Afterlife...?

[Standout]

Let me start by saying I've been reading totse regularly for a while now. I have learned so much from reading here, and reading here has helped open my mind to so many things I had never thought of before.

However before I really started browsing through frequently I was having serious doubts about the afterlife. I don't really care about anything other than an afterlife. I was raised christian but completely stopped believing (I don't think I need to explain myself there) but hand in hand when I stopped believing in religion was when I had doubts in an afterlife. Really the only reason I still "believe" is to function daily. It has just been drilled into my head for so long, the thought of everyone I know that has deceased, just ceasing to exist forever, someday I will cease to exist forever, it's just so damn depressing. I realize it is largely because of the way I was raised to look at life after death, but I can't consciously change that, or at least I haven't been having much success trying to.


I don't know anymore, I think about this stuff constantly. I've been trying to fool myself into having hope for an afterlife with many thoughts but knowing all of my emotions etc., kind of what I thought was my 'soul' is just a bunch of chemicals in my brain makes anything other than ceasing to exist hard to believe. I've been so desperate I've been thinking of some really out-there ideas to avoid ceasing to exist. A family friend had a brain anurism(sp*, it's late I'm sorry) and claims to see spirits. See, now I'm going to try and look into that, even though I know I will most likely wind up thinking it is BS. I have been looking into it a lot, but I respect totse posters and the knowledge they bring here. Just off the top of anyones head is there any reading (preferably online) you could recommend? Anyone think the advances in science will prove one way or the other in the next 10 years or so? By one way or the other I am strictly talking about what happens after death, nothing to do with a creator or anything of that nature. I hate thinking about this kind of stuff as much as I love it, I am constantly asphyxiated on trying to make sense out of it.


I know internet forums are generally a bad place for this kind of stuff but I assume someone here has had a similar train of thought and could provide some insight?

I realize this may sound generic and stupid but I have to start somewhere.

EDIT: I was also hoping to get a volunteer to shoot down some of the ideas I thought of that I thought may work around what science suggests and make an afterlife seem plausable? You've probably heard it all before though.

[Real.PUA]

Science has already given a definitive answer to the question...once you're dead your consciousness ceases to exist. Unless you want to invoke the god/magic/supernatural/matrix that's just the way it is.

However, you could find some solace in knowing that your legacy will live on, that you made a difference, that we are all part of the universe...

[Pilsu]

You die every night, it's not scary

[Obbe]

Originally Posted by Pilsu

You die every night, it's not scary

I think he meant actual death.

But you're right, its nothing to worry about. Existence will continue.

[Kash]

Well if there turns out that there is no afterlife and we all just won't exist when we die, then really when you think about it, it's not like we'll know we won't exist so..well, yeah.

It'll just be like "Oh no I'm dea--.."

I'm starting to think that I might just live my life to the fullest, not really working in one job too long (unless it's a surprisingly good one) but being tied down to one thing lately is getting on my nerves.

What I'm trying to say is since we don't really KNOW for sure what the after life holds, just fuck it all and party. (anyone who knows me though knows I do not party :P)

[Obbe]

Originally Posted by Kash

fuck it all and party.

Woooo-hoooo! Lets eat some shrooms and smoke some grass man.

[Kash]

Originally Posted by Obbe

Woooo-hoooo! Lets eat some shrooms and smoke some grass man.

Oh I would man, but I'm dry right now *cough* :P

[Standout]

See but part of realizing that is now I really don't know how to live my life, trying to keep that mindset I get mixed messages with every interaction throughout my day. I know if I die and cease to exist I wont be able to be upset over it, but people I know that have died, just stuff that you don't know and have to deal with the fact you may never know. The ceasing to exist part is just ugh especially after I've been told for so long about this great happy afterlife...

I was thinking about it like this...if there was a creator and a heaven and hell, some way to punish and equalize you if you did something "wrong" in this life, I would be unfathomably happy to be banished to the worst possible "hell". To me the idea of hell kind of contradicts itself, because hell can't exist if you don't right? I don't see how ANYTHING could be worse than ceasing to exist?

If I knew my consciousness would continue on for all eternity, pain and anything hell could throw at me would seem irrelevant. It's not like pain would matter anymore, pain is only relevant to me now because my body is telling me to stop doing something because I could get hurt and jeapordise my existance. If I know my existance will be forever, pain wont be a factor. Nothing would phase me because you have all eternity to do whatever you want.


I think all of the pain and depressing emotions we experience are only present because we all know we will one day die. If existance continued for eternity, there really wouldn't be anything to be upset about because you have eternity, endless chances to do whatever you feel like. So, going on that same train of thought, and what science seems to suggest, at least to me...the whole death = ceasing to exist, I mean thats hell to me. Thats why I have been so desperate lately to change my views because I just can't live life practically thinking this way.

[karma_sleeper]

I think that even if one does not believe in an afterlife or the survival of the consciousness/soul/whatever, life still has - and arguably more - meaning. If this is our only life, then surely that is all the motivation we need to make it as full and meaningful as possible.

While I'm not an atheist myself, I think it's a huge misconception to view it as some dismal existence. As far as we know, we're the only creatures in the universe endowed with a sense of consciousness as we understand it. We should count ourselves lucky to have the opportunity to live as we do no matter how short a span of time it may be compared to the grand scheme of things so to speak.

Hope that helps you find at least some solace in a mortal life.

[shadyaftermath424]

once ur dead, ur dead, end of story