What if we ever actually stop existing?

[dwd999]

From what little I know about the biology of our bodies we, as with most mammals, consist of chemical processes (which create our warmth) and electrical impulses through our nervous system. I think these processes and impulses begin when we are conceived and we essentially inherit them from our mothers. So I suspect when we die the electrical impulses cease for whatever reason and then the chemical processes end, we grow cold and stiff. There may be cases where the chemical processes in our body are insufficient to create the electrical impulses that make us go (like if we get cancer that damages our brain or a circulatory problem which results in our brain being deprived of oxygen) or the electrical impulses may be interrupted to the point where the chemical processes cease, like if you're subject to trauma which overloads your nervous system or if you're struck by lightening. So I think when we, or other similar animals die, the chemical processes just stop and there are no more electrical impulses generated to make us go and we're just a lump of flesh which begins to decay. That would be the end of us being "repurposed".

[xMorpheousx416]

Going by historic records, less than a million years ago... we didn't exist.

 

When our star goes up and takes out the first three or so planets with it.. hopefully, by that time, we'll have made our starting journeys to the stars. But, who knows... if we don't, then nothing truly matters. It didn't matter before we existed; stars formed, planets formed, all come and go... with absolute zero influence from humanity. Our planet continues to spin, and so does the rest of our solar system. Eventually, all that pent up energy will find other means... and we'll simply stop existing.

I completely understand faith... and why those who attempt to grasp it believe so diligently. It's scary. It's scary to think, that before you were born.. you were nothing. You didn't exist. And even though millions, er, billions (no fact check needed, but feel free).. have already, I'm sure there are countless others that have not. People that never existed... for whatever reason. Life went on without them... and it will go on without us. Maybe not here, as our sun can only sustain itself for so long... but it does elsewhere, and will continue until the energy that supports it, also dissipates. But what of it? Why be so scared of living forever, when you never existed before all this? I see no reason to fear what we've already been.

You're born, and then pummeled with with all these ideas of existence, which pretty much pans into a single choice. Eternal worship; eternal damnation.

What the actual frick and frack? Seriously? That's what we're here for? What a waste.. but then again, if we dissolve into oblivion... eh, we have what we have, even if there's truly no reason behind it all.. other than energy, in extremely complicated and simplistic fashion, creates light, heat, rock, dust, water .. and then poof.

Here we all are questioning the whole thing.

Whether you believe all of this is just a jump from not existing, to worshipping a jealous ghost who had no shame wiping out the pharaoh's children instead of the pharaohs... and Earth is only a few minutes old, or you believe existence has been here the whole time and just keeps recycling itself.. leaving us to the dust we were creating from... all I can say is this:

Try and get out some. Get laid. Help an old person crossing the street, or show the neighborhood kids how to play basketball.

[+Eternal Tempest MVC]

On 27/02/2023 at 09:46, Steven P. said:

Nobody understands life because we can't prove what's beyond it.

But if we take what we know about the universe as an example, in which nothing is wasted and dying suns and solar systems are repurposed for new, nothing is wasted and everything is reused. If we applied the same logic to life, then it makes sense to assume that when the life ends the energy or entity from it that we can't measure or understand is repurposed.

Reincarnation doesn't make sense to me because you'd have a fixed number of souls reincarnating, yet the world population keeps expanding, from which souls did the extra billions reincarnate? Religion does not have the answer to life, it simply tries to place a narrative on it.

Personally I think that when we step out of this life we're thrust into a new one immediately and the question is, why would it have to be another human male (in my case) could it be an ant, another living thing, a tree?

Not knowing is also frustrating.

Take a look at this video

The tone / content always shift after the (often depressing) beginning of his video to something different but related.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 12/05/2023 at 17:18, ThaCrip said:

Some understand life as there is enough evidence (that's at least plausible) out there for those who can see it.

basically Christianity is the Truth. Jesus Resurrected ('Shroud of Turin' is further evidence for this (before anyone brings it up, that 1988 radio carbon dating test is not valid as the piece that was tested was from a repaired portion of the Shroud basically)) etc. basically that's the general point of life here on earth is a test whether we ultimately side with God (i.e. The Holy Trinity (Father/Son(Jesus Christ/Holy Spirit)) or against Him as we all will ultimately end up in Heaven with God (eternal joy) or hell with Satan (eternal suffering/misery) as those are the only two final destinations after we pass from this life into the next.

Christianity is the truth? But the Jews said they were the truth, so did the Muslims, and the Sikhs, and the Buddhists, and the Hindu's, and the Jainists, the Zoroastrianists, and so on, almost ad infinitum.  Truth is what you, as an individual, make of it and trying to force your truth over another's is what we call religion.  Personally, I call it arrogance.

 

On 12/05/2023 at 17:18, ThaCrip said:

but in the end for some people (basically the hard-line atheist types especially), it pretty much boils down to... "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible." - St. Thomas Aquinas

He wasn't wrong.

 

On 12/05/2023 at 17:18, ThaCrip said:

or another way to put it... those who want that hardcore definitive proof of whether there is life beyond the hear-and-now on earth, you will simply not get that level of concrete proof that pretty much everyone will acknowledge (although it appears they got people with near-death experiences of people seeing stuff they could not possibly know, which is another reason the soul/our consciousness lives on once our bodies are dead). faith is required on some level as it's just the way things are

"Near death experiences" are fairly easily explained by medicine.  Hallucination brought on by lack of oxygen and blood to the brain.  Hallucinations affected by that person's beliefs, desires and imagination as their brain fights to continue functioning.

 

On 12/05/2023 at 17:18, ThaCrip said:

but personally I never understood the atheist mindset of 'There is no God. period.' as it makes more sense to be, at minimum, agnostic, or a more towards a believer than atheist if you got to choose between the two given all of the stuff out there in the world. but for some people... it's like they don't want to believe there is a ultimate source of good/evil because then they might have to change their lives and that there is consequences for how they live their lives as some might not want to change as they prefer their sin over God etc.

just some thoughts

Every single atheist is one for their own personal reasons; no person is precisely the same.  For me, it's not the injustice of poverty, or cruelty, of war etc, those are all things caused by man to man.  For me its the horror of sickness and disease.  Of babies who are stillborn or are deformed or are born with incurable disease.  Of people who spent their adult lives hurting no one having their lives cut short by sickness or injury through no one's fault. 

For me, the final nail in the coffin of faith was when my mum died 20 years ago.  She was 55. She'd spent her entire adult life as a nurse; a specialist in caring for those born with severe physical and mental disabilities and for dementia sufferers.  Her "reward" for a life of caring for others was to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 45.

If your god exists, then he visited that reward on someone who did nothing but care for those abandoned by their true families. I refuse to exist in a universe where a so called "all loving god" hands out such unwanted rewards.  You cannot understand the pain of overhearing your mother BEGGING your father to help her die after she was diagnosed, because as a nurse, she knew in intimate detail EXACTLY what was going to happen to her, and your father's anguished tears, who was also a nurse in the same field, who lost his first wife to a sudden embolism 14 days after the birth of his second child, realising that his second wife was also going to die...

If I'd had any faith left by the time my wife received the "gift" of terminal cancer, that would have been the end of it.

Those are not the gifts of a loving god; those are the gifts of a monster undeserving of our worship.  So I'm left with either worshipping a monster that visited torment on my entire family, or there's just nothing there at all and what happened was just... what happened.

Just some thoughts.

Edited May 21, 2023 by FloatingFatMan

[TCA]

On 27/02/2023 at 09:46, Steven P. said:

Personally I think that when we step out of this life we're thrust into a new one immediately and the question is, why would it have to be another human male (in my case) could it be an ant, another living thing, a tree?

Not knowing is also frustrating.

Most of us here know you'll come back as a fly.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 21/05/2023 at 12:19, FloatingFatMan said:

the atheist mindset of 'There is no God. period.'

Atheism does not deny a deity ("period"), it simply states a personal belief that there isn't one.  You don't even understand the words you're using - so, your arguments hold no value.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 27/08/2023 at 21:42, Dick Montage said:

Atheism does not deny a deity ("period"), it simply states a personal belief that there isn't one.  You don't even understand the words you're using - so, your arguments hold no value.

There is no conditional "maybe" to that.  The A in atheism literally means to be without, period.  There is no doubt, it's not 99% sure and 1% maybe, it's 100%, completely without any belief in god whatsoever.  You're probably thinking more of agnosticism, which is an uncertainty either way.  Atheism is the exact opposite of theism, which is 100% belief that there IS a god of whichever brand you chose or were brought up with.

[Pishaw]

On 27/02/2023 at 09:46, Steven P. said:

Nobody understands life because we can't prove what's beyond it.

But if we take what we know about the universe as an example, in which nothing is wasted and dying suns and solar systems are repurposed for new, nothing is wasted and everything is reused. If we applied the same logic to life, then it makes sense to assume that when the life ends the energy or entity from it that we can't measure or understand is repurposed.

Reincarnation doesn't make sense to me because you'd have a fixed number of souls reincarnating, yet the world population keeps expanding, from which souls did the extra billions reincarnate? Religion does not have the answer to life, it simply tries to place a narrative on it.

Personally I think that when we step out of this life we're thrust into a new one immediately and the question is, why would it have to be another human male (in my case) could it be an ant, another living thing, a tree?

Not knowing is also frustrating.

Why would you believe there is something 'beyond'?

Because the bible? There must be an afterlife, right? Good people go to their reward, and bad people go to hell. Right? What if there is no afterlife? What if mine and your life is really all there is, and then you die?

What if there is no magic, what if there are no unicorns, what if what you see is what you get? What if there is no god?

What if it's just you, trying desperately to figure out these interpersonal relationships? How exactly does this work?

You will not be reborn a male ant (sorry). So, you will, if I read this correctly, try to be the best (whomever) you can be, I hope. Because a LOT of people use this difference in beliefs as an excuse for violence and hatred. The christians come to mind.

Just be the best you you can be. No one can ask more than that.

[DPyro]

If you watch the 1st episode of "Surviving Death", there is some circumstantial evidence of people with near death experiences to indicate our consciousness is infinite. One woman had a near death experience where there was no brain activity, and yet she was able to describe what the doctors where doing to her from a different perspective.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 27/08/2023 at 21:50, FloatingFatMan said:

There is no conditional "maybe" to that.  The A in atheism literally means to be without, period.  There is no doubt, it's not 99% sure and 1% maybe, it's 100%, completely without any belief in god whatsoever.  You're probably thinking more of agnosticism, which is an uncertainty either way.  Atheism is the exact opposite of theism, which is 100% belief that there IS a god of whichever brand you chose or were brought up with.

Absolutely. But it’s personal, it is a personal belief (or lack thereof).  As such, it does not deny globally that a god exists, just that the individual does not believe in said god.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/08/2023 at 11:43, Dick Montage said:

Absolutely. But it’s personal, it is a personal belief (or lack thereof).  As such, it does not deny globally that a god exists, just that the individual does not believe in said god.

Well, for one, it was not I who asserted "the atheist mindset of 'There is no God. period.'". That was @ThaCrip, whom I was quoting at the time. Secondly, I have never claimed it was anything other than a personal belief, or did you just not read my entire post and the point of it?  We believe what we believe based on a combination of upbringing and experiences.  My upbringing and experiences are not yours, so I do not believe the same things you do.  I merely share many of the same ones as everyone else who self identifies as Atheists.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/08/2023 at 02:46, DPyro said:

If you watch the 1st episode of "Surviving Death", there is some circumstantial evidence of people with near death experiences to indicate our consciousness is infinite. One woman had a near death experience where there was no brain activity, and yet she was able to describe what the doctors where doing to her from a different perspective.

No brain activity huh?  Is there's proof of that, or is this merely anecdotal?

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/08/2023 at 01:31, Pishaw said:

Why would you believe there is something 'beyond'?

Because the bible? There must be an afterlife, right? Good people go to their reward, and bad people go to hell. Right? What if there is no afterlife? What if mine and your life is really all there is, and then you die?

What if there is no magic, what if there are no unicorns, what if what you see is what you get? What if there is no god?

What if it's just you, trying desperately to figure out these interpersonal relationships? How exactly does this work?

You will not be reborn a male ant (sorry). So, you will, if I read this correctly, try to be the best (whomever) you can be, I hope. Because a LOT of people use this difference in beliefs as an excuse for violence and hatred. The christians come to mind.

Just be the best you you can be. No one can ask more than that.

Whilst I'm no theologian, it's my personal theory that the belief in something beyond death lies in the innate fear of death shared by pretty much all living organisms.  It's not quite so scary if you think there's something else after our bodies die.

One thing I've never understood is the phrase "God fearing".  Why on earth would you worship something you're afraid of, and what "All loving god" would want to instil fear in its believers?  It just doesn't make even a tiny bit of sense.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 28/08/2023 at 11:53, FloatingFatMan said:

Well, for one, it was not I who asserted "the atheist mindset of 'There is no God. period.'". That was @ThaCrip, whom I was quoting at the time. Secondly, I have never claimed it was anything other than a personal belief, or did you just not read my entire post and the point of it?  We believe what we believe based on a combination of upbringing and experiences.  My upbringing and experiences are not yours, so I do not believe the same things you do.  I merely share many of the same ones as everyone else who self identifies as Atheists.

You engaged me in conversation (by directly quoting me) and I continued that conversation.  I did this because I find you interesting to talk with, and agree with your subsequent posts.  Calm yourself down a bit!

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/08/2023 at 12:42, Dick Montage said:

You engaged me in conversation (by directly quoting me) and I continued that conversation.  I did this because I find you interesting to talk with, and agree with your subsequent posts.  Calm yourself down a bit!

I'm perfectly calm.  Please don't add personal misconceptions into the words you read on a forum.   So far, this is an enjoyable debate!

 

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

On 28/08/2023 at 13:01, FloatingFatMan said:

I'm perfectly calm.  Please don't add personal misconceptions into the words you read on a forum.   So far, this is an enjoyable debate!

 

Using phrases such as "Well, for one" is rarely the start of a calm conversation.  You seem to be in one of your moods, so have a good day - I'm out.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 28/08/2023 at 13:04, Dick Montage said:

Using phrases such as "Well, for one" is rarely the start of a calm conversation.  You seem to be in one of your moods, so have a good day - I'm out.

There you go, applying personal misconceptions to words read on a forum again.  I hope you can get over that some day.  Either way, have a good one.

[darkrats]

On 14/04/2023 at 07:39, Mullet2990 said:

I am a Christian, so I do tend to think I'll be going to heaven (or hell depending on you look at the bible and context) , but I also know that there are people out there who want to tend to think there is re-incarnation. Wouldn't it be awesome though we could pick what happens to us at the end of our current life?

I am a Christian and I don't believe I'm going to heaven. I do believe in a resurrection from the dead. No floating about on clouds, singing everlasting songs, forever. For me, it's going to be a return to a physical (although different) life on the earth. Believe it, or not.

[+Raze Subscriber²]

The end to existence (for most life on this world) is just another large asteroid.   🦖   😉