The typical answer is "what was life like for you before you were born?"
That's basically going to be how you are after you're dead.
Uh, as for me, well, it's not like there's a choice. We're just going to cease existing upon death. Not a whole lot to think about. Hopefully, you come to the realization that you should enjoy the life you have, and be thankful that you have it. If you have friends and family, enjoy time with them (if you like them). Try to find something in each moment because these are what you get.
Ok that's kind of just what I've been thinking about, but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed? Or are we just kinda stuck with overdeveloped brains doomed to question something that can't be solved??
> but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed?
This is very much a theistic viewpoint. To assume that there is some overarching purpose is somewhat a complementary belief to there being a god who can allegedly assign such purpose (and tends to be good for a priesthood to tell adherents that their purpose is something self serving like "glorifying god" or some other such nonsense).
You are here. If you want to delve into the recent history of the world you are here because your parents had unprotected sex. More advanced purpose for your existence is up to you to define for yourself as there are no gods to do it for you.
> Or are we just kinda stuck with overdeveloped brains doomed to question something that can't be solved??
In a sense, however the truly smart brain recognizes unanswerable questions and dismisses them as not worth our time. You're alive, you have self-determination, why are you worrying about an undefinable and unsolvable problems when you could be doing something more fulfilling?
I guess by that I meant like why are we seemingly alone as a species in a futile hunt for the unknown, with awareness for our own conscious? - I guess you don't know either so this is kind of pointless hahaha
but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed?
-
No. Why would that happen?
There are lots of people who lived before us who had miserable lives and had to struggle day to day in order to survive. Do you think they'd care about some "divine plan?"
Take a look around. Most people you encounter are nothing special. Why any of them would think about some "higher purpose" is beyond me.
Re: why we're all here. I'm pretty content with the answers anthropology and paleoanth have provided in terms of the human species. In larger terms, the hard sciences answer these questions pretty well. Of course, we don't have the whole picture, but they do a pretty good job explaining what we can observe of reality.
Re: overdeveloped brains. We can certainly ask questions that we can never answer - and some questions may not be sensical (like, why is there something instead of nothing?). But honestly, my answers aren't better than yours for unanswerable questions. None of us know - some people in cute costumes pretend to know, though.
Life on earth never gave this a second thought. Trees grew and died, animals were born, ate, bred and died without thinking about what their purpose was. Just relax and enjoy what life is and don’t worry about it. It’s wonderful.
Because your parents fucked and their parents fuck and so on and so forth, that’s why you are here. It’s up to you to give your own life meaning and be productive in society. Do not fear death, you did not fear your own birth!
Even asking "why we're here" presupposes that the entirety of humanity, Earth, and the universe itself isnt just some random statistical anomaly. We can say *how* we're here though, with a reasonable amount of certainty provided by physics, biology, archaeology, etc.
What more could you possibly want than being human on this beautiful planet?
For a blink of an eye the atoms in your body make a sentient being that can love and laugh.
So just fucking enjoy it before you become a smattering of space dust for the next few billion years
There is literally only one thing you can be absolutely certain about in life, and that is at some point you will die, as will every single person you know and love. It is the only true certainty.
You can be terrified of that fact or you can make the most of the time that you have left.
Happy Saturday 🙂
Genuinely this is about as close to the worst thing you can do. Get some happy hormones and endorphins circulating your body - when was the last time you exhausted yourself running?
A stress fracture in your foot? If so definitely let that rest!
See there's a reason for everything haha, your brain isn't getting it's big dump of serotonin and dopamine it's used to from running and so is acting up! Try looking for exercises and home workouts that avoid stress fracture exacerbation that also gives you that hit? Life will become a lot more bearable after 🙂
Yeah it's right in the middle of my shin and went all the way through so I've been out for like 6 months now!! Thank you though you're probably right that this is my problem haha. I guess it's time to get crazy in the gym again!!!
I don't have a good x-ray, but the mri is wild it's like a bright white spot straight through the middle of my tibia and up to where my knee is. Don't overtrain!!!
So it's a tibia plateau fracture?? Are you sure it's a stress fracture and not non union? What was the mechanism!
Your post and everything is all making sense now 😂
No not exactly, I have had a tibia plateau fracture before in which a chunk of my bone came off, this is about 3 inches further down, straight up in the middle in the bone. It was from doing cross country and intense weightlifting for another sport at the same time, ignoring it and calling it shin splints. My PT hates me because it just won't heal 😂
There will be a point in the future when people will not have to die. I'm already over 50, so I'm not optimistic it will happen while I'm still alive, but there is no guarantee that death is a certainty.
The first person to live to be healthy at 150 years old has almost certainly already been born, and when you look at the pace and acceleration of medical technology, living to the year 2150 will probably mean living a very long time beyond it.
>On the other hand, if this is truly it, how would nothingness feel?
Nothing. It feels like nothing. You won't be there, you won't be sad, hurt or missing anything, nor will you be in bliss or anything. It's like when you blow out a candle; the flame is not anywhere anymore. It was there but now it's not - the flame is nothing anymore.
I don't fear death, but I admit I'm afraid of the moment of death, the last few moments of consciousness. But I'm consoled by the fact that once it's over, nothing will bother me ever again.
I guess that's pretty wise, do you happen to know how to stop thinking all the time about this stuff though? I just have been plagued with these thoughts and "focusing on what I want to do with my life" has been difficult.
Stop thinking about yourself so much and start thinking about other people. Go out and volunteer with an organization that is doing something to make your community better.
If nothing is permanently lost to the universe when you die (because to say otherwise is just invoking the soul with extra steps), and you are possible, and if the laws of quantum physics are true so that anything that can happen will happen, then "you" will eventually exist again. That is a sort of immortality.
Also, science is advancing at an exponential rate, and longevity escape velocity will likely be achieved within the next decade. The christians won't go for that, since they think they'll be going to heaven. Religion is also (very slowly I'll grant you) dying out in the developed world. This means the future belongs to the atheists.
All of this means you most certainly can have a non religious afterlife, and most likely a pleasant one, especially if you like being alive right now.
The christian heaven is a gilded cage guarded over by an insane warden who tortures his children for disagreeing with him.
If nothingness still bothers you after hearing all of this, I would recommend taking up meditation. Focus on your breathing until it is the only thing going through your mind. You will find that there is still a part of you that is "aware".
You asked how it would be to feel nothingness. That is impossible. If you don't exist, you don't exist. You would be unable to feel or notice anything at all, because "you" would not be there to feel it.
You went to sleep last night. Were you terrified that a different person would wake up? Maybe you think that all of the time you spend sleeping is accompanied by dreams. That is incorrect. We go through 15 minute cycles when we sleep. There are stretches of time when you sleep during which you do not dream. For all intents and purposes, from a certain point of view "you" do not exist during that time period.
Regardless of what you believe, you have already spent an immense amount of time not existing. Then you were born.
That's easy. I've accepted that death comes for everyone, so i don't bother to compulsively think about it every second of every day. Why bother being so scared of death that you can't live life?
Haven't you ever had a dreamless sleep?
Do you remember anything before you were born? It'll be like that. I know that means nothing to you, but it didn't inconvenience you in any way. You won't know anything when you're dead.
Besides, no point in worrying about it now. The best you can do is just live your life. Death is inevitable and you won't be able to stop it.
Nothing else you can do except seek help, but there's really no point wasting your time thinking about something that you're not going to be able to control.
It's a waste of time worrying about it instead of living.
Death is inevitable. Having no consciousness feels like nothing at all. Like going under anesthesia or having a dreamless sleep. You don't realize anything, it's just nothing. I'm not afraid of that. It honestly sounds peaceful, much better than judgement by a celestial being or eternal torment. I'm not especially attached to my consciousness, I guess.
I am afraid of what will happen to my disabled child, and I can plan for that to the best of my ability. I'm afraid I will have pain or suffering if I'm dying from injury or illness, and all I can do about that is trust that medical science and other humans will help me.
It helps to name what is worrisome to you. Are you afraid of pain or suffering? Are you afraid of a loss of control? Are you afraid of the fact that it may come unexpectedly? Are you afraid that there is actually something after this life and it will be bad in some way? Are you afraid of the unknown? Naming your fears helps you understand them, and understanding what they are can help you overcome or plan for them to the best of your ability.
Acceptance that we're all mortal and will eventually die is harder for some people and easier for others. If you're having such a difficult time that it is difficult for you to go about daily life, it's important that you look for a therapist and talk about it. You don't want this to consume you and keep you from enjoying your life.
If wishes were fishes, we would all be up to asses in sushi.
Reality does care what you want or what makes you comfortable. Every living thing dies. That is reality, whether you want it or not. Part of being an adult is accepting reality.
I live, love, learn, experience and achieve. I will do these things for up to ~90 years. Quite frankly, for me, that's enough. What more could I want? The universe is a vast & wonderful place. The more I can do, the more I will have done. I will go into my grave knowing that I couldn't possibly have done more than a tiny fraction of what this universe has to offer - and that's OK, because I did the very best I could. EVERYONE is in the same situation. No one escapes. I will have an opportunity to interact with a huge number of people during my lifetime - and that will still be a tiny percentage of the world's population. Right now, I'm communicating with you - a person I don't know and will most likely never meet. You might see that as a waste, but I think it's pretty cool.
The answer has been “revealed” (though I don’t like that term, since it implies that the answer was hidden and the revelation was something purposeful and planned). It’s evolution. It’s biology. It’s geology, physics, and ecology.
We exist as a species because of a long line of adaptability. Our “overdeveloped” brains have allowed us as a species to adapt to pretty much every environment we need to. We have even adapted to completely inhospitable environments like the moon, space, and the deep sea!
“God” is a really easy, lazy way to think of the world. The truth is far more ancient, powerful, and complex.
And I think that’s super cool.
I don't fear death itself, I fear the pain involved in getting there. But concerning death, I think the closest experience we have to non-existence is deep, dreamless sleep. So when it comes, I think it will pretty much be like that.
One thing that helped me is to understand that there is no measurable "self" beyond the neurochemistry of your body. Someone can literally change your personality, your view of morality, your sense of beauty or humor, etc just by adding and/or removing hormones and chemicals to your brain. Your individuality is inexorably linked to your physical body and nothing of you (save the atoms you're made of) will persist after you die.
The only immortality I believe in is the prospect that the atoms of my body will be reabsorbed into another form of life. Grass or trees, or someday maybe even a mammal or another human. Likewise, the matter of my body is another incarnation of life of the atoms it contains, and I find that thought reassuring.
I deal with death by doing what I want in life. I'm single, I live alone. I have no one to tell me what to do. I can sit naked on my couch and read all day if I want. I also take happy pills and amanita mushrooms. Nothing bothers me anymore like it used to. I do things I enjoy. One of my favorite things to do is go the exact speed limit on a two lane road and watch the idiots behind me freak out. People need to learn to chill. Ffs weed and magic mushrooms are legal now in most places. Eat a mushroom, smoke a joint, drink a damn shot and take some haldol and relax! That's how I stay calm. Don't worry, be happy!
I don't believe in nothing after death. I think I'll eventually stop having thoughts and forget everything and not realize it, but that's not nothing. I'm less that 1% of everything--everything else just continues.
What I do feel about the lack of an afterlife is relief, anyway. I won't be sent to hell, and I won't be eternally forced to worship the creator of well while listening to a chorus of my loved ones screaming in hell.
The typical answer is "what was life like for you before you were born?" That's basically going to be how you are after you're dead. Uh, as for me, well, it's not like there's a choice. We're just going to cease existing upon death. Not a whole lot to think about. Hopefully, you come to the realization that you should enjoy the life you have, and be thankful that you have it. If you have friends and family, enjoy time with them (if you like them). Try to find something in each moment because these are what you get.
Ok that's kind of just what I've been thinking about, but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed? Or are we just kinda stuck with overdeveloped brains doomed to question something that can't be solved??
> but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed? This is very much a theistic viewpoint. To assume that there is some overarching purpose is somewhat a complementary belief to there being a god who can allegedly assign such purpose (and tends to be good for a priesthood to tell adherents that their purpose is something self serving like "glorifying god" or some other such nonsense). You are here. If you want to delve into the recent history of the world you are here because your parents had unprotected sex. More advanced purpose for your existence is up to you to define for yourself as there are no gods to do it for you. > Or are we just kinda stuck with overdeveloped brains doomed to question something that can't be solved?? In a sense, however the truly smart brain recognizes unanswerable questions and dismisses them as not worth our time. You're alive, you have self-determination, why are you worrying about an undefinable and unsolvable problems when you could be doing something more fulfilling?
[удалено]
I guess by that I meant like why are we seemingly alone as a species in a futile hunt for the unknown, with awareness for our own conscious? - I guess you don't know either so this is kind of pointless hahaha
The gist of your posts reveal the depth of the egocentrism and xenocentrism in which you are obviously entrapped.
I'm just a thinker bro 🤔 no but i was just wondering if other people ever have periods of extreme questioning, and if so how they go through it
but do you think any sort of answers about why we're all here in the first place will ever be revealed? - No. Why would that happen? There are lots of people who lived before us who had miserable lives and had to struggle day to day in order to survive. Do you think they'd care about some "divine plan?" Take a look around. Most people you encounter are nothing special. Why any of them would think about some "higher purpose" is beyond me.
Re: why we're all here. I'm pretty content with the answers anthropology and paleoanth have provided in terms of the human species. In larger terms, the hard sciences answer these questions pretty well. Of course, we don't have the whole picture, but they do a pretty good job explaining what we can observe of reality. Re: overdeveloped brains. We can certainly ask questions that we can never answer - and some questions may not be sensical (like, why is there something instead of nothing?). But honestly, my answers aren't better than yours for unanswerable questions. None of us know - some people in cute costumes pretend to know, though.
Life on earth never gave this a second thought. Trees grew and died, animals were born, ate, bred and died without thinking about what their purpose was. Just relax and enjoy what life is and don’t worry about it. It’s wonderful.
Ok, I'm just about to reveal everything. But first, I want some munchies! 😋
I'm all ears! I hope those munchies are great :)
Because your parents fucked and their parents fuck and so on and so forth, that’s why you are here. It’s up to you to give your own life meaning and be productive in society. Do not fear death, you did not fear your own birth!
Even asking "why we're here" presupposes that the entirety of humanity, Earth, and the universe itself isnt just some random statistical anomaly. We can say *how* we're here though, with a reasonable amount of certainty provided by physics, biology, archaeology, etc.
Read the old testament. If that god was real, how could you stay calm? That is a murderous, vengeful, petty, and often evil god.
Easy; when you are done, you are done; there is nothing to worry about.
What more could you possibly want than being human on this beautiful planet? For a blink of an eye the atoms in your body make a sentient being that can love and laugh. So just fucking enjoy it before you become a smattering of space dust for the next few billion years
There is literally only one thing you can be absolutely certain about in life, and that is at some point you will die, as will every single person you know and love. It is the only true certainty. You can be terrified of that fact or you can make the most of the time that you have left. Happy Saturday 🙂
Hmmm guess I'll doom scroll on Reddit more 🤪
Genuinely this is about as close to the worst thing you can do. Get some happy hormones and endorphins circulating your body - when was the last time you exhausted yourself running?
Haha I was joking but I am a cross country runner - can't run because of a stress fracture right now though which is why I'm having issues I think
A stress fracture in your foot? If so definitely let that rest! See there's a reason for everything haha, your brain isn't getting it's big dump of serotonin and dopamine it's used to from running and so is acting up! Try looking for exercises and home workouts that avoid stress fracture exacerbation that also gives you that hit? Life will become a lot more bearable after 🙂
Yeah it's right in the middle of my shin and went all the way through so I've been out for like 6 months now!! Thank you though you're probably right that this is my problem haha. I guess it's time to get crazy in the gym again!!!
I've never heard of that before that's crazy. Do you have any radiographs (x-rays) of it?
I don't have a good x-ray, but the mri is wild it's like a bright white spot straight through the middle of my tibia and up to where my knee is. Don't overtrain!!!
So it's a tibia plateau fracture?? Are you sure it's a stress fracture and not non union? What was the mechanism! Your post and everything is all making sense now 😂
No not exactly, I have had a tibia plateau fracture before in which a chunk of my bone came off, this is about 3 inches further down, straight up in the middle in the bone. It was from doing cross country and intense weightlifting for another sport at the same time, ignoring it and calling it shin splints. My PT hates me because it just won't heal 😂
[удалено]
What do you mean by this?
There will be a point in the future when people will not have to die. I'm already over 50, so I'm not optimistic it will happen while I'm still alive, but there is no guarantee that death is a certainty. The first person to live to be healthy at 150 years old has almost certainly already been born, and when you look at the pace and acceleration of medical technology, living to the year 2150 will probably mean living a very long time beyond it.
>There will be a point in the future when people will not have to die Yeh, but i still consider Keith Richards to be an outlier.
They really got you on the threat of hell after you die. Fuk them.
There was nothing before birth, did it bother you then? Same premise.
>On the other hand, if this is truly it, how would nothingness feel? Nothing. It feels like nothing. You won't be there, you won't be sad, hurt or missing anything, nor will you be in bliss or anything. It's like when you blow out a candle; the flame is not anywhere anymore. It was there but now it's not - the flame is nothing anymore. I don't fear death, but I admit I'm afraid of the moment of death, the last few moments of consciousness. But I'm consoled by the fact that once it's over, nothing will bother me ever again.
[удалено]
I guess that's pretty wise, do you happen to know how to stop thinking all the time about this stuff though? I just have been plagued with these thoughts and "focusing on what I want to do with my life" has been difficult.
Stop thinking about yourself so much and start thinking about other people. Go out and volunteer with an organization that is doing something to make your community better.
If nothing is permanently lost to the universe when you die (because to say otherwise is just invoking the soul with extra steps), and you are possible, and if the laws of quantum physics are true so that anything that can happen will happen, then "you" will eventually exist again. That is a sort of immortality. Also, science is advancing at an exponential rate, and longevity escape velocity will likely be achieved within the next decade. The christians won't go for that, since they think they'll be going to heaven. Religion is also (very slowly I'll grant you) dying out in the developed world. This means the future belongs to the atheists. All of this means you most certainly can have a non religious afterlife, and most likely a pleasant one, especially if you like being alive right now. The christian heaven is a gilded cage guarded over by an insane warden who tortures his children for disagreeing with him. If nothingness still bothers you after hearing all of this, I would recommend taking up meditation. Focus on your breathing until it is the only thing going through your mind. You will find that there is still a part of you that is "aware". You asked how it would be to feel nothingness. That is impossible. If you don't exist, you don't exist. You would be unable to feel or notice anything at all, because "you" would not be there to feel it. You went to sleep last night. Were you terrified that a different person would wake up? Maybe you think that all of the time you spend sleeping is accompanied by dreams. That is incorrect. We go through 15 minute cycles when we sleep. There are stretches of time when you sleep during which you do not dream. For all intents and purposes, from a certain point of view "you" do not exist during that time period. Regardless of what you believe, you have already spent an immense amount of time not existing. Then you were born.
That's easy. I've accepted that death comes for everyone, so i don't bother to compulsively think about it every second of every day. Why bother being so scared of death that you can't live life?
If you truly believe you’ll have to stand before god, alone, being interrogated, and explain your thousands of sins, then how do you stay calm?
Haven't you ever had a dreamless sleep? Do you remember anything before you were born? It'll be like that. I know that means nothing to you, but it didn't inconvenience you in any way. You won't know anything when you're dead. Besides, no point in worrying about it now. The best you can do is just live your life. Death is inevitable and you won't be able to stop it. Nothing else you can do except seek help, but there's really no point wasting your time thinking about something that you're not going to be able to control. It's a waste of time worrying about it instead of living.
To me, when life is over, it's just over. There isn't anything after, and therefore there isn't anything to be scared of.
If you accept it it stops being scary lol
Death is inevitable. Having no consciousness feels like nothing at all. Like going under anesthesia or having a dreamless sleep. You don't realize anything, it's just nothing. I'm not afraid of that. It honestly sounds peaceful, much better than judgement by a celestial being or eternal torment. I'm not especially attached to my consciousness, I guess. I am afraid of what will happen to my disabled child, and I can plan for that to the best of my ability. I'm afraid I will have pain or suffering if I'm dying from injury or illness, and all I can do about that is trust that medical science and other humans will help me. It helps to name what is worrisome to you. Are you afraid of pain or suffering? Are you afraid of a loss of control? Are you afraid of the fact that it may come unexpectedly? Are you afraid that there is actually something after this life and it will be bad in some way? Are you afraid of the unknown? Naming your fears helps you understand them, and understanding what they are can help you overcome or plan for them to the best of your ability. Acceptance that we're all mortal and will eventually die is harder for some people and easier for others. If you're having such a difficult time that it is difficult for you to go about daily life, it's important that you look for a therapist and talk about it. You don't want this to consume you and keep you from enjoying your life.
If wishes were fishes, we would all be up to asses in sushi. Reality does care what you want or what makes you comfortable. Every living thing dies. That is reality, whether you want it or not. Part of being an adult is accepting reality. I live, love, learn, experience and achieve. I will do these things for up to ~90 years. Quite frankly, for me, that's enough. What more could I want? The universe is a vast & wonderful place. The more I can do, the more I will have done. I will go into my grave knowing that I couldn't possibly have done more than a tiny fraction of what this universe has to offer - and that's OK, because I did the very best I could. EVERYONE is in the same situation. No one escapes. I will have an opportunity to interact with a huge number of people during my lifetime - and that will still be a tiny percentage of the world's population. Right now, I'm communicating with you - a person I don't know and will most likely never meet. You might see that as a waste, but I think it's pretty cool.
The answer has been “revealed” (though I don’t like that term, since it implies that the answer was hidden and the revelation was something purposeful and planned). It’s evolution. It’s biology. It’s geology, physics, and ecology. We exist as a species because of a long line of adaptability. Our “overdeveloped” brains have allowed us as a species to adapt to pretty much every environment we need to. We have even adapted to completely inhospitable environments like the moon, space, and the deep sea! “God” is a really easy, lazy way to think of the world. The truth is far more ancient, powerful, and complex. And I think that’s super cool.
"Not staying calm" doesn't accomplish anything useful.
I don't fear death itself, I fear the pain involved in getting there. But concerning death, I think the closest experience we have to non-existence is deep, dreamless sleep. So when it comes, I think it will pretty much be like that. One thing that helped me is to understand that there is no measurable "self" beyond the neurochemistry of your body. Someone can literally change your personality, your view of morality, your sense of beauty or humor, etc just by adding and/or removing hormones and chemicals to your brain. Your individuality is inexorably linked to your physical body and nothing of you (save the atoms you're made of) will persist after you die. The only immortality I believe in is the prospect that the atoms of my body will be reabsorbed into another form of life. Grass or trees, or someday maybe even a mammal or another human. Likewise, the matter of my body is another incarnation of life of the atoms it contains, and I find that thought reassuring.
I deal with death by doing what I want in life. I'm single, I live alone. I have no one to tell me what to do. I can sit naked on my couch and read all day if I want. I also take happy pills and amanita mushrooms. Nothing bothers me anymore like it used to. I do things I enjoy. One of my favorite things to do is go the exact speed limit on a two lane road and watch the idiots behind me freak out. People need to learn to chill. Ffs weed and magic mushrooms are legal now in most places. Eat a mushroom, smoke a joint, drink a damn shot and take some haldol and relax! That's how I stay calm. Don't worry, be happy!
I don't believe in nothing after death. I think I'll eventually stop having thoughts and forget everything and not realize it, but that's not nothing. I'm less that 1% of everything--everything else just continues. What I do feel about the lack of an afterlife is relief, anyway. I won't be sent to hell, and I won't be eternally forced to worship the creator of well while listening to a chorus of my loved ones screaming in hell.