The inevitability of death (how do you deal with it?)

[Bluestorm83]

Well, I'd gladly give you my take on everything. This is coming from the perspective of myself, clearly, who I label a "Thinking True Christian."

The way that the universe is, there are a number of possibilities.

Possibility 1) Everything that I believe about Christ is 100% true, namely that every single person is under the curse of sin as outlined in Genesis, but that's okay because the first thing that happened after that was God saying "Don't worry, the seed of the woman will come and crush the Serpent's head." That idea is expanded upon in just about every single thought in the Bible, eventually culminating when Jesus, the Christ, was born to take the entirety of the punishment of mankind on himself, so that others who deserved that punishment might be able to co-exist with God eternally, because Christ is cool like that. Incidentally, "Hell" isn't the literalistic fire and worms and whatever that it's often described as. The Hell of Hell, to put it like a pastor I know, is simply being an eternal being who has, by his own free will, removed himself from the presence of God which is the source of all life. Hence Hell often being called the Second Death, or eternal death, etc. It's being around, forever, but not at all alive.

What's that mean? That means that everyone, EVERYONE, no matter how bad or evil, and also no matter how "good" or "holy," we're all exactly the same, nobody's better than anyone else, and every single one of us is precious to the point where GOD would somehow separate Himself from his own self in our place, so we wouldn't have to. See? THAT is why Gospel means "good news." Forget all the fancy churches and ceremonies and golden cups and all that crap. Christianity, and Christ himself is a very simple message. "Hey, man, don't worry, I got this. You don't have to do anything. But hey, if you want to thank me, spread the word."

Possibility 2) Not everything that I believe is true, but the majority belief of world religions is. This puts us all on a worse standing. Here, we need to do some good to outweigh our sins. Depending on who you ask, this takes many different forms. In reincarnation based religions, you're looking at an equivalent exchange scenario. Do more good and come back as a better form of life, do more bad and you might be a gimp otter or something.

In Roman Catholicism you might be one of the Separated Bretheren who follows their conscience and avoids hell outright, but has to spend thousands of years burning in "purgatory" which is indistinguishable from a literal fire hell, except that eventually you get out. Please note that this concept is not found in accepted Biblical Scripture, but is found in the Aphopryca, which I just misspelled, which is used by the Roman Catholic Church despite its dubious origins. If you're not at least following your conscience, then you're most likely going to hell. However, the Roman Catholic Church teaches Baptismal Regeneration, meaning that if you get a Catholic Baptism, and their theology is correct, you're free from hell no matter what, and at worst would just get a few million years in purgatory. As a former Catholic, now Freelance Christian, I take very little comfort in this possibility, but admit that if I'm wrong, at least my bets are hedged, I suppose.

If Islam is the one true faith, our fates would range from sorta-okay if a more liberal Islam is true, as the Koran does say that Allah is merciful to the infidels who convert, but if the Hardcore Maniac Blow Up People version is true than we're pretty much 100% boned since those nutjobs like to ignore the verses about mercy and focus on the ONE verse in the Koran that says to kill the infidels. And they even ignore the verse right after that... which says rather to try and convert them, because Allah is merciful. While I don't see any real possibility that Islam is true, I do think that anyone or anything that qualifies as "GOD" could not, by its very nature, be a petulant dick, so if it is, Allah is by definition more patient and merciful than we as stupid meat mans on a dirt ball in a void can comprehend.

Possibility 3) All modern religions are way off base, our ancestors were right in their Pantheistic beliefs like the Egyptian, Norse, or Greek/Roman gods.

If the Norse gods are true, we're in a very similar boat to if Christianity is a real thing. Only God's name is Odin and he has a kickass 6 legged horse, and Jesus prefers to be called Thor, and he defeats evil with a hammer instead of a cross. Also, the world is a giant tree and the devil is a giant serpent asleep down at its roots. If you're valiant and just, then you eventually end up in Valhalla, adjacent to Asgard, after the Ragnarok. If not, I think the devil serpent eats you. Probably not real.

If the Egyptian gods are true, and your heart weighs less than a golden feather because it's not weighed down by mortal ills, you go to an underground Super Egypt full of food and comfort with Osiris and Isis and Anubis and all of them. Otherwise, if you're a bad dude, you get eaten by "The Eater of the Dead." Pretty self explanatory, he is.

If the Greek/Roman gods are real, then you will be capriciously tormented by whoever's feeling bored today. Also, there is a very good chance that Zeus/Jupiter will one day transform into a bull or a giraffe or something and RAPE YOU. Even if you're a man. He was very progressive in his sexuality... but less so in his tendency to just go and rape people.

Possibility 4) Atheism Wins!

Actually, no, if there is no God at all, Atheism doesn't win. Nobody wins. You don't die and see Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins sitting on thrones bragging about how you wasted your life believing in things you couldn't prove. Because if there's nobody behind this all, then death is just the end. But I suppose that this means that nobody loses either. Honestly, doesn't this mean that there wasn't even a game? I don't know.

Gotta be honest, this doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I exist. I can recognize that. I have sentience, consciousness, and sapience. You might be able to convince me that complex life can come about purely randomly (which incidentally I find to be equal levels of bullshit as if you were to tell me that a twig can be formed by a random alignment of sawdust on a workshop floor. Entropy is a thing.) But you can't tell me that BEING is a thing that just kinda happened. That's my own belief. If you want to believe that self-introspection is a natural outcome of physics and chemistry, hey, run with it. But anyway, I just don't buy that all of being came from nowhere and goes to nothing.

Here I suppose you'd want to make some kind of lasting positive contribution to the physical universe, I suppose. Or just enjoy the time you have, if "you" are even a real thing beyond a long winded chemical and physical reaction that began when one amino acid bumped into another while being energized by atmospheric static. Don't suppose that it matters, since a physical universe has an expiration date when we either reach the universal Heat Death, or Big Crunch if Dark Energy has a rebound effect we haven't accounted for yet.

Possibility 5) Nobody has ever, even once, considered what is some other truth behind the universe.

No clue what this might be. But perhaps there's a meaning behind this all that nobody gets to know until its all over. We might literally be unable to consider this. Who knows?


Aaaaand that's what you're looking at right now. Again, this was all written from my own perspective, since I'm me. Anyone and everyone is free to disagree as much as they want. Don't whine at me about it, I don't care.

Just on one last note, since I'm a Christian I'd be remiss if I didn't encourage you to go grab a Bible (I like the King James, due to many reasons that I don't want to exhaustively go into but that I'm sure anyone can look up,) and check it out. The worst thing that could possibly happen is that you read a bit of a very old narrative and get bored. You stand to lose nothing from it. Oh, and remember, don't worry, Christ's got this one.

 

[Annihilist]

Possibility 4) Atheism Wins!

Actually, no, if there is no God at all, Atheism doesn't win. Nobody wins. You don't die and see Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins sitting on thrones bragging about how you wasted your life believing in things you couldn't prove. Because if there's nobody behind this all, then death is just the end. But I suppose that this means that nobody loses either. Honestly, doesn't this mean that there wasn't even a game? I don't know.

Gotta be honest, this doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I exist. I can recognize that. I have sentience, consciousness, and sapience. You might be able to convince me that complex life can come about purely randomly (which incidentally I find to be equal levels of bullshit as if you were to tell me that a twig can be formed by a random alignment of sawdust on a workshop floor. Entropy is a thing.) But you can't tell me that BEING is a thing that just kinda happened. That's my own belief. If you want to believe that self-introspection is a natural outcome of physics and chemistry, hey, run with it. But anyway, I just don't buy that all of being came from nowhere and goes to nothing

Funny thing about science is that it trumps what most people consider to be "common sense". The idea of something from nothing might defy your common sense, but common sense should be shaped by observation, not contrary to it. And observation has shown, not only the plausibility, but the high likelihood that something did in fact come from nothing.

Simple laws of physics make the sawdust => twig analogy non-comparable to the idea of evolution. We - homo sapiens - are but half a chromosome away from chimpanzees. Complex life did not come about randomly, it is the result thus far (two very key words often omitted) of what we call natural selection. Simply, the idea that "things that work keep going; things that don't die. The things that work and keep going eventually must change to adapt to changing circumstances." Hence, evolution.

The "thus far" is very important, because contrary to religious belief, we are not the ultimate and final creation, and there's no reason to think that we are. We are not the final product in God's great plan - we are just another step in the evolutionary progression.

Also, our consciousness and sentience is nothing more than a product of the chemical reactions in our brains. When the brain dies, sentience dies. Gone - no more. All memory extinguished. You know how you never remember the time between going to bed and actually falling asleep? That's death - forever. There is no way for consciousness to survive this.

 

[Barbas]

You know how you never remember the time between going to bed and actually falling asleep? That's death - forever. There is no way for consciousness to survive this.

I used to do what many people do and think of death as a deep sleep, because that was the closest thing to it that I ever knew. Still, if it is like what you describe, I suppose that is still true, because the moment it occurs, we cease to think - let alone know - because we cease to be. For ever...and for never.

OT: It's a new and fascinating kind of fear, really. There's a gut-wrenching terror that people seem to feel when they are certain they are mere seconds from unimaginable pain or certain death, but this is something else. It is creeping, foreboding, relentless and no amount of fancy footwork or quick reactions will deny it. It's the axe that hangs over the head of every thing that has ever lived. I don't think anyone weak for fearing it, but if it gets in the way of you enjoying the here and now and all the earthly pleasures of this astonishing place, that's something you need to try and overcome to the best of your ability.

Some people have told me that living life "to the fullest" helped partially acclimatize them to the reality of its impermanence, since they have chosen various professions that bring a rush of adrenaline and the very real risk of sudden, shocking death. Why, people on this very forum have spoken about self-harm as something that can bring a moment of "clarity". When people think they are in mortal danger, their senses are heightened to an extent they might never have experienced before. They can accomplish things they never thought possible in their mad panic...or they can completely lose themselves. It's a bit like a final test that becomes the only important test for as long as you are braving it.

So, I guess I usually just sit on my posterior and muse, then go away and do something else when I reckon I've reached a conclusion about it. There doesn't really seem to be a point in thinking about it much beyond that. You might start worrying...and where's the fun in that?

 

[Hap2]

It's inevitable and there's not going to be a 'me' around to care. Death is easy; living is what's hard.

 

[KnightOfTwo]

I don't deal with it well, but only in relation to myself and my partner. Family members, while it is painful to deal with, I can handle with a sensible nature. I've been lucky in that most of my deceased family members (the ones I've known anyway) have led fairly long lives so it lessens the blow compared to if one of my younger cousins died. I don't know them as well but if something happened to them, knowing that they died younger than I would be harder I'm sure.

As for me though I really don't handle it well. My own mortality is something that bothers me a lot. The thing is though it only tends to bother me at night, particularly when I'm trying to sleep. As in I start getting all these what if scenarios running through my head on how I might not wake up tomorrow. Death itself is not that scary to me, in fact I find it very interesting in a biological sense, circle of life and death and all that. It is the lack of consciousness that worries me. If I were to die and become a ghost, then huzzah! If I die and then just nothing, that terrifies me. I'm far to selfish in wanting to die because there is way too much I would like to see happen, both on a personal level and a larger scale.

So how do I deal with it? I really don't. It is something that keeps me up every night, sometimes all night. While I am an atheist and in no way believe in any sort of higher power or afterlife, I really do get the appeal sometimes. So in the end I just try to have as much fun every day as I can. I try to enjoy things as much as possible, to laugh as much as possible and just have a good time overall. It isn't fulfilling stuff, nothing ever could fulfill me I don't think, but as this is my only life I want to be able to get as much enjoyment out of it as possible. Make even the most banal of moments into something funny or fun that you can remember 10, 20, 30 years from now. So when your older you can look back and smile at all the enjoyable memories you've made. That's the best advice I can offer and it's all I can do to manage my own worries.


....Until I work out how to achieve Lichdom.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I plan to live just long enough for a cure for aging and death to be made available. Dunno about you guys.

Sounds like a solid plan to me. Hell, they've already got suspended animation according to the escapist. Kidding aside, we either will live to that point or we won't. And if we die before that, we won't give a shit because we'll be dead. The only way you can let it bother you is if you think about it while you're alive, or imagine some kind of horrific afterlife (all of them sound kind of messed up to me, personally). So, I totally plan to be really really bummed about death once I'm actually dead. Until that point, I'll be grateful I'm not dead, unless I'm horribly injured or infirm. But even then, I might appreciate the ability to be conscious. I'm more afraid of pain than I am of death, so let's hope assisted suicide is legal by that point, too.

 

[StormShaun]

Well personally, there is quite a lot to talk about this, mostly in two ways.
As personal human self, I know we can't avoid death, it just happens, it can happen anywhere at any time. Right his second and every second is dying, but more people are being born.

I don't want to be scared of death, but of course we all can be due to various of reasons, I would be scared of it because I'm leaving things behind, mostly the people I love probably. Still, what can you do? Even if you are the fittest person alive you won't make it forever. So yeah, I'm not going to mind it in my current day of life, but when I am on my deathbed or when the time comes, I'll try not to cry.

In beliefs and such, well I am a Christian, not a traditional one, I believe that humans have the right of freedom and to live, I believe in evolution and that it could be apart of a bigger picture or person, I don't go to Church or read the Bible every Sunday and I think that anyone can go to Heaven no matter their sexuality, religion or gender. More of a "what side of the line are you" kind of thing in my opinion.

So I believe in an afterlife, just because I believe that there is more to life then just "mortal life", so much more and a place where you can live in complete peace with everyone you love.

But that is just me and my undying hope of that plan.
Ugh, I always get tired of explaining things like that.

Remember kids, people have different believes and opinions.

 

[Annihilist]

You know how you never remember the time between going to bed and actually falling asleep? That's death - forever. There is no way for consciousness to survive this.

I used to do what many people do and think of death as a deep sleep, because that was the closest thing to it that I ever knew. Still, if it is like what you describe, I suppose that is still true, because the moment it occurs, we cease to think - let alone know - because we cease to be. For ever...and for never.

OT: It's a new and fascinating kind of fear, really. There's a gut-wrenching terror that people seem to feel when they are certain they are mere seconds from unimaginable pain or certain death, but this is something else. It is creeping, foreboding, relentless and no amount of fancy footwork or quick reactions will deny it. It's the axe that hangs over the head of every thing that has ever lived. I don't think anyone weak for fearing it, but if it gets in the way of you enjoying the here and now and all the earthly pleasures of this astonishing place, that's something you need to try and overcome to the best of your ability.

Some people have told me that living life "to the fullest" helped partially acclimatize them to the reality of its impermanence, since they have chosen various professions that bring a rush of adrenaline and the very real risk of sudden, shocking death. Why, people on this very forum have spoken about self-harm as something that can bring a moment of "clarity". When people think they are in mortal danger, their senses are heightened to an extent they might never have experienced before. They can accomplish things they never thought possible in their mad panic...or they can completely lose themselves. It's a bit like a final test that becomes the only important test for as long as you are braving it.

So, I guess I usually just sit on my posterior and muse, then go away and do something else when I reckon I've reached a conclusion about it. There doesn't really seem to be a point in thinking about it much beyond that. You might start worrying...and where's the fun in that?

Honestly, I think the purpose of life it a distraction from the inevitability of death. Thinking about existence in this way is almost guaranteed to result in circular conclusions (what would have happened if I were never born? What's it like to not exist? etc.) so we ignore it, and distract ourselves with whatever we find fun or satisfying in life.

 

[Padwolf]

I don't know, I just don't think about it much.

A long time ago I decided that I may not believe in God, but I believe that there is something up there and that there is an afterlife. My own belief is that when we die we go to a special place, a place that is entirely our own. However, you will still see all those you love that have also passed on. I believe that my afterlife is going to be a lovely house in the countryside, all my old pets with me and my family. A place I can live in peace, and ever since I thought about that the thoughts of death didn't scare me as much.

 

[theboombody]

So how do I deal with it? I really don't. It is something that keeps me up every night, sometimes all night.

Spend a few weekends in a row studying for ONE financial and/or tax accounting exam, and realize that you have many more years worth of similar exams in the future, and that should cure you. It will drive you to total and complete apathy of everything.

 

[theboombody]

Yeah, I really started panicking when I was 12 due to the concept of death and turning away from Catholicism. Death terrifies me. Just because I've accepted that death exists doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.

But inevitability? I sure hope not. Why do we assume that dying after 80 years or so is an inevitability and not something we can one day overcome? I'm really hoping I live long enough for transhumanist technology to allow me to live indefinitely, I honestly think technology can (and does) greatly improve our lives and change things for the better. Death is something that terrifies me and something I usually prefer not to think about. I'm agnostic and I have no idea what happens after death, that not knowing terrify me. Even if it was lets say, reincarnation where you lose all your memories and personality, well my memories and personality are what make me me, so without them I'd be dead.

Who wants to live forever? I do, because living is awesome I want to keep doing it.

Living becomes less awesome when you push, and push, and push to do something meaningful, and you realize how limited you truly are. We don't even have a formula for prime numbers yet, and we've ween working on that problem since antiquity. If technology has made life so wonderful, then why has it taken us so long to recover from this stupid recession? Why is the middle class eroding and economic options are becoming more and more limited? I don't want to have to make a choice between working 70 hours a week and being unemployed and poor. I might as well go back to the 1890's.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Living becomes less awesome when you push, and push, and push to do something meaningful, and you realize how limited you truly are. We don't even have a formula for prime numbers yet, and we've ween working on that problem since antiquity. If technology has made life so wonderful, then why has it taken us so long to recover from this stupid recession? Why is the middle class eroding and economic options are becoming more and more limited? I don't want to have to make a choice between working 70 hours a week and being unemployed and poor. I might as well go back to the 1890's.

Don't get me wrong there are a tonne of problems in the world, I'm not denying them and there are a loads of things we need to improve on. Economic problems are just one of those things. However I do think all things considered now is the best time to be alive. People are living longer, discrimination is less accepted, violent crime is down so you are less likely to be murdered, the internet is allowing us to interact with each other more, people have more access to media than ever. Far from perfect but I do think it is the best so far.

 

[Bioluminescence]

To be honest, my mortality doesn't bother me. I just try to do what I can now to make the world a better place. My grandfather used to say "You do what you can, and then to hell with it." I try to take that attitude. Sure, you can never know when exactly you're going to die, but you can certainly try to do what you can while you're alive.

I suppose the uncertainty of what things are like after death frightens some people as well, but I've never really dwelt on it. For the foreseeable future humans can't definitively answer that, so I just marvel at the fact that my body will deconstruct into minute components that will eventually contribute to other structures. I think that's pretty cool.

 

[Lina Jones]

Spend most of my life paralyzed with fear and desperately trying to drown out the anxiety with video games.

 

[zarguhl]

Funny thing for me is I actually have the exact opposite fear. I simply don't believe we only live once, and I kind of wish I did.

When I was a kid and teenager, I believed we only lived once, and I took comfort in that fact. I knew no matter how terrible things got, death is the worst thing I'd have to face, and because I wasn't afraid of that, I wasn't afraid of anything really. It was so simple, even if I utterly failed in life, if I was broke, starving, uneducated and hated by one and all, there would always be the comfort of oblivion to turn to. It's not that I wanted to die, I just liked knowing there was always an escape and a final destination that I was able to confront.

Then various stuff happened in my late teens and early 20s and I came to realise that death is a long way from final and suffering can go well beyond one life. And it's frankly horrifying. I used to think "Well, if I fail and don't get what I want done, or become paralysed or something, I can just die and that's all over." Now I'm like, if I screw up this time, I'll have to suffer through childhood again, deal with retarded teachers, probably get drugged as a child, as so many kids are these days. Maybe I'll end up with abusive parents, in some crap country with no hope for improvement in life.

So now, no matter how bad this life gets, I worry that things could very easily get worse for me. There is no escape but to try to make myself better and better as I go... But failure could result in endless suffering for eternity.

 

[BobblyDrink]

We live, we die. But it's what we do with the time in between that counts. Better to live the best you can, before passing on as peacefully as possible.

 

[zarguhl]

We live, we die. But it's what we do with the time in between that counts. Better to live the best you can, before passing on as peacefully as possible.

Peacefully? To hell with that. When I get a bit old and start to feel slow or rickety, I'm getting in a wingsuit and targeting the nearing mountainside!

 

[BobblyDrink]

We live, we die. But it's what we do with the time in between that counts. Better to live the best you can, before passing on as peacefully as possible.

Peacefully? To hell with that. When I get a bit old and start to feel slow or rickety, I'm getting in a wingsuit and targeting the nearing mountainside!

And what's more peaceful than a lovely mountain side landscape and getting up close with nature?

 

[AnarchistFish]

drugs

Maman died today. Or yesterday maybe, I don?t know. I got a telegram from the home: ?Mother deceased. Funeral tomorrow. Faithfully yours.? That doesn?t mean anything. Maybe it was yesterday.

don't even start