fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2181 ]

[ SECRET POST #2181 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2181 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

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And this is the sort of thing that makes me have a compete meltdown because I DON'T UNDERSTAND NOT EXISTING. I'm starting to have a panic attack right now. I'd rather think "Yes I'll continue somewhere else" because I'd rather do that than just... not be.

I don't understand the point of it otherwise, you know? I don't like the thought of death. At all. I'd rather lie to myself so I don't have an existential meltdown every two days.

... If it's any help, if nothingness is what happens (and there's no proof of that either), you won't feel it. It won't be something you have to experience, or worry about after it happens.

As for the rest ... We don't know what will happen. Death, I tend to think, is something you should deal with when it happens, and not worry about until it happens. It's all just worrying without knowledge. We'll get there when we get there. The important part is figuring out how to deal with life. And if, in that cause, you prefer to imagine certain things about what happens later, I'd say go for it. So long as it doesn't hurt anyone alive around you, why should it matter what gets you through?

I know I won't feel it, but I can't comprehend that. The only thing I know how to comprehend is being trapped in blackness forever and ever and ever. In a way, death makes me feel claustrophobic.

I think everyone in some way feels afraid of death. It's an emptiness, a lack of knowledge, that we pour our fears and our hopes into. Different people find fear in different things, so some thoughts about the afterlife frighten some people and not others. That no more and no less than the way they are as people.

There is no proof either way. As far as we know right now, what you fear is no more likely than what someone else fears. And what you fear is no more likely than what you hope, either.

So if it brings you comfort, I think yes, feel free to focus on what you hope will happen, rather than what you fear. Death is a lack of knowledge. And there is no point driving yourself to live in fear of something you do not know will happen.

*smiles faintly* There is a quote, from a film called Strictly Ballroom. A life lived in fear is a life half-lived. Life is the important part. You don't, or shouldn't, have to spend it in fear.

It was a good comment, but you'd have been better off without the creepy little attempt at role-playing near the end.

Role-playing? What do you mean? I just thought it was an appropriate quote.

I'm pretty sure anon's talking about the *smiles faintly*

Yeah, that kind of thing really weirds me out.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-12-23 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2012-12-23 02:53 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-12-23 04:45 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2012-12-23 06:58 (UTC) - Expand

This. I completely fail to understand people who feel comfort or indifference at the thought of nonexistence. Their imaginations don't work like mine at all.

NAYRT

I'm not comfortable with or indifferent to the idea of nonexistence; it's sort of frightening and unpleasant, and I want to put it off for as long as possible. But that doesn't mean I can convince myself that any sort of afterlife exists that will allow me to avoid it forever.

And another anon--huh. I'm-well, not glad, because that sense of uncertainty sucks-that someone else deals (or doesn't deal, as the case may be) with the thought of nonexistence the same way I do. I don't want to think about it, but I can't convince myself that there's any sort of afterlife. I sort of envy people who have the capacity to believe in heaven, or hell, or reincarnation, or spiritual stuff in general, because I've never been able to believe in any of that and it seems to comfort a lot of people. And then I see people who are terrified of dying because they're afraid of what might happen to them in the afterlife, and I still don't get it, because they're afraid of something happening to them, where I'm just afraid of there being no me that anything can happen to, unless you count my mouldering corpse or pile of ash or whatever, which I don't. I don't fear an afterlife. I fear nothingness.

I don't think even the people that claim to believe in an afterlife really believe it, they're just so terrified of the alternative that they've convinced themselves that they do.

That's quite presumptuous of you.

Think of it this way - the fact that you haven't cocooned yourself in a fantasy means you are capable of dealing with the real world and effecting real change for people. You won't waste time on prayers, you'll actually help people, because you know that this life is the only one we've got and the only thing that matters.

That's a good thing.

I ... guess that might be the explanation for it?

I've been in different places, emotionally, in terms of what death is/means. As a kid, it horrified me. It was this terrible thing that people seemed all philosiphical and accepting of because they didn't have any choice about it. But I was convinced that the second someone figured out how to make people live forever, everyone would want to. Yeah, I know. I was little, and life was awesome!thing that I was sure I'd never get enough of.

I was also science-minded and an atheist, so I got into my first theological arguments early on. And one of the big arguments against non-existence was "I can't imagine it. Can you?" At first, I couldn't. But then I had a dream about being dead. It's hard to describe, but it was like ... if you've ever lost your sense of self, however briefly, and been still. I wasn't, in an existential sense, and I couldn't even be aware of that until I came back to myself. I can't know if it's really like that, obviously, but it gave me a sense of "oh. That's not scary at all." And a strange sort of peace, because I'd been really distressed that billions of other creatures had died too. You know? As a five year old, it hurt that the dinosaurs were all gone. Knowing that even completely disappearing wouldn't necessarily be bad made me more okay with the idea that I wouldn't exist now, if it weren't for all these other beings that died and disintegrated before me. It made it *feel* okay that I would die.

I'm talking about this in terms of feelings and subjective experiences because I think, when you get right down to it, religion isn't speaking a language of intellect or logic. What you know because it has been researched generally fits "I want information" better than "I want to feel the resonance of the universe." I just needed my own way of connecting with the latter because religion doesn't do it for me, and never has.

behold, why religion was invented.

I think that's definitely an oversimplification. There are plenty of religions and/or belief systems that paint an undesirable picture of the afterlife, and some that are unconcerned with the nature of God/the afterlife altogether.

Behold someone who doesn't know very much about religion in history/prehistory.

Behold, somebody who takes a joke too seriously. It's just religion :D

Judaism does not promise an afterlife, and other older religions like Jainism and Hinduist, Buddhist and Shinto sects don't either.

Nice try, tho.

do i care tho

for being proven wrong? maybe not

it was an admittedly dumb joke that popped into my head, why should it being proven wrong matter to me?

I used to feel that way, and still do sometimes, but think of it this way - it's like being asleep. You're not aware of yourself when you're asleep, except for when you're dreaming - and dreaming only happens for very short periods of time during sleep.

It is sort of scary to think of yourself as no longer existing, but you won't be afraid after it happens. You won't be in pain. You won't feel anything. You won't be aware to be horrified at what's going on.

but for some of us still here, that's what causes the fear. i'm afraid of being asleep for that reason.

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