Death

[ltimm]

I've recently been pondering death (not suicide). As an atheist, it kind of scares me. But fading then not knowing whats happening to you or the future. It depresses me that I won't continue but I absolutly do not believe in the afterlife or God(s). It would be great if there were an afterlife, but for me there isn't.


Is it just me, or am I over thinking this? What are your opinions on death?

[Magus]

If you are an atheist+agnostic. Think death as the same sensation before you were even born.

As a spiritualist, you would know that you will follow your life in another body i.e reincarnation.

If you are Monotheist, you will find either peace or torment in death and this will follow until the day of Judgment. The time will pass quick. Doomsday.

Some of them says that we go to heaven or hell as soon as we die. Some say we are to wait the Doomsday in our grave. It is called resurrection.

[Evermore]

As an atheist. You would believe it's sort of a dreamless sleep that you would never wake up from. The way you felt before you were born. (nothing)
As a christian(or other religion.) you have no fear of death because you believe that you go to a better place. Your choice.

[Kaius]

Agreed, I don't believe there is much after life. After having things happen, death isn't such a scary thing for me anymore its a fact of life. Im not saying i'd welcome it if it came, but im not scared of the concept of it anymore

[littlerascal]

I'm mostly agnostic/atheist, but I still take comfort in my Lutheran upbringing...If my beliefs are wrong, I still go to heaven...kind of set either way...it doesn't bother me too much.

[Sapphire]

I am an atheist but I've been developing more agnostic leanings. I don't have specific ideas about what comes after and, if the truth be told, I don't feel compelled to have a specific idea about it.
It is always comforting to think that those you love are still in existence somewhere and the power of that belief has helped me get through times of intense grief.

I honestly think that whatever helps you through is ok but you needn't be depressed over your beliefs. If your beliefs about the non-existence of a meaningful afterlife are depressing you then you are spending too much time dwelling on them.

[Magus]

Yes, if you are atheist or agnostic for that matters. Just let me drop this religious ho-ha.

Let put aside the death and learn what is alive. Especially in our case. What is meaning of being alive. What makes us move, think. The most importantly is to think.

Is this what feels alive? If I am empty of thoughts, then am I considered dead?

If brain is dead, did we died with it? So, is this what death likes?

I think death is like a sleep but with no lucid and vivid dream.

But, what else? Are we just nothing? We thing before we had a conscious, then how come we are nothing after we die and rot in our graves?

Questions are left to be answered.

[Death]

You shouldn't really fear death, and this goes regardless of your religion. If you believe that you will go to Heaven, then it's supposed to be a paradise and so there should be nothing to worry about. If you are atheist (which you said you were, OP), then death should be no different to what it was like before you were born; dreamless sleep where one cannot feel fear or sadness, or anything for that matter. So, again, nothing to worry about.

[Sapphire]

Is this what feels alive? If I am empty of thoughts, then am I considered dead?

If brain is dead, did we died with it? So, is this what death likes?

I think death is like a sleep but with no lucid and vivid dream.

But, what else? Are we just nothing? We thing before we had a conscious, then how come we are nothing after we die and rot in our graves?

Questions are left to be answered.Having a blank mind (no thoughts etc) is not enough to class you as dead because your brain is active, you are conscious, you're blinking and you will have future thoughts/emotions/actions.

If one is brain dead then one is deemed to have died. Why is this? Because they simply cannot regain brain activity. Their other organs are only functioning due to the life support machine and they fail after the life support machine is switched off.
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Brain_death

[sweet like chocolate]

I think, being a christian, that when I die, I will hopefully go to heaven. If I thought about it in the sense, that when I die, thats it for ever, it'd terrify me, it does terrify me.

[Magus]

Having a blank mind (no thoughts etc) is not enough to class you as dead because your brain is active, you are conscious, you're blinking and you will have future thoughts/emotions/actions.

Let say, I don't have future, because I am not weaving it.
Thoughts, emotions and action are triggered by thoughts.

I don't think a person standing there with a blank face yet tears are falling.

Blank, by that I mean a hallow person. No thoughts, nothing as in pure emptiness. No sense, brain does function. But the person is blank, thoughtless, no emotion.

Let say, me, my friend pinched and I do feel the pain. But then again, the pain is nothing but signals sent back by the brain. It is nothing, I don't feel hurt from the pain.

Pain is nothing to me. In that case, what am I? A senseless and thoughtless, staring at nothing. Not even talking and moving.

Am I considered dead?

(Let us plunge in death into its in depth meaning)

MEANING OF DEAD (http://ardictionary.com/Dead/711)

[Sapphire]

Let say, I don't have future, because I am not weaving it.
Thoughts, emotions and action are triggered by thoughts.No, thoughts, emotions and action are triggered by events in your environment, changes in your physiology and from your own memories/thoughts.

I don't think a person standing there with a blank face yet tears are falling.

Blank, by that I mean a hallow person. No thoughts, nothing as in pure emptiness. No sense, brain does function. But the person is blank, thoughtless, no emotion.

Let say, me, my friend pinched and I do feel the pain. But then again, the pain is nothing but signals sent back by the brain. It is nothing, I don't feel hurt from the pain.

Pain is nothing to me. In that case, what am I? A senseless and thoughtless, staring at nothing. Not even talking and moving.

Am I considered dead?

(Let us plunge in death into its in depth meaning)

MEANING OF DEAD (http://ardictionary.com/Dead/711)
No one can be conscious and completely devoid of sensation or perception.

If you sense pain, you perceive pain. As a result of them both, you feel hurt. That is how it works. The only way that doesn't work is when nerves have been damaged or pain killers have been taken.

Even if you could not sense, perceive, feel, think or do anything in one moment - you are guaranteed to do them in the future. Since you will think/feel/do/perceive/sense something, you can't be dead.

[kenoloor]

As an atheist. You would believe it's sort of a dreamless sleep that you would never wake up from. The way you felt before you were born. (nothing)
As a christian(or other religion.) you have no fear of death because you believe that you go to a better place. Your choice.

There are still Christians out there who are afraid of death.

[deadpie]

Could care less what happens when I die. I'm not scared of it at all.

[littlerascal]

Let say, I don't have future, because I am not weaving it.
Thoughts, emotions and action are triggered by thoughts.

I don't think a person standing there with a blank face yet tears are falling.

Blank, by that I mean a hallow person. No thoughts, nothing as in pure emptiness. No sense, brain does function. But the person is blank, thoughtless, no emotion.

Let say, me, my friend pinched and I do feel the pain. But then again, the pain is nothing but signals sent back by the brain. It is nothing, I don't feel hurt from the pain.

Pain is nothing to me. In that case, what am I? A senseless and thoughtless, staring at nothing. Not even talking and moving.

Am I considered dead?

(Let us plunge in death into its in depth meaning)

MEANING OF DEAD (http://ardictionary.com/Dead/711)

If you can find me a person who doesn't think, I might change my opinion, but I am quite confident you won't be able to. Brain activity has to cease for you to be dead...no other way in my opinion. Even when your heart stops, you aren't dead if you still have brain activity; you still have the possibility of being revived while there is brain activity.

[Jenna.]

I'm a Christian so I believe you go to heaven after you die. I'm honestly TERRIFIED of death too. But when I remember that, it helps calm me down. I just think something must happen after death because there's so much proof of spirits and ghosts and whatnot, I don't know. (And no I'm not talking about those dumb shows that exaggerate everything. I truly think my previous house was haunted, there was just too much unexplainable stuff that went on. But not by an "evil" ghost.)

[INFERNO]

I believe once we die, then we die and that's that. Our memories others have of us continue to live on and that's how we can be remembered, along with photographs and other objects. However, I do not believe in an afterlife not because of the issue of lack of proof (although that is one reason) but mostly because it implies there's somehow another world out there that is somehow accessed only when we're dead, yet some of the members of that other world can through some mysterious way, enter our world just to screw with us. The whole concept of another world accessed only in this fashion, along with some higher being controlling it and so forth seems like a nice big fairy-tale that is very good for providing comfort but nothing else.

I just think something must happen after death because there's so much proof of spirits and ghosts and whatnot, I don't know. (And no I'm not talking about those dumb shows that exaggerate everything. I truly think my previous house was haunted, there was just too much unexplainable stuff that went on. But not by an "evil" ghost.)

What direct, objective proof is there? From what I've seen on the silly TV shows and talked to people, there is no way to distinguish whether there truly were ghosts or whatever else and not a psychological phenomenon. There is plenty of evidence for the psychological phenomenon aspect of it.

[Jenna.]

What direct, objective proof is there? From what I've seen on the silly TV shows and talked to people, there is no way to distinguish whether there truly were ghosts or whatever else and not a psychological phenomenon. There is plenty of evidence for the psychological phenomenon aspect of it.

Well, scientists can't prove that ghosts exist because science is based on repetitive testing. You have to be able to be able to achieve a result that can be reproduced over and over again in a controlled environment in order for something to be scientifically proved. Science is not the answer to everything, and TOO many people seem to think it is. However, many people (look it up if you don't believe me) have had experiences with ghosts;there are plenty of pictures, stories, etc that show what they have been through. And I doubt every encounter that someone's had with a ghost is a "psychological phenomenon." That's basically calling everyone insane, because they managed to "see and hear very realistic noises & sights in their heads at random, different instances."

[INFERNO]

Well, scientists can't prove that ghosts exist because science is based on repetitive testing.

Nice cop-out. First, you have the burden of proof, not the other way around so before scientists try anything, in this debate, you must provide some reliable and valid proof first. If you cannot, then science need not do anything to provide proof to the contrary. Second, how on Earth does "repetitive testing" make science not able to refute? That implies that any support you have relies on chances where something out of the ordinary happened, no idea why it happened though but you're using it as an argument. In other words, chance events: if something happens 0.05% of the time, you're implying that's proof the event exists.


You have to be able to be able to achieve a result that can be reproduced over and over again in a controlled environment in order for something to be scientifically proved. Science is not the answer to everything, and TOO many people seem to think it is.

I'm not going to address the flaw in your statement but rather two other things. First, the results of science can be verified. As shown above, you apparently rely on chance events that probably cannot be verified to occur again. Second, science not being the answer to everything is a cop-out.


However, many people (look it up if you don't believe me) have had experiences with ghosts;there are plenty of pictures, stories, etc that show what they have been through. And I doubt every encounter that someone's had with a ghost is a "psychological phenomenon." That's basically calling everyone insane, because they managed to "see and hear very realistic noises & sights in their heads at random, different instances."

That is not what I meant at all when I said psychological phenomenon so allow me to explain. Suppose you see an ambiguous object when the lighting and other environmental factors are poor, so it's an ambiguous object that's distorted due to the lighting and such. It becomes psychological when one person claims it's a ghost while someone else claims it's something else and a third says it's yet another thing. This in no way has anything to do with possible psychotic episodes, and even if it were what I was saying, that is not the definition of insanity but rather the layman's and media's definition of it.

Why do this different interpretations occur? Chances are, if someone already believes in the supernatural, then they'll likely see a ghost or other supernatural being from the distorted ambiguous object.

The stories are poor proof because you cannot rule out the possibility that people's pre-conceived beliefs affected their interpretations. It may very well be a real ghost but you in no way have any proof of such because you cannot distinguish it from the psychological phenomena described above. You can read interviews and when people say "It was a ghost!" or "I know it was a ghost!", that does not distinguish it from any psychological phenomena.

So, we're back at where we started: where is your proof that is not psychological phenomena and truly is something supernatural?

[Camazotz]

I'm confident that there is no after-life. Once you're dead, you cease to be conscious and your body stops in its tracks. Of course I'd rather live than die, but being dead doesn't scare me in the slightest because since I'm dead, I won't even realize it. I'm afraid of the process of dying, whether it be from a disease or illness, severe wounds, torture, etc.

I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid of knowing right before I die, that it's all over. That I can't do anything more with my life. Worrying won't help me come to terms with it when the time comes, so I mind as well enjoy life now and worry about it when I'm near death.

[BeautifulDisaster]

I hope there is an afterlife.

[Aspiringanonymous]

I don't believe in an 'afterlife' in the traditional sense.

I wish to have my remains scattered somewhere deep in the mountains; from the arms of mother nature I have come, and that is where I long to return.

Death is just the beginning of existence in another form.

I remember being fearful of death as a very young child, but by the time I was capable of independent thought, it was no longer there. I don't think I ever comprehended why exactly it is such a common experience.