Quote:
Originally Posted by Europa
From what you've written, I assume you don't believe there is a heaven or hell. I agree with you. But I consider myself to be unfortunate in this, and can only hope that sometime in my life I'll find something I can believe in, to convince me that an afterlife does exist.
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You don't need it.
When your time comes, you should just die.
It doesn't matter whether it be disease, age, or if your opponent is a lunatic... so long as your time comes.
Just die.
"It is easy to remove the mind from harping on the lost illusion of immortality. The disciplined intellect fears nothing and craves no sugar-plum at the day's end, but is content to accept life and serve society as best it may. Personally I would not care for immortality in the least. There is nothing better than oblivion, since in oblivion there is no wish unfulfilled. We had it before we were born, yet did not complain. Shall we whine because we know it will return? It is Elysium enough for me, at any rate."
- H.P. Lovecraft
People have the wrong idea. They think that even if their current life sucks, they have a better one waiting in the hereafter.
Normally these people would never awaken from their fantasies. They live trivial lives since they believe they have an endless one on hold. They proceed from this assumption. No matter how old they get they'll continue to tell theirselves "My real life hasn't started yet". "The real life is up next, so this life is trivial".
They continue to tell themselves that. And they age. Then die. And as the darkness takes them, only then may they realize that the life they lived was the real thing.
People don't live provisional lives, nor do they die provisional deaths.
That's a simple fact.
The problem is whether or not they realize this simple fact.
Whether they have truly awakened.
Killing all ones' religious beliefs may be a drastic remedy, but it can also be a good opportunity to wake them up. With this cognitive bloodbath, if they can break through this true "life" in the face of "death", they may awaken. The fog in their minds will lift. The gates of rebirth will open.
Of course... only if they
can make it through.
For most people, it's out of the question. Their cultural influences, childhood indoctrination, peer pressure, and institutionalisation will not allow them to consider it. Their ego is to such an extent that to entertain the concept that they could truly, completely die and be existentially negated must not be allowed.
Out of all the creatures on the planet, humans are the only ones that have egos and recognize the fact that they will some day die. Various afterlife beliefs are merely a method of cognitive escapism to deceive oneself and ease the mental anguish that inevitably results from acknowledging ones' own inevitable demise.