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0 pointsmarcus_holmes4y ago0 comments

I have the same thing. I often contemplate my death, and how I am going to die. And yes, I derive some comfort from it - knowing I have lived my best life and done the best I could at it. There are things I haven't achieved yet that I want to experience, so I don't want to go just yet. But if it happens, then I'm good with that.

But I'm an atheist, and firmly believe that this is all we get, and death really is the end of everything for us. I'm not sure I'd be so accepting if I was facing some kind of afterlife. Even ignoring the possibility of an eternity being tortured in heck, I'm much happier with the thought of everything just stopping than with the thought of it somehow continuing on another level.

It's interesting, how our fear of death drives us. Yet (as gp says) we never talk about it.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

dom964y ago· 3 in thread

What often brings me joy is thinking about my life before birth, I like to think death will be just the same. If so life after death can't be so bad.

bserge4y ago

Yeah, you'd think so. I thought so. But I can't get myself to die. After death, there's nothing.

And I understand now why some people say it's terrifying. Between decades of suffering or eternity of nothing, what would you choose?

Don't half ass the answer, go on a bridge with a heavy backpack zip tied to yourself, put a loaded gun to your head or have a fistful of TCA pills in your hand, whatever, then answer it.

I don't want to live, but I ain't keen on dying either, to paraphrase Robbie Williams.

I really wouldn't mind being killed by something out of my control, though.

marcus_holmesOP4y ago

I was depressed for a lot of the last ten years. I thought about ending it all a lot. Part of my calm acceptance now is because of facing it so much back then.

If you're seriously contemplating it, because life is suffering, know that it's not always like that. This too shall pass. There are good times too. My life now is something I could not have imagined achieving back when I was depressed and couldn't see any future for myself. Life is also randomly wonderful. I'm incredibly grateful to my past self for struggling on through, not ending it, and getting us to here. Here is good.

Of course, this too shall pass. Enjoying the good times in full is important, because they won't last. I hope I have the courage to face my next set of bad times with the same fortitude as my past self faced them.

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WJW4y ago

Quite so. Lots of people worry about the time they'll "spend" not being alive after they die, but nobody ever seems to worry about they time they spent not being alive before they were born. In the context of the wider universe, "not being" is what you are doing the vast amount of time. The century or so that you are alive is the exception.

fleischhauf4y ago· 1 in thread

I like the fact that we are made of atoms. Even if we die they will remain, even if it is only energy. So, for me its very comforting to think that sure i will stop exisiting as this configuration of tiny particles, however its not the end, its just a reconfiguration and i will become one with the universe, a tiny part of everything.

marcus_holmesOP4y ago

I like the "wave" metaphor for this. We are just waves in the surface of existence. When we stop being a wave the water remains, ready to be part of the next wave.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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6 comments · 2 top-level

dom964y ago· 3 in thread

What often brings me joy is thinking about my life before birth, I like to think death will be just the same. If so life after death can't be so bad.

bserge4y ago

Yeah, you'd think so. I thought so. But I can't get myself to die. After death, there's nothing.

And I understand now why some people say it's terrifying. Between decades of suffering or eternity of nothing, what would you choose?

Don't half ass the answer, go on a bridge with a heavy backpack zip tied to yourself, put a loaded gun to your head or have a fistful of TCA pills in your hand, whatever, then answer it.

I don't want to live, but I ain't keen on dying either, to paraphrase Robbie Williams.

I really wouldn't mind being killed by something out of my control, though.

marcus_holmesOP4y ago

I was depressed for a lot of the last ten years. I thought about ending it all a lot. Part of my calm acceptance now is because of facing it so much back then.

1 more reply

WJW4y ago

fleischhauf4y ago· 1 in thread

marcus_holmesOP4y ago

I like the "wave" metaphor for this. We are just waves in the surface of existence. When we stop being a wave the water remains, ready to be part of the next wave.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse