Afterlife or nothing?
The last weird dream that I remember is when I was a bit more than half asleep. I was thinking about death and I was kind of sleep-dreaming that this is what death feels like. Knowing you're sleeping and being trapped in darkness forever and ever. Being blind and paralyzed but not being able to feel, just think.
It's a scary dream...maybe I'm really going off my rocker.
I've been thinking about dying and what comes after death a lot lately. It's really hard for me to believe in God as I was raised Athiest basically. I'm definitely Agnostic as I don't know what's out there. My dad's a Christian and I went to church with my friends a few times but my mom raised us as an athiest and told us that there was probably no God and told us about science.
Sometimes I want to believe in a God just to make myself feel better about the fact of death and that we all die. Being almost 26 years old and being raised as I was raised I don't think I'll ever truly believe in God.
When I think about it, I think a lot of people who claim they are "religious" honestly don't know if there is a God or not and they just want to believe to make them feel better about dying. I do know that there are a lot of people who truly believe in God, I just think a large portion of religious people don't know and they just want to believe.
Maybe believing in something isn't so bad. It makes death less scary. I know we didn't exist all those years before we were born either but that's different. Now we've experienced a huge chunk of our life and we know how it feels to live. My friend actually died before and the doctors and nurses revived her and she said she didn't see or feel anything. It's like she was sleeping. That's just one account but I don't know... Maybe we go to another world or dimension after.
There's science and religion but if you think about it it's amazing what this world is and what's in it. What created space itself before any bang theory or anything like that. Was there just darkness forever and ever? Life is so weird and scary.
For better and for worse. I think its the same thing over and over again. Your consciousness will have plenty of new input I think, or at least a rehash of the same stuff, over and over again, throughout eternity. I don't think you'll just float around in a void of darkness forever. I think everything is cyclical and linearity is an illusion. Just like we thought the earth was flat because we didn't have enough foresight and perspective to see that the earth was in fact a round globe, I think time and existential reality is the same exact way.
It's a scary dream...maybe I'm really going off my rocker.
I've been thinking about dying and what comes after death a lot lately. It's really hard for me to believe in God as I was raised Athiest basically. I'm definitely Agnostic as I don't know what's out there. My dad's a Christian and I went to church with my friends a few times but my mom raised us as an athiest and told us that there was probably no God and told us about science.
Sometimes I want to believe in a God just to make myself feel better about the fact of death and that we all die. Being almost 26 years old and being raised as I was raised I don't think I'll ever truly believe in God.
When I think about it, I think a lot of people who claim they are "religious" honestly don't know if there is a God or not and they just want to believe to make them feel better about dying. I do know that there are a lot of people who truly believe in God, I just think a large portion of religious people don't know and they just want to believe.
Maybe believing in something isn't so bad. It makes death less scary. I know we didn't exist all those years before we were born either but that's different. Now we've experienced a huge chunk of our life and we know how it feels to live. My friend actually died before and the doctors and nurses revived her and she said she didn't see or feel anything. It's like she was sleeping. That's just one account but I don't know... Maybe we go to another world or dimension after.
There's science and religion but if you think about it it's amazing what this world is and what's in it. What created space itself before any bang theory or anything like that. Was there just darkness forever and ever? Life is so weird and scary.
"The oldest and strongest emotion in mankind is fear; and the oldest and strongest fear is that of the unknown."
~Who could this be from? Why H P Lovecraft of course!
I have no fear of being dead, because I believe it is exactly the same as before I was born - nothing. I'm not quite so comfortable with the act of dying, as there may be pain depending on how it occurs.
To me the idea of having to do more after I die is more frightening than nothingness. Nothingness is a certain, understood thing. Nobody really has much idea of what Heaven or Hell would be like. I want the end to be The End.
To me the idea of having to do more after I die is more frightening than nothingness. Nothingness is a certain, understood thing. Nobody really has much idea of what Heaven or Hell would be like. I want the end to be The End.
You have no memory of before you were born, but lacking in memory doesn't necessarily mean that there was nothing. I had a dream that I was dying, and while I woke myself up because of the fear that if I didn't I would complete the process of death, it really was not unpleasant at all.
To me the idea of having to do more after I die is more frightening than nothingness. Nothingness is a certain, understood thing. Nobody really has much idea of what Heaven or Hell would be like. I want the end to be The End.
You have no memory of before you were born, but lacking in memory doesn't necessarily mean that there was nothing.
It kind of does - I had no brain capable of creating memories, and also no brain capable of experiencing anything. When I die my brain will no longer work, and will eventually no longer exist, which will mean I have the same lack of experience that I had before I existed.
Actually, the flat earth myth was popularized by fiction. Apart from the peasants, scholars, priests and sailors in the middle-age were perfectly aware of it's spherical shape.
Ditto that sentiment. I am also "dead" every night when in the deep sleep state. Being dead is no big deal.
REM sleep is a proof you're still alive.
I'm talking about deep sleep not REM sleep.
_________________
I've left WP indefinitely.
To me the idea of having to do more after I die is more frightening than nothingness. Nothingness is a certain, understood thing. Nobody really has much idea of what Heaven or Hell would be like. I want the end to be The End.
You have no memory of before you were born, but lacking in memory doesn't necessarily mean that there was nothing.
It kind of does - I had no brain capable of creating memories, and also no brain capable of experiencing anything. When I die my brain will no longer work, and will eventually no longer exist, which will mean I have the same lack of experience that I had before I existed.
Consciousness, as it turns out, is not a process, but a thing in itself. At the present time, science does not understand where it comes from and what causes it. That's why there is a necessity for something called the Soul; which is defined as being the essence of self.
Ditto that sentiment. I am also "dead" every night when in the deep sleep state. Being dead is no big deal.
Far from dead. Do you have dreams? Do you remember them? Your brain is quite active, even during sleep.
ruveyn
Nothing, after you die. Your brain doesn't work anymore, and you're nothing more than your brain. If you think you are more than your brain, and that there is something that is afterlife, it is wishful thinking and irrational contemplating, which often ruins more than it helps. But it's your choice what you want to occupy yourself with.
Last edited by Underscore on 17 Sep 2012, 4:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Consciousness, as it turns out, is not a process, but a thing in itself.
No it isn't. It it is a thing in itself, where is it and what is it made of?
Has any scan or probe of the brain or nervous system ever located a -thing- that is consciousness? If so provide a reference to a vetted scientific study that supports your assertion.
ruveyn
Ditto that sentiment. I am also "dead" every night when in the deep sleep state. Being dead is no big deal.
REM sleep is a proof you're still alive.
I'm talking about deep sleep not REM sleep.
There's still plenty of brain activity, even in deep sleep. If there were no electric signals in your brean (i.e. you'd be dead), you wouldn't be able to wake up or enter lighter stages of your sleep.
Ditto that sentiment. I am also "dead" every night when in the deep sleep state. Being dead is no big deal.
REM sleep is a proof you're still alive.
I'm talking about deep sleep not REM sleep.
There's still plenty of brain activity, even in deep sleep. If there were no electric signals in your brean (i.e. you'd be dead), you wouldn't be able to wake up or enter lighter stages of your sleep.
We seem to be talking at crossed purposes. I'm referring to the lack of consciousness / lack of sense of self / existence when in deep sleep. From a subjective (experiential) point of view it is no different to being dead.
_________________
I've left WP indefinitely.