# can you live with knowing after death there is nothing



## tiggerific

Just wondering as it is something that has never bothered me.
I kind of feel good about it knowing I will be putting something back into the ground that I have taken from my whole life, so having nothing after death is not something I am afraid of.
Just wondering if anyone else thinks about it that way, or is the need to believe in something that keeps you going, or keeps you sane.
Or would life seem pointless if there was no sort of after life or heaven?


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## MynameisnotDeja

You don't KNOW after death there is "nothing". None of us know what happens after death. But the choices are not two mutually exclusive options: some sort of heaven vs absolute nothingness. "Something" wouldn't have to = a continuation of our normal human ego consciousness. There could be "something" we wouldn't even be able to perceive or understand while in the state we are in now. 

But to answer your question, no I am not afraid if there was "nothing". I had a pretty deep "trip" while on an insane amount of nitrous (lol) once... it felt like I'd died and I didn't know who I was anymore, I wasn't anything. It was just this pleasant, peaceful darkness that went on forever.. like the deepest sleep. Wouldn't be a bad thing if death were something like that, in my view.


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## Jabberwocky

The proposition of there being nothing does not bother me. 



> Just wondering if anyone else thinks about it that way, or is the need to believe in something that keeps you going, or keeps you sane.
> Or would life seem pointless if there was no sort of after life or heaven?


Speaking of that, its asserted in the book The God Part of the Brain that atheists are much more likely to commit suicide, have mental problems, and suffer from more stress related health problems. True or not, it may be that spirituality helps out in some extra-spiritual ways.


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## JackARoe

Good question.  For me the thought of nothingness is close to bliss.  The bliss of an opiate nod, deep sleep that we happily engage in and even crave, and other times of no awareness are sought out and experienced.  So if nothing happens then we could never know or miss so it's moot. Not suffering has to be bliss.

But I do not think we will get off so easily.    It's easier to think there is nothing when we don't understand, but even logically that doesn't seem so.  All indication even in a word of particles is that information can not be lost (the whole black whole debate).  So since we are information packages it follows reason that the info can't be lost.  But that is as far as any evidence goes until we reach our subjective experiences.  I won't engage in debates, but I will say what one experiences for themselves is the truth of the matter.  I think at the core of all religions and mystical teachings there is truth that becomes apparent even when one just wishes for nothingness.  In other words the whole idea that an afterlife is "comforting" and that's why people "believe" is silly.  People don't just cling to beliefs, that would be insulting.  People sometimes look for an explanation of the wild thing they just experienced.  Look at how much commotion DMT causes.


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## MynameisnotDeja

> For me the thought of nothingness is close to bliss.



Even though I don't personally believe there is "nothing" after death, I do agree that it's blissful to know that I won't have to be trapped in this existence, being this girl, forever. I love myself, but that would be torture. I am okay with setting my energy free and letting go of this ego consciousness after my body has had enough.


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## eon_blue

All the more reason to appreciate living the life you have now, knowing for certain it's the only one you'll be given.


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## Jamshyd

I can only *hope* for nothing after death. That would be spectacular.


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## Jackal

As far as I am concerned the prospect of nothing after one's death is all the more reason to live now.

And I am not a fucking optimist, in case anybody wondered.


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## Changed

Jamshyd said:


> I can only *hope* for nothing after death. That would be spectacular.



.

but not out of fear of Hell-- just so I can finally get some rest.


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## MyDoorsAreOpen

No. If it were provable beyond any reasonable doubt that there was nothing, ever again, after death, and that all I strove for and endured in this life would ultimately be for nought, I'd take my exit immediately.


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## Bardeaux

Yes. It would provide more motivation to make something out of my one and finite life rather than to just coast through it. If I knew for sure that once the ride is over it is OVER I think I  would try to enjoy it as much as possible while I have the opportunity. 

If there was no light at the end of the tunnel it would be all the more reason to hang on to the here & now imo.


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## Jamshyd

Changed said:


> .
> 
> but not out of fear of Hell-- just so I can finally get some rest.



You assume too much, hunny .


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## Changed

Jamshyd said:


> You assume too much, hunny .



I didn't mean to implicate you, specifically, as a believer of non-believer. I've just met too many people that 'hang on to' Christianity solely for fear of going to Hell if they don't; my post was pointed at _those _people.


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## anarchogen

it would be comforting ,more then anything else


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## Apostacious

If indeed, the most profound thing I experience is contained within my body, then I would consider the process of bodily decay, extreme suffering (which no one is immune to, unless you're constantly high until you perish), and awareness of the process and where it will lead as an insult, and a cosmic joke which the universe plays upon itself.  However, it still doesn't completely bother me, because there is nothing I can do about it, and also because I am not entirely convinced whether or not my Self ends with my body.


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## Belisarius

I believe something goes on, but acknowledge the possibility that there's nothing; I'm not sure it matters.  My waking up some morning a dyed-in-the-wool atheist won't going to turn me into a _carpe diem_ libertine because this is it; it's simply not me.  Honestly, what I care about more than anything is just living a life in accordance with my morals; afterlife or not, if I can make it to the end with a clear conscience, I'll feel I did all right.


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## L2R

Jamshyd said:


> I can only *hope* for nothing after death. That would be spectacular.



tell you what, meet you on the other side and if there is nothing there, i'll buy you a coke.


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## stevein7

I  can imagine hanging on to this life at the final moments, absolutely terrified of the inevitable. 


Like the salvia trip where you do not come back.


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## ugly

I would love it if there was just loss of consciousness and nothingness. I believe that I will be judged, and I have ask Jesus to forgive me being a sinner but if there was ever a sinner... I am she.

So I am locked towards that future but I am in the present and if I can live in the present, I can live with knowing that I have no way of knowing, for sure.


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## Cornishman

I believe Jesus will turn me into an angel.  

That way I can fly around and keep an eye on my family and friends.


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## ugly

^that would be pretty cool.


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## Shrooms00087

tiggerific said:


> Or would life seem pointless if there was no sort of after life or heaven?



First let me say, Heaven would be boring. Everyone going about happy as a clam. That'd annoy me if there wasn't any other emotions or good things to be done. Personally it has bothered me to know/figure, that the end will be infinite darkness even though I won't realize it. It helps to also consider that the odds that you would be here experiencing consciousness is overwhelmingly stacked against you.


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## SDforever420

Some friends and i were talkin about this over a bowl one night. When they asked me where i thought i was goin to go when i died i thought for a minute and said. Idk...fuck it i guess. What happens happens.


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## k.kat

years ago i used to say i hope i go to heaven as i don't want to go to hell,
IF heaven & hell exists and is as we believe how it is or made to believe how it is
heaven being all happy, full of non sinners, pure bliss, etc, etc
hell being full of despair , fire, torture, etc, etc
i would prefer to go to heaven
then one day while having a conversation with some friends about where we wanted to go one friend said to me 
so you'd rather go to heaven with all the bible thumpers
than go to hell with all the tokers,etc,
i said well when you put it like that i would rather to go to hell, lol,


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## TheAppleCore

MyDoorsAreOpen said:


> No. If it were provable beyond any reasonable doubt that there was nothing, ever again, after death, and that all I strove for and endured in this life would ultimately be for nought, I'd take my exit immediately.



Hm. The assumption that life is meaningless if there is no afterlife spurs some skepticism here.

It seems like it's hard for the human mind to comprehend intrinsic value in the here and now. Everything has to be goal-oriented... everything is a tool, a means to an end, always in the future, just out of reach. I, however, disagree. I don't think life is the brush and paint. I think it's the painting itself.


I'm perfectly O.K. with the idea that there's nothing after death, because there's a WHOLE LOT before it!


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## ColtDan

i reckon when you die thats it the end. no afterlife, no nothing. ive believed this for a long time. and after experiencing ego death on DMT i guess it could be something like that


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## DeMiZe-420-

thats why i live life to the fullest now, im preparing for the worst after i die


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## MyDoorsAreOpen

TheAppleCore said:


> It seems like it's hard for the human mind to comprehend intrinsic value in the here and now. Everything has to be goal-oriented... everything is a tool, a means to an end, always in the future, just out of reach. I, however, disagree. I don't think life is the brush and paint. I think it's the painting itself.



To conflate 'afterlife' with 'future' is kind of fallacious to me, since I suspect that time as we experience it is largely a function of our present human incarnation, and hasn't much meaning once we've died and become something else. And don't get me wrong -- I'm all about seeing value in the present moment.

What I mean is that I'm not ready to accept this life as a fluke accident, the likes of which will never be repeated, and which means nothing at all in the greater scheme of things. This is why I don't attend services by religious Humanists anymore -- I simply cannot draw any spiritual guidance from such a bleak starting point, and really don't relate to those, deep down, who can.


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## MynameisnotDeja

MyDoorsAreOpen said:


> *To conflate 'afterlife' with 'future' is kind of fallacious to me, since I suspect that time as we experience it is largely a function of our present human incarnation, and hasn't much meaning once we've died and become something else.* And don't get me wrong -- I'm all about seeing value in the present moment.



Agreed! I strongly believe this is true.


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## JackARoe

TheAppleCore said:


> It seems like it's hard for the human mind to comprehend intrinsic value in the here and now. Everything has to be goal-oriented... everything is a tool, a means to an end, always in the future, just out of reach. I, however, disagree. I don't think life is the brush and paint. I think it's the painting itself.



Exactly how I have felt.  More so than life not being just the brush and paint, the painting itself as the finished part of the journey is still missing that actual act of painting which brings joy.  As a musician playing improv, the guitar and equipment is nice, the end of the gig is nice, but the journey of creating from that space of joyous inspiration seems most important. So the creating comes from that place of inspiration, not worry.  Anything created had to at least be believed that it could be created or it wouldn't have been.

In other words, regardless of what people believe, being in the here now, and feeling the here and now, IS more important than what happens in what we look at as "later".  It's all NOW that seems to count.

And as far as what MDAO posted I also do not see life as a fluke.  Either everything is a fluke and has no purpose, or everything has purpose and is guided by choice.  To me it is one or the other. Life is really set up beautifully if we think about it.


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## Lazyscience

what if time is on a never ending loop and we are all destined to live the same life over and over for eternity without ever being aware of it?


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## k.kat

Lazyscience said:


> what if time is on a never ending loop and we are all destined to live the same life over and over for eternity without ever being aware of it?



well that would probably be ok if we are not aware of it, 
if we were aware then that would be a drag,
apart from the drugs, hehe


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## Psyduck

first things first...

can you live with knowing _before_ death there is nothing


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## MyDoorsAreOpen

I should clarify my position on all this a bit.

In light of Jamshyd's posts. I could definitely live with eternal extinction after this life, if I were fairly sure that this was the best possible alternative, and that I had earned it, a la Buddhists and Hindus reaching nirvana and escaping the cycle of samsara. In other words, if extinction were a result of this life of mine having inherent meaning, and my lack of afterlife were part of a greater plan, then that's fine. I see a world of difference, however, between this and facing certain extinction because I've decided this life is a random accident devoid of inherent meaning or plan.

TheAppleCore, I don't really see any contradiction between being a goal and purpose driven person, and either valuing this life or living in the present moment. I can buy a ticket for a slow boat to China, and both enjoy myself on the cruise AND look forward to docking in Shanghai, no?

Materialists / naturalists waxing poetic about how the lack of a forelife, afterlife, or cosmic plan makes this one life more valuable, always gave me the same kind of feeling as getting handed a consolation prize, or falling for a bait-and-switch. I get the logical flow of the argument and wasn't asking for clarification, so please, don't try to reword it and sell it to me again, anyone. I'm just stating that it never 'scratched the itch' for me.


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## Sweet P

tiggerific said:


> Just wondering as it is something that has never bothered me.
> I kind of feel good about it knowing I will be putting something back into the ground that I have taken from my whole life, so having nothing after death is not something I am afraid of.
> Just wondering if anyone else thinks about it that way, or is the need to believe in something that keeps you going, or keeps you sane.
> Or would life seem pointless if there was no sort of after life or heaven?



I don't believe in an afterlife, because I have no reason to. I actually quite like the thought of non-existence upon death. It certainly beats all the shit that existence seems to entail.


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## Lazyscience

but just think, the universe is really, really, really big, so big you might even call it infinite, and there may be other universes, maybe even an infinite amout of them all different and unique. this makes me think that there may be other possibilities of what happens when we die, after all, we are here right now arent we, why shouldnt we be something else after we die? for example, a life form made of gas on the other side of the universe.


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## F1n1shed

Well before you were born you were nothing and had no problem with it because the meaning of nothing is a blank nothing'. If it were to be the same after you die, than i don't see how that could bother you.


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## tuna

Psyduck said:


> first things first...
> 
> can you live with knowing _before_ death there is nothing



Sorry but that seems like a very egotistical comment, suggesting the world is all about you.


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## Equal Observer

Nothingness seems to me an impossible concept. Nothingness can't exist where there is something. So assuming everything and everyone that around you exists, then it will still be there when you die, so  there will not be nothing. But can nothingness exist independent of something, or can it be perceived? Well if it is being perceived then there will have to be a perceiver, hence there is actually something.

It's a lot harder to imagine nothingness rather than something. Energy cannot be destroyed. We still don't understand consciousness's connection to the body. And nothingness is nothing to fear because you simply would not be there to experience anything. So all in all, death looks quite exciting.


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## tuna

You need life and consciousness to be aware of existing. Now theres another debate for another thread, that probably exists 100 times in this forum. Does consciousness exist after death in some form


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## Vader

I actually find it very liberating, the fact (well, I believe it to be a fact) that there is no inherent purpose in life, and that there will be no afterlife. It means that what we are left with is like a blank canvas, something completely amorphous, that we are free to impose our own order on. Without God, or Heaven, our existence is like a block of marble that each of us must sculpt into something personally meaningful.  



> I can only hope for nothing after death. That would be spectacular.


Is "spectacular" quite the right word? It seems to me to imply the existence of experience, and of a subject- which is obviously not nothing.


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## nopipesdfw

It would feel like how I seemingly currently think I felt before I was born, complete blackout. There wouldn't be a spectrum of emotions or an active stream of conciousness to percieve.

That is fine by me if that is the case honestly. Moar reality is something I like, though. (I can only think about this, though. I'm not the guy in charge of that one.)



Yerg said:


> I actually find it very liberating, the fact (well, I believe it to be a fact) that there is no inherent purpose in life, and that there will be no afterlife. It means that what we are left with is like a blank canvas, something completely amorphous, that we are free to impose our own order on. Without God, or Heaven, our existence is like a block of marble that each of us must sculpt into something personally meaningful.



The word God had connotations of a garbage can in my head up until recently due to influences of monotheism. (I'm not whining, it did confuse and scare me as a child enough to stress me out though.)

Even if I knew there was some incredibly impressive force behind the contraption of the universe, I would have said it pretty much like that.


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## ugly

I could live with death. I don't care what happens after death, I'm just glad we get death and be even gladder when mine gets here.


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## Vader

> I could live with death.


Could you really???


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## ugly

I guess that would be impossible. I am just glad we get to die. I'm looking forward to being dead.


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## hobhead

all the crap about some sort of afterlife is a construct of man's fear .
you die, your carcass rots and what's to discuss, ponder or construct superstitious woo woo about .

do something well in this single life that we have .


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## nopipesdfw

hobhead said:


> all the crap about some sort of afterlife is a construct of man's fear .
> you die, your carcass rots and what's to discuss, ponder or construct superstitious woo woo about .
> 
> do something well in this single life that we have .



Yeah, people who ponder on a subject for a bit NEVER do productive things in their life! :D


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## anarchogen

hobhead said:


> all the crap about some sort of afterlife is a construct of man's fear .
> you die, your carcass rots and what's to discuss, ponder or construct superstitious woo woo about .
> 
> do something well in this single life that we have .



i personally fear eternity. its hard to comprehend non-existence though, not that its a bad thing.

i don't think being productive really means anything, happiness should be all that matters (unless the product is too a better world, i guess.)
though if productivity makes you happy then it should matter to the person that it does.


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## Shrooms00087

^

It's not too hard to comprehend non-existence. Because before existence you had to previously not exist. non-existence, existence, non-existence.


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## 33Hz

And when we die
Oh, will we be
That disappointed
Or sad
If heaven doesn't exist
What will we have missed
This life is the best we've ever had


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## paranoid android

I don't think there is a afterlife of any sort. I do not believe in heaven, hell, god nor the devil. I think that once we die that is the end of it. This is most of the reason why i think we should live life to the fullest as if we would be gone tomorrow.


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## TheAppleCore

MyDoorsAreOpen said:


> What I mean is that I'm not ready to accept this life as a fluke accident, the likes of which will never be repeated, and which means nothing at all in the greater scheme of things. This is why I don't attend services by religious Humanists anymore -- I simply cannot draw any spiritual guidance from such a bleak starting point, and really don't relate to those, deep down, who can.



I definitely understand what you mean when you say that you can't relate to others with radically different spiritual perspectives. Bonds with people are so much deeper if you've got a common spiritual ground.

And I don't think anybody should be "ready" to accept that idea -- there's simply no point. Once you say that life is an incidental fluke, there's no definition for "right" and "wrong", there's no basis for will, or action, and everything falls apart...

However, just because something has a clear beginning and an end, it's not necessarily meaningless. I sometimes think of reality as a single faceted crystal -- perfect, and finite.



MyDoorsAreOpen said:


> TheAppleCore, I don't really see any contradiction between being a goal and purpose driven person, and either valuing this life or living in the present moment. I can buy a ticket for a slow boat to China, and both enjoy myself on the cruise AND look forward to docking in Shanghai, no?



Definitely in full agreement here. Not mutually exclusive in any way. But, I perceived you to imply that one could not exist without the other -- mutual inclusivity rather than exclusivity. That if you didn't place value in the after- (or "outer-", perhaps more accurately) life, value couldn't be found in the present. Which I was attempting to argue against.


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## greenberryhaze

Here's my position:

Is there life _after _death? Do you _go _somewhere when you die? No, both of these imply moving forward in time, which can only happen within the confines of a particular universe. If you try to track a consciousness forward in time, it will eventually lead you to a grave. 

Does that mean our consciousness is extinguished at death? No, our consciousness is just a pattern of information, a class of algorithms that we can roughly identify with and which could exist in any interesting universe. Consider the first 1000000000 digits of pi, would they cease to exist if we forgot them forever?

I don't look forward to anything after death. I do believe that what I identify as my consciousness is independent of it's existence in this universe. I don't know whether to be comforted or terrified by this belief.


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## Vader

> the worst possible scenario after life for me is that idea that I retain my consciousness (thinking self), but am entirely alone in matterless, dark (or light) place for an eternity.
> 
> i'd rather some form of hell where at least I'd feel something.


You'd rather experience unthinkable pain and suffering than nothing at all?


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## debaser

The Great Nothingness. I really hope it does exist before birth and after death. I was really happy in 1839, thank you.


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## Vader

^You weren't anything in 1839.


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## debaser

^ That's my point.


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## bronson

My take is that you can't exactly plan for something that no one understands, so you may as well enjoy your time here as much as you can.  After that all one can do is to take it one step at a time.  If that next step is missing, then so be it.  That's out of our hands anyway.


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## fivelinefury

Sweet P said:


> I don't believe in an afterlife, because I have no reason to. I actually quite like the thought of non-existence upon death. It certainly beats all the shit that existence seems to entail.



Yup, I agree Sweet P.  My parents beleive in afterlife and are very positive people, and say all the usual stuff like "make the most of life while you can, etc".  Well why do you have to absolutely make the most of everything if you're coming back then, ha.  I am open to some spiritual beleifs, but I have no reason to beleive I have been here before, so why would I be here again.  I beleive you don't choose your birth and don't choose your death (unless you do so yourself of course).  I also actually find it more comforting to beleive nothing after death.  In the very back of my mind I always know there is a way out if needed one day.


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## TheAppleCore

Yerg said:


> You'd rather experience unthinkable pain and suffering than nothing at all?



Personally, I would answer this question in saying that, yes, being alive and suffering even to the most extreme degree is preferable to death. The claim that nonexistence is preferable to a suffering existence is equivalent to the claim that a suffering existence is actually a _destructive_ presence. Human beings tend to view suffering as destructive, because it is generally correlated with destruction (injury to the body, injury to welfare in general) -- but death is the _ultimate_ injury to body and mind.


Which is why I find it odd that there is a constant attempt to revise capital punishment methods to reflect more "humane" means of murder. Making an effort to avoid suffering in the total and complete destruction of someone's physical being seems rather silly IMHO.


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## Assassin of Youth

For me, knowing there is nothing after death is pretty much the only way I _could_ live. Thinking about heaven, hell, souls carrying on living... it all sounds pretty tiring and far-fetched to me. I like the fact that, before I was born, I didn't exist, and afterward I will cease to exist as well. It's comforting, and to be honest it's the only way I've found makes it possible for me to wrap my head around the concept of living, of life, at all.


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## TheAppleCore

^ Fantastic response.

A lack of an afterlife or pre-life actually makes _humanity_ sacred -- our flesh and bones are the physical vessel for our conscious selves, and when they vanish, so do we.


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## fivelinefury

^^ Agreed to both


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## Vader

> Personally, I would answer this question in saying that, yes, being alive and suffering even to the most extreme degree is preferable to death. The claim that nonexistence is preferable to a suffering existence is equivalent to the claim that a suffering existence is actually a destructive presence. Human beings tend to view suffering as destructive, because it is generally correlated with destruction (injury to the body, injury to welfare in general) -- but death is the ultimate injury to body and mind.


So could you never see yourself wanting euthanasia? I mean, I can certainly see how one's quality of life could deteriorate so far that it would just no longer be worthwhile. For instance, I imagine that if I was being tortured, I might eventually beg for death. Would you honestly rather spend another few days of having your teeth pulled out with pliers and your genitals hooked up to the mains, then being killed, rather than a quick bullet to the temple? I think that, even if you hold this as a philosophical position, in the real situaton you'd change your mind pretty quick.


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## TheAppleCore

^ I do believe that it's possible for one's quality of life to deteriorate to the point of making existence not worth the resources required to sustain it (hence my thread on the ethics of artificially sustaining the extremely elderly). However, I place some value, be it negligibly tiny or significant, on all life.

And, you're absolutely right -- if I ever found myself forced to choose between a long drawn out torturous death and a quick one, I'd pussy out, in layman's terms. :D In that sort of a situation, philosophical principle tends to go out the window.


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## rant*N*rave

Yes, and in fact, I'm doing it RIGHT NOW!




Having tried to off myself on more than one occasion, I'm pretty much COUNTING on death being the end of everything!


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## WeMustEscapeEarth

Hell yeah I can. I hope there is absolutely nothing after death. That sounds like heaven to me. I can't imagine everlasting bliss. I can believe an eternity in hell though. I'd probably get used to hell after a while. Sometimes I feel like I'm in hell.


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## bluedom

*Death is the high cost of living...*

Yep, I think it's all ashes to ashes, dust to dust. If there is anything after death, it is that all the information about you will be randomised and the atoms and quanta that make "you" up will become disconnected.

That's just what I believe based on a synthesis of all the scientific evidence out there. <-:


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## malakaix

I think i have much more to learn here, nothing after death would be to easy.


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## Portillo

Absolutely i can. Its the thought of an afterlife that scares me.


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## Changed

The next thought is: would the consensus of this thread be the same if we had never heard of a thing called 'religion'--all we knew was life...?


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## Roger&Me

What would be the point of death if there's something after it? 

Kind of melodramatic if that's the case, IMO. 

I really can't understand the irrational fear of death that so many people display. It's not some scary boogie-man, its a natural process that happens to every single being that lives.


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## Shrooms00087

malakaix said:


> I think i have much more to learn here, nothing after death would be to easy.



That's why life is hard.


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## ninjadanslarbretabar

MyDoorsAreOpen said:


> which means nothing at all in the greater scheme of things.



according to who ?
(you are the center of the mandala, and, we are all one)
just make it mean something and voila ?


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## ninjadanslarbretabar

Roger&Me said:


> I really can't understand the irrational fear of death that so many people display. It's not some scary boogie-man, its a natural process that happens to every single being that lives.



i dont think its as much of a fear of death as a fear that they lived it wrong
its a reflection on life, they are scared that they might have devoted their life to following a line that might lead to nowhere but oops too late now its over, cant do it again


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## ninjadanslarbretabar

to me this life as being great and awful, and i see after death as a mystery and i really would not want to live knowing if there is something or nothing afterward
and i think it suck how people want to believe in afterlife or in nothing, cuz then they base their life on what they believe in, and that belief in both case seem to be a closed minded stance to a open ended mystery 








and isnt death suppose to be the greatest mystery of them all ?
and isnt that the greatest thing ?


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## tiggerific

ninjadanslarbretabar said:


> to me this life as being great and awful, and i see after death as a mystery and i really would not want to live knowing if there is something or nothing afterward
> and i think it suck how people want to believe in afterlife or in nothing, cuz then they base their life on what they believe in, and that belief in both case seem to be a closed minded stance to a open ended mystery
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> and isnt death suppose to be the greatest mystery of them all ?
> and isnt that the greatest thing ?



Like it, new perspective, like living in the now, not planning not believing just allowing things to unfold as it happens with no expectations of sorts.


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## the black sun

i find it very hard to think that when i die there can just be nothingness. i think its because our brain cant process what nothingness would be and that we find it impossible to think its possible. therefore i  believe that something has to happen after death.

 to answer your question though, if i knew that there was nothing and we would just go back into the ground and pay back what we owe to the planet for basically giving us life in the first place then tbh that doesn't even sound that bad at all. it makes more sense and seems to have more truth to it than anything else really.


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## Shrooms00087

ninjadanslarbretabar said:


> to me this life as being great and awful, and i see after death as a mystery and i really would not want to live knowing if there is something or nothing afterward
> and i think it suck how people want to believe in afterlife or in nothing, cuz then they base their life on what they believe in, and that belief in both case seem to be a closed minded stance to a open ended mystery




Basing our lives on our deaths has been very prudent for us. Natural selection has randomly plotted out a path for our species. This happened because in death we knew existence wasn't there (or to humor, not the same) so we escape death as much as possible and reproduce as much as possible. To me death has never been a mystery, the animated life ceases to animate for infinity. All the cell rigors all the energy spent, everything that was used to animate now gone. The inner workings of death are clearly visible and I see that nothingness is in the same, as visible.

As I said before, it isn't hard to imagine. Your life cycle as it stands now you've already brushed up with nothingness.

Non-existence, existence, non-existence.


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## ebola?

Deja said:
			
		

> You don't KNOW after death there is "nothing". None of us know what happens after death.



However, it is THIS that I find unacceptable, yet it is this with which I must live. 



			
				Jamshyd said:
			
		

> I can only hope for nothing after death. That would be spectacular.



To try to introduce precision where I necessarily cannot, insofar as death is 'nothing', is it not necessary that it is 'non-being' which lies beyond our ability to conceptualize via negation?  That is, isn't this 'nothing' that particular non-thing which is absolutely not a non-"thing"?

ebola


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## qwe

Roger&Me said:


> What would be the point of death if there's something after it?
> 
> Kind of melodramatic if that's the case, IMO.
> 
> I really can't understand the irrational fear of death that so many people display. It's not some scary boogie-man, its a natural process that happens to every single being that lives.


logically, it does seem likely that there is nothing after death, and that does unsettle me

logically, it's also quite likely that there is something after death (something is producing our consciousness, and we don't know what/how; so we cannot know whether that something ceases to function when our bodies cease to function, or whether it is even fully in this spacetime)

personally, i'd prefer to exist forever, in at least some form or another.  maybe that's just my evolution talking


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## TheAppleCore

The question of whether there is "something" after death seems easily answered to me.

Yes. There is _something_. Death has occurred in the millions upon millions throughout history, and "something" is here. The sun is here. The earth is here. I'm here.

Do _you_ exist after death? Nope. "Your" death, _by definition_, means that the functional human organism that constitutes "you", ceases to exist.


So, when you die, you don't exist, but something else does.


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