Hard time imagining death

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No need to worry about eternal punishment beneficii, God is not an evil torturer.
Do you remember what God said would happen to Adam and Eve if they sinned?, and their sin was the worst as it introduced sin to all mankind, he didnt say, "If you eat from that tree I will keep you alive so that I can torture you for eternity"did he, no he said, "in the day you eat from the tree you will positively die", and then goes on to say, "for dust you are, and to dust you will return".

Thats what happens as the price of sin, non existence, the word Hell has had its meaning changed much as the word "Gay" has, Hell means the grave, or hole in the ground, same as sheol and Hades, its why Jesus himself went to Hell until his resurrection.

Another thing to consider, if we just waft off somewhere after death, either to Heaven or "Hell", then whats the Resurrection all about?, why be resurrected if you are still alive somewhere?
Resurrection only makes sense if tied in with what I said about death, "Dust you are, and to dust you will return", non existence.

Revelation 20 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

I can't imagine it either. I suppose it's like being in a very deep sleep, I don't know.

I was in a caravan this week and it was very windy. There was a tree right near our caravan, and I kept on wondering what would happen if it fell on our caravan. Will we die literally straight away, or will it take a few minutes? Will we be crushed? How long would that if took to kill us? What noise would it make? It was so hard to think what it would be like? Would we have a last thought, like ''BANG! Ouch! Oh, God, now we're going to die.'' And then die.

Very horrible thought!

Being a little depressed about it is entirely reasonable. I think in general people are hard-pressed to make peace with death in the first place.



I have a hard time reconciling that someone is gone. The "gone" part doesn't computer very easily for me. However, while I find death sad it's rarely upset me (more my pets than other humans). I think perhaps one thing that helps is that I often dream of dead people I know.

Wow! So I ask auntblabby to elaborate on a point and open the floodgates to a load of Christians witlessly hammering away at their keyboards in holy outrage.
I have been accused of anger, jealousy and, laughably, being too young to have taken the time to have learned (I'm 45 next week). I don't deny that we have yet to learn many of the secrets of the Universe. I know, however, that we have learned enough to show that the ONLY "source" religious people have for their dogma, their holy book - whether it be the bible or anything else - is demonstrably full of inaccuracies to the point where any free and rational mind must be forced to conclude that it is not a reliable source of information of any kind.
I accept that spirituality exists, I don't accept that an understanding of its nature can be found in any holy book. There may be a heaven of sorts but it is nothing at all like any of the heavens described by any of the religions of the world. Anyone believing otherwise should thank their lucky stars that "God" saw fit to have them be born in just the right geographical area to suit their exact "beliefs". Imagine your struggle to maintain these beliefs if everyone else around you believed something different! The good news is that it seems to work out that people are born in places that suit their beliefs so they pretty much believe the same as everyone else in that area. That's a stroke of luck!
As far as the OP's concerns go, I would recommend taking the view that Terry Pratchett proposes that whatever you think is going to happen when you die actually does. Valhalla sounds like fun....
P.S. Quotes from a book some unknown bloke wrote over a thousand years ago (or any of its many revisions or re-interpretations - especially the sequel) don't count as evidence.

I can't remember my previous lives, or my previous deaths. If I remember next time, I'll let you know.

Evidence for my monitor explanation.

To be fair, the words you used to describe religious belief were fairly negative. I certainly would stop to wonder if someone asked me if I were aware that some people consider my expressed beliefs to be "redolent of ignorance and indoctrination." This is also known as "poisoning the well," similar to asking "have you stopped beating your wife yet?" (with the implication you were beating your wife all along, even if you were not). I won't say you're angry, jealous, young, old, etc., but your post was (and the post I am responding to is) rather confrontational and I would say to some extent accusatory.

What did you expect would happen?

Ever hear of something called "sleep"?

Its like that- cept you never wake up.

It was also incredibly difficult for me to do too, even when I was still a Christian. Once I lost my faith and became an agnostic, it was still difficult. I worried over what would happen if I died and if God suddenly enlightened me about my non-adherence and sent me to eternal punishment. After more careful study and thought, this lack of uncertainty actually became more re-assuring to me than religion in general. It's hard for me to explain, but this related to my conception of death. I realized that I believe what I believe and I couldn't in good faith jump to something else merely because I was nervous about the afterlife. (After all, religion isn't a kind of insurance policy one may just pay into with attending services and going through the motions. If such a god really existed, then he would know about one's true lack of belief.) I felt like this prepared for the next major step in which I thought of death, as it relates to me. I thought about the greater world, humanity and the universe. They would trudge on, just as they've always done. In a way, I felt like my own coming to terms with death forced me to think of death in a non-egoist manner - the world as a greater whole. Kind of like yourself as no longer existing and everything we perceive in reality as continuing to exist, at least for longer than you.

I really don't know if that makes sense to anyone else. Even though it makes perfect sense to me, I'm not sure how to put it into words like this.

Me too I have a hard time to imagine it, and what I can understand terrify me.

Yet more madness! Beating wives? Sicko

To expand, anyone who found anything in my post other than a genuine enquiry as to the individual concerneds explicit meaning (in a post where religion wasn't the issue) is looking for problems where they don't exist. Anyone who found that enquiry to be in any way accusatory is importing things that weren't there. I should know better than to post anything regarding religion in any forum that Americans have access to. Many of you appear to buy anything anyone in a shiny suit tells you. Good luck with that.

You know, I'm sympathetic to this perspective because it often happens to me that people read things into my words that I didn't intend, didn't even think about when I wrote them. However, I have learned that many words carry meanings that make them suboptimal for use in particular conversations.

It seems to me that often, when people use words like "ignorant" and "indoctrinated", that they are setting out to establish a particular mode of interaction - one primarily driven by conflict. The fact is you didn't simply ask auntblabby about his beliefs, you told him what you thought his beliefs meant, and the words you used are commonly freighted with negative meanings. While I certainly agree that someone can be called ignorant without being insulting, my experience is that it is a difficult thing to pull off, whatever one's intention.

I certainly wouldn't tell anyone that their words were "redolant of indoctrination" unless I wanted to tell them that their words express views that are not only wrong, but not even their own honest views.

I wasn't telling you what you intended to communicate to auntblabby. I was telling you that how you phrased your response to auntblabby could come across that way. I am usually appreciative when people stop to explain to me how my communication is causing me more problems than they solve, and I endeavor to find new ways to communicate my intended point. Unfortunately, it seems in this case you are quite satisfied with a communication style toward religious people that many are likely to take as insulting. At least now it will no longer be a surprise to you when you are not welcomed with open arms after offering your insights.



As far as insults go, this makes no sense at all. What the heck is a "shiny suit" in reference to and what does it have to do with Americans?

For the record, I am agnostic, leaning toward atheist. I at one time had a great deal of antipathy toward organized religion, and I'm still not a fan. However, I do not consider other people's religious beliefs to be my business, so I do not spend time or energy trying to tell them they're wrong. I am most definitely not religious.

For that matter, politically I am far left, leaning into anarchist (although not an anarchist).

I only exist in the here and the now, I remember existing before this moment but I cannot change the past, or relive it either, the person I was yesterday no longer exists, likewise I know what I plan on doing tomorrow, but tomorrow has not yet occurred, and therefore does not yet exist. As to whether or not I will exist after death I cannot say, I have not died yet, until such time it is impossible to know because I only exist in the moment, I don't plan for the future, I am simply reacting to what is occurring to me in the moment.

Death is like sleep? Not if you take the materialistic view of it. Death would be the end of all consciousness and you're still conscious during sleep, it's just a different mode of consciousness.

Now, if you don't take the materialistic view then your analogy may actually work in reverse! You know how dreams feel real at the time, but when you wake up you realise "wait, that wasn't real - this is"? Near Death Experiencers have reported feeling the same thing while out of their bodies - that it felt more real than anything else. So it may be that life is like a dream and death is like waking up from it.

I'm so glad i joined this forum, it's amazing at how we are all alike...

This has been bothering me too, it makes me sick that when i die, that will be...The idea of living without my family, friends, music just anything that i love will be gone forever doesn't make me feel good. I wanna believe that there is an "afterlife", but at the same time i hate religion and what it does...