trillian

To those who "know" it seems that knowing things has robbed us of our "blissful ignorance". Sorry Emotions, but it is difficult to reverse this without science. Perhaps new brainwashing techniques can give you a tabula rasa on your beliefs and you can happily live in ignorance once again. Or selective removal of your rational thoughts? I think L. Ron Hubbard has some good techniques.

On the subject of everlasting life...in my early years in Catholic school I remember asking a nun what heaven was like. She said we'll all be happy and there will be lots of ice cream. Ice cream? Well, I didn't like ice cream then (gave me headaches and made the cake soggy) and I still don't like it. hmmm maybe thats where it all started....

openeyes

Two things to add to the good points made by many:

1) Your opening line: It was fun being an unbeliever, but. . .

For me being an unbeliever just is. Saying it's "fun" seems strange. Life has its "funness" but it's not related to my unbelief. Unbelief is not like some special diet I'm on or special activity I'm doing.

2) Not to add to your worries, emotional, but you lose consciousness every night you go to sleep and enter slow-wave sleep. You're not aware of any of your senses. Does that bother you are does that just seem natural?

emotional

When I go to sleep, I know I'm going to wake up afterwards (at the best of probability). Death is for ever. Being asleep forever? That scares me stiff.

The naturalistic worldview is a pit of sadness for the individual human. All life's achievements erased by death. All humanity's achievements to be erased one day, when the Sun turns into a red giant and bakes all Earth into a cinder. Makes me wonder why play this game at all. Only because we have no choice. Is nothing sacred? Is nothing eternal? Is nothing worthwhile? This whole universe, this whole life, is a bad joke.

Sometimes I feel like shouting, "F*** science! The hell with evolution! I'm going to believe in immortality, in creation by divine fiat and in gods protecting humans despite the scientific evidence!" But that is the road towards the flat earth.

To paraphrase Darwin (though I also agree with his original phrasing), I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish atheism to be true; for if so ... then everyone is doomed to oblivion, and that is a damnable doctrine.

I fear death above all things. I fear not being. I fear the extinction of self. As long as my self exists, I fear losing it. In irony, the only thing that's going to free me of the fear of death is death. As long as I live, I fear death.

Anyone got a clue why? Why is it hardly a day passes without this dread of death engulfing me? And what will cure it, so that I may finally live properly?

Queen of Swords

Originally posted by The Naked Mage
Yeah, walls would really mean a whole lot to the immaterial deceased.

Why bother having walls in heaven at all? There won't be sex of any kind, much less excreting, so why would people need privacy?

We're in the middle of a galaxy as I type these words. How the hell much closer do you want?



Good one. Seriously, though, Magus, what happens at these parties and banquets? Is there eating? If so, what do we eat - soul food?

Viti

The only cure is acceptance, accept that you will not always be, or at least accept that you don't know what happens after death. Try to enjoy this existence, the one that does exist.

You are wasting what time you do have here, that you are in existence worrying about the one future event that happens to everyone, the one common factor that unites us...I see it as kinda cool...the only thing that matters is the journey as the destination is the same.

MrDarwin

QoS, I'm sure all the answers to your questions are in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which Magus seems to know so much about.

emotional

It works most of the time, but you see, it just takes a small item on the news, such as this outbreak of a new virus, to let the deathfear demon out of the bottle. And I expect it'll get worse and worse as I grow older and nearer death.

Eudaimonist

Yeah, we could sit on cloud-couches and watch the 700 Club for millions of years at a time, while we pretend to eat potato chips and drink beer. And because we are spiritual beings on a God-induced high all that time, we don't have any need to think or achieve anything -- to have any sort of human existence -- which would take effort and build self-esteem! <gasp!>

It would be like being on Welfare for eternity! Oh, joy!

lpetrich

That's an oddity of the Xian Heaven -- where's the sex? However, in the Islamic Paradise, one will be able to get a LOT of sex. At least if one's male.

Also, there is a Twilight Zone episode, "A Nice Place to Visit", that featured a small-time thug going to some place after he gets killed. He gets a fancy car, he gets to win all the card games, he picks up every woman he hits on, etc.

After a while, he gets bored, and he wonders about what "that other place" is like. But the place's caretaker, a gentleman called Pip, tells him that he is in "that other place".

openeyes

I'm not an expert by any means, but this is sounding a little like a obsessive-compulsive or general anxiety disorder. Have you talked to a professional (health) about your fears? The right dose of the right SSRI (selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitor, a type of anti-depressant) may make a world of difference.

Just a thought.