How do Atheists and Agnostics deal with death?

[Sonart]

This brings up another interesting thought that's been on my mind recently. With all the medical advances going on right now, its not inconcievable that in our lifetimes, some sort of immortality treatment will become available. This generation could be the first to live forever. Freaky.

If so, they'll have to outlaw sexual reproduction :eek:

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[LetThereBe]

If so, they'll have to outlaw sexual reproduction :eek:

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Ha, beat you to it. I think we can all agree that a physical immortality would be a bad thing.

[belverron]

Heh. Not sure if I agree there... in some way oblivion seems to hold just as much terror as eternal torment.

I may not be sure what I believe, but I'll be very surprised if I've earned eternal torment, and never mind what the honorable Reverend Phelps has to say on the matter.

[LetThereBe]

I may not be sure what I believe, but I'll be very surprised if I've earned eternal torment, and never mind what the honorable Reverend Phelps has to say on the matter.

Ha, I wasn't inferring that you had eternal torment in store, I was just thinking that oblivion would be worse than torment.... because the human mind is capable of understanding torment, but an absolute end is beyond our reckoning.

[zynner]

By trying to enjoy life.

~ zynner

[Sonart]

Ha, I wasn't inferring that you had eternal torment in store, I was just thinking that oblivion would be worse than torment.... because the human mind is capable of understanding torment, but an absolute end is beyond our reckoning.

Except that once we're dead, we wouldn't be reckoning on much of anything... so the only problem is thinking about it while you're still alive.

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[LetThereBe]

Except that once we're dead, we wouldn't be reckoning on much of anything... so the only problem is thinking about it while you're still alive.

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Heh, and thus we can see a cause for the beginning of religion. I can see that as being a possibility... religions have often been used to explain what cannot be understood, and the realm of death is certainly the greatest mystery to humanity.

[Sonart]

Heh, and thus we can see a cause for the beginning of religion. I can see that as being a possibility... religions have often been used to explain what cannot be understood, and the realm of death is certainly the greatest mystery to humanity.

Can't say I disagree with that. I've long pointed out that early human history was replete with a variety of polytheistic religions, because people knew relatively little about the world around them. Why did the sun rise and set, what made the weather, what caused disease, what were the stars... the best answer was a pantheon of gods. As mankind discovered more and more about the world around us, the need for a variety of gods waned, until we're left with only a few major questions... like why are we here and where do we go when we die? Big questions that need a big God to answer.

Personally, being a Neo-Darwinist, I believe that religion is an instinct hard-wired into the human brain by evolution, in large part because man is so intelligent and curious about the complex world around us.

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[Scribbler1]

Heh, and thus we can see a cause for the beginning of religion. I can see that as being a possibility... religions have often been used to explain what cannot be understood, and the realm of death is certainly the greatest mystery to humanity.

It's also a great way to SELL religion. No one can truly refute what no one has ever come back from to report.

[Starboy]

It's also a great way to SELL religion. No one can truly refute what no one has ever come back from to report.

What I don't understand is why these people are not in jail. If I went around selling people something that they could only take delivery of after they were dead they would lock me up.

Starboy

[Scribbler1]

What I don't understand is why these people are not in jail. If I went around selling people something that they could only take delivery of after they were dead they would lock me up.

Starboy

Depends on what you're selling, of course.

The fear of finality, of absolute nothingness is pretty powerful. Whether you personally have those feelings or not, you have to respect them in others.

[Kuldeep]

I was terribly sick and almost dead . During those days , sometimes I could feel that I was floating around and about to give up. I remember , I was thinking whether it was the death !
But somehow I wasn't feeling any fear / loss ..
Am I a hard nut ? Or just a stupid for not feeling the chill of death ?

No Sir, you are definitely not stupid and also not even hard nut. You felt that you are floating around and you were not feeling fear; very distinctly mean what I have written about after death state of person is very correct. My dear you had an experience of ouside body state. Persons in body can not imagine this state. You have cofirmed that person does not end with death as proposed by Sonart, Logical Lunatic and others. They are surely much away from the reality. Please re-read my last post in this thread and compare with your feelings at that time of sickness. Tell me, have you got glimpse of your own body lying somewhere below you, anytime during extreme sickness?? If so, theb you must have worried for that. This worry, in the most of the cases is cause the ofreincarnation!!! It my feeling, I may be wrong.