<p>Haha...yeah I got a chuckle out of that too.</p>
<p>It's like I'm going to discredit Christianity with Faith. :D</p>
<p>@ MonoTombo: I thought this was a reaction to the fact that your "Bump" thread got locked. And now I find out that, instead, you're just being silly.</p>
<p>Hmmmm.</p>
<p>Well, I'm not sure what I can contribute to the discussion of death. The discussion of atheism/God/religion, however, is something about which I have a few words to say.</p>
<p>I think the universe is so complex that if humans were anywhere near comprehending it, we WOULD be God. (Being a little tongue-in-cheek there.) We all--atheists, Christians, physicists, everyone--have probably got it wrong at least on some level, just because humans are incapable of grasping the whole truth. (There are traces of Hinduism here--God is inconceivable.) I really don't think we're that smart. </p>
<p>I doubt the existence of any supreme being or other deity.</p>
<p>So I guess that makes me an agnostic non-believer. It's never made me feel miserable and meaningless; I have a strong ethical code, and I feel wonder at the beauty of nature, and I feel horror at the depravity of some elements of mankind, and I want to spend my life helping the world and being a responsible, moral (though I prefer the word "ethical"), good person. I'm not unaware of the benefits of belonging to an organized religion (community, hope, moral support, guidance, tradition), but it has never occurred to me that one needs to belong to one in order to lead a good kind of life.</p>
<p>Ive been agnostic since I knew what the word meant ... i've never been afriad of death but, i can tell you that you don't feel that way JUST because you aren't religious.</p>
<p>@D'yer Maker: Thanks for your sympathy. :( I'm also sad my thread got locked, it was prospering all so well.</p>
<p>So? You ain't dead right now, so best get steppin'! :D</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Although, I must agree; that was simply blasphemous and uncalled for. One must revolt against such evil.</p>
<p>Death is afraid of me, not the other way around. </p>
<p>Honestly, I am not that afraid of death itself, pain maybe, but I will so Chuck Norris the grim reaper.</p>
<p>Okay, a better reply:</p>
<p>I'm atheist. I know I'm going to die. I don't feel the same way as you, because I know I need to die, I'd get totally bored if my life didn't end (I'm being serious.) - I don't want to live forever. It's not like I want to kill myself, but if I had to die now, I wouldn't mind. </p>
<p>That doesn't help either, I guess.</p>
<p>I guess I can't see how anyone can be afraid of death. We are all but certainly the only animal that knows its life will end at one point. And whether you are religious, in which case you believe you will go to heaven, have a next life, etc, or you're more athiestic or scientific in which you see the human race as fairly small and insignificant compared to all that there is. </p>
<p>Of course this is generic, it's pretty understandable to fear, say, a painful death, that worries me often, not so much towards myself but for for people I know. I've been around pediatric oncology, PICU's, and ped's radiology, and I fear the death of those who never get to grow old.</p>
<p>But when it comes to dying from 'old age' (though there is really no such thing, there is always a reason), i just can't understand how you can be afraid of it, and that is my own ignorance.</p>
<p>Well, okay. Now I'm not so afraid of death, but now I'm afraid that the value in everything I do has dropped. "Oh, I failed a test...oh well that's fine..I'll die someday and it would never have mattered"</p>
<p>oh dear lord, you should meet a very existentialist friend of mine....the minute you talk to him makes you wanna hang yourself....stop complaining, you're wasting precious time.....go study instead :p (what else would you expect me to day ;))</p>
<p>Well, it doesn't matter to anyone around you, it matters to you. There's no value in anything you do to anyone else but you, unless you help them or do something evil to them, then they'll remember you for it, but that'll die with them, too. It doesn't really matter. Nothing matters. You're here, and you make the best of the fact that you're here. Nothing really has a point, you know.</p>
<p>^ Wow, that was very confusing. I hope you get what I'm trying to say.</p>
<p>You should read either some tragicomic absurd theater or some nonsense poetry.
What I would recommend is:
[list=a]
Waiting for Godot
[<em>]The myth of Sisyphus
[</em>]Jabberwocky[/list]</p>
<p>The first two are existentialist, the last one is to get your mind off of things :p</p>
<p>Actually, you can look up the myth of Sisyphus. It's a short story available online, so you should read it asap. If you read carefully, you will see that what Camus is saying is that it is better be cognizant of the absurdity of our situation, namely the fact that we are going to die, rather than ignore it.</p>
<p>I've had the same problem. Not thinking about it works, to an extent, but it comes back. What you have to do is think about what's (hopefully!) ahead of you; a spouse, children, a house, loving relationships, e.t.c. Realize that you'll die surrounded by those you love, and that'll ease the pain regardless of whether you're an atheist or not.</p>
<p>But why must we go through the pain at all? Might the pain be an indication that we are not meant to be thinking this way about life (atheism)? Whether God or a Higher Power exists or not, I do not think that the human mind is built for atheism. Show me the past year's suicide rates and I'll show you a bunch of atheists.</p>
<p>There are many different worldviews, and atheism is just one of them. Life is too short to be suffering needlessly; choose one that doesn't cause pain, but rather makes you happy.</p>
<p>Strangely enough, I started changing my views a bit once I saw a picture called "The Pale Blue Dot": <a href="http://www.humanistsofutah.org/images/PaleBlueDot.jpg%5B/url%5D">http://www.humanistsofutah.org/images/PaleBlueDot.jpg</a></p>
<p>Yep, that's Earth. Really tiny. I always feel like we're so small in the universe... my existence here is really not even a drop in the bucket. Why spend it suffering?</p>
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