When I was a little girl I remember thinking eternity in heaven worshiping god was the scariest thing I could imagine! But then I thought nothingness was just as rude. So I took god out of the equation and it was no better... I still can't figure out which I would choose of I could; nothingness or never ending.
In some ways we all live on after our passing. For example, energy can neither be created or destroyed, only converted. A friend of mine died 3 times. He doesn't remember any pearly gates, or the pits of hell. Just remembers his pace maker kicking in. Last time was permanent. I think death is just like what you were before you were born. No consciousness.
I was exactly the same when I was young. I literally cried myself to sleep over this, both options seemed equally terrifying.
@pepperjones I'm afraid to say I think my youngest (now 9) is going through the same thing. A few years ago he started screaming for no reason, a terrifying, blood curdling scream from out of nowhere. When we try to comfort him, sometimes hell grip you so tight it hurts, other times he'll punch us or him. He once jumped down the stairs to me as I was coming up to him, I had to catch him half way up. He won't talk about it but he managed to tell us just that "I don't want to die". Terrifying to watch your 5/6 year old go through. He's getting counselling now at school which has helped a lot and he's learning to cope with "the feeling" on his own. I'm pretty sure it's the same thing so am content to watch him get to grips with it in his own way, us obviously being there for him when he needs it. I thinks it's just our young minds are not equipped to deal with these complex ideas.
@smoyle I'm actually going through this with my 6-year-old right now. He's not lashing out violently, but we've had several conversations where he gets visibly upset about the idea of dying.
I think feeling nothing will be simply that, like a never-ending dreamless sleep, staying aware forever sounds like a nightmare
I can't believe that we sit on a cloud and play a harp for eternity. I'm not even good on a guitar. Yet at the same time, the whole energy can neither be created or destroyed tells me that I have a petunia in my future.
People aren't energy, though. We're the result of chemical reactions. When those reactions stop being maintained in our cells, the chemicals break down or go off and do other things. Basically, our consciousness ceases, we rot, and that's that
I chose complete nothingness. It is my opinion that the prospect of death (life ending) is what makes life so valuable to begin with. Furthermore, life is struggle. The thought of living forever holds very little appeal to me.
"We do not know which is the greatest blessing, life or death. We cannot say that death is not good. We do not know whether the grave is the end of this life or the door of another, or whether the night here is not somewhere else a dawn. Neither can we tell which is the more fortunate, the child dying in its mother’s arms before its lips have learned to form a word, or he who journeys all the length of life’s uneven road, painfully taking the last slow steps with staff and crutch. ...
It may be that death gives all there is of worth to life. If those who press and strain against our hearts could never die, perhaps that love would wither from the earth. Maybe a common faith treads from out the paths between our hearts the weeds of selfishness, and I should rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love is not. Another life is naught, unless we know and love again the ones who love us here.- Robert Green Ingersoll - Oration at a Child's Grave
Sense of self as a separate individual is only an illusion as I see it. You can’t lose what you never had. It is conscious awareness itself that is worthy of immortality, but consciousness is immortal by default. That awareness is us. At that level time doesn’t exist and the question is meaningless.