I've often wondered about death, and more than once thought of meeting it earlier than established...
Now though I'm interested in different approaches to it (death), what different cultures and religions believe to be waiting for us after our earthly existance.
I'm trying to make order in my mind, find, if not a concrete answer, at least an abstract one (which would be better than what I have right now...:( ).
What are your thoughts about it?

Natural death is an orderly and effiecient organic function, every whit as intrinsic and crucial to our existence as reprduction.
It is what allows species to adapt and evolve. It expurgates unfavorable traits and preserves expedient and auspicious ones. It is with death and reproduction that evolution takes place.

Why must evolution take place?
Evolution is necessitated by the volatile and frequently pernicious natural cataclysms and changes which abound lavishly in our universe.
Change, inexorable, unstoppable and interminable, is the reason for evolution, which requires death, as the eliminator of unfit veterans of a discrepant and obsolescent past.

Death and Reproduction: docile, motherly Clotho, who spins the twine of life, and and baleful, insatiable Atropos, who cuts it. They, with their colleague, Lachesis, foment the upheaval of change and adaptation.

It is when the senses and the means to interpret them cease to exist.

fallenangel:

Now though I'm interested in different approaches to it (death), what different cultures and religions believe to be waiting for us after our earthly existance.

I used to have a true hatred of annihilation. As I type this, my fingers move across the smooth, silky keypad of my Thinkpad. A throbbing pain possesses my head like a lover as my immune system struggles to fight allergens, and the overture from Don Giovanni hums tremulously into my ears.

At most, I have seventy years of life left. After that, I will never feel a thing again, I will never be again. My life glows insignificant and ephemeral against eternities.

For this very reason, I would be a fool to hate my annihilation.

I thought of this Zen story/fable ...

"Oh boy! Oh boy!" cried the monk-on-probation who had just cracked the Zen Master's favorite (and valuable) drinking cup. The frightened youngster went to the Zen Master and asked, "Why must there be death?" The Master answered, "Death is natural. It comes to all persons and things. We should not greet it with fear or meet death with anger. Why do you ask?" "Because, Master, death has come upon your cup."

Source: Zen Fables For Today

Mabye death is finding yourself in heaven and being forced to endure the guilt of not having had the courage to share in the suffering of those being punished by an evil god in a place called hell.

I am standing on a seashore.
A ship spreads her white sails to
the morning breeze and starts
for the ocean. I stand watching
her until she fades on the horizon,
and someone at my side says,
"She is gone."

Gone where? The loss of sight is in
me, not in her. Just at the moment
when someone says," She is gone,"
there are others who are watching
her coming. Other voices take up
the glad shout, "Here she comes."
And that is dying.

Henry Scott Holland

Being Dead
I know that on my death, the atoms that have been my body and brain, and created my mind, will return to the universe.

They'll stay around on Earth for millions of years, inhabiting the bodies of countless people and other organisms, but eventually, aeons from now, they will return to the great engines of creation that formed them. The stars.

When the earth is a sterile, charred rock,
my body will be part of stars, planets, comets' tails
and brightly shining nebulae.

Some of me will briefly fuel a distant sun and be burnt into energy,
and the photons that were once me will skim the edges of the universe,
spiral into black holes,
and maybe illuminate the face of a child looking at the night sky for the very first time.

This is immortality.

This is life and this is death.

This is me.

That's enviably poignant.

Excellent post Ellimist
I think you are spot on:)

And to believe in anything else is to believe in fantasy, even if you are one of those who believe death is end, you must be imagining magical forces with the ability to make things disappear, this magic does not exist.
You do and you always will.
So cheer up:cool:

How poetic, and yes, very poignant. But in all their support for this pretty piece of writing, the posters above me completely fail to point out what happiness we're supposed to derive from it. So the components of your body return to the universe eventually. So what? You think of this vision in terms of you having the knowledge to view it, which you will not. You'll be dead. There is absolutely no difference to this image and the "nothingness" Dr Lou seems to dislike. None at all.

Take comfort in your vision of swirling galaxies and little bits of you in them if you wish, but basically it's just the atheists's version of an afterlife.

And to believe in anything else is to believe in fantasy, even if you are one of those who believe death is end, you must be imagining magical forces with the ability to make things disappear, this magic does not exist.

This is silly. Your consciousness WILL be annihilated. Deal fucking with it.

:confused:
I'm glad it will stop working. As many have said an eternity of conciousness would get very boring, especially if you couldn't move a body around to do stuff.
I am very content in the knowledge that I will be part of the foodchain and then of the universe.
Oh I have "dealt" with it, there was nothing to deal with I'm happy with the way it is and I would be very pissed if it turned out to be different.
So yes this is the common atheistic view, except I am not the least bit bitter and you clearly are.

Bitter? Hardly.

I simply have no need to take refuge in purile prose about how, while my consciousness may disappear, I will not disappear.

This statement is ludicrious on its face, but such is the desire for comfort.

I honestly think its great. I am not seeking comfort because it just so happens that the logical answer is as comfortable for me as any answer could be. I guess I'm lucky.

I will disappear, but I will not disappear.

Real logical. :rolleyes:

no
my conciousness will stop working. I will not disappear. You can't be uncomfortable without conciousness, Of course, you can't be comfortable either, but while I am concious I am comfortable in the knowledge that organisms will stop being uncomfortable when they stop being concious.
Makes sense, no?
And yes for some reason it makes me happy, while I'm concious, to think that the physical memory of everything will always be around.
Sorry if thats hard to believe, I don't feel like I'm deluding myself, maybe I am.
tell me why.

If consciousness is our "I", then of course "I" will be annihilated by death.

Brain and consciousness are one.

my conciousness will stop working. I will not disappear.

Ludicrious.

I know exactly what con(s)ciousness is(i just can't spell it)
I said "I", not my brain's functioning abilities. When I say I, I mean me as in my body and EVERY part of it. Consciousness is not a part of that it is a function my body can do or whatever.

We actually agree and you are just being difficult, I KNOW I won't be experiencing any mental processes when I am dead. My brain will be inactive, I know this and I know what that entails.
I'm saying NOW, while I'm alive, I appreciate what will happen to my physical self when I am dead.

Death is just one of our many unknown frontiers........whatever lies beyond it is up to the person who is about to die(my opnion)......if not, then it will be one hell of an adventure to find out what is beyond death.:D

Originally posted by Dr Lou Natic

I said "I", not my brain's functioning abilities. When I say I, I mean me as in my body and EVERY part of it. Consciousness is not a part of that it is a function my body can do or whatever.
I KNOW I won't be experiencing any mental processes when I am dead. My brain will be inactive,

Xev is extraordinarily correct, comrade.
You may insist that "you" are your body, but that would imply that every molecule which has, in its past, functioned as a component to any miniscule cell of your body, must also be regarded as a "part" of "you."
That would also suggest that "you" include others persons in your body, seeing that probability demands that other persons' molecules must eventually function in your organic structure.
In fact, according to your specifics, there are ample quantities of earth, water, and flesh which all exist at this moment and must be considered "you."

All of that is, of course, erroneous and specious. "You" could not possibly be the very material of which your body consists, as that material is inconstant and vastly changeable(it is ever being depleted and replaced).
"You" are not mundane, eternal matter; "you" are your consciousness, which is ephemeral, fragile, fleeting and DESTINED TO cease in operation and being.

We're all irrevocably doomed.

Denying just makes you sound Christian.

Well I believe that the body is a triune being consisting of the body, soul, and spirit. I believe that your body will pass on but your soul and spirit will live on. Call me crazy, but nothing in me believes that life will just end and ....thats it.... I believe there's more...

Well you could say death is an illusion,i know atheists might disagree but it cannot actually be ruled out.

For a start if you died today you still exist in the past,you know so if someone built a time machine they can quiet easily visit you,there not rewinding a tape are they they are actually going back in time,
for this to work you must be a living breathing thing in the past.

So one can hardly say you are dead,youre just dead now,i think youll find einstien knew this.

And what with the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics which basically says that there are versions of you already dead.

Essentially death is a permanent event to OUTSIDE OBSERVERS,now take some time to think about that,essentially youll only know events leading to death,youd not actually know of death only other people do.

Now from there point of view,you are indeed dead,from your point of view???

i cannot answer that,other than to say either theres something or nothing,what that something is? well youll find out in due course,or not as the case may be,if its nothing its exactly that,youre dead and itll be the same as before you are born,total non existence.