Nothingness

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I read this recent quote from Matt Dillahunty:

"It's not about getting used to the idea of there being nothingness, that's the scary thing, because people get it in their head, if there is no afterlife then when they die they will experience nothingness forever, and they don't know what that means, because it's nonsense. You won't be experiencing anything; there will be no you to experience."

Mark Twain had a similar view:

“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.”

Thoughts? How do you think of existing and then nonexistence?

 

[Lydia]

It’s fucking terrifying!

I can understand not existing - logically, it’s not a problem. Normal, reasonable, nothing to worry about, maybe even good. Emotionally, though, I’m really horrified by the fact my entire reality will, at some undetermined time, just be snuffed out. Everything I know and understand about the world - all of the people, all of the events, all of the feelings - I’ve experienced through this brain and consciousness. When it goes, the entire world ends. At least for me.

That so strange.

Anyway, I realize that all sounds very dramatic and self-centered, lol. Sorry!

 

[MellowYellow]

Oh, man, for real... this idea sometimes worms into my head and refuses to leave.

If there is no afterlife, if there isn't anything then... well it's impossible to really consider the idea of just not existing.

Like how can you simply not exist? It's genuinely unsettling to dwell on for me.

 

[Sync]

I don't fear death. Some days, in fact, I wish it'd come and get me. >.>

What does bother me, though, is what lies beyond it. After all, we're suddenly going to be without the awareness and input that we've been living with for our entire lives. What happens then? Do we go on in some higher form that is outside the grasp of our mortal sensibilities, or is that it?

It's the unknown of after that troubles me a little.

 

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I am not bothered by the idea of nothingness after. After all, it's like Twain said, I have no experience of a time before, so, the after, the lack of existence, will be the same. I won't be agonizing IN nothingness, because there will be no "me". I find the end of everything comforting. That for all the good, the bad, the pleasures and the struggles in this life, there will be a time when for me, it all stops...and there's nothing else.

 

[Occam's Razor]

I welcome it!

Not that I don't want to live as long as possible, but the thought of non-existence doesn't worry me or prey on my mind in the slightest. Being a strong atheist, existence one second and non-existence the next is what I expect. There's no cognitive or emotional conflict or illogical juxtaposition for me in jumping between the thought/reality of both.

While not being scared or fearful of death, I'm not real keen on experiencing the process of dying itself, as that can be very cruel. Hopefully, when my time comes, I'll just pass peacefully into nothingness in my sleep.

 

[Sync]

Hopefully, when my time comes, I'll just pass peacefully into nothingness in my sleep.

While it might sound unkind, I like to think my dad did it right when he died a few years ago: he had a stroke, was unconscious by the time he arrived at hospital, never woke up and died a couple of days later from bleeding in the brain. So he had no idea he was going.

 

[Praxis]

I feel like I'm one of the few who doesn't fear death. Nothingness, likewise, is not a terrifying concept to me. I remember reading that Twain quote once upon, and feeling a lot of relief and comfort from it.

What happens after you die? I dunno, what happened before you were born. You had not the capacity to perceive it, so who cares?

Everything dies; the nice guys, the assholes, the never-do-wells, the slackers and the kings. I take a huge amount of comfort in that, personally.

 

[Mitsu]

I don't fear death. I've been on the border there and have been in real danger of just suddenly dropping dead. I always wondered how I would feel about it, and when I got to those points, it didn't bother me in the slightest.

It's less about fearing death, but rather fearing how I die. The idea of being stuck in a tube somewhere, like in a sewer or something, or stuck in a crawl space that caves in on me... those things are scary. However, death itself is not scary to me.

 

[whitechapel]

I'm afraid of death.

It's something I've struggled with and worked on for pretty much my entire life. The inevitably and finality of it bothers my lizard brain on some weird base level. I also think part of it is brought on by my religious upbringing. While I fall between atheist and agnostic these days, I was raised in a very Christian household. I believe that, in all likelihood, there's nothingness after death. However, there is always that little voice in the back of my head whispering, "What if you're wrong? What if there's a heaven and a hell and you're bound for the latter?"

I imagine this is hardly a unique anxiety, but so it goes. Nothingness, as a concept, isn't all that bothersome. If it's nothing, it's not like I'll actually be experiencing it.

 

[Mustang]

I fear getting old and decrepit possibly losing my mental faculties more than death to be honest. I think growing old is over rated in some respects, especially if you will be alone in the world. Possibly different if you have loving family, grand kids etc around to watch over you. I saw both my grandparents have strokes and to be honest they were as good as dead.

Spiritually speaking I am kind of on the fence. Is there just nothingness? If so than death really doesn't matter. We can't comprehend nothingness that is the problem. It is like trying to imagine what it is like to be blind. Blind people do not "see" anything but we imagine it as darkness because we have no idea of what it is like to see "nothing".

 

[RedRose]

It's why I can't consider it. I do think I fear getting old "badly" worse than death which isn't long (the transition).

 

[Arclight1988]

Three Days Grace - Pain has a line about this, seriously one of the reasons my character that is at the god slaying levels power is to mold the void into a weapon is because of the fear of nothing.

If you think about it many people even those who have committed deeds that would place then squarely in Hell spirituality would rather believe in eternal suffering than the chance, after this is nothing.

For a person like me Heaven would be reincarnation being able to experience the world a new from different eyes, different being is a blessing when my depression does not take me. Though there is some comfort in the idea of nothing, it makes the restraint of human life foolish. Regrets of not asking someone out, pushing for a promotion, and taking greater risks for the chance at reward that much more burdensome.

 

[Light-Fox]

The concept of ceasing to exist doesn't bother me in the slightest.