Agnostic.com

31 3

How does your mind deal with the concept of “nothing.” Since we don’t believe in an after life, it’s hard to imagine dying and not existing...

I do ponder on the thought that my energy would be reused and I’d come back as something else, but I’m kinda done with this planet, so that’s not comforting, lol.

Rideauxb 7 Jan 2
Share

Enjoy being online again!

Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.

Create your free account

31 comments

Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.

0

Maybe you should not think about dying, and think about living. If you think about living whilst living, and leave thinking about dying for when you die then it's really easy.

0

We are stardust...that's a fact and we will return to stardust.

0

well, what was it like for the trillions of years before you were born? it's the dying part I'm not keen on. you won't care about being dead because you will be dead.

0

Curiously enough I have thought about this from a political perspective as well. I mean the research that goes on to live indefinitely, no doubt to be used by the world's elite exclusively, to extend their power and control. Does anyone doubt that they would if the could? Death would go beyond being a physiological and philosophical issue and become a class issue. Sounds like pure science fiction, right? Yet the stuff that goes on in some research labs might appal us. One day, if the rich have their way, death might no longer be the universal leveller.

0

I've experienced deja vu. A very strange sensation for sure. That feeling of " I've been here and have seen this before!" So I relate this to the possibility of reincarnation. Space and time are relative to each other (space/time ) and can be warped and distorted by matter and dark matter, energy and dark energy. So time ticks at a different rate depending on these properties. GPS satellites are calibrated to compensate for this because time ticks at different rate from the earth surface compared to the orbit of the satellite. Whew! Hope I got that right!.....so with that being said I suspect that everything that has happened or will happen,exist somewhere in the infinite vastness of space/time. So when I experienced deja vu it may be some kind of glitch or fold of space time that I for some unknown reason can momentarily perceive. P.s an alien once told me "to travel in time is to travel in space!" Forward or backward. He! He! He!.

1

I agree with Shakespeare.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

0

You will simply quit thinking - the brain dies, and EVERYTHING that made you "aware" will cease to exist for you. Each person's world dies when they die. You more than likely will not know you are dying (if you're lucky), so the best thing to do is to treat each day as though it's your last... IMHO.

0

Ok, just for kicks let's say reincarnation is a reality, and we have had and will have countless moments of existence. It would seem that the conscious mind would immensely be cluttered if it could recall past or future existence. So for me, just because I have know recollection of past or future existence, dismiss this possibility I can not.

0

Think about what it was like before you were born.

0

I don't think it's possible to ponder "nothing." And I don't "don't believe" in an afterlife (sorry, I couldn't think of a better way to say it). Everything that we know about "us" happens in the mind, so it makes sense that whatever is "us" would cease to exist if there were no mind to create that. However, we've yet to be able to measure beyond death. So for now, it's the "null" hypothesis, and that's where I am. I accept the "null" hypothesis, but I still wonder what might or might not happen once the mind and body stop functioning.

[livescience.com]

0

In 1920 I did not exist. Nothing or non existence was not an issue "for me".

I am guessing it will be the same after I die.

0

For me it was lingering doctrines of religion. The longer I'm out the less I consider it and I just don't care anymore. I care about life but when that goes out it's like flipping a switch.

gearl Level 8 Jan 2, 2018
0

I am going to admit something. Sometimes I wish that there was strong scientific evidence of a "spirit"/"soul"/"conscious thinking essence" or something else that survives death. I am not scared of death or that there will be something unpleasant waiting for me. I do find it rather sad that this may be the only one that were guaranteed of and once it's over, it's over forever.

0

I saw a story of a very young boy who claimed a past life. He had a birth mark similar to an axe wound on the back of his head. Supposedly he located where his body was buried. Identified his killer which resulted in a murder conviction. The recovered body had a massive axe wound to head. I take these stories with a grain of salt, but who knows? I sure don't. My common sense tells me it's most likely lights out. But I do find these kind of claims very interesting.

0

It's something that I can understand well enough rationally, but emotionally, I don't at all like the idea of not existing. I guess it just goes in the bin with all the other things I don't like. I do like to promote the idea of longevity research à la Kurzweil.

skado Level 9 Jan 2, 2018
2

It's a lot like how things were for me in 1870.

1

its just nothing. You stop when you die. like, if you fall asleep and never dream or wake up. Thats just it. No pain, no thought, nothing to fear.

If i know i am about to die, I would laugh and say "The world is YOUR problem now!"

2

You, as an entity, will cease to exist when you die. Your energy will be recycled, a will your molecules, but you are gone forever as the entity that you are today. That is a fact. So, what is there to worry about?

5

This is one question that I don't understand why people have trouble understanding. It's seems simple to me that when your brain stops working, there will be no more you. It's like the millions of years before you were born. I hear people ask "if you don't believe in heaven, where do you go?". You'll be dead, you won't go anywhere. When a car's engine dies, does that energy go somewhere?
Sure your chemistry will eventually help the grass grow, but that's about it. I have no trouble with that.

0

I'm trying to come to terms with this myself, too. When the emotion rises that I won't be around fairly soon, I keep reminding myself that I wasn't around until very recently, and it did not bother me before then that I didn't exist.

0

If there was no such thing as nothing, we would be just all crowded together. There would be no space, so nothing is a good thing. I hope that comforts you.

0

Atoms don't go away. Energy does not go away. So, what makes us will not go away. Science can't prove that our minds exist when our bodies die ... it is all a matter of conjecture.

SKH78 Level 8 Jan 2, 2018
0

Until, or unless, someone is able to return from bona fide death, and tell us what's it's like, I'm not gonna use up any energy to speculate. And speculate is all we can do ...

0

It might be a lot like the event horizon as described by Steven Hawking's Theory on the energy around black holes the energy basically becomes densified and repurposed. Then there are the other unexplored dimensional influences, we are unable to explore in our current carbon form.

0

I, for one, don't know about an afterlife. My belief is that religion is a man made explanation for something that can't be known. I concede that their idea, or any one of billions of other possibilities may be the truth.

Write Comment
You can include a link to this post in your posts and comments by including the text q:12287
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.