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You know, this shooting a few days ago, which was apparently people fighting over drugs or something, happened not too far from where I live, just a few buildings from mine, and it's been making me think of my own morality. What would happen if I was shot? Would I die instantly?


And then last night I started thinking of dying. As someone who's agonistic and not really Christian I doubt the existence of an afterlife. I wondered, what if the atheists were right? What if I just cease to exist? What if I suddenly die, unknowingly, and everything goes to black, and everything I am is gone? Like a stray bullet hits me and it's like the ending of the Sopranos? Fade to black. Would the universe go on without me?


The idea is a scary one. I mean, I seriously thought of this last night in bed. The idea of just ceasing to exist. I wondered if the universe would cease to exist too. It's like the question of "if a tree falls in a forest," because in order to make a sound someone has to be there to hear that sound. It's that theory that the universe exists because we perceive it.

I sometimes wonder if maybe this entire universe was created for me. not trying to sound egotistical here. I'm not saying that the world revolves around me, rather that the world was created for a place to put me, much in a way a cage is created to place a mouse in. So does that mean when I die, the universe will disappear? If it goes on, who will be there to perceive it? Since I perceive the universe, who will perceive it when I'm gone?


Ugh... this is hard to even explain. I'm thinking in such abstract concepts right now, in such high level psychological and philosophical levels here that even my brain cannot wrap around the enormity of what I'm trying to figure out.

I guess the thing that's bugging me is the idea of just ceasing to exist when you die. Since I perceive the universe from my own point of view, I just cannot wrap my head around what will happen when I die. Will the universe die too, because I cease to perceive it, or will it continue on while other people perceive it? Boom, I'm dead, but where will my consciousness continue?

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if I was born in a war-torn or poor third world country, or if I had died in childhood, or was tortured or raped... I consider myself somewhat lucky to be alive but wonder if I will ever be in a situation like other people are, will I be the one suffering next, will I be the next dead one? For all those who suffer, what was it like from their perspective?

But I babble.

I think I fully understand now the popularity of religion, as it gives easy answers to the purpose of our short existence and our inevitable deaths. We exist as agents of a god, we die and go to paradise. It easily answers those tough philosophical questions of death, purpose of life, and how we view the world.

But, not being one who's very religious, all of that stuff doesn't help me right now. I'm feeling too mortal... too depressed.. too scared of death.


Srz debate only plz.

The idea of oblivion terrifies me but is the only rational conclusion I can come to, so I accept it. I'm still ******** scared of it, but there's nothing I can do about it. That said, I believe a philosopher once said that it's really a bit silly to be worried about death and such because when it comes, and there indeed is no afterlife, then you'll be dead and not have to worry about it, because you will not exist anymore. We have a tendency to imagine ourselves as dead and being able to perceive it as such, so we have scenarios where we imagine ourselves dead and there is just nothingness. This would be a problem if we were immortal and the world ended, but not with death. This particular philosopher gets kind of snarky and says that people shouldn't mourn the dead for whatever reason, I can't remember. Either way, I keep this in mind whenever, for whatever reason I'm thinking about death. It's no possible to imagine yourself not existing, but it's strangely comforting to me, even while I'm still scared, that I won't have to worry about it because I'll just be dead.

But if there is an afterlife, I call lunch with Jesus and his homies biggrin

Unlike you, I stay confused and wonder why and many many thoughts run through my head on this subject. However, I stay terrified. I don't get comfort in thinking more about it. I find it easier to just not think about it at all. I feel better when I busy myself with something else. Anything else really.

Possibly the greatest and most hopeful end for me is to "live on" as a ghost. Even if it's nothing like being alive, it would be easier to comprehend and deal with than an absolute nothing.

...On the positive side of things, this thread just gave me a great idea for one of my projects due tomorrow. Thanks everyone! heart

I have no assumptions of what shall happen to my consciousness when I die. I figure I shall find out when the time comes and am in no hurry for the answer.

Technically speaking if your brain completely shuts down then there is just nothing, not even any awareness that there is nothing. Though, I personally find the concept of there being no sensations after death disturbing.

However, if there is something about us that keeps on going even after out bodies cease to function, who knows what is waiting? If there really is anything like a Heaven and Hell, they are probably makings of our own subconscious.

Zella, depending on the theology you're thinking of, there may be multiple layers of the soul. E.g., you might say that all people and all animals have a basic breath of life in them, the vital soul perhaps; then, human beings and maybe a few unusual nonhuman species have a reasoning soul capable of moral judgment. And lastly, only humans have the third level of soul, which is essentially a fragment of the Divine Presence granted independent existence, and which is reunited with the Divine upon death.

As it was explained to me in primary school, the brain is the organ through which the ethereal soul may interface with the material body. If a person's brain begins to malfunction, then as it becomes progressively more and more damaged, the Divine aspect and the reasoning aspect of the soul both become less and less able to influence the behavior of the body; until in cases of severe damage, the body is left only with the vital soul, and can only act in simple, unreasoning ways in order to sustain its own existence.

That's a little more complex than simply saying the vital soul lives in the brain stem, the reasoning soul in the whole of the forebrain and the Divine aspect in the prefrontal regions, though; severe damage to the prefrontal areas doesn't eliminate a person's ability to think rationally about things, but it does mostly eliminate his ability to use rational thought to affect his actions. So that might be said to be such damage as would largely isolate the reasoning soul from the body.

It's rather complicated.