We are all going to die, and when we do, we go rot in the ground. There is no afterlife, as much as we might want one... Our conciousness will simply cease to be... what will that be like? Silence and blackness? No... something even less than that... Remember back to before you were even born? It'll be like that.
@Carazaa - Just so you know, thinking about dying isn't necessarily any kind of 'sign.' I've been thinking about dying since I was six years old. Although I'm a Christian I've no more answers now than I did then. I have tons more questions, though. :-)
10-frapping-4!!
In my adolescence I toyed around with atheism--even militant atheism by the standards of the day--but I don't recall EVER having ripped into anyone like that on account of a caring expression of faith. Maybe I did inasmuch as 80 percent of atheism is seething anger at God (or any idea of God), but I don't remember it. Euphoric recall (selective dementia) has its merits, I suppose.
Same here!
As the poster above more than adequately demonstrated, baring your emotions on the open Internet isn't the wisest course of action.
sometimes
it's not really about me, I am afraid for those I leave behind
Death fer sure.
Even in normal circumstances immortality would probably start to get boring after a while.
Hi Trixy, I'm not afraid to die. I'm just hope it doesn't hurt too much. As far as the afterlife, I believe there's a possibility there's more to death than just dying. Or at least I hope so. What's the worst that can happen if you have a little faith that something else, maybe even better, awaits us when we die. If there really IS nothing after death, we haven't lost a thing, except for the little bit of hope that may have comforted us. The fact is, nobody knows with absolute certainty, not you and not I. Just take one moment and think of the possibility you might be wrong. Ironically, you gave the perfect example. So remember back to before YOU were born. There WAS silence and blackness, then suddenly you were given life. I like to think the same could be true in death.
Well, I'm not worried about being dead. Been there, (or as near as makes no difference) done that and it was easy.
In answer to your question, 'what will that be like', the only answer I can give is that it isn't 'like' anything. Nor do we care, for the simple reason that there is nobody to do the caring . Once we are unaware, nothing matters for us, nor ever has mattered.
The actual death, no.
It's definitely worth thinking about it, seeing as it is everything's ultimate fate.
No, I can't say that I am. I don't want an unpleasant death, and many are, so perhaps that is something I would dread. But death itself, no, its inevitable and it isn't something that worries me. That doesn't mean I don't want to prevent it for as long as possible out of simply the fact that I enjoy living.
This is for those who do not believe the "soul" lives on. I personally prefer to believe the passed person is somehow still with us. Gone is not necessarily gone, just something we perceive. At any rate, here goes.
There's a period of time during the death process in which the synapses start to disconnect as the brain shuts down. During this period of time, the brain would be induced into something of a dream like state as consciousness is lost. To those in the living world, this could be minutes. But to the person dying, like a dream, it is an eternity.
That's it, until someone who died tells us otherwise, take your pick..
Nope. I am scared to live long with some disability or disease that will make me wish I was dead. Death is small.
Same. I've known people with Alzheimer's and that is something I am legitimately scared of. Hopefully if I did have it, my mind would be so gone that I wouldn't be aware of it.
I "should" have to do nothing of the kind! I'm not the one who just stomped on an innocent person for the thoroughly brazen act of DARING to care about another person. That's on YOU, pal, REGARDLESS of your beliefs!
As to whether you're an atheist, well, "by their fruits you shall know them."
"That's not too much of a sweeping generalization. Which people? Have you conducted research and done surveys to produce actual data, or are you just spewing and projecting your own biased opinions onto others?"
I didn't have to do the research. It was already done:
http://atheism.about.com/od/atheistbigotryprejudice/a/Atheists-Trusted-Less-Than-Rapists.htm
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/in-atheists-we-distrust/
"And, BTW, I'm not even an atheist. It's presumptuous of you to call me one without being hampered by facts. Non-Christians are not automatically atheists."
You're right. You could worship Martian ant tw*t for all I know. You still act like an insensitive male appendage.
That's why I like the reincarnation paradigm. You get to start over from scratch each time. Be careful, though. Those who believe in reincarnation suggest that you come back in worse shape than when you left if you waste your life while here. Damned if I wanna come back as a real pr*ck on account of having wasted this life. :-)
That's why I'm a member of EXIT.
It gives me the capacity to have a peaceful and painless death when the right time comes.
There is no need nor point in being scared of something that is inevitable and guaranteed.
We all know that death is absolutely certain. What we don't know is where you got your certainty from that "There is no afterlife,"
If we have appeared here totally out of our control, then how can we rule out us appearing elsewhere? Something that's happened once can surely happen again.
There are many things in our lives that have been decided for us, including the age, country, family, wealth, "royalty" [if any] in which we have been born. We played no part whatsoever in those decisions. Something or someone else did. That something or someone also devised the laws or rules that govern everything including our breathing, digestion, blood circulation and even our thinking and consciousness.
All that, and much more, give us a rough idea about this something or someone.
still seems scary to me
