We live a finite existence. When we die it is "lights out". Everything has an end. We are only a tiny speck in the Milky way. A particle of sand on the beaches of eternity...... or are we something more? You see your life as being either finite or infinite. How would you lead your life if all of a sudden your view of what happens after you take your last breath was radically changed?

The same as I always do.I thank God every morning that he woke me up.

If the closest Nebula was as close as the nearest star it would take up our entire view of the sky

And that would change your view of death in what way?

I live a life with few desires.

Come on mirror, as deep as you are I expected something insightful. Oops! Late for work.... gotta go.

I have taken this path and I can say I am virtually no diffrent in how I live my day to day life. I am just a little more happy inside not carrying the sin of the fruit eater any more.


In addition I have always been a big advocate of death with dignity. When I was a Christian I was ok with ending my life just before it gets painful because I knew there was a heaven. Now that I doubt that there is a heaven I still feel the same. I was not here before I was born and I will stop being here after I die. It is better to not exist at all then to live a painful and slow death.

Physical size is meaningless. Spacetime is an illusion and we even have equations now that show precisely how the universe works. Very few people actually understand the questions though. And that even includes many scientists who have studied them for years. Ironically some people who have not even studied the equations in detail understand the concept so spacetime intuitively (i.e. Jeanniebean for example)

There is no such thing as time, or space. Both time and space are a single entity (i.e. spacetime). This is what Albert Einstein discovered. And it’s been proven to be true nature of the universe via direct observation, so it’s not just a theory.

“Now” and “Eternity” are the same thing. There is no past or future. All that exists is ‘now’. But because space is also involved (remember it not space & time,… it spacetime – one thing), the ‘now’ is spread out to give an illusion of past and future.

The same is true of distance. So the vastness you see is really all at the same place.

It’s just here at differnet ‘times’.

I’m sure that none of this made any sense. It takes a lot of pondering to really understand it, unless you just happen to have an intuitive epiphany like Jeanniebean had. Although, I’m sure her epiphany was also sparked by much reading as well.

Once you ‘get it’ it’s gotten.



I personally believe that I am eternal. There was never a time when I did not exist and there will never be a time when I will cease to exist. This I know as well as I know anything. It’s innate knowledge and cannot be deduced by logic. Although, I could give a logical thesis to support it as well, but I won’t attempt that here.



Nothing would change my life. Even if the clouds broke open and one of the ancient medieval Gods appeared before me. I’d just say, “So what’s up? How are things going? Haven’t seen you around for quite a while!”.

Seriously. Whatever will be will be. The last thing I’d do is fall to my knees in fear from a God.

First off, if there is anything to fear then it’s not a God, it’s a demon right? If that’s the case it may as well be aliens from another planet. They would probably be sufficiently more powerful than me that they may as well be Gods for all intents and purposes as far as I’m concerned.

If my actual creator showed up I’m absolutely certain that he’d be my very best friend. Nothing to fear. He would sit down with me and we’d have a great conversation. No need to beg for stupid forgiveness or any other nonsensical ideas like that.

I’m totally prepared to meet my maker any moment he chooses to appear. I don’t even care if he pops in whilst I’m masturbating. He’d just laugh, I’m sure he wouldn’t get pissed off and start taking temper tantrums about sin and salvation bull crap. The creator of this universe couldn’t possible that f*cking petty. He’s got to be at least as cool as I am, or he would be a demon and not a God at all.

Finally, if it were possible to know that there is no God and that we just die when we die and I was given that knowledge as an absolute truth, again, it wouldn’t’ change a thing. I’d just keep plugging along like I always do. I still just be ‘lil ‘ol me.

I don’t live my life based on the expectations of any deities or what may or may not happen to me after my body dies. I always deal with bridges when I come to them and not before. When I die I’ll worry about what to do after I’m dead.

If it’s just lights out then I won’t have anything to worry about because I won’t be around to worry.

If it’s the way I innately believe it to be I’ll just wake up and realize that “I AM”.

If there’s some external deity involved with a whole authoritarian agenda I’ll just have to deal with that authoritarian when I die. But like I often point out, such an authoritarian Godhead would be a less compassionate being than myself. So if that turns out to be the real truth of my existence then somehow I turned out to be the compassionate superior of my creator. That’s really weird. I wonder if I’ll win a prize for that or something?

At the age of 14 my biggest fear was death.

There was a point in my life where I decided to stop looking for reasons to believe in "life after death' or 'heaven' and I just decided that I would live this life as the only life I will ever have and that when I am dead it will be over. Ended. Nothing.

I declared myself an agnostic at that point. I was about 25 years old.

With that new out look on my life, I did change my way of doing things and my way of thinking. I would live this life to the fullest and the best way I could, and I would go after the things I wanted, unhindered by what others tried to put upon me to do or not do. It was my life and I am in charge of it.

I started taking better care of my health and got into hatha yoga and deep breathing exercises. I did not get into any spiritual yoga systems at all. It was just for health and flexibility.

It was the deep breathing exercise that changed my life. One day I was sitting with legs crossed doing my breathing exercises and I saw a ball of light in the room. It floated to my left. I thought "What in the world is that?" I turned my head and looked directly at it. It just melted away.

mmmmmmmm.... I thought. I wonder what that was. Just my imagination I suppose.....

BUT...

From that day forward my life was different. I knew something I had not know before. I was walking on a cloud. I felt like a holy hand had touched me. .... I somehow knew that death was impossible.

This new information was a burden at first. It meant that I was not going to be able to 'check out' of life and leave my karmic debts behind me. I somehow knew that I will have to face them,.... somewhere else...or perhaps in another life... but.. I don't know how I knew this. I just knew it.

So I began to feel the responsibility of forever lasting life. I tried to imagine death as the existence of nothing and I learned that it is impossible for nothing to exist. Hence, true death as in NOTHINGNESS cannot exist.

This is how it changed my life. I broke free of some very negative people who were going down a path of self destruction, and I found my own path which has led me to where I am now.

It is a path of being responsible for you own life and your karma, and your choices and the path you take.

JB

WOW! Thanks for sharing your views guys! Interesting. Gotta get back to work, will check in later.

that question depicts how people don't have "Free Will" and only the "Free Choice" to pick from a limited set of options as to what role they will play in life but either role they play the outcome would still be the same .."Death" ...so should the ultimate goal in life be to ultimately cheat death or to cheat and/or control the illusion of death ....

And the other options are? I'm going to Disneyland perhaps? Help me out here.Have you located the fountain of youth? If so, please let me in on it cause my back is killing me today.Working seven days a week is a real pain.

when you were a christian!!!!!!!!!!1
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
interesting

you just described God.
I'm telling you atheists are good God's servants.
Thank you James.

I'd live the same as I live now. Trusting God and walking with him is the best life I've found, whether there's life after death or not (and I believe that there is). This is my Bible, I am what it says I am. etc.

Later, gator!

and that's my point "Zapchaser" that you have been shaped and molded through-out your entire life to play the role of someone who's ultimate destiny is to enjoy receiving back pain from working seven days a week ...and as you asked in your original question are you more then that

I work seven days a week because I own my own company and I thoroughly enjoy construction. My hobby is my work. My back pain is a result of a 25' foot fall almost two years ago. Answer the question. What are the options you have to dying beyond the two that I listed?

Lortabs work for me. They kill the pain and put me in a better frame of mind. gotta watch 'em though, people say they're addictive.

so why not choose another role in life that may either ease your back pain or help research in the hopes of fixing that pain



"Zapchaser"...you're missing the point of your own original question ..those options are up to you as to what role you choose to take in life ..you can either live your life doing what you are doing now or live your life doing something else both with the same goal of death..or should you dedicate your life to cheat your ultimate destiny with death ..the point I'm trying to make is wheather the true goal of life is to cheat death and break away from the source

You will have to answer that one yourself. My question was clear. Thanks for your opinion.