Guaranteed afterlife of unknown quality, or oblivion?

[Tuorom]

We already know what happens. Our bodies decompose into base materials which are potentially used by the environment. We become spread out and become part of all life, or maybe in millions of years we'll be oil like the dinosaurs.

The soul is just human hubris. If you believe in evolution then there is no reason to think we evolved a soul at some point just because reasons. If we have a soul then that means everything alive has a soul. Which maybe the case, idk and then you're getting into some philosophical ideas like everything is a manifestation of the whole (Bohm) or there is a higher plane of forms (Plato), etc.

 

[Kraid]

Like I said above, it's the opposite for me. I think the closest I can imagine to oblivion is dreamless sleep, without any sense of time or ego. A blackout. Is that really more terrifying that a very vague and nondescript afterlife, with all of the potential implications?

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Yes. My sense of self is partly grounded by processing experience. Oblivion is something that's hard to comprehend, period, and when trying to square that circle of not knowing what will happen to me, or to the people in my life, once my meat sack expires is difficult. I have pretty severe depression and a lot of self-loathing, but I exist, you know? I don't want to not exist.

 

[Deleted member 179]

Like I said above, it's the opposite for me. I think the closest I can imagine to oblivion is dreamless sleep, without any sense of time or ego. A blackout. Is that really more terrifying that a very vague and nondescript afterlife, with all of the potential implications?

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Absolutely for me, I enjoy experiencing things and find that as the major joy of life, and the thought of just, gone, is very scary.

This goes back to when I was in middle school. I was really depressed, to the point that I thought about suicide. But the second I started thinking about after that I never thought about it again. Scared the shit outta me.

 

[Westbahnhof]

Yes. My sense of self is partly grounded by processing experience. Oblivion is something that's hard to comprehend, period, and when trying to square that circle of not knowing what will happen to me, or to the people in my life, once my meat sack expires is difficult. I have pretty severe depression and a lot of self-loathing, but I exist, you know? I don't want to not exist.

Click to shrink...

I absolutely get the terror of stopping to exist, but to me, that's different from not existing. The process scares me, the switch, the final step, but the destination itself seems pretty okay.
Just hope I'll have seen and done enough by then.

Absolutely for me, I enjoy experiencing things and find that as the major joy of life, and the thought of just, gone, is very scary.

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An unknown afterlife just carries too much horrific implication for me to be preferable. Its not like I look forward to my life ending in either case.

 

[HeyNay]

What is oblivion? If you can answer what "nothing" or "null" is, I'll pick that but you can't, can you?

If you see or feel nothing, what's nothing?

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Nothingness doesn't exist, it's only a concept - therefore you can't experience nothing. Experience is our only reference. Experience is all that is. Life goes on, and your reference changes, but "you" cease to exist.

 

[Deleted member 4346]

Oblivion for sure.

 

[Combo]

Do you really want to believe that the people you love cease to exist? Unknown afterlife for me.

 

[finalflame]

Yes. My sense of self is partly grounded by processing experience. Oblivion is something that's hard to comprehend, period, and when trying to square that circle of not knowing what will happen to me, or to the people in my life, once my meat sack expires is difficult. I have pretty severe depression and a lot of self-loathing, but I exist, you know? I don't want to not exist.

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This sums up my feelings just about perfectly. The thought of simply not being is terrifying. I'd take most alternatives over it.

 

[Necromanti]

On one hand, ensuring the existence of an afterlife would radically change our understanding of the universe. The implications would be immense. It would be the equivalent of making magic suddenly exist, and would be a physics-defying opportunity of boundless potential.

On the other hand, that opens Pandora's box in terms of whatever else--no matter how terrifying--is now suddenly possible. I think choosing oblivion is the safest.

Do you really want to believe that the people you love cease to exist? Unknown afterlife for me.

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I've consumed enough media to know how those monkey's paw wishes end up. I can think of things much worse than death.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

"Given a choice between grief and nothing, I'd choose grief"

Edward Rooney, Principle

 

[Westbahnhof]

This sums up my feelings just about perfectly. The thought of simply not being is terrifying. I'd take most alternatives over it.

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A great artist and musician passed recently. Arik Brauer died at 92 in Austria, surrounded by family.
According to them, his last words were these:

"Ich war so glücklich mit meiner Frau, mit meiner Familie, mit meiner Kunst und meinem Wienerwald. Aber es gibt eine Zeit, da lebt man, und es gibt zwei Ewigkeiten, da existiert man nicht."

"I was so happy with my wife, with my family, with my art and with my Wienerwald. But there is one time, where you live, and there are two eternities, where you don't exist."

That's basically how I view things.
Not existing didn't seem so bad before, I think it'll be okay. Regrettable to not be around, but I can't imagine I'll be complaining much.

 

[Brinbe]

nothingness. it's a cold dark hole. and we do all this extraneous shit about heaven/hell and all of that because ppl fear that reality.

but it is what it is. once you're gone, you're gone. star dust.

 

[davepoobond]

I want to be a ghost haunting a PlayStation 5 or something.

 

[Westbahnhof]

I want to be a ghost haunting a PlayStation 5 or something.

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Now, I don't know your age of physical health, but I do hope that you'll be haunting the Playstation 10 or the XBOX Mark Epsilon: Manta Ray Edition

 

[davepoobond]

Now, I don't know your age of physical health, but I do hope that you'll be haunting the Playstation 10 or the XBOX Mark Epsilon: Manta Ray Edition

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well I'm hipster ghost and only like to hover over peoples shoulders while they play classic games with tons of micro transactions

 

[yyr]

I'm the type where I really want to know what happens.

My ideal afterlife would be Quake's Spectator mode. You'd have the ability to move your "camera" freely, or view from the POV of anybody you want. You'd have no ability to interact with the world in any way, but you could watch to your heart's content. It'd be scientifically impossible, though, to retain the contents of your brain, so unless our reality is all a computer simulation or similar, I doubt it exists.

Afterlife. If it sucks, I´d kill myself and be gone for good.

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Since it's unknown, there's no clue as to whether you can actually opt out. You could be stuck there forever.

Afterlife, oblivion terrifies me. Thinking too much about the idea of nothing puts me in crisis lol

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I try to take comfort in the fact that I'm not aware of anything that's happening while I'm sleeping.

 

[SecondNature]

If I can guarantee the afterlife isnt eternal hellfire and i can see my loved ones, then 100% the afterlife

 

[Rangerx]

Oblivion without a doubt. Any kind of eternity sounds like hell.

 

[Musubi]

I just want everything to go black and that's it. I simply do not have a need to exist forever nor do I want to.

 

[mnemonicj]

Who knows? Why would you want to care about this?
Life is too beautiful to think about this.

 

[Poppy]

no fucking around for me, the lights just turn off

 

[Volimar]

 

[Westbahnhof]

Since it's unknown, there's no clue as to whether you can actually opt out. You could be stuck there forever.

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Yeah, people are like "oh man, an afterlife gotta be better than the void", meanwhile, Ycnàgnnisssz, Shub-Niggurath and Uitzilcapac are voting on who gets to torment you for the first millennium.

Do our pets go into this unknown afterlife, too? If there are no cats in the afterlife, then I have no use for it, but if mine await me there, I shall go to them.

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See, that's exactly the lack of extreme pessimism I mean. Consider the following:

 

[W-00]

Do our pets go into this unknown afterlife, too? If there are no cats in the afterlife, then I have no use for it, but if mine await me there, I shall go to them.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Afterlife. If it sucks, I´d kill myself and be gone for good.

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Evidently that's not an option or everyone would pick that.

I'm not religious at all and my rational mind says nothing out there gives a shit what happens to you when the meat robot goes down but...I still, against all that, somehow believe there'll be something. Otherwise life is just too fucking depressing.

Spoiler: SOMA Spoiler

Just upload me on a USB stick and SOMA me or something.

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If you need some afterlife to believe in, and religion is out of the question, you could do worse than look up cryogenics, I guess.

Do our pets go into this unknown afterlife, too? If there are no cats in the afterlife, then I have no use for it, but if mine await me there, I shall go to them.

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*highfive* My SO and myself want to believe Bastet will whisk away our souls to Cat Heaven. :)

 

[Enduin]

Both terrify me as they in one way or another involve infinity which is a terrifying concept, but eternal existence is better than non-existence I'd say.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

I just want everything to go black and that's it. I simply do not have a need to exist forever nor do I want to.

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Who the hell's gonna lull the Old One back to sleep, you selfish monster???

 

[Advance.Wars.Sgt.]

It is my belief the moment we expire we will enter back into primordial nonexistence, awaiting for the collapse and rebirth of our universe to start anew in a new, if not slightly different timeline.

Since nonexistence is outside the construct of time, billions of years which would have passed between our death and reconstruction will only seem like seconds. Of course, we will lack any recollection of those prior existences so in essence our earliest perceptions would be as if this were all brand new.