Atheist , how does one contemplate eternity?

Question

I can't accept oversimplified, fairy tale answers from the religious community, but I must confess that I can't immagine a death without end.
I'm sure that I can muster the courage to face death; --but death for umpteen trillion years plus,--just scares the hell out of me.
Has any atheist worked out any comforting thoughts about this?
I would like to hear your views.
Bible thumpers need not repply.

helio462---sounds right, but you need your concious mind to form these thoughts.
After you're dead, the sad part is that those comforting thoughts will also be gone.

Hazel--How do I identify my particular mass of electricity so I can soothe it thru eternity?

Derik J.---The thing is, the sadness waits in the wings for the awareness that you now enjoy.

Hazel---Sounds like you pity me, but won't your electricity be floating out there next to mine?

Amanda--I find no arguement w/ what you say, I know these thoughts will no longer exist; but the thought of nothingness (if that's a word) is a little depressing in the here and now.

REVES297---I don't expect to have ANY thoughts after I'm dead, but it seems like such a shame that all my good memories will be erased,( as will yours), and I think we should not pretend that we can't recognize that it's at least slightly depressing.

Man from Utopia---If you never tasted chocolate, you will not miss it.
But Mark Twain's life, like ours is something we DID experience, and we do not like to anticipate it's loss when we think about it here and now.

KNOW-it -a---I'm not depressed about the nothingness in the future, (like you say, I wont know it anyway), I only regret the loss of the memory of all that great life I had.

Derek J--After we die I'm sure we wont have a concious mind that we'll have to soothe, but I wouldn't mind a little soothing of my mind now for the loss I know is coming.

STARONE---I'm not sure that I can put too much trust in the claims of people who were in a state where their conciousness was altered by some traumatic experience.

Being able to accept death as not necessarily unpleasant , doesn't address
the denial of the regret that we have at not being able to live again.
Even if you convince yourself that death is some long extended 'happy hour', the dreary prospect of never returning to life remains in the here and now.

STARONE---Yes I believe the mind might still function in a limited way after the heart and brain loose all signs of being functional. However, we don't know that what this changed mind percieves as real is any more reliable to guide the owner's behavior than a mere dream.

But now this discussion is entering the mysticl place that I have already rejected.

But now this discussion is entering the mystical level that I have already rejected.

ALI G--- I really don't have that much to "get over". I am not ( as you seem to imply) torn apart by a simple puzzling thought.
I'm sure you're a very tuff guy, but can't you admit to the slightest doubt about any of your perceptions?

HAZEL--- I sure hope you're right,--sounds good.

You really ' shock' me with all those volts you're throwing around.

Helio462---Why should we strive for "value and meaning to our life", if all memory of it will be erased?---Not only for us but, eventually, for all who knew us.

I know it's silly,but life forever doesn't sound good; but I hope that death 'forever' will not really be forever.

Answer 1

Well, I'm not a bible thumper, but I am a Priestess. The closest thing I can give you is a scientific answer. Will that help?
Science has proven that our bodies function off of electric currents sent from our brains to the rest of our body. In fact this electric spark runs throughout all living things. A basic scientific fact (I read in one of Stephen Hawking's book) states that electricity can neither be created nor destroyed. It merely moves from one state to the next.
When the electric current leaves our body, our body ceases to function. However, most philosophers and many scientists feel that it is the electric current - or soul, or spirit, or what ever you want to call it - that makes us who we are; not the physical body we inhabit.
This is the basic reasoning behind most of the reincarnation theories. Very simplified indeed, but there you have it.
What you are struggling with is one of those unknowable querries that man (as a species) has struggled with for millennia. It is this question, and many other questions like it, that created a need for religion - a way to explain the unknowable.

I hope you find what you are looking for. Maybe there is a religion out there for you, keep looking before you give up totally.


I am not sure of the exact formula to calculate the mass associated with the energy. Does pure energy have mass?
No, I don't pity you, I empathize with you. I have a few friends who either are going, or have gone, through this same struggle.
I don't think pure energy floats around, as you say. It always goes somewhere, or into something. This electrical energy is where your consiousness is. So no matter where you are, you will have the feeling of being part of the greater whole. And without your energy, that thing would not be as great as it is with you.

Answer 2

death is not easy.
we must accept death because we have no other option.
We all die.
their is no easy answer to deal with impending death
the concept of not existing certainly sounds bleak, but if you are lucky enough to have had an enjoyable life, surrounded by the people you love, then at least for the nanosecond that you got to experience existence, you lived a life that had value and meaning.

Answer 3

Mr. Clemens was once asked whether he feared death. He said that he did not, in view of the fact that he had been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.


Its a Mark Twain quote that always makes me laugh about my own mortality.

Answer 4

I ain't a Bible thumper or an atheist. However, lets assume there is no God. You are dead. There is nothing. Then who cares about the trillions of years? Your atoms will just get sucked back into the circle of life.

Answer 5

Well I heard a quote from Mark Twain once that I can't remember word for word but it goes something like this
" I can't remember my life before I was born...so why should I worry about what it will be like when its over." I think its like the same thing. ...I mean before we are born we never existed...dying is just like that.

Answer 6

"Has any atheist worked out any comforting thoughts about this?"

I am an atheist and see no need to find a way to comfort myself. I think the religious people are the ones that may need to comfort themselves unless they are completely confident that they will go to 'heaven'. They are the oes that fear hell.I beleive nothing happens when we die, and to me that is more comforting than fearing going to hell.

Answer 7

Easy.

Before you were born you did'nt exist. And when you die, you won't exist.

Get over it. Enjoy what you have now. It's all you're ever going to have.

Answer 8

i don't get what your scared of, if your dead, your dead, you won't be conscious forever in your grave. so nothing to wory about. try remembering what it felt like before you were born, can you? well thats what death is gonna feel like.

Answer 9

Many people that have died have come back to life. They had experiences involving their sight, their emotions, their hearing, their physical sensations, and their memory. Some give accounts of hellish experiences and others heavenly experiences.

Maurice S. Rawlings, MD, a retired cardiologist from Chatt, Tenn who was once an atheist but is now a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ wrote a book entitled: "To Hell and Back-Life After Death". It can be obtained from amazon.com. I highly recommend this book. If you are interested then click http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Back-After-Startling-Evidence/dp/0785275347/sr=1-2/qid=1167237698/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-3492444-3473759?ie=UTF8&s=books

This book will answer many of the questions you have about life after death.

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big j

Many of the people in the above mentioned book were not in a state where their consciousness were altered because of some traumatic event, THEY WERE CLINICALLY DEAD.

Life does exist after you are dead. You memory, your senses, and your ability to talk and reason do not cease to exist.

Instead of looking to people who have never died about what they think you will experience after you die why not read about the experiences of people who have died clinically and came back to life? I think those kind of people know more about it.

I knew of four people who died and came back to life. One was an associate at work who was a Jew. Before he died he did not believe in God; he was an atheist. He told me that when he died he said that he was traveling down a dark tunnel. Then all of a sudden he was brought back to life. After the experience he said he knew that there was an afterlife and that there was a God. He didn't know whose God to believe in. He searched all the major religions of the world and settled on Judaism.

The second person I knew was a personal friend of mine. She was a Catholic at the time; later she became a born-again Christian. She got hit by a car and died on the way to the hospital. At the hospital the doctors were able to bring her back to life. She experienced a heavenly place. There were streets of gold, beautiful flowers and etc just like the Christian Bible describes.

The third person was a stranger I met at a McDonalds while traveling from Houston, Tx to Ft. lauderdale, Fl. We were in line waiting to place our order. I felt compelled by God to witness to him the Lord Jesus Christ. He recounted to me how he died and had come back to life. Before he died he said that he was afraid of death. He said that he didn't believe in a life after death. When he died he went down a dark tunnel. He talked with a being of light that said that he could go to heaven if he lived a righteous life. Afterwards he was brought back to life. He said he now is no longer afraid of death, knows that there is a life after death, and believe he will go to Heaven if he lives a righteous life.

The fourth person is a Baptist minister. His name is Don Piper. He gave his testimony in my Church of what he experienced in Heaven when he died. He was killed in a head on collision with an 18 wheeler. He was dead for 90 minutes before he came back to life. He recounts his experiences in a book he wrote entitled "90 Minutes in Heaven-A True Story of Death and Life". You can read something about his book at http://www.amazon.com/90-Minutes-Heaven-Story-Death/dp/0800759494/sr=1-1/qid=1167284088/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3492444-3473759?ie=UTF8&s=books

All these people retained their memory, cognitive ability, senses, and were able to talk. And when you die so will you!

The question is, "Where will you spend your eternity? Will it be in Heaven or in Hell?"

There are no atheists in the fox hole. Listen to this recounting of Voltaire proclaimations on his death bed:

Taken from "To Hell and Back" by Maurice Rawlings on page 104:

"And then the self-reliant Voltaire, whose 'pen was mightier than the sword,' whose intellect and honors could never be excelled, was now excelled by a stroke that was slowly causing his death. When his friends visited, they described this unexpected situation:

He cursed them to their faces; and, as his distress was increased by their presence, he repeatdly and loudly exclaimed: 'Begone! It is you that have brought me to my present condition. Leave me, I say; begone! What a wretched glory is this which you have produced to me!' Hoping to allay his anguish by a written recantation, he had it prepared, signed it, and saw it witnessed. But it was all unavailing. For two months he was tortured with such agony as led him to gnash his teeth in impotent rage against God and man...Then, turning his face, he would cry out, 'I must die-abandoned of God and of men!'...Even his nurse repeatedly said, 'For all the wealth of Europe I would never see another infidel die.' "

When you die you too will know that there is a God. Your death bed experience may not be as dramatic as Voltaire's but it will, nevertheless, be one full of fear.

This universe was created by God. He is a Holy God and demands that all in His presence be without sin.

It is impossible for any human being to be without sin. The Holy Bible says in Roman 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." God's Word also say in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The Word of God also states in Hebrews 9:27, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die but after this the judgment."

When you die God will judge your life. If you have unforgiven sin in your life you will be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity as punishment for having sinned or rebelled against God.

If all your sins have been forgiven you will go to Heaven.

The only way to have your sins forgiven is to believe on and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord.

Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, died on the cross to pay for your sins. It was God's way of making a way for you to have your sins forgiven.

Do you believe that your are a sinner? Do you believe that Jesus died for you so you could be forgiven? Do you want to receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life? If you do, then turn to Jesus Christ in prayer and tell Him so.

A sample prayer would be as follows:

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner deserving of God judgment and punishment. I know that you died for my sins so I could be forgiven. I ask that you forgive me of my sins, come live in my heart, and be the Lord (boss) of my life. Thank you for saving me and giving me eternal life. Amen

If you pray that kind of prayer from your heart then when you approach death you will have peace and when you die you will go to Heaven.

If you don't, you will have fear and when you die you will go to hell and be tormented for all eternity.

What will it be? Heaven or Hell? The choice is yours!

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P.S.: God loves you big j! He wants you to spend your eternity with Him. Receive His Son the Lord Jesus Christ from your heart as your Lord and Savior. You will not be disappointed if you do. Your good experiences on the earth will pale in comparison to what you will experience in Heaven.

1 Corinthians 2:9 (KJV)

"But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."