Death, the Universe and Everything

Yo Mamma

Ever wonder what it's like to be dead?

Everyone has, of course, down the ages and throughout a million cultures. But for us athiests, it's a little harder. It's easy enough to assume you'll just go to heaven or hell or whatever, but impossible to imagine simply not existing. Not reincarnating or any sh1t, just failing to be.

That's what I regard the afterlife as being like. You don't exist. Finito. The End. No sequel.

But the other day, staring at my ceiling at 4 AM in a fit of insomnia, knowing that I'd be fully awake until five minutes before I had to get up for work - at which point I'd be paralyzed with fatigue - I tried hard to imagine not existing.

It's impossible. At least without some seriously good drugs. Try to imagine the Earth without humans. Easy. A nice blue-white marble ball in space full of trees and stuff. Earth without life? Not too difficult. We'll just be like the rest of the planets in our solar system.

The universe without life isn't too hard to fathom in one's mind either. If you don't believe in ETs then one has merely to imagine the Earth devoid of life, and thus, one has a Universe utterly empty of self-replicating molecular structures, commmonly known as life.

Try and imagine the Universe empty. No stars, galaxies, super-clusters. It's still not too difficult - just imagine a great big space with nothing in it. Not even light.

Finally, try and imagine a...something, whereby existence doesn't exist. It's impossible. At least for me anyway. The Universe - whether you define that as a multi-dimensional quantum structure containing elements and forces both within and outside the perception of sentient beings, or as just this big fcuking space thing we live in - is the highest structure you can go. Trying to imagine what it'd be like if existence didn't exist is only something you should attempt if you don't mind ending up staring mindlessly at the nearest wall with you jaw hanging open.

What would it be like to simply not exist, to simply cease to be? Again, I find it impossible. Imagining existence not existing still requires one to have some sort of metaphysical existence whilst attempting to conjour up such a scenario, and thus one can't imagine what it'd be like not to be whilst one is.

Anyway, the basic conclusion I came up with whilst lying there awake before dawn was that when you are dead you are not alive. And we all know what it's like not to be alive - after all, we were all 'not alive' before our birth. The experience of death will be simply like the experience of pre-conception. Get drunk and/or take drugs, and think back really hard to what it was like before you existed. That's what death will be like, utterly blank and devoid of problems. Most of my problems, at least, appear to have occured since I was born, and I reckon the same goes for all you lot too. Not a very good advert for life really !

Food fo Thought.................;)

GreenHell

42

seamus

Damn you greenhell, got there b4 me . Yeah, I've considered this before too. Try to think of youself not thinking, ie dead. It's a bit of a paradox, and can be quite disturbing if you go deep into it. The way I would look at it, if there is no God(I haven't fully decided yet, haven't had time ), then being dead is basically like going to sleep. Ever have a night where you sleep and don't dream? Voila(sic). That's what I think It'd be like, except you never wake up. When you're sleeping you don't know what's going on (consiously), ie you are unconscious, and when you're dead, you're also unconscious, except that it's permanent. To look at it another way, imagine going to bed tonight and never waking up. You go asleep as usual, but just don't wake up. You're dead, but you don't know it, and didn't even notice. Simple

ykt0di9url7bc3

Existence is all you've ever known.....but it's easy to see what non-existence would be like...imagine....

You take your last breath......
You close your eyes......
Your heart slows down.....
You have a last mental image before your brain stops......

Thats it!
No memories,
No regret,
No fealing,
No emotion,
No Darkness,
No Light,
No Worry,
You are "shut-down" just like a computer, never to wake from the deepest, most peaceful sleep of your life...DEATH....:p


But what if heaven exists...........
Thats the pandoras box that death brings!:eek:

Cake Fiend

AAAARGH, I had the biggest ****ing rant of my (insignificant) life typed out, but I hadn't logged in.

To sum up: IMO, humans are a mistake, but that's totally irrelevant, because are of bugger all significance to this universe. Human consciousness is an entirely human concept - I believe we are nothing but genetically advanced animals, and when we die, we merely cease to exist. I don't see how that's so hard to cope with - all we are is an organized group of atoms, and when we die, the organized system of our bodies breaks down to its component parts after our inter-dependencies collapse. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust sort of thing.

TBH, I'd find the idea of existing forever infinitely scarier than simply disappearing off the face of the universe/multiverse.

(Gah, my previous rant was so much better )

Aspro

Descartes: "I think therefore I am"

Monty Python: "This parrot is dead. It has ceased to be...."

--Kaiser--

What i find difficult to comprehend is eternity
just think about life without end
not dying, but living forever
its hard isn't it?

azezil

Ah yes death, I spent much time thinking about it when I decided there was no god... I pritty much couldn't get my head round it so I made up my own idea n founded the The church of the eternal Azezilites

Basically I took the fact that energy can not be created nor destroyed, it mearly changes form... n thus I came up with the theory that when we die, the energy within our bodies is released... so in a way we live forever but in a different state.

Haven't really decided wheather you hold onto your memories or not... thoughts are electrical pulses buzzin around in our noggins but I don't know enough about how the brain retains info.





Join the Church of eternal Azezilites today and get a promise of ethernal life and a badge with my face on it!