I don't want to die

[Hamradioguy]

Woody Allen has it right: "I'm not afraid of dying...Just as long as I'm not there when it happens."

 

[quixotecoyote]

I don't mind the thought of dying, given the inevitability of it. It's just annoying to think that in 3-4 generations we'll probably have massive life-extension tech, and I'm missing it by that much.

 

[Telaynay's G'son]

"...every man dies, it's how you live that matters..."

Braveheart

 

[Malerin]

Welcome to the wonderful world of atheism. As you can see, it is a very uplifting and spiritual rewarding view of reality. If it's any consolation, the entire universe may join you in death in just a couple hundred billion years as the acceleration of the rate of expansion continues and literally rips the fabric of space-time apart. Cheery thoughts!

 

[quarky]

The aging process has a way of making death more palatable.
Fear old age, if you must; not death.
Fear pain.

 

[Tricky]

Almost nobody wants to die. That's the main reason religion exists.

 

[proudnonbbeliever]

Accepting the fact that we all will end at some point does not have to mean doom and gloom. My thought on the subject is to remember that you can leave a legacy. Make your mark on the world, no matter how small - you will be remembered. That is how an atheist can live forever.

 

[Wowbagger]

Why am I always the only one, here, who thinks immortality is overrated?


But, if you insist:

The universe does not need to lose the knowledge you've gained. You can share it with others!

Your genes do not need to end. You can procreate! Today, we even have the technology to help most infertile folks do so!

Learn about the mind, and how conscience works. We might not have all the answers, yet, but you would be surprised at how much science already knows. Help us develop technology to keep that preserved! Maybe, in our life time, your conscience self need not be extinguished so easily, either.

And, always remember that science has not, yet, completely ruled out "reincarnation". There is always a chance, however small, that at some point in time, your consciousness will be re-established, somehow, somewhere. If it could happen once, what would prevent it from happening, again?! (Though, I don't think you'd remember anything from your previous lives, so you could argue that it won't count.)

But, it can also be argued that not everything I wrote above is sane.

 

[Tumblehome]

I don't want to die. I want to live for ever. I think learning things to lose them is torment...

I think most people have that feeling at some time. Mine lasted for a few days when I was about ten or twelve years old. What's the point in life if you're just going to die?

But then there were ball games to play, fish to catch, friends to roam the neighbourhood with...In other words, I wasn't dead yet and there was still all this fun stuff to do.

So, you've got a long, long time before you die. You'll probably get bored of moping about it soon and find something, or someone , that grabs your fancy, and you won't think about death again--till you're thirty.*


* Someone once said that after thirty, a day doesn't go by that you don't think of dying.

 

[Simon39759]

Hm, interesting, I would love to have more data.. do you have any?


ETA: What i find basically says that it is pseudoscience. That doesn't surprise me much, and maybe what i have found is wrong.

I wouldn't call it pseudoscience per se as much as flimsy supported science.
It is related to the theory of [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity]technological singularity[/url]. It takes and extrapolate a real trend but do so to such an extend that no one knows how valid this extrapolation is.

Realize how much progress we did in biology in the last 30 years? Science is increasing at exponential rate, so, one would expect that we would do at least comparable progress in the next fiften years. And then similar in 8... and so on...

I don't necessarily reject de Grey's theories as pseudoscience... but I sure still need convincing.

 

[ClassyElf]

Welcome to the wonderful world of atheism. As you can see, it is a very uplifting and spiritual rewarding view of reality. If it's any consolation, the entire universe may join you in death in just a couple hundred billion years as the acceleration of the rate of expansion continues and literally rips the fabric of space-time apart.

Assuming human technology(or some advanced alien race's technology?) doesn't advance to the point that they can evade or stop that from happening.

 

[six7s]

Welcome to the wonderful world of atheism. As you can see, it is a very uplifting and spiritual rewarding view of reality. If it's any consolation, the entire universe may join you in death in just a couple hundred billion years as the acceleration of the rate of expansion continues and literally rips the fabric of space-time apart. Cheery thoughts!

If you deleted the word spiritual, I'd agree with all that

 

[shawmutt]

Has this thread died all of a sudden?

Yes. This thread is now in the afterlife, waiting to be reborn in a couple months as a repost.

I must say, one of my favorite characters in the Terry Pratchette Discworld series is Death, or I should say, the anthropomorphic representation of Death.

 

[Ron_Tomkins]

 

[KingMerv00]

For example, I was reading interesting history book, and I liked it, but then I started to think about death and now, I have no more wish to continue reading it, because, if after some 40 years I'll be dead, maybe I better stop learning and just enjoy rest of my days.

You were enjoying your days, then you stopped reading.

Little things can be fun too.

 

[Interesent]

Consider the following...

Okay, so you're sitting in front of your computer right now. Now, rewind your life back to the moment you were conceived. (I know, it's before you were concious.) Those two specific bits of genetic material out of thousands had to come together to make you. Now go back further, to the day your parents met. Out of the billions of people on earth, those two specific people had to meet to concieve you. Now, go back a generation. Your mothers parents and your fathers parents had to meet to make them. Go back hundreds, then thousands and then ten thousand generations. Millions of individuals had to get together in your ancestry. Then go back millions of years too all of your evolutionary ancestors. Then billions of years to the early universe where all of the elements that make up your body were being formed in stars. And then back to the big bang, where those stars had their start.

Think of the trillions of trillions of nuclear and chemical reactions, the formation of elements, the evolution of life on this planet. All of those things had to happen for you to be here now, as a bit of self aware matter. A vanishingly small amount of matter in the universe ever achieves a self aware configuration.

Yet "you" did. Thats a lot of stuff that had to come together for you to be here. So, quit worrying about reverting back to that non-self aware state, and enjoy what you have while you have it.

You were there before, and you'll be there again. It cannot be avoided.

-PbFoot

Doesn't work. It just makes me feel priceless. I'm such a remarkable being. All this billions of years long process have produced me for less than % of that processes time? It doesn't feel right. I feel ready to live some 3, 4 thousand years. I would like to be one of first pioneers to colonize new planets. See mars being terraformed and see at how far computer technology will go. New, humanity have just created good platform for new inventions, new explorations. I'd like to live long enough to see humans settling outside of solar system.

 

[Marquis de Carabas]

Why am I always the only one, here, who thinks immortality is overrated?

You're not.

If life never ended, it would be worthless. It's simple economics.

 

[Cavemonster]

Why am I always the only one, here, who thinks immortality is overrated?

I'll go you one further.
To me, the general estimated lifespan of a male living in the US sounds just about right for me. I have no strong desire to live longer than that.

I see no reason to want to hit 100 other than the novelty value.

 

[six7s]

I see no reason to want to hit 100 other than the novelty value.

Such amazing foresight!

However... if your opinion changes over time, you won't be alone

Three of my favourites:

"I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious sensibilities of anyone."
Charles Darwin, The Origin Of Species, 1869

"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
​

 

[Cavemonster]

Such amazing foresight!

However... if your opinion changes over time, you won't be alone

Three of my favourites:

"I see no good reasons why the views given in this volume should shock the religious sensibilities of anyone."
Charles Darwin, The Origin Of Species, 1869

"Radio has no future. Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible. X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, British scientist, 1899

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
​

I'm prepared to be proven wrong if I somehow survive into my 90s, but most people I've met who get that old don't seem too disturbed that they won't live forever.