What are your views on death?

[Beelze]

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In the heat death of the universe, when decades can pass between each of my great, slow thoughts, ask me then if mortality is a curse or a blessed release from eternity. Until that time, I have no problem telling death to go screw.

 

[Kyouran]

One lifeform's death is another lifeform's life and has been as long as life has lived. Suck it, PETA.

 

[samsprinkle]

Death is the last great adventure in my book. A natural part of life. I don't seek it as there is much more for me to do. But I don't fear it, after all, if I die I won't know about it, I'll be dead.

 

[GamerPhate]

I have had the same belief, that from the second you are born, you are destine to die. But as far as what happens after that, there are varied ideas of what that involves. But ultimately not a single person alive has 100 percent physical proof of what does happen. Even the Pope may believe deeper than any other person, but again that is only belief. For the only way to know is to die, and once that happens, it becomes a tad difficult to alert the living masses.

 

[zirnitra]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

atoms aren't conciousness. I don't give a crap about my atoms.

if you believe in science you'll know that you have no true free will it's just to do with how chemicals in your brain react to your; past, current environment including objects and people and genetics which govern all your responses to everything and there for lack of conciousness truly means nothing.

if you believe in religion then you think your going to a better place

the only problem I can possibly think of people have with death is leaving their loved ones behind, but then if you were immortal you'd spend eternity watching everyone you got closed to degrade and die, which would be much worse than just going through the experience once.

 

[poleboy]

Death isn't really bad, it is necessary, eternal life would be boring

Speak for yourself. I could use a few centuries just reading books. Death may be a good thing in the end, but life if far, far too short for my taste.

 

[AgentNein]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

atoms aren't conciousness. I don't give a crap about my atoms.

if you believe in science you'll know that you have no true free will it's just to do with how chemicals in your brain react to your; past, current environment including objects and people and genetics which govern all your responses to everything and there for lack of conciousness truly means nothing.

Show me where scientific studies clearly state that we have no free will. Yes, chemicals, instinct, thousands of years of evolution, past experiences and genetics all skew my judgment and actions in any situation. That doesn't say anything about free will or lack thereof. Show me any scientist that's willing to definitively state (as a fact) that 'free will' doesn't exist because of these things.

And that's still beside the point, because who's to say that free will is what gives consciousness its meaning or value? I'd say that this is less a scientific statement and more a philosophical one.

 

[Bobzer77]

I believe in an afterlife ( maybe just because I was raised and am a Catholic I dunno) anyway if you hate people like that disregard my last sentence.

I'm afraid of death for the sole reason that I'm afraid my conciousness would just cease to exist. I love my conciousness and I have no idea how people could be comfortable with that (anyone I ask just pulls the you would cease to exist you wouldn't know crap)anyway If I didn't believe in an afterlife I would still believe in the existance of some form of conciousness after death.

I hope I don't get flamed for this but I think there is evidence to support this for example ( I don't know if this is true but I've heard about it in a few lectures + books) there was a doctor in a hospital in America (please don't ask me to remember names)but apparantly he had a heart attack and after a failed ressucitation by the other doctors he was pronounced clinically dead. One of his friends however wouldn't give up. He got an extremely high voltage defib and after two minutes of the guy being dead he was revived and was able to recall a bright light and voices.

I don't know what to think about that but there you go...

 

[zirnitra]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

atoms aren't conciousness. I don't give a crap about my atoms.

if you believe in science you'll know that you have no true free will it's just to do with how chemicals in your brain react to your; past, current environment including objects and people and genetics which govern all your responses to everything and there for lack of conciousness truly means nothing.

Show me where scientific studies clearly state that we have no free will. Yes, chemicals, instinct, thousands of years of evolution, past experiences and genetics all skew my judgment and actions in any situation. That doesn't say anything about free will or lack thereof. Show me any scientist that's willing to definitively state (as a fact) that 'free will' doesn't exist because of these things.

And that's still beside the point, because who's to say that free will is what gives consciousness its meaning or value? I'd say that this is less a scientific statement and more a philosophical one.

well for the most part the brain still is a mystery to the world. people are still unsure what causes schizophrenia whether it's an influenza virus in your brain you got while in the womb or because your mother didn't touch your penis when you asked her as a toddler etc. however Benjamin Libet's research suggests that we do not have free will. I think the majority of atheist biological specialists of the brain would say that the exsistance of free will is unlikely at best

 

[Ionami]

I'm ready for death, I don't care if I died right now. If you worry about it, it will come sooner. Just live life and not think about it.

So... you're saying if you live carefully, and take necessary measures to increase your chances of survival, (i.e. NOT base jumping or shark wrestling) you're going to die sooner? Interesting theory... although I don't understand it...

 

[fix-the-spade]

It happens.

 

[joystickjunki3]

Already knew this, but honestly I'd live forever if I could. Just because I want to know what happens to everything after I'm supposed to die. It's my curiosity that wants to live on, not necessarily my will.

 

[Cheesus333]

Plus fighting an alien species to extinction is kinda neat, but it would have to be the Protoss AND the Zerg we fight.

Balls to them, I'm planning on wiping the Eldar off the face of the Galaxy. That'll teach them for creating Slaanesh. Then we'll have to gear up to fight off a Tyranid Hive fleet.

Oh, didn't you know everyone? Warhammer 40,000 was a board game documentary.Yeah, it's all totally real.

 

[AgentNein]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

atoms aren't conciousness. I don't give a crap about my atoms.

if you believe in science you'll know that you have no true free will it's just to do with how chemicals in your brain react to your; past, current environment including objects and people and genetics which govern all your responses to everything and there for lack of conciousness truly means nothing.

Show me where scientific studies clearly state that we have no free will. Yes, chemicals, instinct, thousands of years of evolution, past experiences and genetics all skew my judgment and actions in any situation. That doesn't say anything about free will or lack thereof. Show me any scientist that's willing to definitively state (as a fact) that 'free will' doesn't exist because of these things.

And that's still beside the point, because who's to say that free will is what gives consciousness its meaning or value? I'd say that this is less a scientific statement and more a philosophical one.

well for the most part the brain still is a mystery to the world. people are still unsure what causes schizophrenia whether it's an influenza virus in your brain you got while in the womb or because your mother didn't touch your penis when you asked her as a toddler etc. however Benjamin Libet's research suggests that we do not have free will. I think the majority of atheist biological specialists of the brain would say that the exsistance of free will is unlikely at best

From research suggesting something to the idea that "if you believe in science then you know that there is no free will" is quite the leap though, don't you agree? And Libet himself actually didn't take his experiments and findings as arguments against the existence of free will.

Again, I go back to my belief that science itself is ill equipped to answer the question of the existence of free will one way or another, and I'd also assume that most scientists would agree that this is at least as much a question in the realm of philosophy as it is in science.

And also, like I said before there's no reason to assume that free will (or lack thereof) necessarily gives consciousness it's value or meaning.

 

[MasterMuffinMan]

My view on death?

Well, as long as he TALKS LIKE THIS, he's a pretty cool guy.
Oh, wait, we're not talking anthropomorphic personifications here are we?

Was that an Irregular Webcomic reference? If so, woohoo, I've finally found another reader!


I'm not particularly worried about death. I'd rather it not happen for a while, I've still got things I'd like to do. I'm really more interested/worried about how it happens - I'd much rather go quickly, and not ill or frail or anything. Die with my boots on, as the saying goes.

Or, if you'd prefer a predictable, non-serious answer:

"Duh, you just respawn next round."

 

[zirnitra]

meh, your atoms will be around for ever though so what does it matter!

atoms aren't conciousness. I don't give a crap about my atoms.

if you believe in science you'll know that you have no true free will it's just to do with how chemicals in your brain react to your; past, current environment including objects and people and genetics which govern all your responses to everything and there for lack of conciousness truly means nothing.

Show me where scientific studies clearly state that we have no free will. Yes, chemicals, instinct, thousands of years of evolution, past experiences and genetics all skew my judgment and actions in any situation. That doesn't say anything about free will or lack thereof. Show me any scientist that's willing to definitively state (as a fact) that 'free will' doesn't exist because of these things.

And that's still beside the point, because who's to say that free will is what gives consciousness its meaning or value? I'd say that this is less a scientific statement and more a philosophical one.

well for the most part the brain still is a mystery to the world. people are still unsure what causes schizophrenia whether it's an influenza virus in your brain you got while in the womb or because your mother didn't touch your penis when you asked her as a toddler etc. however Benjamin Libet's research suggests that we do not have free will. I think the majority of atheist biological specialists of the brain would say that the exsistance of free will is unlikely at best

From research suggesting something to the idea that "if you believe in science then you know that there is no free will" is quite the leap though, don't you agree? And Libet himself actually didn't take his experiments and findings as arguments against the existence of free will.

Again, I go back to my belief that science itself is ill equipped to answer the question of the existence of free will one way or another, and I'd also assume that most scientists would agree that this is at least as much a question in the realm of philosophy as it is in science.

And also, like I said before there's no reason to assume that free will (or lack thereof) necessarily gives consciousness it's value or meaning.

I'd go so far to say it was an overstatement, yes.

the natures of spirituality and philosophy mean that science can never truly get a definitive scientific hard evidenced answer to most matters.

the idea of what is conciousness is ambiguous, but I think perhaps you have a strong argument about what free will has to do with it. in fact I think I would of probably left out what I said in my original post about it but the idea of not having free will really quite intrigues/excites me when I think more about it (which I very rarely do) and I felt compulsed to add it to my point even if it did lack some validity and would of now probably gone a different route.

 

[Aardvark]

To me death is just a part of life. No one knows if anything happens to you after you die. For all we know Death is the second part of your exsistance, you could be here on this earth to do something, die, move on to the next stage of exsistance. Thats how I see it. So when I die, hopefully there is something else for me to do. If not, well, I hope that I lived my life to the fullest.

Sadly, as your memories and experiences are all encoded into meat, you won't take them with you to your next plane of existence.

Oh, didn't you know everyone? Warhammer 40,000 was a board game documentary.Yeah, it's all totally real.

You're either not very bright or have some strange genetic condition that blinds you to quotes within quotes and leaps of intuition.

Or both.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Depending on how you look at it, death is either a transition, or an end. It is something that your DNA has hardwired your consciousness to avoid at all costs.

For me personally, death is business.