What happens after death?

[Minimalist]

Learn from Jim Jeffries.

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[Whateverist]

After you die, you become an ex-parrot. That is the beginning and end of it.

I lied, after you die you start pining for the fjords.

Careful with that, they'll just nail you to a perch.

---

You can take solace in the fact death will cure your fear of death!  As someone who also is very anti-dying, I don't think there's a way around it.  In your mind exists a future in which you exist.  Death takes away that future and replaces it with nothingness.  

To be fair, it isn't quite nothingness.  Anyone living two hundred years may have felt the same way about it and yet here we are putting the lie to that idea.  Look at us.  Life is going on and will again without us.  There is plenty to go around so enjoy the party.

[Neo-Scholastic]

What will happen after I die? I'm pretty sure someone will bury me.

[ignoramus]

When I die there'll be a state funeral for sure, broadcast nationally...

(sorry, wrong thread, I thought I was in the joke time thread)

[Sal]

Nothing happens. "You" will cease to exist, so you won't be around to experience anything, neither the void or anything.

I had such an interval where I lost some 6-7 hours of time when I was operated on. All I remember was that I lay on the operating table and was administered the narcosis drug and then POOF, I'm suddenly laying in the recovery room and I notice that several hours had past from the time difference in the clock on the wall in the room. That's how I imagine being dead will be like, an instant that will last forever.

[emjay]

@OP. From an atheist point of view, the void/nothingness/oblivion... whatever you want to call it, is not a place to be... not like sitting in a dark room for eternity... because to be is to experience; which would therefore be an afterlife. It's the absence of experience, which is what makes it so hard to get our heads around; we are trying to imagine what it's like not to be able to imagine... which is impossible. The only way we can talk about what it's 'like' is from an outside, third-person perspective... ie like before you were born or like being asleep when not dreaming... but we cannot talk about what it's like from a first-person, experiencing, point of view because that is a contradiction in terms, because it's the absence of experience; so there is nothing that it is 'like' to not experience.. it's an impossible task to imagine that.

[Fishkiss]

Hello,

I'm going through therapy to help me cope with my thanatophobia (fear of death). I'm terrified of hospitals, doctors, sharp things, guns, gore. I'm constantly living in fear. I'm in sophomore high, and I'm taking a Health II class. I live with 3 smokers that smoke in the house, and now I'm afraid to get lung cancer because a book told me I could. The likelihood is really low because I avoid the smoke, but I can't help it. People tell me to believe in that God will be there for me, and everything will be okay. There's a part of me that is so terrified of this idea of the 'void,' and the so-called 'nothingness,' that it's tearing me apart and I don't know what to do about it.

I want to believe in life after death, but there's no evidence. I want to believe in heaven, but there's no evidence. Maybe I just need someone to talk to. I'm new to this forum, and a friend would be really great right now. 

Thank you!

You can take solace in the fact death will cure your fear of death!  As someone who also is very anti-dying, I don't think there's a way around it.  In your mind exists a future in which you exist.  Death takes away that future and replaces it with nothingness.  It's scary and sad.  But it's also inevitable.  Enjoy life while you can, and cross your fingers maybe you'll get a good 80 years.   

I think acceptance and trying not to dwell on it are as good as it gets.  Maybe an air purifier in your room?  Do those work on smoke?

Yes I recently bought an air purifier! I think its helping, and thank goodness I'm moving out in a week! I'll still have to visit every other weekend, but it'll help. I'm moving with my dad and he doesn't smoke, and I'm very excited. I've only really lived here for 4 years, and the house isn't exactly a poker room. You can see inside, but I can smell it on my clothes and the ceilings are light brown. They've lived in this house for 50+ years, and I don't think they're going to stop smoking in it, unfortunately. I'm very lucky to be moving!

Thank you for your kind words. I'm trying hard to accept death and live peacefully.

[Edwardo Piet]

After death is identical experientially to before birth.

[Fishkiss]

@OP. From an atheist point of view, the void/nothingness/oblivion... whatever you want to call it, is not a place to be... not like sitting in a dark room for eternity... because to be is to experience; which would therefore be an afterlife. It's the absence of experience, which is what makes it so hard to get our heads around; we are trying to imagine what it's like not to be able to imagine... which is impossible. The only way we can talk about what it's 'like' is from an outside, third-person perspective... ie like before you were born or like being asleep when not dreaming... but we cannot talk about what it's like from a first-person, experiencing, point of view because that is a contradiction in terms, because it's the absence of experience; so there is nothing that it is 'like' to not experience.. it's an impossible task to imagine that.

For some reason, this helped me a lot. Thank you.

---

I lied, after you die you start pining for the fjords.

Careful with that, they'll just nail you to a perch.

---

You can take solace in the fact death will cure your fear of death!  As someone who also is very anti-dying, I don't think there's a way around it.  In your mind exists a future in which you exist.  Death takes away that future and replaces it with nothingness.  

To be fair, it isn't quite nothingness.  Anyone living two hundred years may have felt the same way about it and yet here we are putting the lie to that idea.  Look at us.  Life is going on and will again without us.  There is plenty to go around so enjoy the party.

I think that wallym meant that death takes away the future of the individual that dies. Not all life ever to exist.

[emjay]

@OP. From an atheist point of view, the void/nothingness/oblivion... whatever you want to call it, is not a place to be... not like sitting in a dark room for eternity... because to be is to experience; which would therefore be an afterlife. It's the absence of experience, which is what makes it so hard to get our heads around; we are trying to imagine what it's like not to be able to imagine... which is impossible. The only way we can talk about what it's 'like' is from an outside, third-person perspective... ie like before you were born or like being asleep when not dreaming... but we cannot talk about what it's like from a first-person, experiencing, point of view because that is a contradiction in terms, because it's the absence of experience; so there is nothing that it is 'like' to not experience.. it's an impossible task to imagine that.

For some reason, this helped me a lot. Thank you.

You're welcome I hoped it would... because that seemed to be the sticking point for you; imagining oblivion to be a actual place to be/experience, which it couldn't be without being an afterlife.