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.

BOXER--- You have answered part of the question, but do you have any comforting thoughts to help you cope w/ the finality of death?

C JUNK---Yes, I agree w/ all that you have said, but the finality still saddens my present consciousness.

Most of the answers( all of which have been good) seem to deal only w/ the fear of death.
I was hoping to get more answers that deal w/ the regret of never being able to repeat life.

C JUNK---You are a real thinker. If anybody is going to figure it all out, they'll have consider all the good points you have made.

RABID BUNY---Merely describing what you see is not necessarily understanding it.

CAM N--Somehow the thought of existing as "dinosaur poop" is not all that comforting.

FREDDELOR-- I will "think about it', but are you so sure that you don't also need to "think about it"?

BILL P--You are indeed a strong individual, but are you so sure that you have no feeling about all that "nothing"?

MICHAEL--I think you're right ; it is like a
"dreamless sleep", but is it not sad to think of the memories you will surely leave behind?

DESIREE J---I'm not so worried about crossing that bridge, only a little sad about all that will be left behind on this side of that damn bridge.

DANIEL R---You're concerned about then, but I'm talking about now.

INCOHEREN FOOL---Being "nonexistant" doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun.

LISA---Life is indeed precious, but am I fooling myself by believing that there is a subtle difference between death and the absence of life?
My concern is not for what 'will' exist, but for what 'did' exist.

NH BARITONE---You sure gave me something that I should NOT think about.

Why do we strive for value and meaning to our life if all memory of it will be erased, not only from our mind but eventually from the minds of those who knew us?

Answer 1

I have. And having been a christian for 20 years with the promise off an afterlife, and now an atheist, I sometimes get all the more depressed that I must die.
For starters, try not thinking about it at all, (thats why religion is there in the first place, to comfort those that think about it)
personally though I can remember this. I dont actually know what happens after I die. Also, if for all eternity I did not exist, and now I am self aware, then when I die and cease to exist again, whatever happened in the first place to bring me from non existence to existence, has all eternity to bring me back again.
Of course I have no idea if this is true or not, But the sting of death can be strong at times. Although at some times I am quite comfortable with the idea that I will never come back.
I do like life.

Answer 2

Death is the end of awareness. Without awareness, there is no suffering. Without suffering, there is nothing to fear.

Everyone who has ever lived has had to face death. It's not a situation that's unique to you alone, it's simply a part of life. It's something that we all have in common.

Dying cannot be avoided, however much we want to. The desire to go on living is natural; it's what's kept our species alive for so long. The only way to get over being afraid of death is to accept that there is nothing you can do about it. Do this, and your fear will cease to be a problem.

EDIT: After reading your additional, I think my last paragraph still applies here: the fear we have of death, as well as the regret that we feel that once it's over, it's over, and we never get to come back, comes from the fact that we're still resisting something that we have no control over. I also think that, since all we have ever experienced is experience, we somehow think of ourselves as experiencing non-experience for eternity. I see no reason to believe that death feels like anything other than a deep, dreamless sleep.

I have another take on it, but it's difficult to explain. We think of life as a journey, with a beginning, and a destination. Once that destination is reached, that's it, the whole thing is over for all eternity. We exist for a brief moment in time, bookended by eternity on either side.

What we tend to do is not really experience life, but conceptualize it into an abstract concept. In other words, we confuse the experience of life with the idea of it.

The past does not exist, except in our memories. The future does not exist, except for our anticipation of it. Our memories and anticipation are not realities, only things that exist presently. The only thing that does exist is the current moment. Our concept of life is based on the reality of the past and future. Since the past and future are only concepts, what we think of as our life is also just a concept, or rather an illusion based on mistakes in our thinking about the nature of reality. We think of life as a journey with a beginning and an end, but actually it's just the present moment, and nothing more.

Death seems like the end of life. If life really were what we think it is, it would be. But, if our life is just an illusion, what we're really losing upon death is the illusion of life. Or rather, what we're losing is the awareness of the present moment, including the awareness of our concept of what our life is. Looking at it from that point of view, death isn't the end of life, but just a change in the state of things. One moment you were aware, the next, you were not.

Does that make sense? No? I don't think so either.

Answer 3

The world functioned before we arrived, and it has functioned without the wisdom of those who have died before us.

We are finite creatures, just like every other living creature on the planet. Contemplating non-existence may be difficult, but if you look backward, we all were nothing but chemicals before our births. The miracle is that we live now, not that we must return to the chemical goo that we were before our first breath.

I use the word miracle deliberately. The evidence is that most species have become extinct, that most mutations led to still-births (not new speciation), that 1/5 of all human pregnancies end in miscarriages, and that 1/2 the humans on the planet don't have enough to eat.

The fact that any one of us has avoided this multiplicity of hazards is a miracle. To spend this short life contemplating why it must end seems a bit of a waste of the brief time we have.

.

Answer 4

death with out end, now there is a concept.
I think of death as The End. Yes I know the rest of the world goes on but for the one that died it is just that. The end.
Or would you rather believe that there is no death at all. That every fly that gets swatted just goes on living in some crappy heaven. That every cell that sloughs off of your scalp as a dandruff flake keeps its part of your spirit alive and you will be reunited with all of your dandruff flakes in heaven.
No, I think that when you die that is really what happens.
No returns, no replays, no encores.
Just out like a dead light bulb.

As for contemplating eternity the science of cosmology seems a good place to go with that.

Answer 5

I don't believe in a "death without end", I believe that death IS the end. I find that a bit sad, no "spirit" to hover around the ones who have lost me, no afterlife, no heaven, no hell, no consciousness, no soul. Just the end. Accepting this makes this life more precious to me.

Lisa
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/secularhumanism/

Answer 6

Death is final. When you die your body decays (including your brain). Thought is no longer possible without a brain, you can't realize anything. All the religions sell the unproven belief that you come back to life and they take in a lot of money selling it.

Answer 7

i just recieved a gift from a friend of mine called "what the bleep do we know" ( down the rabbit hole). this movie is about quantum mechanics and it may give you some insight on the questions you have. i am not going to say i agree (or understand ) with all that is said in the movie, but it shure gave me some good things to think about.

Answer 8

Why does it scare you, and why does it matter if it's not fun? You won't even be aware of it.

There's always the possibility that you will continue on as a ghost, or be reincarnated. That could be comforting.

Answer 9

I can't imagine death without death . I not wasting my time . there are many matras and instructions for meditation this is the science or art of contemplation I don't know if you are serious or just joking but there you have it . a nutshell minus the BS
peace

Answer 10

Where were you before you were born? Did it seem like an unbearable eternity of nothingness, or were you completely unaware of it, as you had no brain or sensory organs to perceive it?

I think of death as feeling pretty similar to a dreamless sleep.