(If you have anxiety about death then maybe you shouldn’t read this post, just letting you know!)
Edit: Thank you guys for being so quick to post your comments and give your thoughts, it makes me wish I said something sooner rather than dealing with it on my own. You guys are seriously awesome, and have made me want to fight way harder to be a better person for my friends and family, and everyone else around me. I think tonight I’ll finally be able to sleep, and I’m looking forward for tomorrow and to be able to talk to my Dad about how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking about all this, and to spend as much time with him as I can. Take care of yourself guys! And again, thank you so, so much. I seriously feel way better and my anxiety is a lot less now.
Before joining Lemmy I used to be a devoted Christian since my family raised me as one and have been Christians for generations. And to add important context, I’m not talking about judge mental homophobic trump supporting Christians that judge gays and everyone else they see who don’t live the way they live. I’m talking about being a real follower of Christ who loves thy neighbor and knows we have no right to judge, not what most church’s are today who just exist to make a profit. My family are bible based Christians and raised me as one too, not by propaganda machines. (Or at least the propaganda that politicians or “Church’s” who exploit vulnerable people for their money like to spread around. The “buy my book to change your life” or “plant your $1000 seed” type of shenanigans makes me sick.)
Anywhoo, while being on Lemmy and learning a lot about U.S. politics I just have never seen on other social media sites like X and Reddit, and talking about science, capitalism, global warming, and so on and so fourth with the incredible people on here, it has really broaden my view on certain subjects and be a lot more open to a lot more ideas, one of which is Atheism.
I haven’t thought about it too much, but recently my Grandfather died and so my emotions and thoughts have wandered about him and about loosing someone I care a lot about, and then a question popped into my head; is he truly in a “better place”? Do they actually go somewhere? What will happen to my Dad?
After that random thought, my brain has kind of spiraled out of control about this topic and I haven’t been able to sleep well since I’ve been having anxiety thinking about death. What is the point if all of life (our life) is truly just our brains, and our brain stops working? Is it really just, nothingness? What is the point of making all these amazing memories with family and friends that I cherish more than anything in the world, if all these memories are going to be forgotten? Whether its today, or 80 years from now? With this ideology, when I stop breathing, I will quite literally become nothing. There will be nothing. I am dead. It’s made me into this “why should I care” mood about almost everything.
I think I’ve kind of made my anxiety worse during the last few nights since I also decided to look up what its like to die and what scientists have said about the topic, whoops! Turns out our brain can still think 2-15 minutes after our hearts stop beating! I know I’m joking here which I tend to do when I’m in these situations but I have been extremely anxious when it comes to the fear of death. Not in a “I’m scared to use this knife to cut a slice of tomato” kind of way, but a “when we’re gone there will be nothing and I will remember nothing and become nothing” sort of way.
Not trying to get political here, but with this thought in my mind for the last couple of days and hearing about situations like Palestine has made me completely rethink everything like life itself, and now every time I hear about Palestine or Ukraine or whatever else going on in the world, I can’t help but burst into tears.
Sorry for the rant or whatever this is, just asking what you guys think or how you live your life if thats alright. Take care of yourself!
As a Buddhist if nothing happens after death most problems are solved lol. This is why I always find “secular” Buddhists funny. Either way being compassionate and a source of wisdom to others is important.
lol thanks man appreciate it!
My wife is soft and makes me happy.
Why would there have to be a point? It’s possible there is no architect and thus no point. It could all be random chaos colliding into this weird situation, and we’re just particles floating along in the maelstrom.
To come the question of why should you care, well you can choose pleasures or pain in your time on this planet. Pain is the default if you make no choice.
If there’s no sequel to a movie, what’s the point of watching it?
/thread
You are having what’s called a crisis of faith and an existential crisis. Don’t worry, millions of people have been through this ahead of you and come out the other side.
To explore and understand the significance of your existence because from my understanding ( ignorant ) we don’t really have an answer to our origin but rather an idea. History which is knowledge passed down, is always written from the perspective of the “winner” and rarely the losers.
What’s the point of heaven? Does heaven even have a point? Say I believe in heaven, what happens if I die and go there? Will I just… Wake up and it’d just be Life 2.0?
As far as reality goes, there are only two points to living: the standard biological point of all life as we know it, and the one you create for yourself using your human intelligence.
I more so said what I said because I was scared of the idea of nothing, and not being able to think or remember any of the moments I have cherished with my friends and family. These comments have definitely eased my anxiety and I’m thankful for your comment and everyone else’s!
I’m a big believer in creating meaning in life. Every time I look at my wife or bake something or make someone else’s life happier or just easier, a feeling of warmth arises that is meaningful enough for me. In this sense, i think life is full of meaning and purpose, we just need to open our eyes to it
“It was a musical thing. You were supposed to sing, or dance, while the music was being played.” -Alan Watts
That’s the clearest I’ve heard it proposed so far, so I’m sticking with that.
As Ricky Gervais once said (paraphrasing), “If you went to see a movie and in the middle of it realized it was eventually going to end would you just say, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll leave because there’s no point.’”
Hi I’m also a religious person. Some religions have a big emphasis on what happens when we die, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Judaism basically says, “I dunno, maybe we get reincarnated or resurrected or just go be with God. Anyway, do you want any mustard or mayo on that?”
God didn’t put us here just as a test to see if we pass or fail. God didn’t put us here to ignore the brokenness in the world either. God put us here to make things better. Our job is to be the light in the darkness and to leave things better than we found them.
At least that’s what I believe. And I don’t think you have to even believe in God to live that way.
Science as we know it is not equipped to answer the Hard Problem of Consciousness. There is no explanation or path to an explanation for what we are as self aware beings, how we are conscious, how we came to be so, or why this universe exists in the first place.
Religion may not be the best answer to these questions either, but it does offer a way to live with purpose.
Thank you!
Just because something ends doesn’t mean it’s pointless, try to be your best self and get along with other people. The world will be better place for having you being in it.
You didn’t exist before you were conceived, and you’re not anxious about it. You will just return to that state.
For me it’s really the opposite, why would anyone want to live if there would be such a better place like heaven where everything is awesome for ever?If there is nothing after life, only then it’s worth living, because this is it, everything you can experience, god and bad you can only experience here and now, so you better make it count. Give your own life meaning, don’t wait until someone else does.
In the end the universe will die a heat death and in the long run everything in meaningless. But in the short run, everything is full of meaning, it’s exciting, dangerous, beautiful, horrible and so on.
Carl Sagan famously said, “We are a way for the universe to know itself.”
This reflects his view that human beings, as conscious and curious creatures, are a product of the universe’s evolution and serve as a means for the cosmos to become self-aware. Through our capacity for science, art, and philosophy, we explore and understand the universe, essentially allowing it to observe and contemplate its own existence.
You didn’t exist before you were conceived, and you’re not anxious about it. You will just return to that state.
Sorry, may you clarify a bit more on this?
The point is that before you were born you existed in your mothers womb, but before that - specifically before you were conceived by your parents - you did not exist. Somehow this does not make you distressed that you did not exist, why? Once you die it will for you be the same as before you were conceived.
Another topic related to this is something you did not mention with afterlife: “eternity”
I myself have been afraid of this since I was 9 years old and heard about the concept of heaven and eternity in church. I wrote it down as a blog post a couple of years ago: https://jeena.net/apeirophobia
The concept is explained in a more humoristic way by this comic: https://existentialcomics.com/comic/213
Omg there is a name for that. I definitely fear eternity more than I fear death. My only consoling thought is the idea that time is a construct of physical reality so we “have time” to experience living and that really the entirety of time is happening all at once. I have no idea why this idea brings me comfort though.
You bring a really good point, thank you!
If you think there is supposed to be a point, you are missing the point. Red pill blue pill matrix shot.
Make as much art as possible in the little time you have.
I would flip the question. If there is a heaven or afterlife, then what is the point of living? Really, what’s the point if you just get another awesome life later on? Is this all meaningless aside from proving to God that you will praise him?
Without an afterlife, then the life right now takes on so much more weight and importance, because it’s all you get.
To me, it was about carrying all of those amazing moments in life you cherish so deeply and bringing them with you to the afterlife. If it does exist who knows what will happen over there, but my fear is not that I’ll just lose touch, sense, sight or smell. But that I’ll lose all of my memories and experiences with my close friends and family that I hold so close and cherish more than anything. When I die, I want to remember my Dad and everything we’ve done together for eternity. It sounds weird, but that was just my way of thinking
Maybe you’ll enjoy my point of view about this. I’m atheist, I do believe there’s nothing for us after death.
What I like to imagine though is that through our lives, we’re weaving this tapestry with everything that we’re doing, and every hug and good moment is permanently on there. Time is a dimension we’re moving forward in but that doesn’t make the past stop to exist. Does that make sense?
Like after all is finished, all your memories and good events are still on there, in a tapestry we’re not able to perceive but still real and permanent.
I use tapestry because I imagine if we’re moving through time as a dimension, in a way we’re kinda a long tube of human person extending from our birth to our death and mixing with other beings in time.
I love this idea! New life goal: to weave joy and love into the universal tapestry as much as possible.
