Quote:What do you think about death? Is it really inevitable? Do you think we'll ever surpass it? Do you think, maybe, it will happen during your lifetime[no pun intended]?
It is appointed to every man once to die. :
I don't think we will surpass it but if we did I think there would be some serious implications. Quote:Would you choose to live forever, provided you stay (or get) young and carefree and everyone you know does too? Would you like to live throughout the millenia? What would you do with your eternity?
I don't' think I would want to live forever. I wouldn't mind having a couple different lives. Like reincarnation, well as long as I could pick the life. Ha!
Quote:If you don't think that we'll ever surpass death[either by scientific means or in a religious mumbo jumbo way like reincarnation and heaven/hell], then how do you cope with the thought of it? How does it all make sense to you when[and if] you know that not even transmision of genes and memes is liable to withstand time[meaning that those same genes and memes will die one at a time, at least altogether with the minds that receive them]?
A modern concept of ‘soul’ equates it with the conscious mind but this is equally flawed, for when the body dies the conscious mind, being dependent on the brain, also ceases to exist. This mind/soul concept has the problem of the mind development, for death can occur in every stage from initial fertilization to full physical and mental maturity; so ‘souls’ must be conceived as forever developing or forever remaining in an immature state.
Anyone weighing the evidence has no trouble in discarding the notion of the everlasting soul and accepting that death is the natural end to every human life.
By accepting that life is only for a finite period, short or long, I am confronted by the matter of how best to spend the available time and therefore, if suitably informed, will most likely spend the time worthy of a human person.
It would be difficult to imagine a more useless waste of time than that spent in the worship of an imaginary god or preparing for a non-existent everlasting life in some mythical supernatural realm of eternal bliss.
I deal with death by accepting it will happen. But it's also only a concept of the living. Death is not a concept to the dead because once you're gone, that's it. Since my deconversion I have found Mark Twain's quote to be very enticing: "I do not fear death, for I had been dead for billions of years before I was born and not suffered the slightest inconvenience of it."
**Crickets** -- God
