How I deal with no afterlife

[Edwardo Piet]

I deal with "no afterlife" by never even fucking thinking about the possibility of there being one unless it's mentioned. I'm too busy living.

[brewer]

OP, appears that in some way you want to be immortal or maybe immortalized. Plus you don't want decay.

Well, halting the decay part is easy. Cryogenic storage. It's far fetched but some day in the distant future they might be able to thaw you out and bring back life. Or at least down load you into a machine. This might make you immortal as well. The pessimist part of me says they will take your money, fake the storage, and you will still rot. Try not to think of this as you write the check. 

The immortal/immortalized will take some work and you may not have it in you. Google "immortalized people" and emulate what they did. You'll get to live on in memories. But keep it real, no fantasy delusion bullshit. 

If I remember right, you are also the NDE guy. Don't try to look there. Just ask David Carradine.

[SuperMarioGamer]

It's not about life, it is about me as a human being.

No, it is about life.  There are many people that don't have the luxury to complain about the afterlife because they're too busy just trying to survive this one.  

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Yet here you sit whining that yours doesn't go on forever.

I apologize if I came across as whiny.  I wasn't trying to.  The point I was trying to make was that it is us as human beings who are important over life itself.  It is about us and not life itself.  Life alone in of itself is nothing more than material, but it is we as human beings who give it meaning in the first place. 

So, in my personal view, we as human beings are important here. So it is us living forever and forever being happy is what is important here and not anything else. Life without us wouldn't be anything. Without our existence to attribute joy and meaning to it, then it would be nothing more than an isolated materialistic universe devoid of all joy and meaning.

The other point I was trying to make was that it doesn't matter how much I focus on the good in this one and only life, my ability to cherish this life is always being hindered by the idea that I will just forever decay one day when I die.  That always gets to me no matter how much I focus on the good things.

If I had the ability to not feel insulted and demeaned by the idea that I will forever die one day and yet I still continued to fret, then, yes, I would be whining.  But the reason why I continue to talk about it anyway is not because I am whining, but because I absolutely cannot remain optimistic in the face of my mortality.

[Qwraith]

So, animals don't experience joy?

"my ability to cherish this life is always being hindered by the idea that I will just forever decay one day when I die."

This bit doesn't seem sensible to me. In order to cherish something, it must necessarily be temporary. We cherish things when there is a prospect of losing those things. Perhaps you rather meant "enjoy"? Though if that's the case, then do you just walk around aimlessly proclaiming, "Oh, woe is me! Woe is me! How fleeting this life can be!"? If so, I'll just hearken back to Expired's post, "The way to deal with no afterlife is to realise that you had no beforelife", which ultimately derives from Mark Twain; “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

Don't allow unknown outcomes to rule your life. Enjoy it while you still can.

You don't seem to be interested in much of an afterlife, but more of immortality, which I can grok with. Immortality in this life, from a modern perspective, would be nice, but I don't see how immortality in some other form of life is appealing at all.

[SuperMarioGamer]

So, animals don't experience joy?

"my ability to cherish this life is always being hindered by the idea that I will just forever decay one day when I die."

This bit doesn't seem sensible to me. In order to cherish something, it must necessarily be temporary. We cherish things when there is a prospect of losing those things. Perhaps you rather meant "enjoy"? Though if that's the case, then do you just walk around aimlessly proclaiming, "Oh, woe is me! Woe is me! How fleeting this life can be!"?  If so, I'll just hearken back to Expired's post, "The way to deal with no afterlife is to realise that you had no beforelife", which ultimately derives from Mark Twain; “I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

Don't allow unknown outcomes to rule your life. Enjoy it while you still can.

You don't seem to be interested in much of an afterlife, but more of immortality, which I can grok with. Immortality in this life, from a modern perspective, would be nice, but I don't see how immortality in some other form of life is appealing at all.

I am a narcissist sociopath which means that the only thing that matters to me is me being happy, getting what I want, and living forever with no misery and no suffering in my life.  It would be a life all meant for me to be happy and enjoy.  I wouldn't have to worry about any problems at all if such a life were real.

[Qwraith]

Of course it's fine to want for your own happiness. Even solely for your own happiness. But how would you recognize happiness without sadness, pleasure without pain? I'd like to live forever too, but to be constantly happy with a big smile on my face?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZplzRg6ZP4

[SuperMarioGamer]

Of course it's fine to want for your own happiness. Even solely for your own happiness. But how would you recognize happiness without sadness, pleasure without pain? I'd like to live forever too, but to be constantly happy with a big smile on my face?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZplzRg6ZP4

The only amount of suffering I would have in my life would be the amount that is necessary for me to recognize happiness.  Other than that, suffering and misery have no value to me and such an experience takes my life away from me.  So I would choose to have a happy life since my feelings of happiness are the only experiences that fill my life with joy and meaning.

[Macoleco]

Of course it's fine to want for your own happiness. Even solely for your own happiness. But how would you recognize happiness without sadness, pleasure without pain? I'd like to live forever too, but to be constantly happy with a big smile on my face?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZplzRg6ZP4

The only amount of suffering I would have in my life would be the amount that is necessary for me to recognize happiness.  Other than that, suffering and misery have no value to me and such an experience takes my life away from me.  So I would choose to have a happy life since my feelings of happiness are the only experiences that fill my life with joy and meaning.

You talk this way but you are human. Not a robot. You cant program yourself to be happy all day while considering yourself a piece of shit.

[comet]

If I am special and have value as a human being, that creates a major conflict for me.  This conflict would be that for such a special and valuable person as myself to just forever rot and decay away would be the greatest insult to my value and specialness as a human being.

It would be utterly demeaning of my value and specialness.  It would be just tossing me away like trash.  So in order to resolve this conflict, I would have to deem myself as nothing special at all and of no value.  However, if I am immortal and do get to live forever in heaven, then there would be no conflict.

So, in short, if there is a heaven for me to live forever in, then I would deem myself as valuable and special since that conflict would not exist.  But if there is no afterlife, then I would just view myself as a piece of shit who might as well just die anyway.

This would also apply to the relationship I have with my own family and how I view other human beings.

you are going to extremes and thinking black/white.  Its not all or nothing.  Thinking like you are is flawed thinking.  Maybe take a personality test or something to understand yourself better.

The happiness I have with my kids during a "tickle attack" send ripples of joy in our region of space.  It aint much, but its all I got.

[comet]

The only amount of suffering I would have in my life would be the amount that is necessary for me to recognize happiness.  Other than that, suffering and misery have no value to me and such an experience takes my life away from me.  So I would choose to have a happy life since my feelings of happiness are the only experiences that fill my life with joy and meaning.

You talk this way but you are human. Not a robot. You cant program yourself to be happy all day while considering yourself a piece of shit.

yup.

I grew up being called lazy and stupid.  
I wonder what that adult thinks of himself these days?