I find myself thinking about this - at LEAST once a day. I don't know why - but I've always extremely feared death. Not even so much the 'process' of dying (Having a heart attack, being shot, being eaten by a giant mammoth), but moreso, afterlife. I believe in god to the fullest extent, but I still have my worries and doubts about "heaven" and "hell". I notice that I ask myself "what-if" an aweful lot. What if.. nothing happens when you die? You just die. And you're dead. Forever. Eternity. Never come back.. Millions and billions of years will pass and you arent aware of anything, you dont exist.. you're just gone - and sooner or later.. noone will remember you. 100 years will pass and people will just refer to you as their great great great grandpa/grandma they've never met. You're nothing.


IDK about you guys, but this scares the crap out of me. People tell me I shouldn't fear it, and I can see their point. Because a) if there is an afterlife, ill just pray to god I end up with him, rather than 'down there'.. and why stress being present in heaven? and b) if there IS NO AFTERLIFE, then you won't even be aware of it when you're dead. You wont be conscious.. so why fear being dead if you're not alive to be aware of the fact there is no afterlife? Its like an eternal sleep.. you're not aware that you are sleeping until you wake up - only there will be no waking up.

Whenever I think about this, I dig deeper and deeper and cant get it off my mind. Im glad Im still young, but just the fact of knowing that I will die, ONE DAY.. sooner or later. It seems like it will never happen beause seconds are such small fractions of life. But.. it will come sooner or later. I guess I just enjoy being alive. I enjoy life and breathing. I think people should enjoy it more because the phrase 'you only live one' is literal. Theres no coming back.. and even if we did, there wouldnt be enough room on this planet for all the soon-to-come generations.

Its got me thinking now, and let me just say to everyone on here.. (not to get all religious on you) but i love ya's .. and wish you all the best in life, as a stranger, or a friend.

Now, your intake on it?

Bad liver and a broken heart good enough imo.

What were you doing for billions of years previous to your birth?

Once they figure out how to reverse/fold/manipulate time, they will come back to your living days to rescue you. Until then sleep...

I should start an insurance company that sells this type of "bring me back" insurance

Wow, Thats a really good way to look at it.... +1

IMO death is kinda like being in the waiting room at a doctor's office right before you get a big scary shot

the worst part is the buildup... ainec (aka thinking about death during life)

im nervous about it because its such collossal change out of my control.

but its pretty +EV the more I think about it

A) If nothing happens (as I believe) you just blink from existence. You don't feel pain, remorse, panic. It's like slipping into sleep you don't even know you get there, hardly anyone's ever fallen asleep and thought to themselves "i just drifted into the sleep just now"
B) If there be a God, I would assume he's loving. And seeing as I do my best to be a decent person (not religious, but still good and fair and balanced) I would be shocked if a loving God had anything less than love in the afterlife.
C) I don't believe in hell because that means there's a God and that means God is in the habit of simulating peoples' lives on Earth and then sending them to an eternal misery. Doubt it very much. Doubt it as much as heaven.

So just live it up, party hard, try not to be a dick and ideally by the time you're old you'll be looking forward to the long dirtnap lol

I think it gets less disturbing as you get older.

I used to worry about this same thing, the nothingness of death possibility. But the first time that I heard this line of reasoning (I believe that it was Stu), I was instantly comforted and have not thought about it since.

Actually it was Thomas Jefferson and it pretty much works for me too. I just don't want to die. Life is grand. Today the notion just makes me sad so I try not to htink about it.

Good time to spam a famous Dawkins quote:

It's a privilege to even worry about death.

thats a great dawkins quote


basically ive always looked at it like the chance of you beating out your brethren sperm during conception is million(s) to one shot. factoring in pregnancy mishaps, SIDS, pregnant mom gets killed and loses the baby, dieing any one of the days you've lived thru til now... in theory, every person you meet you shuld high five and be like "we final tabled the most astrologically enormous tourney EVER, sick lifeeeeeeee"

whenever i think of that it always puts people hating each other into perspective. the fact there's hate over pigment, gender, beliefs, place of birth, time of birth (your age), and all these other extraneous final tables antes... ugh the idea a god or whatever made you and you were always a lock to make the final table actually discredits the humble, jovial approach we should rightfully have all the time

It's Lucretius' argument from symmetry. Jefferson was an Epicurean, as was Lucretius.

It kind of works for me too, but not totally. It's stopped me from getting too worked up about dying - I used to almost panic about this, trying to envision not existing. I can't stop thinking about death, though. It's still pretty standard for me to lie awake at night thinking about it.

I have no fear of death. My goal is to enjoy my life as much as I can and then go back to being sand

This is one topic i don't feel alone on, cause afterall.. we're all bound to die. Good responses, everyone. Nice quotes - puts my mind at ease.. cause Im only human, its nice to see the bright side of things. +1 to all.

Had no idea that so many obsess over this like I often do as well.

Our death is our ownmost experience! Anyone can be a poker player, or an accountant, but no one can die...as we die. It is the only thing that is truly ours. The only thing which we alone experience. I should only hope to control the manner in which I die. To die a pointless death, an unexpected death, or a Darwin Award death, is my only fear. The nothingness that will certainly follow is of no concern. The nothingness that will certainly follow is of NO CONCERN. The NOTHINGNESS is of NO CONCERN. By then I fully intend to be unconcerned with concern. Blotkis is unconcerned. So shall I be.

pretty sure its the #2 fear in people... #1 is public speaking lol

(as jerry seinfeld said, that means most people would rather be in the casket than delivering the eulogy)

I plan for my matter to be scatter back into the universe and pop up into other life forms. Maybe ill get to have some wings or something.

i would love to go out a unique, publicly discussed way.

if i had to pick i'd be the first person to OD on weed

I might actually pay to watch this on youtube.

Srsly tho, when I believed in god/christianity, this was a question that concerned me constantly. As I got older and did a lot of research on the topic, I finally concluded with an agnostic slant. Basically, make some money, **** girls, have kids, don't be an ******* and die and probably go on into nothingness. If there's a god then awesome, I'd love to meet the guy. If he sends me to hell then ****.

If you were given two options:

1. Dying at 80 years old
2. Dying only when the universe itself dies

Which would you choose?

how would i age? benjamin button style? will i look 300,000 years old? same mid-20s body throughout?

either way idk if id want to know when i die (what year). at least i dont know how old ill be when the universe dies.

You can feel and look of any age you desire for option 2.

I am afraid of death though there is no reason behind it. But I often become obsessed about not existing for a bit and it kind of freaks me out. I realize there is no logical reason to be worried but logic isn't the issue.

meh its pretty logical for why humans generally fear change (insert obama joke here). you want to be familiar in your environment or at the very least have a home nest. you want to be as much in control as possible.

the knowledge of death completely destroys all of those