Death

[puglover]

As an atheist how do you cope with death?
Does death challenge your views as an atheist?

[WWLD]

Im not afraid of BEING dead because when I'm dead I won't know any different. There wont even be a me to know anything. Just nothing, I suppose.

But I am afraid of dying, how I will die, and the pain I may go through. You know, I don't want to drown, or burn, or be sick and in pain for a while on a hospital bed.

But anything that happens after that isn't scary, because nothing is going to happen after that, you know?

Anyway, that's how I see it.

[puglover]

What about the death of others around you?

[Ace Otana]

As an atheist how do you cope with death?
Does death challenge your views as an atheist?

This one is easily answered for me.

As an Atheist I do not fear death and that I acknowledge that I will cease to exist. I'm actually fine with that if not happy. I mean, who would want to live forever with a gawd who has no morality?

Also the death of others is something I see as totally natural. I don't cry, I don't wish. I just let them go as they have lived there lives and that there time is up.

Life is just a very small taster of existence. It's a taste of what it's like to exist but this taster is nothing more. Once your time is up you will go back into oblivion. We've been dead for many billions of years, we then get a lucky chance to live and then after that you go back into oblivion but this time for all eternity.

I actually welcome the end when I have spent my time.

[leo-rcc]

I do not fear my own death, but I do morn for not being able to interact with my loved ones and friends. Atheism doesn't sugar coat, we don't make up elaborate stories about what happens when we die. That doesn't comfort either, but I'd rather be honest than have some belief in an afterlife or reincarnation.

[Darwinian]

We've been dead for many billions of years, we then get a lucky chance to live and then after that you go back into oblivion but this time for all eternity.

That's an interesting philosophical point. If the Universe has brought you into existence once then why can't it do it again and again and again, given enough time.

In legal terms there is already a precedent so we know that it's possible.

{ thinking }

[leo-rcc]

You only made that comment so you could use that smiley didn you?

When you die and become wormfood, you could argue that some parts of you become part of those worms, and those worms get to be a part in the lifecycle of other animals and plants. The material you never completely vanishes, but I do no believe that there will ever be a Leo van Miert v2.0 (or later version if I am already a reincarnation) because I see no evidence for that.

[Darwinian]

I shocked that you think I was looking for an excuse to use a smiley { shock }

Anyway, you're right there is no evidence. Also, what is it that makes you you and not an exact copy.

My point is that what ever circumstances that have come together to make me uniquely me are not prohibited from happening again. After all, it has happened once already so why can't it happen again?

[Ace Otana]

We've been dead for many billions of years, we then get a lucky chance to live and then after that you go back into oblivion but this time for all eternity.

That's an interesting philosophical point. If the Universe has brought you into existence once then why can't it do it again and again and again, given enough time.

In legal terms there is already a precedent so we know that it's possible.

{ thinking }

I guess it's because of that fact that this person that is you who has this unique personality with it's own unique love and hate would never return. The things that make you, as in the person with this exact personality and memories couldn't possibly exist twice as the same person. You cannot extract memories of another into a new person. It's the personality and the memories that you hold that makes you unique.
How can one's personality at least be transferred into a new person? If your personality and memory cannot be transferred and is only destroyed then in a sense you are truly gone forever. Because it's the personality and memories that you carry that makes you, you. Without them, you'd just be another person.

This be why once you die you die forever. Would you carry the same name, views and such in a new life? Even if so, it would be incomplete without your memories.

[Darwinian]

This brings us back to the question of what is it that makes a person.

If you were to bang your head and loose your memory you would still presumably be the same person. A stroke etc. can cause a change in personality but does that mean a different person suddenly starts inhabiting the previous persons body?

Personally I think that there is something else, some other condition or attribute that makes a person themselves and gives them a unique sense of self awareness. Memory and personality are attributes of that self.

Identical twins can have exactly the same personality but they are still distinctly separate entities.