In 5 to 7 billion years "our star will grow to be larger than we can imagine — so large that it'll envelope the inner planets, including Earth. That's when the sun will become a red giant." (space.com). Many years ago, the hardest obstacle for me in rejecting the idea of a God or gods, and eternal life, was an emotional reaction to accepting there would be no heaven. The idea of being with loved ones after we die was an emotional issue, a 'desire' that this could be our future. Of course, this was decades ago that I felt this way but once accepting that I didn't believe in a cosmic creator it took a while to take the final step and believe that we have just the one life. When people no longer exist, and when the sun does obliterate earth, we will become 'star dust' and become part of the universe. I find this poetic and much saner and beautiful than the image indoctrinated in us that there is a heaven with angels and harps, streets of gold, milk and honey, and a creator who loves us. What was your own personal hurdle to overcome to get to a place of calmness and acceptance?
Accepting other people’s choices, even when they seem ill informed and have total lack of foresight.
But no one knows everything and there are certainly those around that teach me a thing of 2. So in conclusion keeping perspective!
When I was a child, god wasn't as big of a supernatural entity as Santa Claus. The naughty vs nice moral code had a tangible near term consequence in the form of less presents for Christmas so he was the man. When I found out Santa wasn't real then god dogma was mostly dismissed except for the afterlife and origin of the universe concepts. My thoughts on afterlife shifted to a quantum multiverse MWI (Many Worlds Interpretation) solution as my education grew. My thoughts on origin lean toward natural cause but ultimately I don't know and I'm good with it.
You forgot to mention that increasing solar luminosity means carbon fixation will drop below the level needed for photosynthesis in about 500 million years ending the food chain and that next Thursday fortnight or in a thousand years the planet is in danger of being destroyed through nuclear war.
In a few trillion years the entire universe is expected to be dead. We'll finally be rid of Scientologists no matter where they exist in space.
Hell, I can't even imagine "5 to 7 billion years"!!!
As Carl Sagan himself put it we already are star stuff. We always were. It took supernovas of the earliest stars to create a lot of the heavier elements. We are just borrowing the matter for a while and giving it our own unique order. Even if we escape the solar system before the sun fries the earth, we will still long pursue a search for meaning. I don't really see an end to our striving, and if we do come to a point where our existence will no longer be creative, maybe then we will let ourselves fade away. Right now, there's a dizzyingly long future ahead, and we may stick around far longer than we would ever dream.
The idea of eternal consciousness was one of the first things I gagged at as a child.
The very idea has always been horrifying to me.
I was brought up Catholic but I can actually say I never really gave it much thought, couldn't buy into the life after death thing guess I read to much when I was young but I did like the Crosby Stills and Nash at Woodstock, we are stardust we are golden.
For me, peace came when I realized that there is no afterlife. There is no better explanation than that. Doubt went away, guilt went away, loved ones lived on in memories. And that angst from searching for answers unlikely to be found in my lifetime, simply evaporated. Life is too short...
Raised on evangelical fear of hell, I left the paradigm in three or four steps between the ages of 17 and 20.
First, I recognized the hypocrisy of Christians, so rejected church authority.
Second, I read the Bible completely (honestly I fell asleep in the Book of Numbers); I eventually saw the errors, contradictions, and moral bankruptcy of this hodgepodge of disparate sheep herder writings.
Third, I realized my concept of God had been based on church teachings and Bible stories, so I was able to reject that depiction as based on a demonstrably flawed foundation.
The final and hardest hurdle for me was the fear of punishment if it turned out I had it wrong.
What gave me peace was realizing that God cannot be the all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful creator of all and yet still be so cruel and petty as to toy with his hapless creations. If we are to be condemned to eternal torment for the "sin" of intellectual honesty, then God is a sadist. Pretending to believe is pointless if he knows all and sees through our pretence. If, on the other hand, god is a real, sentient being but detached, like the Swiss watchermaker, creating physics, then letting it run its course, then he ignores our beliefs, actions, and prayers. (Side note: intercessory prayer means God needs us to guide him. Some kinda dense god, if you ask me.) Either way, if lying is a sin, our only viable choice is to be intellectually honest with ourselves. The wrathful, vengeful, micromanaging god ready to hurl us into Hell is the epitome of the oxymoron that disproves itself.
There. Peace attained.
When I was talking to her, my sister would keep telling me that if I didn't believe, I was going to hell. I would always reply that I would rather be in hell then with all the hypocritic and hateful christians that I keep meeting.
@kiramea yeah, I have heard that warning/threat countless times. It speaks to the fear that rules Christians, despite all their insistence that it brings them peace. It is also fundamentally dishonest to "believe" to escape punishment. To consider the evidence, see that it does not add up, but then "believe" to appease Gawd is to believe you can trick the supposedly omniscient Almighty. It's just a stupid failure to think that one through.
In the massively unlikely event that were all wrong and he/she/it actually exists, I'm sure we'll all be given access to a VIP lounge with free drinks and a first class view of the fire pit. That's what I'd do if I was in charge anyway.
First we have to honestly say we don't know if their is any afterlife or god. I left christianity when I was 15 yo, I left because I read the bible from cover to cover. I became a pagan, there was no hell or crazy bipolar god. Was a pagan for about 25 years before I became an agnostic. It took me about five years to become an atheist. You have to learn to let go of god, the guilt of sin, and the fear of hell.