What happens after you die and should I be scared about it?

[deadendgame]

Society has this kind of stigma towards death and dying and I really don't know why. People act like they're gonna live forever but the truth is they are gonna die just like everyone else. Do you really want to find out the answer when death is knocking on your door? Have yall spent a little bit time pondering about this? Of course you have. What are you're thoughts about this? How can everyone be so carefree about something this serious? I honestly don't know what to do about this because I'm just as lost as most people. I have two concerns. The first one is that dying hurts like hell. No matter which way you die, there is some pain involved, unless you die in your sleep. Do I just have to pray on this outcome to occur? The other concern I have is about the afterlife, if there is one. If the afterlife is heaven, that is fine and dandy, but if it is the other one, then that is an eternity of suffering, worse than going to work everyday. Some people also think that you just become unconscious forever and this is sort of the middle ground for me. There is no suffering but yet I won't even know what the heck is going on.

Now, I want to tack on religion. So, why do you Christians believe that yall are going to heaven and everyone else is going to hell? The central tenet of this religion is that no matter what you did in this life (lets say Hitler), you just have to confess your sins to jesus and proclaim him as Lord and Savior at the very end. Don't you see how unfair this is? If we play by your rules, then all one has to do is say a daily prayer that covers the requirements (jesus savior and what sins i committed).

And atheists. I also have a problem with your point of view. I don't question your validity, in fact, I think you guys are correct. Based on the information I heard, you guys think that life just happens and when we die, we just go unconscious, and that very well may be the case. But don't you guys see, that if you are right, then there is really no point in living at all. No, there isn't because you guys think that everything that we have will be gone when we die, so there is really no point in life. Well, you may think, "oh, but I helped other people." Well, the thing is, that may be so, but everyone dies, so it matters not even if you helped a million people because the outcome is still the same!

This is something that I have been thinking about. I really want to hear some feedback, and get some closure because I'm scared as hell honestly. I hope that science advances far enough so that we won't have to worry about this question if we play our cards right, but I'm sure it's not gonna happen in my lifetime.

 

[One Thousand Words]

The small ball of energy that has been me for the past 80 years will be broken down and absorbed by the universe, first by microbes then by the soil and hopefully finally by a large kauri tree that I am buried under.

A small amount of me has already been bundled together to produce my two wonderful kids, and with any luck their love for art, rugby and camping under the stars that they have inherited from me will in turn be passed on for several more generations along with my good looks.

Everything else I have no control, nor no concerns with. I may burn for eternity for my sins (along with all my family and friends), or I will be bored to death in heaven, wearing sandles and singing gospel tunes. Either way I still plan on enjoying this long weekend.

 

[One Thousand Words]

Besides all Christians go to hell, the Jews are gods chosen people after all.

 

[socko]

By definition, atheists don't believe in bible_god. But that doesn't mean that we atheists don't believe in the possibility of an afterlife. Buddhists, are atheists, after all, yet they believe in divine beings, demons, spirits, and mandatory reincarnation. What makes them atheists is that they don't believe in the Abrahamic God.

Maybe you'll find the Golden Section from Horse Rotorvator comforting. It describes the first five minutes after death:

The angel of death stands between heaven and earth, holding a poison-dripping
sword. Identified with Satan, he is full of powers, a diligent reaper, an old fugitive
and wanderer like Cain, a beggar, a pedlar, an Arab nomad, a skeleton, capering
with sinners and misers in a jugglers' dance. But the nightmarish angel presents a
different face to the one who has died before death, who has attained some
measure of the apathea of a saint. We are told that Azrael, Death, appears to our
spirit in a form determined by our beliefs, actions, and dispositions during life. He
may even manifest invisibly so the man may die of a rose, a rheumatic pain, or of a
rotting stench. When the soul sees Azrael, it falls in love, and its gaze is thus
withdrawn from the body as if by a seduction. Great prophets and saints may even
be politely invited by Death, who appears to them in corporeal form. Thus it was
with Moses and with Mohammed. When the Persian poet Rumi lay on his
deathbed, Azrael appeared as a beautiful youth and said, "I am come by divine
command to enquire what commission the Master may have to entrust in you." In
fact, a strange connection becomes apparent between mors and amor, love and
death. The moment of extinction in the pleasure of love resembles that of death,
and thus, that of the mystical. In mythic terms, Eros and Thanatos are almost
twins, for in some cases Death appears as a lovely youth and Eros as a withered
starveling. Both love and death are gateways, hence their eternal adolescence and
their fixation in the midst of the rite of passage.

 

[Kittycat5]

I dont see why you think just because some atheists believe at death all that happens is we cease living that what we do when we are actually alive makes no difference? I think many believe, since this is our only go around, it matters even greater.

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

OP better check out Ernest Becker's book Denial of Death. There's a very good reason he's not more popular. IMO all most all your questions will be answered but you really really won't like it. Changed my life in the first 50 pages more than 60+ years of voracious reading about the subject. It's fucking scary and it's all backed with scientific research and proofs done by the Terror Management Theory folk after his death.

 

[Pharcyde]

Op nobody knows what happens. But it's gunna be a trip to find out

 

[spacejunk]

Op nobody knows what happens. But it's gunna be a trip to find out

Exactly.

And being scared of something that is absolutely guaranteed to happen seems like a waste of energy.
You are much better off working on acceptance of death.
I think the death taboo in western society is really quite strange. It happens to us all, yet so many people are reluctant to even discuss it.

 

[tokezu]

I really don't care too much about what happens after death, it's just not particularly relevant for the way I live my life. But I sometimes had the thought, that if what people see during near death experiences is so dependent on what they expect to see, maybe that applies to actual death too.

But don't you guys see, that if you [atheists] are right, then there is really no point in living at all. No, there isn't because you guys think that everything that we have will be gone when we die, so there is really no point in life.

Just because there is no 'official' point in life, dictated by some god, doesn't mean you can't find your personal point in life, which can work just as good. Maybe look into existentialism.

This is something that I have been thinking about. I really want to hear some feedback, and get some closure because I'm scared as hell honestly. I hope that science advances far enough so that we won't have to worry about this question if we play our cards right, but I'm sure it's not gonna happen in my lifetime.

Are you talking about immortality while retaining a sense of self? That's something as close to 'hell' as I can imagine. Whether it be on this earth or in a stereotypical heaven or hell, existing for eternity without anything ever changing? No thank you, I'd take "ceasing to exist" or "reincarnation without awareness of the former life" any day over that.

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

Oh do I agree. Eternal life = eternal suffering. Now that I actually have a disease that will likely kill me I'm looking forward to nonexistence. I've had enough of this nonsense.

 

[swilow]

If we simply cease to exist and its oblivion, there's not really much to be afraid of, right? At least that's what I tell myself

And atheists. I also have a problem with your point of view. I don't question your validity, in fact, I think you guys are correct. Based on the information I heard, you guys think that life just happens and when we die, we just go unconscious, and that very well may be the case. But don't you guys see, that if you are right, then there is really no point in living at all.

You may not like the conclusion you have drawn that atheistic views mean there is no point to living, but that doesn't speak of the validity of atheism. Defining the 'point' of life by what happens after we die does not make sense to me. If we are all living for some anticipated reward in the afterlife, I feel like we may be missing the point.

 

[swilow]

Hmm. In trying to edit my reply I appear to have deleted it. If a mod could undelete that'd rock.

 

[cyberius]

Nothing! I believe we're never really alive in the first place, but we're just a bunch of inorganic things coming together to build a singular conscious experience.

 

[turkalurk]

After I die the world will go on, and life will continue. What happens to me specifically would depend on your perspective of what the self is. I identify my true self(my spirit) with the impression I've made on the World and I work very hard to make sure this is something I value enough to take pride in. For if I do make a significant and beneficial impact in someone's Life and influence them to also have a similar beneficial impact, I will feel like the spirit of Virtue has carried on thru me and when I die thats what I will become. My sense of individuality will fade away and I will become one with the raw truth of Being so whatever I feel about who I am(including what I believe my contributions to be) will only be relevant to the utility that this mental contruct will have in this life.

This is where my faith comes into play. I may not have any certainty with respect to the great Existential mysteries of Life, but we are always faced with an option between possibilities. Why not choose something that you can value and utilize to your benefit? In the grand scheme of things I can only intend to have the effect I want. I am in no control of the outcome, nor do I have access to a purely objective outlook to be able to know what I did overall contribute to the world. Like I said, in the end it won't matter and not because Life is pointless, but because your sense of individuality becomes irrelevant. There becomes no way to sort out your influences and the effects they had between those who had their influence on you. You become enmeshed with Humanity which in turn becomes enmeshed with Life, which becomes enmeshed with Biosphere and so on and so forth. Its all a matter of perspective, you can draw the line of where you begin and end, but in the end, what you use to draw these lines ceases to function. That is what I think death will be, a blurring of the lines. As the brain starts to malfunction, right parietal brain activity deteriorates, and you start to feel a oneness with the World until ultimately you literally become one with Mother Earth and your impression is etched into Humanity's causal chain of Being thru the impact your decisions had on those you interacted with.

If you identify with the thoughts that occur in your subverbal dialect, then these thoughts will continue to occur within humanity just with a different frame of reference with a similar context. Your personality continues to emerge in the countless others born with a similar collection of traits living under similar conditions perhaps with even with a similar appearance.

Or, maybe in an infinite Existence, when this specific universe of causation fades out, and a googolplex of various universes with possible causal events unfold with slightly different results, this one will reoccur exactly as it unfolding now. And I will make the same choices all over again.

So what really matters is how I feel about the choices I make. I use my desire to be as virtuous as I can as a behavior modifier, while accepting my limitations. In order to do my best I must give it my all and aim higher than I can reach, but I also understand that some things aren't just meant to be. So I should always be grateful that I am given this opportunity, not only to make a contribution to this Causal Chain of Being, but to experience a persepctive of the world that awes me to my core and gives me a great sense of value. I will always appreciate the place I have in the world in simply just being human. I am much too busy revering Life to fear what happens after I die, because how you live ought to be more important.

An old saying comes to mind. I don't remember how it goes, but it was omething about if one considers the suffering they experienced before the were born, then they ought not to assume they will be suffering after they die, because that will just cause you to unnecessarily suffer in this life by contemplating pain you may never experience. It has always stuck with me.

 

[turkalurk]

Nothing! I believe we're never really alive in the first place, but we're just a bunch of inorganic things coming together to build a singular conscious experience.

that makes no sense. You must be using a distorted definition of being "alive". Are you on drugs? That would make sense.

 

[One Thousand Words]

Things could be worse, you could be Woody allen and leave behind a lifetime of shitty movies.

And fucked your daughter

 

[Nixiam]

To answer your question, clear and concise.

First part, we don't know so it doesn't matter.
Second part, we don't know so it doesn't matter, but I wouldn't spend time worrying.

 

[MyDoorsAreOpen]

Nobody knows for sure, and this is one of life's greatest mysteries. You'll find out when you get there. In the meantime, the best you can do is live this life, from moment to moment, the best way you know how, so that when it's time to leave, you have no regrets and are willing to accept whatever lies beyond.

Personally, of all the possibilities I've looked into so far, I find the idea of rebirth / reincarnation the most convincing of the possible afterlife scenarios.

 

[infectedmushroom]

When I was a a kid my parents told me that what happened after I died was whatever I imagined it to be.

So I believed that death would be like Super Mario 64, and i'd get to run around this massive castle with paintings I could dive into and explore all of these different worlds.

I think I still believe that now.

 

[turkalurk]

When I was a a kid my parents told me that what happened after I died was whatever I imagined it to be.

So I believed that death would be like Super Mario 64, and i'd get to run around this massive castle with paintings I could dive into and explore all of these different worlds.

I think I still believe that now.

I like the idea that when I die I wake up from a virtual reality machine into a futuristic utopia, but opt to play a new character as part of a research project to better understand our distant ancestors and how our utopian society came to evolve.