Unrelated, but really cool. And really real.
My own personal feeling on death is that you die, and that's it. It's an end. There's no afterlife, no haunting people, no heaven, no hell. I don't fear this, because there's to fear in this idea. Does anyone think a rock is afraid of it's fate? Because if I'm right, you have as much awareness as a rock after you die.
I am aware that I may be somewhat influenced by my own chronic pain in this belief. I've been in pain for so long I can't remember not being in pain. Actually, I can't imagine not being in pain. If I woke up tomorrow not in pain, not any, not at all, I'd probably be so freaked out I'd start screaming and need a serious amount of Ativan to stop.
So it's probably not possible for me to picture eternity with any happiness, but that's not what makes me think death is an end. I think death is an end because there's no evidence otherwise. There's no scientific, verifiable, falsifiable evidence of continuation of consciousness after physical death. There's lots of stories about it. Every culture has or had at least one. But preponderance of fanciful tales is not truth. There's innumerable tales about vampiric and werewolfian creatures, too, and I don't often run into people trying to get me to join their vampire worshipping club.
I have been accused of believing death is an end because I want to. Because of my physical pain. Because I don't want to believe in hell, therefore I reject any afterlife at all. That's not true.
I'd like to believe in an afterlife. It would be nice to think that all the people I love, all the people I admire, all the good people in the world get to hang out in paradise forever. That would be awesome, for a while anyone. I think boredom would set in fairly quickly, but that's just me.
I'd like to be wrong about this. I'd like to die and find myself at the Pearly Gates, and there's the Slacktivist (I think he's older than me, so I'm not wishing him dead before his time) and we meet and have a good laugh about my atheism being proven wrong so dramatically. And then we go play Dance Central with Moses and Socrates.
That'd be cool. But just because something would be cool doesn't make it true. Nor does wanting something to be true make it true.
yeah... i've been told that my "pain thing" is why i'm pagan and believe in reincarnation. [sort of] and telling people "um, i was RAISED pagan, the pain started later" is anti-helpful ["oh, then there's your PROOF, become Christian and it will go away!" WHAT?! just - jesus, people, that's idiotic.]
ReplyDeleteas much as i believe in reincarnation, i agree with you - an afterlife where i'd get to hang out with every person i'd like to, EVER, would rock. [i could corner Heinlein for DAYS! DAYS, i tell you!]
but... yeah.
[after my last hip surgery, i spent almost 6 hours believing i was dead. because, in those 1st 6 hours, i'd been give 6mg of duladid IV and another 12mg orally - i eventually got up and tried to WALK, because i KNEW i was dead. i didn't hurt! that had NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! turns out, it *IS* possible, but the cost is waaaaaaaaay too high. seriously - that was a fuckton of duladid, and i was out of it for WEEKS]
I don't often run into people trying to get me to join their vampire worshipping club.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one? I should wear less black and get more sleep...
I totallly agree, that I wish there was an afterlife. Even if I go to hell, it would be comforting to know other horrible people are burning next to me. I don't like the idea that when awful people die, they go unpunished. I'd gladly burn forever if it meant people like Hitler and Stalin and George W. Bush one day pay for what they've done.
"Even if I go to hell, it would be comforting to know other horrible people are burning next to me. I don't like the idea that when awful people die, they go unpunished. I'd gladly burn forever if it meant people like Hitler and Stalin and George W. Bush one day pay for what they've done."
ReplyDeleteThis idea is the opposite of comforting to me, for two reasons:
- Vengeance, and to a lesser extent justice, are primitive, emotional concepts: rationally, it would be preferable to show these people how they were wrong, let them see themselves how others see them, and come to regret their own actions and try to atone for them. I accept the need to appease the victims emotions, and to remove threats that cannot be rehabilitated, so I do accept situations where corporal punishment is justified. But in an "ideal" world (like the one god is supposed to lord over), rehabilitation would be prefereable.
- "Forever in Hell." The important word there is not hell, it's "forever". What Hitler and George did was nightmarishly horrible, but it was finite. Infinite punishment doesn't fit the crime. It can never fit the crime: there is no such thing as an infinite crime. Except, perhaps, subjecting someone to infinite punishment.
So maybe I'm just a big softie, but fundiehell sounds like ethically bankrupt and more than a bit megalomanical.
Actually, wait... "fundiehell" is an awesome word, and probably involves lots of gay socialist atheists running around doing interior decorating, helping the poor and being all skeptical and rational, without so much as a single middle-aged white christian male to keep them in check. What I was talking about above was the fundie version of hell, which is a completely different thing.