# The Fear of Non-Existence



## Donny92 (Apr 21, 2014)

So I'm agnostic. I'm agnostic because I do not want to be an atheist. I believe religion is overall a good thing, and that it helps people cope with the possible reality _that_ is the title of this thread. It is my greatest fear. Nothing tops it. Even if I'm lonely in the real world, I still have something and that's myself. I might hate myself most of the time, but sometimes it feels like that's all I have, so we're stuck together.

Sarcasm notwithstanding, I just wanted to ask how you deal with it. The idea that something as precious as your life could be taken at any instant, and you'll no longer exist. Sometimes it scares me to even fall asleep, because that drifting feeling is kind of what I imagine life slipping away to feel like. I guess my biggest fear in all of this is that if there is no afterlife, there is no hope. If there is no hope, why should I care? Having a successful life and passing on the line with a couple kids doesn't really feel all that comforting to me.

Faith isn't really an option, because you can't force yourself to believe in something. I could lie to everyone and even to myself, but deep down I'll still feel the same way. Like I said, I'm an agnostic. Hope in an afterlife is the closest I can come to having faith. I guess ignorance really is bliss, because honestly, if I could, I would purge these thoughts from my head and believe.

So, how do you deal with this?


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## tieffers (Jan 26, 2013)

Many atheists aren't afraid of death, even though they believe in nonexistence after life, because you obviously won't mind not existing if you're without consciousness. It's a simple enough concept, but I'm just like you. I can't wrap my head around it, can't get even near comfortable with it. Literal nothingness is absolutely terrifying. Also my greatest fear. And I can even relate to your uneasiness with sleeping, because it often is like you cease to exist for those hours. It's like a death of sorts. Most people find so much comfort in it, being liberated from conscious thought and worry, but it's so damn upsetting to me too.

I deal with it by trying not to focus nor resist the thoughts too much. Both extremes will lead to obsessive worry and panic. It's so hard to find that medium, I know. I usually comfort myself with the idea that, in my opinion, there's a possibility for future incarnations. You are manifested as an advanced being with self-awareness in this present existence. It happened. You are here. There's no logical explanation for it, but it's an indisputable fact. And I would like to think that, because it's happened once, right now, that we're aware of, there's no reason it couldn't happen again.

I don't know if I'm making any sense, but that thought and almost belief gives me the greatest comfort. I hope that you find something to give you peace, too. I know how awful this existential dread is.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

Donny92 said:


> So I'm agnostic. I'm agnostic because I do not want to be an atheist. I believe religion is overall a good thing, and that it helps people cope with the possible reality _that_ is the title of this thread. It is my greatest fear. Nothing tops it. Even if I'm lonely in the real world, I still have something and that's myself. I might hate myself most of the time, but sometimes it feels like that's all I have, so we're stuck together.
> 
> Sarcasm notwithstanding, I just wanted to ask how you deal with it. The idea that something as precious as your life could be taken at any instant, and you'll no longer exist. Sometimes it scares me to even fall asleep, because that drifting feeling is kind of what I imagine life slipping away to feel like. I guess my biggest fear in all of this is that if there is no afterlife, there is no hope. If there is no hope, why should I care? Having a successful life and passing on the line with a couple kids doesn't really feel all that comforting to me.
> 
> ...


If you don't believe in a god then you are by definition already an atheist.

Note that the terms agnostic and atheist aren't exclusive. Most atheists are also agnostic. Being agnostic in this sense only means you don't know there is no god, which is a respectable position. Atheism only states _disbelief _in a god, not a position of knowledge that there isn't one, so there is no conflict.

Regarding your main point. It's a shame the idea that your existence is temporal is so distressing.

You say there is no hope without an afterlife. That's an unfortunate and potentially dangerous line of thinking. There is so much you can do during your life that can make you and others happy which makes your existence personally worthwhile.

If you aren't happy now, then why do you think you would be happy in an afterlife? Does something really have to last forever to have value? Millions of people are content with the transience of experiences. Be that the individual experiences or the sum of them which constitute out life.

Hopefully in time you will learn to accept reality and become happy with your place in it.


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## Greenwick (Oct 12, 2012)

Here are the two things I keep in mind. 1: If I am going to cease to exist, there isn't anything I can do about it and I won't be around to care. The only thing to do in that case is spend a lot of time with loved ones, since they are the ones I'm actually worried about - and I do, so I feel pretty good about that. 2: The things that make me up existed before I was born, and will continue to exist long after. I am a process that is happening to a tiny part of an enormous universe. So in that sense I am immortal, and the process that is me doesn't actually have to keep going forever. If I do start to get into some kind of existential crisis, I just look up the latest science news, especially stuff that many people are hoping will lead to post-scarcity. We may never get there, and that stuff may not pan out, but at least it gives me something cool to think about.


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## Gwynevere (Oct 6, 2013)

Sorry I can't help you much, it's just not something I fear. Ironic I guess, that I'm scared of literally everything, but not scared of a finite life. I guess I just never believed in religion so I never believed that I had an after life coming - so I don't now feel like I've lost this promise or anything, idk, that's how I've heard it described and I think it fits how I feel.


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## clari22a (Mar 9, 2014)

Awww, the fear of oblivion. There with be a day when all our hard work will turn to dust and the sun will swallow the earth and you may not believe in God but cope with it by thinking about cats and chocolate or girls or many other things that occupy your mind. You won't actually know if oblivion happens you won't feel a thing its like jumping off a building and you jump with your back towards the ground just sitting back and enjoying the ride.


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## Freyja (Jan 15, 2014)

Firstly, "I'm an agnostic" tells us nothing of your religious beliefs or lack thereof.
Either you're an agnostic atheist (like pretty much all atheists) or an agnostic theist (like the smarter theists): either you believe or you don't. 
Gnostic theists and gnostic atheists are both clearly wrong, as both claim to be able to prove something they cannot.

Usually, people that introduce themselves as "agnostic" are agnostic atheists, which means they actually hold the same position as atheists, but chose to explain it another way, for some reason (XKCD postulates said reason as "wanting to feel superior").


Secondly, the fear.
Some atheists are unafraid of oblivion, or at least claim to be.
I'm not one of them: annihilation terrifies me, but should I start lying to myself, inventing some kind of continuation of life just because I'm afraid?
I can't. Truth remains truth, regardless of one's emotional state.


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## charmquark (Apr 28, 2014)

This bothers me too sometimes, but I don't believe in, or bother hoping for, an afterlife. Not going to delude myself about that. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. I'm an agnostic atheist, as some of these other replies have mentioned, and for what it's worth, I think you are too.

But anyway, if there is no afterlife, how do I deal with oblivion? Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I just let the existential terror creep up on me. It's like the grown-up version of playing Bloody Mary: intentionally spooking myself for the entertainment value of it. But obviously I don't spend all my time like that or my life would be pretty pointless.

And that's how I deal with it. Here are the facts as I see them: Our consciousnesses are temporally limited. Eventually the thing that makes me me is going to be gone forever. I can do absolutely nothing about this and I can't know when it will happen. All I can do is try to keep myself healthy and safe to prolong my life, but there are no guarantees. If that's all true, my time right now is incredibly precious. I need to spend it wisely.

Whatever you think is a wise use of your time is personal to you, but my suggestion for you is to do whatever that is. I'm not saying you should be fine with the idea that your mind is going to stop existing someday, but just accept it for now as something you can't fix. Don't waste too much of your time worrying about the things you won't be able to do a hundred years from now. Instead, do something good today.

...Or at least that's how I deal with it, anyway.


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## Natsumachi (Apr 30, 2014)

Wow, this post made me actually cry a bit because it so accurately describes how I feel from time to time. It seems to be one of my biggest struggles in life, and if I think too hard about it, it feels like there's a black hole in my stomach.

I match this right down to wanting to say you're agnostic rather than atheist - I personally am an atheist but do have that feeling that I wish I didn't have to close the door completely on religion and maybe somehow I could find some comfort. But I also don't think I could force myself to believe in anything, so I actually am an atheist. My general belief is that religion is a human construction to try to explain all these difficult questions and to control society with rules, etc, so it seems clear that I could never come to believe in something religious.

As for coping, during my adolescent years I used to hide these feelings away because my mother told me it's not good to think about it - I think she was afraid I would become depressed if I think about it but in reality it was actually masking the problem. Nowadays I try to feel it when I get upset about this but not dwell on it. Then at least I feel like I "own" this pain, and even if it never gets resolved, it almost feels okay. Often I find that if I let myself feel this and be upset for a little bit, the fact that I'm living right now feels a bit more beautiful afterwards.

The main thing that seems to keep me hopeful is hoping that I can feel okay about dying when the time comes, and that I can work toward that somehow. I also try to find hope in perhaps having a child because supposedly when you have one you care about it more than yourself, so I hope that my perspective about never existing again might change if there is someone in the world who I feel is more important and precious than me. I also hope to work on living in the moment, which is something I have trouble with.

I don't know if my personal coping mechanisms would help you at all, but this post resonated with me so I felt like saying something.


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## Shylar (Feb 20, 2011)

Donny92 said:


> So I'm agnostic. I'm agnostic because I do not want to be an atheist. I believe religion is overall a good thing, and that it helps people cope with the possible reality _that_ is the title of this thread. It is my greatest fear. Nothing tops it. Even if I'm lonely in the real world, I still have something and that's myself. I might hate myself most of the time, but sometimes it feels like that's all I have, so we're stuck together.
> 
> Sarcasm notwithstanding, I just wanted to ask how you deal with it. The idea that something as precious as your life could be taken at any instant, and you'll no longer exist. Sometimes it scares me to even fall asleep, because that drifting feeling is kind of what I imagine life slipping away to feel like. I guess my biggest fear in all of this is that if there is no afterlife, there is no hope. If there is no hope, why should I care? Having a successful life and passing on the line with a couple kids doesn't really feel all that comforting to me.
> 
> ...


I've dealt with this fear at various times in my life, and what brought me the most comfort was reading NDE reports by people who had been pronounced clinically dead, and were eventually resuscitated. I mean, you can rationalize their experiences as some kind of dying brain hallucination, but after reading literally hundreds of them, I can't bring myself to believe that is the end all explanation for them. In other words, it convinced me of there being some kind of continuation of the mind after death.

Here is a place to start if you are curious like I was: http://www.near-death.com/evidence.html#a1

I hope it brings you the same comfort it brought me. Cheers.


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## jimmysheva (Nov 20, 2013)

the universe went on for billions of years without you existing so it will be fine after you stop existing.


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## Slytherclaw (Jul 16, 2011)

I don't have a fear of non-existence...it's just impossible to imagine. I honestly prefer believing I will cease to exist, rather than wondering if I might be subjected to eternal torture for not being "good" enough. So it doesn't bother me. I wouldn't have it any other way.


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## Donny92 (Apr 21, 2014)

Freyja said:


> Firstly, "I'm an agnostic" tells us nothing of your religious beliefs or lack thereof.
> Either you're an agnostic atheist (like pretty much all atheists) or an agnostic theist (like the smarter theists): either you believe or you don't.
> Gnostic theists and gnostic atheists are both clearly wrong, as both claim to be able to prove something they cannot.
> 
> Usually, people that introduce themselves as "agnostic" are agnostic atheists, which means they actually hold the same position as atheists, but chose to explain it another way, for some reason (XKCD postulates said reason as "wanting to feel superior").


I certainly wouldn't hold myself above anyone. You're talking to a guy who sees himself as a complete loser with no confidence in the things I even know I'm good at.

I would say that I don't believe, but I think that it's entirely possible that I'm wrong. The given explanations by the scientific community seem just as insane to me. Whether Earth or somewhere else in the universe had the first spark of life, it still means that in one second there was no life, and the next there was. Science may one day be able to prove how that happened, but for now it's still very much open to debate. You could have that whole primordial soup thing and without that unknown variable, it's still just a a swamp looking thing with no life.(That's just kind of how I imagine it) Maybe it was lightning that started it all, maybe something unknown to us as of yet. I'm just personally rooting for God.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

Donny92 said:


> I certainly wouldn't hold myself above anyone. You're talking to a guy who sees himself as a complete loser with no confidence in the things I even know I'm good at.
> 
> I would say that I don't believe, but I think that it's entirely possible that I'm wrong. The given explanations by the scientific community seem just as insane to me. Whether Earth or somewhere else in the universe had the first spark of life, it still means that in one second there was no life, and the next there was. Science may one day be able to prove how that happened, but for now it's still very much open to debate. You could have that whole primordial soup thing and without that unknown variable, it's still just a a swamp looking thing with no life.(That's just kind of how I imagine it) Maybe it was lightning that started it all, maybe something unknown to us as of yet. I'm just personally rooting for God.


Think about it this way, we don't seem to be that far off creating synthetic life, a 'second genesis', so if we can do it then it will make understanding how it occurs naturally more transparent.

Saying 'god did it', doesn't answer the question, as then the question is how did the god come to life? Answers to that such as god always existed so the question doesn't apply are double standard cop outs.


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## Donny92 (Apr 21, 2014)

ugh1979 said:


> Think about it this way, we don't seem to be that far off creating synthetic life, a 'second genesis', so if we can do it then it will make understanding how it occurs naturally more transparent.
> 
> Saying 'god did it', doesn't answer the question, as then the question is how did the god come to life? Answers to that such as god always existed so the question doesn't apply are double standard cop outs.


Look, I didn't start this thread to discuss how life evolved. I honestly don't care all that much. You said I didn't thoroughly explain my beliefs, so I did. My original question was "how do you cope with it?"

____________________________________
Not related to ugh1979's reply

I guess I should have mentioned that saying it doesn't matter because we can't change it is not really a super great answer. Actually, I'm pretty sure I would rather someone just call me a ***** and be done with it.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

Donny92 said:


> Look, I didn't start this thread to discuss how life evolved. I honestly don't care all that much. You said I didn't thoroughly explain my beliefs, so I did. My original question was "how do you cope with it?"


I'd already given you a reply to your original answer.

The discussion moved on, you spoke about your thoughts on the origin of life, and I responded appropriately.


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## Hayley Swifty (Apr 25, 2014)

I totally relate to this. It's terrifying.
This sounds stupid, but I find it really hard to believe that there'll just be nothing. That we can go from being alive and making decisions and hurting people and being inspired and all that ALIVE stuff to just, nothing. I don't believe in any god or afterlife, but there has to be something. I'm not even saying that out of fear, I just don't understand how consciousness can cease one day without any warning and all of a sudden, you don't exist anymore. I don't understand. I think it's almost impossible that there is a god, but I also don't believe we just die and decompose and become soil and get forgotten eventually when people who loved us die and decompose too. There's gotta be more than that.


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## Yer Blues (Jul 31, 2013)

Non-existence doesn't scare me, it's the getting to that point that does. Oh, and wasting what I do have left of this life scares me more.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

Hayley Swifty said:


> I totally relate to this. It's terrifying.
> This sounds stupid, but I find it really hard to believe that there'll just be nothing. That we can go from being alive and making decisions and hurting people and being inspired and all that ALIVE stuff to just, nothing. I don't believe in any god or afterlife, but there has to be something. I'm not even saying that out of fear, I just don't understand how consciousness can cease one day without any warning and all of a sudden, you don't exist anymore. I don't understand. I think it's almost impossible that there is a god, but I also don't believe we just die and decompose and become soil and get forgotten eventually when people who loved us die and decompose too. There's gotta be more than that.


Why does there have to be more to it? Why can't it just be temporal?

Are you happy to admit that you didn't exist prior to your birth? If so, why do you have a problem with returning to that state when you die?

Consciousness is the anomaly, non-existence is the norm.


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## bsd3355 (Nov 30, 2005)

I have a bigger fear of being old than being dead.


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## BlueTea (May 2, 2014)

I don't really think about what happens after I die at all. 

In fact, I'm still stuck on the part of "what it feels like to die." I haven't has a chance to experience that yet, let alone think about what happens after I die.


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## bottleofblues (Aug 6, 2008)

I guess my constant misery is such that i think that one day i'll leave this world, but its like so what? This life has been nothing but a ****en joke and waste of time, i have no value on my life i've achieved almost nothing, i don't live, i just survive so if i die why should it matter? My life is pointless and meaningless anyway so why would i cry over losing something that i don't really hold in high regard anyway?


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## Don Aman (Apr 5, 2014)

The notion of not existing does scare me but not nearly as much as the notion of eternal consciousness. I've had countless panic attacks as a result of contemplating the terrifying possibilities of the latter.


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## ndjokovic (Nov 23, 2013)

Our bodies are made of nanomachines. A machine can never have the ability to know its existence. It only follows the algorithms stored in DNA. This means that there's something special about us in addition to the atoms that form the molecular machines in our bodies.
I don't know if some of you saw a scientific experiment called "delayed quantum eraser" ?


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## cssgeni3 (May 5, 2014)

tieffers said:


> Many atheists aren't afraid of death, even though they believe in nonexistence after life, because you obviously won't mind not existing if you're without consciousness. It's a simple enough concept, but I'm just like you. I can't wrap my head around it, can't get even near comfortable with it. Literal nothingness is absolutely terrifying. Also my greatest fear. And I can even relate to your uneasiness with sleeping, because it often is like you cease to exist for those hours. It's like a death of sorts. Most people find so much comfort in it, being liberated from conscious thought and worry, but it's so damn upsetting to me too.
> 
> I deal with it by trying not to focus nor resist the thoughts too much. Both extremes will lead to obsessive worry and panic. It's so hard to find that medium, I know. I usually comfort myself with the idea that, in my opinion, there's a possibility for future incarnations. You are manifested as an advanced being with self-awareness in this present existence. It happened. You are here. There's no logical explanation for it, but it's an indisputable fact. And I would like to think that, because it's happened once, right now, that we're aware of, there's no reason it couldn't happen again.
> 
> I don't know if I'm making any sense, but that thought and almost belief gives me the greatest comfort. I hope that you find something to give you peace, too. I know how awful this existential dread is.


It's also very difficult for me to wrap my head around it. I would like to think of anything else, but all that's circling in my thoughts is the same thing. It's difficult, it's a torture. It's like a music playing in your head over and over again. Except that this thought panics me over and over again. No matter what I do, it's there.

I seem to understand that there's nothing else I can do about my existence. And more over, I feel betrayed by what I learned through my life, in terms of religion. So it's very hard to grasp and settle and enjoy life. I don't laugh anymore, because nothing seems fun, and it seems this way because the mind set is, "there's no point to it." It's frustrating.

I find that sleep it's peaceful. But then, when my body says it's time to wake up, I don't like it much. The first thing that comes to mind, is that.


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## Scootaloo (May 8, 2014)

Hi,

I gave up my old religion about a year ago. Truthfully, while I'm afraid of pain in this life, I haven't been afraid to die since a deadly illness I had at age 5. I look at it like this: Do you remember before you were born? I do not. It's a nothingness before my earliest memories. I don't worry about it. It's not scary. Just nothing.

I think my eventual death will be like that. Just nothing. I don't know if you would find comfort there, but I do.


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## minimized (Nov 17, 2007)

I don't get why nonexistence is scary. You didn't exist before and you won't exist again.

As for religion being helpful... psh. In a childish mindset it's helpful in this regard but unfortunately it promotes adults to keep acting like big spoiled children.


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## TooLateForRoses (Apr 19, 2014)

How i die is a much scarier topic to dwell on than what will happen to me after i die.


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## shyvr6 (Feb 18, 2008)

Some posts have been removed. Please keep debate out of this thread. Thanks.


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## Xaelphorious (Apr 21, 2014)

It's really nothing to be afraid of. If anything you should be happy, you're being freed from this wretched world into a world of eternal nothingness.


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## msbxa (Mar 24, 2011)

Well I have not logged in here in a LONG time but just happened to stop by and by chance find this very interesting topic. 
I have thought about this a lot before too. 
Here is what I think: 
I think that our existence in some form or another is actually not finite, but rather infinite. 
The reason why is because of the simple fact that we are existing right now. That alone says a lot. I'm not so sure that nothingness is even possible. Because if it was, there would simply be nothing, period. But that is obviously not the case. 
Another food for thought is to consider the timeline of the universe. Basically the universe seems to be of infinite time. So ultimately that means that the probability that we are existing right now is a miracle to say the least, basically it would approximate to impossible. (Given our concept of time). But, we are here. 
So then why do we not remember anything before and after our lives here? 
Well I don't know, but by the nature of the universe, or by existence, I think that there is something to reincarnation or regeneration. Some kind of continuous cycle. The death of one thing marks the transformation and beginning of something new. Just like how an apple decomposes into the earth, and then that stuff that is left over (I don't know what to call it), becomes a flower. This cycle just continues and I think that this would actually fit with describing the "big bang" that scientists believed as the beginning of the universe. Before that "big bang" maybe the universe existed in some other form. 
And yes as someone mentioned, death I guess is sort of like a kindness to sentient beings. That was a very good post I thought. Because if we did exist forever in one form only it would eventually become like an infinite torture. So the process of renewal is quite beautiful I guess. The only thing is that I think our lives here are too short. I wish they were longer because there are so many things to do here.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

msbxa said:


> Another food for thought is to consider the timeline of the universe. Basically the universe seems to be of infinite time. So ultimately that means that the probability that we are existing right now is a miracle to say the least, basically it would approximate to impossible. (Given our concept of time). But, we are here.


I had no real issue with most of your post, but the above doesn't follow logic IMO.

If there is infinite time, then everything that can happen will happen, so our existence is inevitable rather than miraculous.

Bear in mind the 'now' you speak of is relative.


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## Trones (May 15, 2014)

Heaven, not hell, scared the **** outta me... When does it stop... but when does it stop... how can it just keep going, what happens after, there isn't an after, but how?... I want my mommy.

The point is, what ever gives you hope, purpose and motivation to get things done, to achieve and have a positive impact on the world is what you should embrace.

Christianity makes me believe I am a piece a ****, pathetic, capable of nothing, ****** (by compulsion, not by choice... ****ing even just talking to girls is a sin so I guess I HAVE TO be gay).

Now I am a sociopathic (in all the good ways), nihilistic, douchebag, sexually transcendent (no stigma, its just pleasure neurons being activated), and I guess agnostic, but it doesn't really matter because I love every second of my life AND i am INSPIRED to discover all the wonders of the universe (multi-verses??) with the Venture Capital fund i will eventually have  Not to mention empowering other people to do the same.


So back on topic... I do not think our current generation will die of old age. Look up futurists like Ron Kurzweil. We are on the verge of defeating death of old age/disease.


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## persona non grata (Jul 13, 2011)

I don't really worry about it. When I was a kid I used to really stress about 'eternal return' though, which is when you keep reliving the same life forever. That's something that I don't think I'd choose.


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## msbxa (Mar 24, 2011)

ugh1979 said:


> I had no real issue with most of your post, but the above doesn't follow logic IMO.
> 
> If there is infinite time, then everything that can happen will happen, so our existence is inevitable rather than miraculous.
> 
> Bear in mind the 'now' you speak of is relative.


Yes that is true and I'm not going to disagree with that. But that is not really what I meant. I'm not saying that our existence is miraculous, I'm saying that the fact that we are existing _right now_ is miraculous, or rather, extremely low probability, given our concept of time. What is the definition of a 'miracle' anyway? I don't think it is necessarily something that is impossible, but rather also something very unlikely. Winning the lottery for example I could consider almost like a miracle. It is extremely unlikely to happen, but it can. Now in our whole lives if we only blink once, the probability of being in that very brief 'blink' state, is very unlikely. And if our lives were infinite, that probability would _approximate_ to impossible would it not? Therefore what I am saying is, (given our concept of time that is, of course what we know of as 'now' is relative), because we are here now, I think it is unlikely that this one life of ours is our only life/existence.


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## ugh1979 (Aug 27, 2010)

msbxa said:


> Yes that is true and I'm not going to disagree with that. But that is not really what I meant. I'm not saying that our existence is miraculous, I'm saying that the fact that we are existing _right now_ is miraculous, or rather, extremely low probability, given our concept of time. What is the definition of a 'miracle' anyway? I don't think it is necessarily something that is impossible, but rather also something very unlikely. Winning the lottery for example I could consider almost like a miracle. It is extremely unlikely to happen, but it can. Now in our whole lives if we only blink once, the probability of being in that very brief 'blink' state, is very unlikely. And if our lives were infinite, that probability would _approximate_ to impossible would it not? Therefore what I am saying is, (given our concept of time that is, of course what we know of as 'now' is relative), because we are here now, I think it is unlikely that this one life of ours is our only life/existence.


What do you mean by 'right now'? How is it any different from the 'now' of any point in time?

I don't see what any of this has to do with your claim that it's likely that we have multiple lives.


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## HelpfulHero (Aug 14, 2013)

So many places in my life I have encountered this idea that death is not the enemy. I encountered it in music, sci-fi, ancient philosophy, religion and to be honest it is quite useful. If you have no fear of your own death no one really has power over you. The next step (for me) is not to fear pain to push past it and let it wash over you like a wave. Pain is not the enemy either not emotional, or physical, or psychological. I wish I could read on the neurology of pain, but I do not have enough time to become an expert. As marcus aurelius said "I am just a little soul carrying about a corpse." I mean... how ****ING MANLY IS THAT? But I think the next phase in the evolution of man is to be stoic to be a robot made of metal and cold and simultaneously to be soft and warm and made of flesh. /subconsciousness is making a mixed drink of thoughts


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