Death

[athoughtfulman]

@thoughtful

I accept what you say is true for you. I suspect our life experiences vary a bit.

My opinions are true for me.


How old are you? If over 50, I congratulate you. If a lot under 50,perhaps print off your posts and revisit them in 10-20 years..

What about the empathy of feeling bad for other members of your family feeling bad? Or friends?

If only one person was 'selfishly' feeling grief then all the other members of family and/or friends could selfLESSly feel for them right?

And...surely you feel bad that the person dying is not going to be able to experience life anymore?

Of course it won't be remotely BAD for them afterwards....but they will miss out on life....

No need to fear death because after you've died there's nothing to fear!

But on the case of a loved one...its sad to think that they won't be able to experience life anymore....not only will you miss seeing them...but you will feel bad that they won't be able to continue life I can imagine...

And you'd rather a loved one carried on living without you having ANY contact with them whatsoever than them no longer live right? So its not just about yourself is it, I think? Because I would rather my family members, loved ones and friends were alive but I never had any more contact with them than for them to just not exist any more! Even if it was painless.

EvF

Life is a little bit like that. As much as life may seem to be objective, and as much as we think we are smarter than religious people, we seem to be all victims of our life experience. Or to put it better, we are products of our past, with little choice as to what we think or believe. But whether that is the case or not, I will think as I do and follow my conclusions to their end.

I'm only 19. Not sure on the average ages of this forum, but I find myself generally a lone person my age with these thoughts. Sure, I've got plenty of friends, but no one who shares a passion to talk about these things. And I'm already doing what you've said about printing them off. I've got journals and articles I've written about these things, since I've left the church and since when I've been in the church.

The funny thing is, most people assume me to be fairly naive and bias since I'm young. Maybe so. But when I was in church, I was the golden child - I preached once or twice, and everyone thought I'd be the next great pastor, etc. Despite a lot of people my age trying to think about these things, I find they don't know enough. I believe that Christianity is defendable to a certain extent. There are some good cases to be made, and I do respect some Christians, believe it or not. Though I do not believe anymore myself, I can understand why people do believe. And I believe that the only way to make a good defence of your own beliefs is to understand another's.

Evidence - I know exactly what you mean. Grief can be selfish, granted. It is focused on the person feeling it, and what they are missing out on. It seems to be entirely one sided and that the person only cares that they are missing the company of that person.

But on the same point, grief is a feeling given freely to another. Let's not let religion keep all those nice sentimental feelings to themselves. Just because we don't believe in god, doesn't mean we don't have to care about another human being.

Sure we care for ourselves and our own wellbeing. But when anyone leaves us, we feel for us AND we feel for them. They've gone, to somewhere, to nothingness. And we feel bad for us, for we no longer have their company, and for the fact that they're not living anymore. They can't hear their kids laugh again, their wife smile or whatever priceless human feeling.

Some might say it's all meaningless without god, but I beg to differ. And if we ever accept their view, then we have been defeated.