permanent pain, etc) but many people eventually reach the conclusion that death is necessary, and not such a scary thing.

If we didn't die, the young would never have room to grow. The planet would be filled with people with old ideas, who have accrued all of the power, which is already a problem, but would be much, much worse without death to prune away the elderly.

Everyone gets their chance, and everyone winds up the same way. Seems perfectly acceptable to me, and I'm considerably closer to it than most of you.

 

[dpunk3]

Do you remember what things were like before you were born?

No?

That's basically death. It just ends. Nothing else.

At least that's my take on it.

 

[NoblesseOblige]

Death is a pretty depressing concept for an atheist. There is no eternal life, no ultimate reward. It means you don't exist, just like you didn't exist before you were born.

Not for me it ain't. It's actually quite comforting knowing we all meet the same finality. Like I'm able to live without regret knowing the end result is all the same.

 

[Kinsei]

Death is a pretty depressing concept for an atheist. There is no eternal life, no ultimate reward. It means you don't exist, just like you didn't exist before you were born.

As an atheist myself, it's the worst thing. I would love to believe the nice fairy tale of religion but i can't fool myself like this.

I find it comforting. Any sort of eternal afterlife would be just as bad as hell.

 

[Ri'Orius]

Some atheists gain hope from beliefs in quantum immortality, medical immortality, and/or the singularity. All of which seem much more likely than traditional afterlife beliefs, IMO.

Well, except maybe quantum immortality. Although that's also the most fun one, because it would've applied to everyone throughout history. The latter two only work for people who are alive at the right time (which, in classic religious prophet style, is just around the corner), but if quantum immortality/many-worlds works, somewhere there's a universe where any given random serf from 12th-century England just... didn't die. For no apparent reason.

 

[Amibguous Cad]

There's this great moment in Lucretius' On the Nature of Things, written in the first century BC by a Roman atheist (well, Epicurean). He goes through a pain-staking, laborious, multichapter proof of why an afterlife isn't possible, and at the end of it basically goes "So now that I've freed you from fear of the afterlife, can you finally let go of the gods?"

Of course, the Roman conception of the afterlife was pretty gloomy - all either eternal punishment or a kind of ghoulish half-existence. He compared that to what he was offering - essentially, after you die is like before you were born. Was that period of time so terrible?

And, if you ask me, the Christian version of the afterlife is more gloomy still than the Romans, with a significant likelihood of eternal suffering if you either choose the wrong denomination, fail to receive the proper sacraments, or mess up adhering to a very strict moral code. "Many are called, few are chosen" and all that.

There are many fates worse than death - Christianity promises it to the bulk of humanity. I'll take oblivion over that.

For kids, I suppose the best way of describing it would be a dreamless sleep.

Or you can go full extropian

I have so far named two metaphysically relevant considerations: pain and meaninglessness. If these were the all and the everything, stoicism would carry the day, or possibly some form of Buddhism. Both have much to commend in them.

But I think that there is something else to live for. Something grand and wonderful.

3.

Besides meaninglessness and pain, there is another relevant factor — the human mind. And that's pretty damn awesome. How awesome is it? The mind is the beginning of all joy and wonder. It is the source of all things holy. It is the single spark of meaning in the dreary empire of Azathoth.

It's also getting brighter all the time.

I strongly suspect that up until this moment, we don't even know the tiniest fraction of it. The mind is capable of self-improvement, and so far, the mind's self-improvement does not seem to face any serious limitations. No, really, it doesn't. All around you are tools that help extend the mind. The computer is only the most recent; before that came the printing press, language, philosophy, money, and all sorts of other inventions. Shortly in our future is the wearable computer — probably this year, even — and from there, things only get better.

In due course, we will also conquer death itself. It might not be long until we will discover the thing that causes human beings to grow old. And we'll get rid of it. Someone will do so regardless of your feelings about the matter. You may then have to choose, but I've already made my choice. When it becomes available, I'm doing it.

Humanity won't just stare down Azathoth. We will kill him, bury him, and dance on the world's last grave.

...

It transforms all of one's opinions and dispositions to consider them in light of these developments. Many of them emerge as shameful. Others take on new nobility. So yeah, it's like being born again.

What is the good? That which speeds the day. What is the evil? That which sets it back, and dooms so many more to the grave.

Living and dying become worthwhile.

http://ordinary-gentlemen.com/2012/02/29/fun-with-azathoth/

 

[Steeped in a Sea of Games]

My son is just starting to ask about death. Every now and then he asks me about it. Last week he said: "Dada, are you going to die?" I respond with, yes, but hopefully not for a long time. Not until he's big like me and can take care of himself. He put a big frown on his face and he tells me, "I don't want you to die because I love you." I admit, I teared up (heck, I am now just typing this). I hugged him and said, "I love you too, but we don't have to worry about it right now." He perked up a little and asked if his mother would stay home from work for a week if I did die. I sort of groaned and laughed and we went on with our day.

I just treat death like a fact; that everyone dies and when they die they go away and don't come back, and that it's just something that happens, not someone trying to be mean or cruel. Not sure when I need to get more technical about it.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Death is a good thing, not for individuals, but for people as a whole. No one in their right mind WANTS to die (unless permanent pain, etc) but many people eventually reach the conclusion that death is necessary, and not such a scary thing.

If we didn't die, the young would never have room to grow. The planet would be filled with people with old ideas, who have accrued all of the power, which is already a problem, but would be much, much worse without death to prune away the elderly.

Everyone gets their chance, and everyone winds up the same way. Seems perfectly acceptable to me, and I'm considerably closer to it than most of you.

This is also why curing the ailments of the body alone is no replacement for birthing new generations - we need a constant supply of fresh minds in order to continue to adapt as a species.

 

[Monocle]

I love living and existing too but life being finite doesn't depress me. To me it's what gives it meaning in the first place.

I've never found an everlasting existence in the afterlife a comforting thought. If it's a perfect life, it won't have any meaning and if it isn't, it's just the struggles of life repeated in perpetuity. Not super appealing either.

I'm more worried about losing loved ones than dying myself. When i die (i don't want to, though i will) i'll just be dead.

I don't get this. The meaning is in the experiences themselves. It's weird to reduce the full range of human experience to perfect = boring, and difficult = miserable.

Struggles often lead to meaningful outcomes. And if you get tired of something in your long life, you can try something different. An extended lifespan would give you more time to pursue fulfilling experiences.

 

[Dany]

It's simple.

We all fucking die/

 

[Correctomundo]

Death is a pretty depressing concept for an atheist.

Speak for yourself. I find death to be a more depressing thing for those who can't accept it as an unavoidable aspect of reality. I grew up on a ranch. Death was a common, almost daily thing. It's always been there, and it honestly doesn't scare or sadden me in the slightest.

My fiance's mother died a few years ago. We were there with her in the room as she died. I could easily see the pain her other family members were experiencing, but it wasn't her death that caused me the slightest twitch - it was the pain those family members were in that made an impact on me. I can remember a clear moment when I could feel my fiance's utter pain, and it was well after the actual death of her mother. Her death did not impact me at all. I've seen that.

It doesn't frighten me to not exist. That old Mark Twain quote comes to mind. I keep saying this in every one of these threads, but I look forward to my death. I've never died before.

To me, death is just... there. Always has been. Nothing to be afraid of.

 

[Warm Machine]

Like another poster said, it's probably the same as before you were born.

 

[lvl99 Pixel]

at this point im welcoming it, life is pretty fucking miserable