I use the “where were you before you were born” question also. However I believe that I was an involved part of the universe in unsentient form. Scientifically we know that energy cannot be destroyed, only changed from one form to another. When “I” die, the essence,spirit, soul, energy (whatever you choose to call it) will leave this body and return to the beauty of the universe to be used for whatever the universe needs at the moment of my “death”. I will have had a short time of existence as human, but I believe there are multiple billions of energy existences. I sometimes think it would be nice to move on to be a bit of energy enervating a new born star, joining the energy of a nova or comet. I believe that my “energy” will continue on in a form that I won’t “know” as I currently know I am human. But that is ok as the universe is incredible and “I” will always be some part of it. I don’t need the absurd religious belief of a heavenly abode where I will dwell forever worshiping the monstrosity that passes as the god of humans. The power of the universe is enough.

When we die, all devout, good Christians will go to heaven and spend eternity learning to play the garp, while all non-Christians will go to hell, i.e. a section of heaven where they will be tortured for eternity by zillions of Christians creating a cacaphony of horrible sounds of idiots who can never learn to play the harp.

As the famous philosopher Bertrand Russell testified at the Senate McCarthy hearings witchhunt when asked what he thought would happen to him when he died, "I think that when I die, I shall rot".

So we are like the animals. They don't get anything better according to the religionists.

Short answer their elements return to their basic composition.

Although if you tend to lean towards the eastern religions, we will all come back as a dog, or slug, or butterfly.

We don't know for sure what is in store for us after death. There's no conclusive evidene concerning the existence or non-existence of a life after death.

From JC Superstar. To conquer death, you only have to die.

Simply choose to live with "purpose" in doing our best to leave a decent, stable, and hopefully enjoyable planet to future generations going forward far in time, and resist falling for the honesty- and insight-lacking notion that, despite that complete lack of clear evidence, we are somehow completely unlike all other forms of life on earth and will somehow Not return to dust. Yolo can be done with joy, energy, And responsibility and honesty.

The fact is, none of us really knows what happens to us after death. What is most likely is that nothing happens. We're dead, consciousness and awareness ends and the body decays. Without any evidence to the contrary, that is my assumption.

If life was infinite it would have zero value.

I take great relief from seeing death as final. For one, it mean the evil that lives in people is snuffed out, instead of merely transported elsewhere.

As for myself, I feel I was not meant to live for ever.
All is entropy. Even if we had immortal souls, we would degrade after death. Lose what makes us who we are and become something very different. An endless cycle of the destruction of self.
I would rather not exist than experiencing that infinity.
It's been painful enough to have lost all that I used to be over the course of not-quite-a-life span.

The sadness that you refer to is exactly why religions were invented. I was always taught that you would see your loved ones again in heaven, we would all be around 30 years old in appearance, and yet we would all know each other, etc. Oh, come on! Where did this crap come from?? It's not even in the Buybull.

Not a problem, We , as human, see life as the all be all rather than what it really is. I , the being , was nowhere before birth, this entity did not exist yet so to think we were somewhere before birth is incorrect. We were not present before we were. After our bodies wear down or get killed off, the balance of energy does not change at all. This life is merely a entertainment center for the brain. After the brain is dead, no longer functioning, our reality no longer exist. But to what energy system my atoms join with after death is exciting .

I actually find it quite comforting that this is all there is. One day I'll just blink out.

The way I see it, we'll all be together again one day. In the earth. That's comforting enough for me to know.

I enjoy my my life but most importantly I have my daughter who can hopefully contribute in the future. We are animals and our one driving goal is to propagate the species....well that is how I see it. Just make sure you enjoy the time you have

We are million year old carbon & will become a different sort of energy as energy cannot be destroyed. It can only change into another form.

We are all made of star dust. And so one day we shall return.

What? You mean ... I'm going to die? Oh, crap. And I had such great plans.

I have never understood what is so hard about accepting that our time on this earth is limited, like every other living creature, and when it is over, it’s over. Human narcissism seems to know no bounds. The idea that as humans we are so incredibly important that we should exist in some form forever. Even though we reproduce at an alarming rate, use and destroy natural resources at unsustainable rates, cause extinctions of other creatures by our greed among other wonders. If we make such a mess of our planet (millions of tons of trash floating around the oceans, millions of tons of pollution in our air), imagine a place where all the human population lives forever! No thanks!

That is also easy to answer...I cope by enjoying life as much as I can and trying to be mindful of it. Carpe Diem.

Knowing that this is all there is makes it that much more precious.

Also, the realization that my own being is the result of a pulling together and organization of a collection of atoms guided by a genetic program, and the knowledge that these atoms come from rocks and water and trees and butterflies and before that they were forged inside stars and after I'm dead they will be parts of ants and worms and bacteria and butterflies again makes me understand that they are not really mine but are only on loan to me. I'm ok with that.

I just make this point that one appalling delusion of modern Christianity is that they convince believers that when they die they rise to heaven to God and Jesus and to meet all their past friends and family, including their favourite grandma and pet dog Boo Boo from when they were a kid. Serious bible scholars like Bart Urhmann and atheists like Sam Harris point out that the bible says no such thing. Some vague statements are peddled to suggest this myth, but mostly the bible says that when you die you are dead, and maybe if God and Jesus get around to it, in godly not human time, you might be reaped up as a believer to the kingdom of God. It's hardly clear or very encouraging. So, Christian afterlife isn't that much of a promise, at best. But most of them don't know that. Believer or non believer, when you die you are dead.

I personally find my belief that there's no afterlife comforting. I have this life to do with what I want (at least to some extent) then I flicker out like a candle. I agree that the idea of not seeing others in an afterlife is sad. OR IS IT??? Now I'm going to get a little weird. Maybe one reason I'm not bothered by not having an afterlife is that I have never seen any depiction of an afterlife that I saw as any more appealing as life here. My parents didn't particularly like me and I didn't like one of my grandmothers at all. I have two ex-husbands that I'd just as soon never see again. Even if I liked either of them, each had previous wives and subsequent wives. So how does that get sorted out?? Whoever dislikes him the least? (Please don't jump down my throat -- I'm kidding.) And I'm someone who needs to be doing something almost constantly. I can't imagine floating around in a white robe with wings and a halo doing nothing. The afterlives I've seen in science fiction aren't much more appealing.

I sort of look at dying as like wandering into a really great bar about fifteen minutes before closing time. You wish you had more time to stay, but you don't. They're going to throw you out so they can go home. Of course I'd rather not leave my daughter, but she'll do well without me when the time comes. Besides, I used to tell my students that I thought my generation (Baby Boomers) were holding back a lot of the advancement on social issues and things would get better when we died and got out of the way.