08-31-2010, 11:01 AM
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#1
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New Member!
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 20
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Just what happens when you die?
With Hitchens getting cancer and all those people seeing if he'd pray at the end of his life, it got me thinking. Just what happens to you if and when you die? I think that egoistic as I am, I'd be devastated if I'm reduced to nothingness. Not a soul. I guess that's why people are holding on to religion, because it offers them the chance to think they are going to be something after death.
(Without religion) We would only stand to lose the most inhumane and discordant of human behaviour.
--- Gareth Wilson, The Plain Truths of Religion
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08-31-2010, 11:05 AM
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#2
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General of the Attacking Army
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 12,904
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Sorry man. Nothingness for teh win.
I will grieve. Grief is not a theistic concept. ~ Sternwallow
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08-31-2010, 11:18 AM
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#3
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I Live Here
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Around the way
Posts: 12,641
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Quote:
BungledDoctrine wrote
With Hitchens getting cancer and all those people seeing if he'd pray at the end of his life, it got me thinking. Just what happens to you if and when you die?
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Ain't no "ifs" about it; you gonna die, eventually. It's inevitable that all living organisms eventually die. It is our final duty. What happens after we do die? If we are still conscious up to the moment that the bulk of our vital organs cease working, we lose consciousness. Permanently. Then, physically, our bodies proceed to decompose.
Quote:
BungledDoctrine wrote
I think that egoistic as I am, I'd be devastated if I'm reduced to nothingness.
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Physically, you might be devastated. But mentally, you'd be eternally oblivious of your physical condition.
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BungledDoctrine wrote
Not a soul.
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What's a soul?
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BungledDoctrine wrote
I guess that's why people are holding on to religion, because it offers them the chance to think they are going to be something after death.
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Yeah. That "something" is not dead.
"So many gods, so many creeds! So many paths that wind and wind, when just the art of being kind is all this sad world needs."
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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08-31-2010, 12:17 PM
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#4
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Obsessed Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 4,260
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Quote:
BungledDoctrine wrote
Just what happens to you if and when you die?
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On an individual basis, we can never know because we only die once. Based on our understanding of the physical universe, the machine that is you stops working, and "you" cease to exist.
Quote:
BD wrote
I think that egoistic as I am, I'd be devastated if I'm reduced to nothingness. Not a soul. I guess that's why people are holding on to religion, because it offers them the chance to think they are going to be something after death.
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Yeah, religion seems to basically be a collective, "but I can't die!?".
"When science was in its infancy, religion tried to strangle it in its cradle." - Robert G. Ingersoll
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08-31-2010, 12:30 PM
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#5
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General of the Attacking Army
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 12,904
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Quote:
Victus wrote
Yeah, religion seems to basically be a collective, "but I can't die!?".
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I think it's equal parts, "but I can't die!?" and "but DAD can't die!? He's...he's u...up in the sky. Yeah, he's up in the sky, watching down on us, and he's happy, and he...
Ricky Gervais sums it up nicely.
I will grieve. Grief is not a theistic concept. ~ Sternwallow
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08-31-2010, 12:54 PM
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#6
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Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: London/Cambridge
Posts: 982
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And in a way, isn't it comforting to know that the enduring biological parts of you are returned to the earth and indirectly contribute towards the growth of further life.
That's why coffins and cremation are really pretty selfish. One packages all your nutrients and biological compounds up in a wooden box away from the soil, and the other incinerates everything past the point of immediate utility.
Admittedly, over the longer course of time, you will eventually return entirely to the resources of the ecosystem. But the whole idea of trying to preserve the body in any way is completely unnatural.
EDIT: usefulness > utility
"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others." - Douglas Adams
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08-31-2010, 01:28 PM
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#7
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Stinkin' Mod
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Britland
Posts: 13,616
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Quote:
BungledDoctrine wrote
Just what happens to you if and when you die?
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There's no 'if' about it!
The answer is:
Stop the Holy See men!
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08-31-2010, 03:07 PM
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#8
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Obsessed Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,328
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Is it just me or is anyone else not afraid of dying. Don't get me wrong I have a strong sense of self-preservation. But will dying really be THAT bad. THINK ABOUT IT: Not having to talk, pay bills, or even think, for that matter. I will definitely miss going out for ice cream, playing ball with the guys, and reading my books. Who really wants to live on this planet forever. After 200 years, I'd become very bored. Not to mention, my physical state would be that of a rotting vegetable. I don't know, maybe it's just me. I think humans are the only organisms that worry so much about dying.
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08-31-2010, 03:12 PM
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#9
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I Live Here
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 23,211
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Quote:
Smellyoldgit wrote
There's no 'if' about it!
The answer is:
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Wow!! The answer is Allah? Imagine!!
"Those who most loudly proclaim their honesty are least likely to possess it."
"Atheism: rejecting all absurdity." S.H.
"Reality, the God alternative"
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08-31-2010, 03:20 PM
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#10
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Obsessed Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,328
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Wait a minute...Are you inferring that Allah is often depicted as black?
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08-31-2010, 03:45 PM
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#11
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I Live Here
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 23,211
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Quote:
West491 wrote
Is it just me or is anyone else not afraid of dying.
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Fear of death IMV is fear of the unknown. Having a few brushes with death is educational and can dispel much of that primal fear. It also helps to read a decent philosopher or two who remind us that being dead is just as comfortable and undemanding as not yet being born.
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Don't get me wrong I have a strong sense of self-preservation. But will dying really be THAT bad. THINK ABOUT IT: Not having to talk, pay bills, or even think, for that matter. I will definitely miss going out for ice cream, playing ball with the guys, and reading my books.
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Something that makes death a little more palatable is that you won't miss anything, you won't regret anything, you will not feel guilty about anything and you will not be disappointed about anything. That knowledge shows us that it is an unnecessary projection to imagine missing ice cream in the future rather than having some right now while you can enjoy it..
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Who really wants to live on this planet forever. After 200 years, I'd become very bored. Not to mention, my physical state would be that of a rotting vegetable.
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You nailed it, How welcome death is is a simple matter of quality of life. As long as you are mentally sharp and physically vigorous you can enjoy the endless pursuit of knowledge and there are always new people to get to know, new experiences.
It would take several lifetimes to do justice just to the British Museum or the Grand Canyon or the Library of Congress (if you want a few good laughs).
Many people misconstrue "immortality" as a prison sentence in which one is doomed to roam the barren and hideous Earth for eternity. The "immortality" I would opt for is one where I could be healthy in mind and body (some improvements will have to be made before this works) and could die anytime I pleased, but not before.
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I don't know, maybe it's just me. I think humans are the only organisms that worry so much about dying.
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It is not just you. It is the human imagination and sense of self that has both granted us the run of the planet and saddened us by visualizing our future.
Now that you are a card-carrying atheist, you can permit yourself to enjoy to the maximum the precious few moments you have been allotted in this only life you have. So, get out there and do the traditional and naturally generous, compassionate and charitable atheist thing; be nice to people.
It is fun for an atheist to do the right thing and confuse the Hell out of those already badly confused Christians.
"Those who most loudly proclaim their honesty are least likely to possess it."
"Atheism: rejecting all absurdity." S.H.
"Reality, the God alternative"
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08-31-2010, 05:08 PM
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#12
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I Live Here
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 23,211
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Quote:
West491 wrote
Wait a minute...Are you inferring that Allah is often depicted as black?
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No, only that Allah is depicted as nothing. Being invisible, Allah (MNQB) completely fills an empty frame.
"Those who most loudly proclaim their honesty are least likely to possess it."
"Atheism: rejecting all absurdity." S.H.
"Reality, the God alternative"
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08-31-2010, 05:45 PM
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#13
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 253
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Where do all the calculators go when they die?
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08-31-2010, 06:09 PM
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#14
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Obsessed Member
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 1,328
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Quote:
Where do all the calculators go when they die?
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To the last digit in "pi", now that's eternal afterlife.
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08-31-2010, 06:09 PM
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#15
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I Live Here
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 20,925
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Quote:
assilem wrote
Where do all the calculators go when they die?
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Calculators never die; they just lose some of their functions. After death, they are reduced to their lowest common denominator, a fraction of the sum of what they were in life - nothing, and nothing is better than eternal bliss in a leprechaun afterlife.
"Suffer the calculators to come unto me. This day they will sit at my right hand side and dine on pi for eternity." ~Maggie O'Toole, Leprechaun demigoddess
The Leprechauns do not forbid the drawing of Their images, as long as we color within the lines. ~ Ghoulslime H Christ, Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Masturbator
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