--BEGIN RANT-- This may sound dorky. But today, while listening to some groovy music I began to think about the big questions, why we're here, why the world exists the way it is. For the life of me I couldn't get any answers out, but the questions were enough to intrigue me. I guess you could think of this as just a food for thought page. How has our universe, its physics, its dynamics come together into such a perfect symbiosis with itself? Why does it all work together so well? Atoms and gravity and magnetism, among a slew of other things--why didn't it turn out differently? Life after death, I thought about how since religion and paranormal phenomena are generally based completely around this very subject that at least a little of it might not have been caused by a wish to explain the unknown or a mistake, that the ghosts of people or ouija boards or whatever are real, and that our existence as entities rather than objects is a unique one that continues forever. But on the other hand I thought about how if we were to really die, that we would not notice death, that is--it would be a merciful one, since we would not know that we were dead because we would not be around to experience the nothingness of it. We cease to exist but we don't know it, for us the last milisecond that we were alive lasts forever, and we don't notice a moment of the forever in passing. If there is no life after death then this is the way to go. And just the mere idea of a collection of atoms in the universe forming independent thought and experiencing things is completely mind boggling, how I am here right now typing at my keyboard, living on a planet full of people that has been completely overtaken by life. It is amazing, simply amazing, the way we live, trouble is, there really isn't too much to explain any of it. --END RANT--
The way you generalize the universe and bring everything together by talking about atoms....why not life after death for an ant? Beware, in the afterlife all those ants you burned and stomped on will come and get you Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
A reply Mabye it DID turn out differently. Mabye it is turning out differently everyday based on the decisions we make.
This may sound dorky. Of course not. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! How has our universe, its physics, its dynamics come together into such a perfect symbiosis with itself? Why does it all work together so well? Atoms and gravity and magnetism, among a slew of other things--why didn't it turn out differently? This sounds like a good argument in favour of Christianity. How did[/i] it come together so well, if not for God, or at least somebody's pre-planning? But on the other hand I thought about how if we were to really die, that we would not notice death, that is--it would be a merciful one, since we would not know that we were dead because we would not be around to experience the nothingness of it. We cease to exist but we don't know it, for us the last milisecond that we were alive lasts forever, and we don't notice a moment of the forever in passing. If there is no life after death then this is the way to go. Exactly. You wouldn't even realize you're dead. You'd close your eyes, and stop thinking, stop breathing, stop functioning, stop existing. Wonder if this is the way we came into the world? No thoughts...then something! Warmth, comfort, then birth. Cold, fear, then death. Something, then Nothing. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It rather scares me. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I guess we just have to ask ourselves how it could have turned out any different. Anyway chances are pretty good that we don't know all there is to know about the universe and about life...and everything, so hopefully this question will be solved someday. If not, hopefully I'll be able to figure it out after I diePlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It is pretty awful, disapointing, really, if that's the way that it is (I'm really not sure). But things could be worse. We could all be damned to hell, to be tortured and mutilated for an eternity. I'd rather take merciful nonexistence, because after I died then I really wouldn't give a shitPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image! This illustrates your point splendidly[/i]. Well, if there is life after death for all life, and if, say, it was a heaven, then the life would be a heaven for an ant. Plenty of food. Easy or no work to do. A queen that isn't as much of a hardass. But not as complicated as these human terms. To figure out life like an ant you have to think like an ant. *crawls on floor*
Pollux, what about causality? Is it not that one thing happens which causes the genesis of another occurence / object / phenomenon which in turn begets the nascence of others? If this is indeed the case then everything slots together so perfectly because it cannot fail to. It is in the nature of the temporally linear universe.
The horror -the last milisecond that we were alive lasts forever, and we don't notice a moment of the forever in passing. If there is no life after death then this is the way to go.- The horror of it all descends upon me in the most comforting of places. I have often times laid in the dark wondering how it would feel to live forever in a moment. The further I fall into that black pitt of despair the more I fear the grim reapers touch. Being trapped ina millisecond of forever would be horrible. Especially the millisecond before death when all sensation is gone and one is torn between two existences. Somehow deep down the realization of the absolute hopelessness of your self-made prison would be even worse in my mind than the tortures of hell. The notion that one does not even realise their own death is just as horrid as the hell of living its process for eternity. Technically, when your heart stops and your body starts to shut down your mind still functions normally for a few seconds. "shudder" Can you imagine playing the scientist in the end slowly analysing your own passing after your heart stops beating. Can you imagine the darkness of slowly feeling those black tides that you have kept at bay all your life slowly drowning you as all those that you have loved stand by and watch. That I feel is the true horror of death in those final moments when all your petty notions of control evaporate, and death who has been silently waiting for this moment all your life finally has the last say. Death is the loss of a fight, which one could never hope to win. Yes, I know im incredibly depressing, and right now I sound as if Im on the edge of a cliff ready to plumit suddenly to "escape" the hopelesness of it all. The opposite is true, however, I fight stronger than ever telling myself I do have control... Like Julius Ceaser all I hope for in Death is for it to be sudden not some long dark journey, which suffocates the light of my soul. -Ocean tides are under the silver gaze of the moon, yet under what gaze is humankinds tides- Rowen
Well the fact that you don't actually nonexist is kind of merciful, don't you think? I'd rather live forever in a single moment--and not notice it--than just wink out of existence.
Wierd thought...What if hell is being attached to your body after death in living in a broken machine while it festers. Kinda grosss... Perhaps that could be a resault of your mind still works for lond after you die. That would kinda suck so serious curried ass.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But seriously what basis does humanity have to say for certain there is an after life or even to say we are alive for that matter this could be nothing more then a bad dream?
how do you know it works together? perfect symbiosis in comparison to what? maybe everything is hanging by a thread. perhaps it will turn out differently (for the worse) starlit skies, sizzling sunsets,a fuck to end all fucks will never make up for the ignonimity of living
Forever The horror of living that moment forever I feel is that eventually you would realize your reality. If your concious is trapped in this never ending second it would eventually realize the measurements of its cell. Silently in the blackness it would feel the walls keeping the soul entrapped. The horror is the realization of that eternal second. One cannot stay naive for an eternity.
Re: The horror This complete post was very interesting. I don't believe that it happens, but in my job as a nurse I get a regular opportunity to be with people who know they are experiencing their last hours alive. They are amazing, (whether religious or not), and the most selfless people I have ever seen. They are concerned only with the welfare of those that they are about to leave behind and it's hard to imagine that in their lives, some at least, will at some time have committed adultery or stolen or some such thing. It does however raise an interesting point. When a patient is suffering and clearly about to die we will usually give them diamorph. So during their last millisecond, the one they live forever, they will be stoned.
Shush. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Why, me too! *wonders whether to grin or seek help* Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Like Empty Dragon, I wonder what it would feel like if our souls are kept inside our bodies after death, so that to everyone else we'd be technically dead, but our minds would be trapped. Yes, I've heard that people subjected to the guillotine can see their own headless body in the second before death. Also, all bodily functions immediately relax, so your bladder and bowels suddenly loosen. I swore that if I were ever to be beheaded, I'd drink tonnes of water so there'd be a huge mess to clean up. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! A capital idea! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Where might the location of this "hospital" be?
Yes and no. You only get to spend eternity like this if you are in a modern society with a degree of prosperity. If you are dying of starvation and know this is your family's fate as well it's not so cool. And even prosperity isn't a guarantee. A good proportion of the patients I work with are there, (and get to have that last moment stoned), because they smoked and had bad diets and stuff. I'm going to stop now before I sound like an advert for cigarettes and bacon.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
shinobi i was referring to the diamorph as for the recently reformed saints, i question their motives. why the sudden change. dont they know its too late to do good works? how selfless can you be stuck in your deathbed? fear is probably the keyword here Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
While none of us can truly say what happens after we die, my dream would be for my soul to be released and knowledge to enter my mind of being able to do whatever I pleased. Live another life eight hundred years from the present, experience all of human history, experience all of Luxan history (that is, the beings that inhabit the fifth planet of the Pollux SystemPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!), learn everything there is to know, explore the universe. Bask in paradise. When you think about it, this, like anything else, is just as likely to occur as infinite nonexistence. To quote gandalf: "and that is an encouraging thought." But anyway, I hope I die suddenly...I don't know if I could handle lying on my deathbed, about to die, even if I were surrounded by my kids and there kids and my relatives and friends and ahhh...it would be too much. I don't want to experience that kind of torment, even if I was on drugs.
