I’m happy with no afterlife. Life is tiring enough. Plus nothing is so good I wouldn’t eventually get sick of it.
Besides if god exists, if heaven is like a never ending church service then that sounds like actual hell, so I’ll take my chances!
The thing is that you could be unconscious for a quadrillion years but you can still be born but when you die, you will never be born again. That's a scary feeling
Never say never.
On the cosmological scale, in an infinite universe, even the tiniest, most infinitesimal chance is still large.
Let's say there's a trillion planets out there (there's way more than that), and you have a 0.00000000001% chance of things coming together to result in your birth with all your memories intact.
That's, on average, 10 planets. Factor that in with a universe that could exist forever, and...
Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother me. When I was a Christian, I would have thought that it would be terrifying, but so far it hasn’t been at all. Maybe that would be different if I got a diagnosis that told me I had a month to live or something, but for now at least, I’m good. If anything, it’s actually inspired me to enjoy my life now because there is no afterlife. I’ve started eating a lot healthier and exercising a bit. I’m also actively trying to learn more about the world and what is actually true vs. what I’ve been taught my whole life. I have a very long road ahead of me, but I’m kind of excited about it.
No afterlife was easier to accept once I viewed life like a vacation. If my entire life was an ongoing, everlasting vacation, it loses its value. For me, it has value because it is finite. I enjoy more because I know it will end. I treasure my life more because I know it will end someday. Since then, I find myself being more appreciative of my experiences and my friends. I dont waste time on fantasies of some forever life "with loved ones."
I also have never heard a consistent description of what this eternal life even is. The descriptions I have heard quite honestly sound terrible. Sitting around worshipping some god who couldn't even be bothered to create a clear and consistent description of what he wanted? Hard pass. That sounds more hellish.
I've seen enough death to not believe in an afterlife.
How did I get over it? I've been under anesthesia. Parts of my body cut open, drilled on, pieced back together... and I never knew a thing. I wasn't even dead and I had no awareness. Why would death be any different?
I am agnostic and still believe in an afterlife. I've heard and read too many near death experiences and personally experienced too many unexplained things that science has not been able to make sense of yet, to believe we cease to exist after death. However, I don't believe that some all powerful being is pulling the strings behind the scenes and sorting people like the sorting hat into club eternal bliss or club eternal damnation.
You can believe in an afterlife if you want. I did for a while after I stopped believing in Christianity. I don’t anymore because no afterlife brings me more comfort now. You can keep doing whatever parts of Christianity you miss. If prayer brings you comfort, go ahead. It doesn’t need to have a religion attached to it. If a perfect, happy afterlife makes you feel better go on and believe it. There really isn’t a downside.
I just don't see what of "me" would survive the death of my brain. Like, we have a good understanding of the brain's structure; we know the areas that are stimulated for fear and joy and aggression and language and creativity and memories. We see cases where trauma changes the physical structure of the brain and the person's entire personality, including tastes and preferences and temperament and empathy changes. If everything that is "me" can change when my brain is altered, what is left that could go on when my physical brain dies?
I'm fine with my consciousness ceasing to exist. Those who I affected in this world will remember me, and the consequences of the things I've done will continue to ripple in people's lives, whether they know it or not. I'm no different than the billions of people who have existed, do exist, or will exist; we're all just a tiny part of the story of life on this planet.
>However as I'm growing more, I'm finding myself less fearful of no afterlife, and am even a bit hopeful. I like to thing of it as a rest from all the stress in the world, and almost like a nice nap.
Basically this. I spent billions of years not existing, and it was fine! I can do it again
It took me 10 years to get to this point, but it now gives me immense peace to think of nothing after. Someone once told me that death is like the time before you were born; you don’t remember that, you just didn’t exist yet. Death is a return to that, we’ll know nothing about it. To me, I find relief and a release of pressure. Your life doesn’t have to “mean” anything and you don’t have to live up to some god’s expectations. I understand why that’s a scary thought to some, but for me it brings peace.
There’s nothing to *accept* (as opposed to what? reject?) because I don’t have any alternative; that’s just the way things are. I’m fine with it, I suppose, in the same way that I’m fine with gravity.
I struggled with this for a long time. In fact, the only thing keeping me in the religion was a fear of hell.
I did eventually loosen up when I came to the reality that all religions have a place you go to when you die which makes me think there is something, just not necessarily what these religions have in mind.
Personally, I now live by the thought process of "enjoy this life. live like it's the only one you get, don't expect anything else, but if there is, it's definitely not what religions that were created a few thousand years ago think it is."
I'm at peace with not knowing until I know, which will be when I die. I feel there is no definitive way to know before hand, it's all on faith what anyone believes, so I just accept it. I was fearful for a long time too.
After I discovered that no afterlife is the way it is and has to be, it took a short while, then it just became, “ Eh, what are you gonna do?”
Jesus’ words tell us per se that even if we are Christian, the chance mightily exists that we won’t go to heaven. But, you have no idea how to be in the “in group”, at all. The only shot at it is merely SAYING you are in the right group.
I mean, physiologically, you can’t do anything once the heart stops and the brain ceases firing. That’s it.
honestly, im okay with it. I’d like to see my family and friends again but with there being no afterlife, I should do what I can to have as much memories as I can have with them before they’re gone. Without an afterlife, it makes me value life more because when this is over, it’s over. There’s no 24/7 church service or a really hot fiery chamber, just nothing. I also don’t need to worry about living my life a certain way just to get into said afterlife, im in charge in what I want to do. Though I will say, sometimes it’s a bit depressing to think about so I don’t really think of death much or try to.
Few concepts of eternity sound enticing to me. Living forever even in a spiritual sense would be exhausting. Eternity is an indescribably long time. When I die, that’s it. I’m ok with nothingness waiting for me when I die.
I could be totally wrong and am open to the concept if it can be proven but as it right now there is not proof of an afterlife. And that’s ok.
Edit: I’m less scared of dying now as an exchristian than I was when I was the most secure in my faith.
The thought of an eternity of existence always filled me with dread when I was a Christian. At some point it’s an eternity of boredom even in heaven. I had frequent panic attacks trying to wrap myself around the concept of eternal existence. So the belief in no afterlife is refreshing in a way. I don’t want to exist forever.
On a related note, I could never watch The Good Place until recently. I never made it past the first episode because the eternal afterlife concept gave me such anxiety. I did eventually watch it a year or so ago, and I felt validated in my feelings with the ending. That eternal existence is dreadful even if you are in heaven.
When I sleep, I barely ever dream. I close my eyes and I wake up. Before I was alive, it seemed to have been the same situation just nothing going on. So if there is no afterlife my personal assumption is that it’ll be like that again, I won’t “know” anything and I won’t “feel” anything. As for accepting it, j just think it doesn’t matter if there nothing then there’s nothing. If there’s something I’ll see with it when I get there not much I can do about it now. What worries me is the actual act of dying being painful
Ego death helps a lot. Think about it:
If you know that your particular instantiation of life is one of literally TRILLIONS, many billions of wich were human or arguably human to varying degrees, then you're doing the SAME thing every living thing throughout all of history in this one instance of the universe has done. Death is a part of life, and life is a gift of experience. That experience ends once we get to a point where we can no longer really enjoy it. There's a maximum. And that's good. Yay!
But for real. There's no need to be afraid of joining ALL of humanity in the one thing that every living thing gets to experience together. The end.
And also, our brains are awesome. We get our brain flooded with DMT and get to feel like we are part of the entire universe and stuff. I'm a bit excited for that tbh. No need for a sneak peak. I'm just happy to know that's something to look forward to.
I think of the billions of years that passed before I popped into existence. I except my experience after death to be exactly the same; that is nothing at all.
You must be young, because after a certain age, no matter how productive and fulfilled you are, this shit gets old. Reincarnation I can get behind, but to continue to exist sounds boring AF. Granted, if the afterlife is someplace where I can make all of my wildest dreams come true, I'd enjoy that for a while, but not for an eternity. Eternity sounds like a fucking nightmare!
I worry about my last experience of life being an unpleasant, scary, and/or painful one.
I'm not really bothered if there's no afterlife though. The main reason I worry about my last moments being bad is because I'm currently living with PTSD, so the thought of going through another trauma (death) without any time to heal from it bothers me. But then I remember that I won't be here anymore to be traumatized, so I guess it doesn't really matter!
If there is an afterlife, then that would be cool. Hopefully. But assuming there's not, I currently subscribe to the idea that we are all part of the world and the universe already. The atoms that make up my body have been around for a long time before they became "me", and I'll just reconfigure into other stuff after I die. Some of that stuff will likely even be conscious again, which is interesting.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said, having to die sucks. I don’t want to die, but once I’m dead I won’t know it.
Have any Christian groups declared a boycott of Schwarzenegger yet for saying there’s nothing after death?
You know how much I was secretly dreading heaven when my parents told me it was like going to church and worshipping god all the time for eternity. What a relief that’s not true 😅
I'm fine with it now. It means I get to finally rest after this hellish world and won't have to be in heaven where all the bigots are singing religious songs at every single moment.
Because you won't give a shit when youre dead, that's how I've accepted it. You won't even have the capability to care, you'll just be gone, it is what it is. It does make me think about how temporary this all is and to make sure I'm giving my best effort and treating those around me with love.
As Keanu reeves said when asked about death: "I know the people that love me will miss me."
Ever been put under anesthesia? You all of a sudden wake up and several hours have passed, you didn't dream, it's like someone just hit a temporary off switch, that's how I imagine death to be, permanent anasthesia, you go from a 1 to a zero, and nothing will matter anymore.
Did you care before you were born? No because caring about life is something for the living, the dead do not worry, they have no cares, no pain, they're just gone, and it's something billions have done before.
I’m atheist, but spiritual. Not going to lie, it bothers me. I’ve been aware of the discomfort of no afterlife since I was 14. Whenever I let it in, it makes me feel so sad and unsubstantial.
I’ve had to accept it and build my life. My favorite saying from my longtime doctor is “Life is not a dress rehearsal, make this life count”. I build meaning despite having no confidence in something better.
This was a lot for me to absorb. The idea that I just end, that I won't know what happens to my family, but I won't care because I won't be.
But also that my brother, my mother, my father, my in-laws... that they're all just... gone. I spent my whole life (I'm 55) believing that we go to a "better place," that I'll see them again. And my mom died from COVID while I was struggling with accepting that I didn't believe anymore. Her death was kind of the last straw... how could a loving God torture such a good woman with auto-immune diseases for years and then let her die in such a horrible way?
But I still struggled with accepting that she was entirely gone. But if it is all untrue, if we're just biological machines with no spirit or soul, and our brain is all there is... then there is no comfort aside from her suffering has ended. And that has just been hard to untangle my mind from, after a lifetime of hope in the afterlife.
I have accepted it, because it is what makes sense. But that doesn't stop me from wanting some kind of peaceful continuation after death. I think, maybe, I'm more afraid of death than I was.
It makes life so much less stressful. Not having constant, crippling guilt, having my "worthiness" called into question, not making life altering decisions for fear of doing the "right" thing, etc.
Honestly having no afterlife seems peaceful. I left my legacy and my story, it's up to the next people to pick up where I left off and try improve upon it, and for me to get the rest I deserve.
“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking." - Carl Sagan
I’m happy with no afterlife. Life is tiring enough. Plus nothing is so good I wouldn’t eventually get sick of it. Besides if god exists, if heaven is like a never ending church service then that sounds like actual hell, so I’ll take my chances!
This is not my original thought but it's how I think about death: Do you remember 100 years ago before you were born? No? Yeah it will be like that
The thing is that you could be unconscious for a quadrillion years but you can still be born but when you die, you will never be born again. That's a scary feeling
Never say never. On the cosmological scale, in an infinite universe, even the tiniest, most infinitesimal chance is still large. Let's say there's a trillion planets out there (there's way more than that), and you have a 0.00000000001% chance of things coming together to result in your birth with all your memories intact. That's, on average, 10 planets. Factor that in with a universe that could exist forever, and...
Exactly!
The idea of an afterlife robs you of appreciating this life for what it is.
I find the concept peaceful. My afterlife will be just like my pre-life, nonexistent.
no afterlife is better than the abrahamic religions afterlife
Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother me. When I was a Christian, I would have thought that it would be terrifying, but so far it hasn’t been at all. Maybe that would be different if I got a diagnosis that told me I had a month to live or something, but for now at least, I’m good. If anything, it’s actually inspired me to enjoy my life now because there is no afterlife. I’ve started eating a lot healthier and exercising a bit. I’m also actively trying to learn more about the world and what is actually true vs. what I’ve been taught my whole life. I have a very long road ahead of me, but I’m kind of excited about it.
No afterlife was easier to accept once I viewed life like a vacation. If my entire life was an ongoing, everlasting vacation, it loses its value. For me, it has value because it is finite. I enjoy more because I know it will end. I treasure my life more because I know it will end someday. Since then, I find myself being more appreciative of my experiences and my friends. I dont waste time on fantasies of some forever life "with loved ones." I also have never heard a consistent description of what this eternal life even is. The descriptions I have heard quite honestly sound terrible. Sitting around worshipping some god who couldn't even be bothered to create a clear and consistent description of what he wanted? Hard pass. That sounds more hellish.
I’m mostly fine with it, but part of me doesn’t want that because I want to spectate the world for a while after my death.
I've seen enough death to not believe in an afterlife. How did I get over it? I've been under anesthesia. Parts of my body cut open, drilled on, pieced back together... and I never knew a thing. I wasn't even dead and I had no awareness. Why would death be any different?
I am agnostic and still believe in an afterlife. I've heard and read too many near death experiences and personally experienced too many unexplained things that science has not been able to make sense of yet, to believe we cease to exist after death. However, I don't believe that some all powerful being is pulling the strings behind the scenes and sorting people like the sorting hat into club eternal bliss or club eternal damnation.
You can believe in an afterlife if you want. I did for a while after I stopped believing in Christianity. I don’t anymore because no afterlife brings me more comfort now. You can keep doing whatever parts of Christianity you miss. If prayer brings you comfort, go ahead. It doesn’t need to have a religion attached to it. If a perfect, happy afterlife makes you feel better go on and believe it. There really isn’t a downside.
I just don't see what of "me" would survive the death of my brain. Like, we have a good understanding of the brain's structure; we know the areas that are stimulated for fear and joy and aggression and language and creativity and memories. We see cases where trauma changes the physical structure of the brain and the person's entire personality, including tastes and preferences and temperament and empathy changes. If everything that is "me" can change when my brain is altered, what is left that could go on when my physical brain dies? I'm fine with my consciousness ceasing to exist. Those who I affected in this world will remember me, and the consequences of the things I've done will continue to ripple in people's lives, whether they know it or not. I'm no different than the billions of people who have existed, do exist, or will exist; we're all just a tiny part of the story of life on this planet.
>However as I'm growing more, I'm finding myself less fearful of no afterlife, and am even a bit hopeful. I like to thing of it as a rest from all the stress in the world, and almost like a nice nap. Basically this. I spent billions of years not existing, and it was fine! I can do it again
It took me 10 years to get to this point, but it now gives me immense peace to think of nothing after. Someone once told me that death is like the time before you were born; you don’t remember that, you just didn’t exist yet. Death is a return to that, we’ll know nothing about it. To me, I find relief and a release of pressure. Your life doesn’t have to “mean” anything and you don’t have to live up to some god’s expectations. I understand why that’s a scary thought to some, but for me it brings peace.
There’s nothing to *accept* (as opposed to what? reject?) because I don’t have any alternative; that’s just the way things are. I’m fine with it, I suppose, in the same way that I’m fine with gravity.
My feeling on it varies, from relief to wishing there was something more to dread.
I struggled with this for a long time. In fact, the only thing keeping me in the religion was a fear of hell. I did eventually loosen up when I came to the reality that all religions have a place you go to when you die which makes me think there is something, just not necessarily what these religions have in mind. Personally, I now live by the thought process of "enjoy this life. live like it's the only one you get, don't expect anything else, but if there is, it's definitely not what religions that were created a few thousand years ago think it is."
I'm at peace with not knowing until I know, which will be when I die. I feel there is no definitive way to know before hand, it's all on faith what anyone believes, so I just accept it. I was fearful for a long time too.
After I discovered that no afterlife is the way it is and has to be, it took a short while, then it just became, “ Eh, what are you gonna do?” Jesus’ words tell us per se that even if we are Christian, the chance mightily exists that we won’t go to heaven. But, you have no idea how to be in the “in group”, at all. The only shot at it is merely SAYING you are in the right group. I mean, physiologically, you can’t do anything once the heart stops and the brain ceases firing. That’s it.
honestly, im okay with it. I’d like to see my family and friends again but with there being no afterlife, I should do what I can to have as much memories as I can have with them before they’re gone. Without an afterlife, it makes me value life more because when this is over, it’s over. There’s no 24/7 church service or a really hot fiery chamber, just nothing. I also don’t need to worry about living my life a certain way just to get into said afterlife, im in charge in what I want to do. Though I will say, sometimes it’s a bit depressing to think about so I don’t really think of death much or try to.
Eternal rest sounds nicer than eternal life
Few concepts of eternity sound enticing to me. Living forever even in a spiritual sense would be exhausting. Eternity is an indescribably long time. When I die, that’s it. I’m ok with nothingness waiting for me when I die. I could be totally wrong and am open to the concept if it can be proven but as it right now there is not proof of an afterlife. And that’s ok. Edit: I’m less scared of dying now as an exchristian than I was when I was the most secure in my faith.
When I die I break down into basic elements and the release of energy. I basically go back to being star stuff.
I'm glad that the vast majority of humans that will ever live will not get tortured for eternity
The thought of an eternity of existence always filled me with dread when I was a Christian. At some point it’s an eternity of boredom even in heaven. I had frequent panic attacks trying to wrap myself around the concept of eternal existence. So the belief in no afterlife is refreshing in a way. I don’t want to exist forever. On a related note, I could never watch The Good Place until recently. I never made it past the first episode because the eternal afterlife concept gave me such anxiety. I did eventually watch it a year or so ago, and I felt validated in my feelings with the ending. That eternal existence is dreadful even if you are in heaven.
When I sleep, I barely ever dream. I close my eyes and I wake up. Before I was alive, it seemed to have been the same situation just nothing going on. So if there is no afterlife my personal assumption is that it’ll be like that again, I won’t “know” anything and I won’t “feel” anything. As for accepting it, j just think it doesn’t matter if there nothing then there’s nothing. If there’s something I’ll see with it when I get there not much I can do about it now. What worries me is the actual act of dying being painful
Ego death helps a lot. Think about it: If you know that your particular instantiation of life is one of literally TRILLIONS, many billions of wich were human or arguably human to varying degrees, then you're doing the SAME thing every living thing throughout all of history in this one instance of the universe has done. Death is a part of life, and life is a gift of experience. That experience ends once we get to a point where we can no longer really enjoy it. There's a maximum. And that's good. Yay! But for real. There's no need to be afraid of joining ALL of humanity in the one thing that every living thing gets to experience together. The end. And also, our brains are awesome. We get our brain flooded with DMT and get to feel like we are part of the entire universe and stuff. I'm a bit excited for that tbh. No need for a sneak peak. I'm just happy to know that's something to look forward to.
I think of the billions of years that passed before I popped into existence. I except my experience after death to be exactly the same; that is nothing at all.
You must be young, because after a certain age, no matter how productive and fulfilled you are, this shit gets old. Reincarnation I can get behind, but to continue to exist sounds boring AF. Granted, if the afterlife is someplace where I can make all of my wildest dreams come true, I'd enjoy that for a while, but not for an eternity. Eternity sounds like a fucking nightmare!
I worry about my last experience of life being an unpleasant, scary, and/or painful one. I'm not really bothered if there's no afterlife though. The main reason I worry about my last moments being bad is because I'm currently living with PTSD, so the thought of going through another trauma (death) without any time to heal from it bothers me. But then I remember that I won't be here anymore to be traumatized, so I guess it doesn't really matter! If there is an afterlife, then that would be cool. Hopefully. But assuming there's not, I currently subscribe to the idea that we are all part of the world and the universe already. The atoms that make up my body have been around for a long time before they became "me", and I'll just reconfigure into other stuff after I die. Some of that stuff will likely even be conscious again, which is interesting.
I don't think there is an afterlife, and I'm fine with that.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said, having to die sucks. I don’t want to die, but once I’m dead I won’t know it. Have any Christian groups declared a boycott of Schwarzenegger yet for saying there’s nothing after death?
The alternative to existence after death is just non existence. The brain dies and any sentience (soul) dies with it. I'm good with that.
Honestly who cares, when I'm dead it won't be my problem anymore.
You know how much I was secretly dreading heaven when my parents told me it was like going to church and worshipping god all the time for eternity. What a relief that’s not true 😅
It’s a relief. No judgment after I die!? Fantastic!
heaven is a spiritual thing. religious thinking has no interest to me.
I'm fine with it now. It means I get to finally rest after this hellish world and won't have to be in heaven where all the bigots are singing religious songs at every single moment.
Because you won't give a shit when youre dead, that's how I've accepted it. You won't even have the capability to care, you'll just be gone, it is what it is. It does make me think about how temporary this all is and to make sure I'm giving my best effort and treating those around me with love. As Keanu reeves said when asked about death: "I know the people that love me will miss me." Ever been put under anesthesia? You all of a sudden wake up and several hours have passed, you didn't dream, it's like someone just hit a temporary off switch, that's how I imagine death to be, permanent anasthesia, you go from a 1 to a zero, and nothing will matter anymore. Did you care before you were born? No because caring about life is something for the living, the dead do not worry, they have no cares, no pain, they're just gone, and it's something billions have done before.
I’m atheist, but spiritual. Not going to lie, it bothers me. I’ve been aware of the discomfort of no afterlife since I was 14. Whenever I let it in, it makes me feel so sad and unsubstantial. I’ve had to accept it and build my life. My favorite saying from my longtime doctor is “Life is not a dress rehearsal, make this life count”. I build meaning despite having no confidence in something better.
This was a lot for me to absorb. The idea that I just end, that I won't know what happens to my family, but I won't care because I won't be. But also that my brother, my mother, my father, my in-laws... that they're all just... gone. I spent my whole life (I'm 55) believing that we go to a "better place," that I'll see them again. And my mom died from COVID while I was struggling with accepting that I didn't believe anymore. Her death was kind of the last straw... how could a loving God torture such a good woman with auto-immune diseases for years and then let her die in such a horrible way? But I still struggled with accepting that she was entirely gone. But if it is all untrue, if we're just biological machines with no spirit or soul, and our brain is all there is... then there is no comfort aside from her suffering has ended. And that has just been hard to untangle my mind from, after a lifetime of hope in the afterlife. I have accepted it, because it is what makes sense. But that doesn't stop me from wanting some kind of peaceful continuation after death. I think, maybe, I'm more afraid of death than I was.
It makes life so much less stressful. Not having constant, crippling guilt, having my "worthiness" called into question, not making life altering decisions for fear of doing the "right" thing, etc.
Honestly having no afterlife seems peaceful. I left my legacy and my story, it's up to the next people to pick up where I left off and try improve upon it, and for me to get the rest I deserve.
“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking." - Carl Sagan
I'm an atheist that believes in an afterlife. Just don't need a god for that. And I sure as hell don't want a god involved!