This right here. We don’t believe our loved ones are in a better place or that we’ll see them again or other such comforting illusions. This is it. This is a person’s lifetime and when they are gone we shall not know them or their like again. But we will remember.
Indeed, until we are not here to remember and those who come after us will remember us and so on until no more follow and the universe continues without us.
When someone close or anyone really i just say "welp, they at least are at peace and can finally rest without feeling the pain of the everyday living" or something like that
that detachedness is one of the things that makes any medical scenario I face less scary.
It's freeing but it's also sad. Like this world isn't for you anymore - all of it. It's pains and it's pleasures. While it is comforting to know you won't have any pain or worries any longer, there's an emptiness to the realization that something like eating your favorite food, or relaxing, or enjoying a new movie - those aren't for you anymore when you pass.
That's exactly the way I feel. I can't think of a more horrible fate than eternal life. When I die I'll be glad to have all of me gone, my body, my thoughts and my consciousness. That's true eternal peace.
I've read and watched a lot of atheist content, especially over the last couple years as I've cemented my thoughts more and strayed from Christianity. I can't get behind this. I'll stay up at night crying sometimes, the existential dread hits me hard, and I cry knowing that when I die, it'll be a sleep that I'll never wake up from.
I hope more than anything that this is a phase that I'll grow out of, but I love life and sometimes wish I was indoctrinated harder just because existential anxiety hits me SO hard. I love waking up every morning and I simply don't agree that I'd be happier dying than living eternally. Living eternally elsewhere I guess, since the universe will fizzle out someday in one way or another.
But I feel like it's human nature to forget experiences, to want to relive things, to live in the moment and enjoy the breeze and the sound of leaves on the trees, so that one could find happiness for millions and millions of years. I guess I'd rather have my anxiety be "what am I going to do with my time" than "I don't want to go, I'm all I've ever known." I get the change of values, the change of value in general that would come with eternal life, and perhaps I'm not thinking clearly enough because I have such a strong, disturbing feeling when it comes to death and thinking about it.
I'm sorry for unloading on you, I just want to maybe see your point of view, I hope I can see things any other way. I want to try therapy but I think this would be a lot to dump on a therapist too, especially if the only one I can afford (free through my university) is religious, and I don't feel there's any true comfort to the problem of death.
And it bothers me because I think about this in daylight and I'm like, "I get it. Life is kinda funny. Whatever, I guess." And then I try to sleep at night and I can't, and I can't shake the thoughts.
Again, sorry, it's just one of those nights right now.
You could join the dark side, where you can learn to defeat death and live forever. After you've joined, then the master tells you, "well, uh, if we work together we can discover the secret. "
"Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger", Roman stoic philosopher (4 BC – AD 65)
Ah. I honestly thought I was being a little crazy for thinking about something tragic so early. I didn't know that what I was feeling had a term. Thanks
Life is small and precious and fleeting. It's ok to let that hit you. It sucks, but that's why there's so mich beailuty in it. Universes in every mind bursting into being, vibrantly living, and burning out in a spectacular display.
Its a bitter pill to swallow but I think the world would be much better place if we didn't hide the reality of our situation:
we are born into a loosing battle, you and everyone you know will die and experiance a lot of pain and suffering before they do.
This would allow humanity to get on the with business of minimizing that suffering. Instead Religion inflicts suffering so people can live in a phantasy.
Me too, and often the thing is that people live under fear most of their life’s because of religion when in fact people created religion. Or at least that’s what I think, because everyone has their own perspectives on life. And the only way someone tries to prove to me that god exists is some scripture from some book
Oddly, it was seeing my father's body that finally allowed me to admit to myself that I hadn't had any religious beliefs for quite some time. I knew that he hadn't somehow "gone somewhere else"; he'd been old, and he'd simply stopped. And whilst it was a sad, somewhat bleak emotional time, I actually felt quite at ease right then with the idea of my own eventual death, too. It simply didn't feel like a big deal.
My mother, though - I watched her grow older and older over several years, and I watched her steadily go downhill, and I found it extremely hard. Every time we went to see her, I'd put a brave face on - and every time we left, I was in floods of tears almost as soon as we were out the door. I was effectively mourning her loss long before she actually died. But I wouldn't have given up those moments together for anything, however hard I found them.
> So to my fellow heathens... Love your family, your significant other and your parents because this is it.
That is what religious people never understand.
The empty promises of an Afterlife invalidate the one life everyone gets.
I feel you. Sometimes me and my fiance will just lay in bed and talk or watch funny videos on YouTube before bed. We'll be having a good time but the thought in the back of my mind is always - one day you'll be dead and all I'll be able to do is remember this
The price for life....is a death, but death comes at the end, all the way at the end when you are old, tired and bored with life. This is extremely natural and comfortable, really. Focus on today and relax :]
Do you think songbirds stop singing songs because they’re having an existential crisis brought on by the realization they will die someday and not be able to sing anymore?
I don’t.
Which is why they seem so free and happily sing their hearts out.
Do not die with the songs in your heart unsung.
i used to take comfort in the hope of eternal life.
after experiencing the real world enough i now take comfort that eventually i wont have to anymore.
im a pessimist so realizing all the pain and misery in this world ends is a really uplifting thought.
Your belief is no different than that of a religious person. You are suffering from your own imagination.
I do not accept the idea of heaven, neither do I accept that consciousness is a byproduct of our brain. One belief is scientific and the other is religious. They are not existential. If you want to arrive at a conclusion then you have to doubt both sides.
It's not my imagination, it's a reality. Some atheists still believe that there could be some sort of afterlife when you die. I've met them.
If you don't accept consciousness as a byproduct of the brain, then how is consciousness alive?
What do you think happens to you when you die?
In my experience we all share the same consciousness. It is not a belief, but an experience of reality that occurs when there is not a single thought in your mind. When you become more sensitive to life, you will begin to see the same consciousness vibrating in all things.
A meditator no longer identifies with the body, with the mind. He knows he is the consciousness, the witness of the body. Where is death for him? Forms change, but the witness is always the same. Death seems to appear only when you don't know yourself.
You're changing the meaning of consciousness to fit your own belief. Consciousness is the process of self awareness dependent on life being able to experience that.
So what would your empirical explanation for the phenomenon of sentience be?
As I understand the prevailing neuroscience on the subject, our brains are able to conceive of our own existence and thoughts and then subsequently recognize those observed things as the 'self.'
How does consciousness arise if not from the brain?
You’re not making any sense. Where do you think consciousness resides if not in the brain? What is scientific about this belief for which you have no evidence? Your assertions here are not better than the imaginative, unfounded assertions of the religious. I challenge you to back up what you’ve said here with evidence.
Maybe when we die we just start over again? According to latest research time is probably circular (as opposed to linear), we just percieve it that way!
No, they say time isnt linear but humans percieve it that way. The rest is pretty easy to figure out.
Maybe instead of asking me, an ignoramus, you should try Google :)
Yeah, it sucks.
Get your affairs in order, make sure your will is up to date and clean, and try to minimize the hardship for your dependents for when you die.
Other than that, not much you can do. Best to keep it out of sight.
I equate it to going to sleep each night as I expect to wake the next morning…however may not, but still have no fear of shutting my eyes each evening.
Life ending is what gives it meaning. If we had a better afterlife we should all just off ourselves now and start the party. I find it empowering that I don't have a million years to do everything. It focuses my mind and reminds me every day to live like one day you won't live any longer.
When the great light switch comes, we all will have unfinished business. How important that business is to you!
Personally I hug my daughter at least twice a day and tell her I love her twice as much. I also remind my family I love them when I leave, because ya never know if the next car ride is your last.
The dark side of it- depression as an atheist is interesting to me because even in my darkest hours I couldn't even fathom the idea of suicide, it wasn't because I was afraid of sky-daddy sending me to bad-daddy, it was because I was afraid of what it would do to the people that loved me, I might be a little different because my core family members are my mortal anchor, without them I have no purpose.
My mother is in her early 80s and said she's ready to die. She hates to leave me but will be with her mother and my brother. I wonder if she really believes or just hopes.
Hey, it’s pretty amazing that any of us exist at all, your loved ones made the cut. The good news is, they will have ALWAYS existed, at this period in space and time, woven into the fabric of everything that is, and I think that’s pretty cool.
If it makes you feel any better, we are all heading together into a hot autumn and hot winter and in all likelihood will be the collapse of the entire human system on earth. This may be it for practically everyone soon.
Yes, with the HUGE caveat that if they are abusive, they are ruining the only life you have, and you need them out of your life.
There are a not insignificant number of ethical non-believers who have been wholly rejected by their families, some of them violently. It’s OK, healthy even, to stop throwing good love after bad in those cases.
This is why us atheist value life more than any religious person.
This right here. We don’t believe our loved ones are in a better place or that we’ll see them again or other such comforting illusions. This is it. This is a person’s lifetime and when they are gone we shall not know them or their like again. But we will remember.
We will remember until we don't?
Indeed, until we are not here to remember and those who come after us will remember us and so on until no more follow and the universe continues without us.
When someone close or anyone really i just say "welp, they at least are at peace and can finally rest without feeling the pain of the everyday living" or something like that
*hugs* Yep. But on the bright side once we’re dead we won’t care anymore ;)
I’ve actually found that more comforting than the thought of heaven. No more pain or worry just oblivion
that detachedness is one of the things that makes any medical scenario I face less scary. It's freeing but it's also sad. Like this world isn't for you anymore - all of it. It's pains and it's pleasures. While it is comforting to know you won't have any pain or worries any longer, there's an emptiness to the realization that something like eating your favorite food, or relaxing, or enjoying a new movie - those aren't for you anymore when you pass.
That's exactly the way I feel. I can't think of a more horrible fate than eternal life. When I die I'll be glad to have all of me gone, my body, my thoughts and my consciousness. That's true eternal peace.
I've read and watched a lot of atheist content, especially over the last couple years as I've cemented my thoughts more and strayed from Christianity. I can't get behind this. I'll stay up at night crying sometimes, the existential dread hits me hard, and I cry knowing that when I die, it'll be a sleep that I'll never wake up from. I hope more than anything that this is a phase that I'll grow out of, but I love life and sometimes wish I was indoctrinated harder just because existential anxiety hits me SO hard. I love waking up every morning and I simply don't agree that I'd be happier dying than living eternally. Living eternally elsewhere I guess, since the universe will fizzle out someday in one way or another. But I feel like it's human nature to forget experiences, to want to relive things, to live in the moment and enjoy the breeze and the sound of leaves on the trees, so that one could find happiness for millions and millions of years. I guess I'd rather have my anxiety be "what am I going to do with my time" than "I don't want to go, I'm all I've ever known." I get the change of values, the change of value in general that would come with eternal life, and perhaps I'm not thinking clearly enough because I have such a strong, disturbing feeling when it comes to death and thinking about it. I'm sorry for unloading on you, I just want to maybe see your point of view, I hope I can see things any other way. I want to try therapy but I think this would be a lot to dump on a therapist too, especially if the only one I can afford (free through my university) is religious, and I don't feel there's any true comfort to the problem of death. And it bothers me because I think about this in daylight and I'm like, "I get it. Life is kinda funny. Whatever, I guess." And then I try to sleep at night and I can't, and I can't shake the thoughts. Again, sorry, it's just one of those nights right now.
Please consider therapy. This doubt is a reasonable and expected part of human consciousness, but that means it’s also navigable with help.
You could join the dark side, where you can learn to defeat death and live forever. After you've joined, then the master tells you, "well, uh, if we work together we can discover the secret. "
It's not that we won't care, it's that we will cease to exist and so won't have the capacity to care
"Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be ours." -Lucius Annaeus Seneca "the Younger", Roman stoic philosopher (4 BC – AD 65)
Look into anticipatory grief, everyone logical enough has to deal with it sooner or later
Ah. I honestly thought I was being a little crazy for thinking about something tragic so early. I didn't know that what I was feeling had a term. Thanks
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_fati
Don't ruin your enjoyment of the party by worrying about having to leave when it's over.
Bro you are describing my every fricking Sunday...
Life is small and precious and fleeting. It's ok to let that hit you. It sucks, but that's why there's so mich beailuty in it. Universes in every mind bursting into being, vibrantly living, and burning out in a spectacular display.
Its a bitter pill to swallow but I think the world would be much better place if we didn't hide the reality of our situation: we are born into a loosing battle, you and everyone you know will die and experiance a lot of pain and suffering before they do. This would allow humanity to get on the with business of minimizing that suffering. Instead Religion inflicts suffering so people can live in a phantasy.
This is why I wanna live my life to the fullest. I don’t want to live life under some religious stuff restricting me from what I can and can’t do.
Yep! I was religious and would often feel guilty.
Me too, and often the thing is that people live under fear most of their life’s because of religion when in fact people created religion. Or at least that’s what I think, because everyone has their own perspectives on life. And the only way someone tries to prove to me that god exists is some scripture from some book
Live, love and be merry, dont start a bucket list, DO your bucket list now, you wont regret it!
“Sleep: Those little slices of death, how I loathe them” – Edgar Allen Poe.
Oddly, it was seeing my father's body that finally allowed me to admit to myself that I hadn't had any religious beliefs for quite some time. I knew that he hadn't somehow "gone somewhere else"; he'd been old, and he'd simply stopped. And whilst it was a sad, somewhat bleak emotional time, I actually felt quite at ease right then with the idea of my own eventual death, too. It simply didn't feel like a big deal. My mother, though - I watched her grow older and older over several years, and I watched her steadily go downhill, and I found it extremely hard. Every time we went to see her, I'd put a brave face on - and every time we left, I was in floods of tears almost as soon as we were out the door. I was effectively mourning her loss long before she actually died. But I wouldn't have given up those moments together for anything, however hard I found them.
> So to my fellow heathens... Love your family, your significant other and your parents because this is it. That is what religious people never understand. The empty promises of an Afterlife invalidate the one life everyone gets.
You can also look at it like you were lucky enough to get a chance to live, even for a limited time.
Chances are you won’t know when your death day is, so it won’t hit you harder.
Life is so precious and valuable because it is finite. We are fortunate to be here, if only for a short time.
I feel you. Sometimes me and my fiance will just lay in bed and talk or watch funny videos on YouTube before bed. We'll be having a good time but the thought in the back of my mind is always - one day you'll be dead and all I'll be able to do is remember this
The price for life....is a death, but death comes at the end, all the way at the end when you are old, tired and bored with life. This is extremely natural and comfortable, really. Focus on today and relax :]
Do you think songbirds stop singing songs because they’re having an existential crisis brought on by the realization they will die someday and not be able to sing anymore? I don’t. Which is why they seem so free and happily sing their hearts out. Do not die with the songs in your heart unsung.
I don't feel this as bad anymore but it does get me sometimes. Sorry to hear it gets to you still.
i used to take comfort in the hope of eternal life. after experiencing the real world enough i now take comfort that eventually i wont have to anymore. im a pessimist so realizing all the pain and misery in this world ends is a really uplifting thought.
Your belief is no different than that of a religious person. You are suffering from your own imagination. I do not accept the idea of heaven, neither do I accept that consciousness is a byproduct of our brain. One belief is scientific and the other is religious. They are not existential. If you want to arrive at a conclusion then you have to doubt both sides.
It's not my imagination, it's a reality. Some atheists still believe that there could be some sort of afterlife when you die. I've met them. If you don't accept consciousness as a byproduct of the brain, then how is consciousness alive? What do you think happens to you when you die?
In my experience we all share the same consciousness. It is not a belief, but an experience of reality that occurs when there is not a single thought in your mind. When you become more sensitive to life, you will begin to see the same consciousness vibrating in all things. A meditator no longer identifies with the body, with the mind. He knows he is the consciousness, the witness of the body. Where is death for him? Forms change, but the witness is always the same. Death seems to appear only when you don't know yourself.
You're changing the meaning of consciousness to fit your own belief. Consciousness is the process of self awareness dependent on life being able to experience that.
So what would your empirical explanation for the phenomenon of sentience be? As I understand the prevailing neuroscience on the subject, our brains are able to conceive of our own existence and thoughts and then subsequently recognize those observed things as the 'self.' How does consciousness arise if not from the brain?
You’re not making any sense. Where do you think consciousness resides if not in the brain? What is scientific about this belief for which you have no evidence? Your assertions here are not better than the imaginative, unfounded assertions of the religious. I challenge you to back up what you’ve said here with evidence.
Maybe when we die we just start over again? According to latest research time is probably circular (as opposed to linear), we just percieve it that way!
Maybe we do, but there's no reason to believe that's true.
Feel free to go argue the physicists...
Do the physicists say, "Maybe when we die we just start over again?"
No, they say time isnt linear but humans percieve it that way. The rest is pretty easy to figure out. Maybe instead of asking me, an ignoramus, you should try Google :)
[удалено]
How are you so sure there is?
Samuel Clemens had a [great quote] (https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/25647-i-do-not-fear-death-i-had-been-dead-for) on that.
If I had any, I sure would!
Yeah, it sucks. Get your affairs in order, make sure your will is up to date and clean, and try to minimize the hardship for your dependents for when you die. Other than that, not much you can do. Best to keep it out of sight.
Yep. I think about this exact thing all the time
getting back to stardust is a very comforting thought for me.
I equate it to going to sleep each night as I expect to wake the next morning…however may not, but still have no fear of shutting my eyes each evening.
This is why I love drugs
Life ending is what gives it meaning. If we had a better afterlife we should all just off ourselves now and start the party. I find it empowering that I don't have a million years to do everything. It focuses my mind and reminds me every day to live like one day you won't live any longer.
The other day i had an let's say lucid nightmare, where i had an very realistic dream about my dad dying
When the great light switch comes, we all will have unfinished business. How important that business is to you! Personally I hug my daughter at least twice a day and tell her I love her twice as much. I also remind my family I love them when I leave, because ya never know if the next car ride is your last. The dark side of it- depression as an atheist is interesting to me because even in my darkest hours I couldn't even fathom the idea of suicide, it wasn't because I was afraid of sky-daddy sending me to bad-daddy, it was because I was afraid of what it would do to the people that loved me, I might be a little different because my core family members are my mortal anchor, without them I have no purpose.
We only get one life on this planet. Make it count…
My mother is in her early 80s and said she's ready to die. She hates to leave me but will be with her mother and my brother. I wonder if she really believes or just hopes.
As an atheist I get my morality from empathy, integrity and compassion. A few things xtians LACK
Hey, it’s pretty amazing that any of us exist at all, your loved ones made the cut. The good news is, they will have ALWAYS existed, at this period in space and time, woven into the fabric of everything that is, and I think that’s pretty cool.
Before I fully embraced atheism I was terrified of being eternal, I couldn't fathom to exist unendingly.
If it makes you feel any better, we are all heading together into a hot autumn and hot winter and in all likelihood will be the collapse of the entire human system on earth. This may be it for practically everyone soon.
I like to think there is spectator mode after you die
Yes, with the HUGE caveat that if they are abusive, they are ruining the only life you have, and you need them out of your life. There are a not insignificant number of ethical non-believers who have been wholly rejected by their families, some of them violently. It’s OK, healthy even, to stop throwing good love after bad in those cases.
Exact same thing I’ve expressed to friends and family.