An afterlife sounds like a nightmare. Eternity of anything is not something that sounds good to me.
Extended Family for eternity. Nooooo.
An afterlife sounds like a nightmare. Eternity of anything is not something that sounds good to me.
Sometimes I try to comfort myself by making the internal argument that everything is unknown. Perhaps time is a loop and I'm doomed to live this life, this exact moment repeatedly. Maybe I get to live this life repeatedly and alter my choices each time. Maybe my energy carries on and I'm reincarnated as another person, an animal, a plant, an ant, or even a microscopic organism. Who fucking knows.
Exactly
I don't think it's too bad this time. It gets pretty bad when the fear is the focus. I think we tend to get wrapped up in the whole "what happens to me" when we die and avoid talking about death itself. It is a natural part of the the living experience and should be talked about and understood properly.
We're biological beings. We're tied to this fleshy blob. When that dies and our brain dies, there's nothing left. Your blip of existence in this 13.7 billion year old universe is over.
I doubt I'll have to revisit this in my life time as I don't think in my lifetime we'll get to successful 'transfers' of people to computers, but when that does happen it will create new questions about life.
Talking about an afterlife is like talking about where the fire goes when the wood is consumed. It doesn't go anywhere. It existed as a function of the chemical breakdown of the wood, and now that reaction is finished, it doesn't exist any more.
I feel the same way about consciousness. It exists while our brains and the bodies that support them work, and when they don't it ceases to exist.
whoa
This is definitely interesting, and I'll be sure to check out that essay, but at first blush I feel as though subscribing to the idea of potentiality and actualisation has some sort of universal / cosmic perspective as an axiom - and I think that does a disservice to just how complex, unlikely, and unique human consciousness is. Being at one with the universe sounds comforting, but I think I see more value in us as exceptions.This analogy is interesting because a lot of traditions would claim that the fire existed as a potentiality before it was actualized or ignited (a potential that is perhaps inherent in everything as possible fuel that fire can sustain itself on), and with the consumption of the fuel the fire reverts back from an actuality to being a mere potency again.
Buddhist philosophy actually uses this analogy to demonstrate its denial of both eternalism or annihilationism. What happens to the fire that has burnt out? We don't really know, but we can perhaps claim it neither definitively dies, nor persists eternally, because it reduces itself back into a common base potentiality that inheres in broader or universal processes. Thanissaro wrote a really interesting essay on this topic called 'Mind like fire unbound' fwiw.
Nothingness is not eternal, it's just nothingness. It's hard for our conscious minds to imagine it.
but does it not cause you some stress abuthw you will be judged even if you do good? I still believe in after life but as someone being vulnerable and alone with my convictions, I feel in the minority because most people don't..So I am confused, even though I saw my mother telling me she wasn't dead after her death.Nope
I believe in a afterlife.
I also believe it's not something we should worry about because what matters the most is the here and now.
This is interesting. Going metaphysical now.I'm reasonably certain that, even if your consciousness survives death, the person you are in life ends at death.
I believe there's an afterlife. Makes me feel better. And if there isn't, I won't know. So I get to feel better while I'm still alive.
This is definitely interesting, and I'll be sure to check out that essay, but at first blush I feel as though subscribing to the idea of potentiality and actualisation has some sort of universal / cosmic perspective as an axiom - and I think that does a disservice to just how complex, unlikely, and unique human consciousness is. Being at one with the universe sounds comforting, but I think I see more value in us as exceptions.
I'm reasonably certain that, even if your consciousness survives death, the person you are in life ends at death.
It's not going to be that. There isn't going to be anything to feel. You'll just end, and that's that.My worst fear is death being a constant feeling of nothingness. Couldn't imagine that for all of eternity.