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Atheists: how do you deal with your own mortality? [Spirituality & Religion]

I am atheist and I cannot bring myself to believe in an afterlife.. so I'm really freaked out by my own mortality and how after I die I will simply cease to be. These thoughts torment me and I want to find solace in an afterlife, but sadly all religions are wrong.
newjaninev2 · 56-60, F
“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.
We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?”

(Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow)
JazzMan · 31-35, M
Interesting quote... I like that prospective a lot. it's still scary though ... we get the great luck of getting to live and then it gets taken away from us, so what's the point?
newjaninev2 · 56-60, F
Well, genetic replication, I suppose.
After all, that's why our genes made us... we're escape pods for our parents' genes, just as they were escape pods for their parents' genes... continue back 3.5 billion years.
Genes aren't immortal, but they're the closest thing to it that exists.

So enjoy the show, treasure every moment of it, savour every sensation, feel every interaction... because it's fleeting.
Thanos · 31-35, M
We never die our cells just start working separately 🙄 that's why they say you go from one to infinity after death 😅
Picklebobble2 · 56-60, M
This is the trouble with all faiths.
Always the 'promise' of a better existence after this one !
And then a list of do's and donts in order to access it after you die.
But. Since nobody has ever proven the existence of either a/many Gods. Nor a Nirvana/Heaven/etc. Could be that this idea is just a creation. A tool. To get folk to follow whatever they say or want them to do !
When one considers the stupidity of some of the things done by those who 'believe' and the havoc; terror and murder committed by many supposed religious folk. You have to ask the logical question.
What kind of God would allow that ?
SW-User
Well, you wouldn't 'cease' to be. Matter isn't just destroyed. Go be a tree then. Have yourself planted into the ground. Or donate your body or organs to science or something.
It's not like you'll know the difference anyway. That's like worrying about what others will think of you after you die. Who cares? It's fine.
PeanutsauntieP1982 · 41-45, F
As a Buddhist, I strive to let go of myself now, before the moment of death arrives. I will go to my death unafraid. Plus, why should you not existing bother you? Before you were born, the world was fine, it'll be fine when you're not here again.
melovemycats · 26-30, F
I just don't think about it. I'm way too young to be thinking about such things. One day you'll be here, and the next day you​ won't. Hopefully you won't get something like cancer, because that would kind of make you think about your mortality more. Just ask yourself this question: would you want to live forever? If you say no, then that might make you feel better about death. I know I don't want to live forever because I don't want to live without my loved ones and I don't want to outlive the Earth either.
okaybut · 56-60, M
I want to live forever...or a 1000 years as a second choice.
melovemycats · 26-30, F
@okaybut: People say that, but I don't think they actually know what they're talking about. If you reach 100, I'm sure you'd be patiently waiting to die. That's my opinion, though.
okaybut · 56-60, M
@melovemycats: I will let you know next year....
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NeutronPuppy · 22-25, M
I may not believe in that stuff but I still like the thought of my loved ones still hanging around watching after me after they're gone. I still know it's highly unlikely but the thought of it is nice
okaybut · 56-60, M
Google...Pantheism.
okaybut · 56-60, M
The theory implies that death simply does not exist. It is an illusion which arises in the minds of people. It exists because people identify themselves with their body. They believe that the body is going to perish, sooner or later, thinking that their consciousness will disappear too. In fact, consciousness exists outside of constraints of time and space. It is able to be anywhere: in the human body and outside of it. That fits well with the basic postulates of quantum mechanics, according to which a certain particle can be present anywhere and an event can happen in several, sometimes countless, ways.
JazzMan · 31-35, M
Hmm.. just googled it.. I think I might be a pantheist. I have frequently thought before that the closest thing to a god I could think of is nature itself... as nature i.e. the universe is really the true creator of all life. I won't worship the universe, and I don't see it as a benevolent force, in some ways it is, but in many ways it isn't.
okaybut · 56-60, M
@JazzMan: From your response...You are a Panthiest. :)

 
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