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Death: An Atheist's Perspective

Started by Whitney, September 20, 2010, 02:11:17 AM

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tymygy

Quote from: "pinkocommie"Do you actually care about being buried?

Are you kidding me!?! Thats ALL I care about!!

I want a huge, over-sized tombstone that states all of the great things I did in my life.

I also want that stone to be crafted from a mix of pure silver and gold, and the text to be in black diamond.

 :D
Quote from: "Tank"The Catholic Church jumped on the Big Bang as if it were a choir boy! .

pinkocommie

Quote from: "tymygy"
Quote from: "pinkocommie"Do you actually care about being buried?

Are you kidding me!?! Thats ALL I care about!!

I want a huge, over-sized tombstone that states all of the great things I did in my life.

I also want that stone to be crafted from a mix of pure silver and gold, and the text to be in black diamond.

 :D

Haha, yes.  I would also like a pretty lady/handsome man crying over my grave 24/7 and for the song Don't You (Forget About Me) to play every time anyone comes within 25 feet of my burial plot.  Also, dancing monkeys.  My life really can't be properly memorialized without dancing monkeys.
Ubi dubium ibi libertas: Where there is doubt, there is freedom.
http://alliedatheistalliance.blogspot.com/

The Magic Pudding

Quote from: "tymygy"
Quote from: "pinkocommie"Do you actually care about being buried?
I want a huge, over-sized tombstone that states all of the great things I did in my life.
 :D
I like Spike Milligan's epitaph.
QuoteIt now bears the words "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite", or "I told you I was ill"

Kylyssa

Actually, truly realizing my mortality for the first time was an incredibly powerful and empowering moment for me.  I was getting raped and beaten and ordered around.  Then I came to the realization that the worst thing they could do was kill me and that they were probably going to kill me.  I'd seen their faces clearly so I felt there was no way I'd get out of the situation alive.  So I started really fighting, bashing my head back into the one guy's face, not caring if the guy with a gun shot me or not.  I was able to own myself again.  Their power over me was the ability to kill me and once I no longer cared if they killed me they lost power over my mind.  Power over my body was another matter.

They must have been interrupted.  That was what the cops thought anyway.  I have no recollection.  I'm not saying I'm happy it happened, I'm permanently somewhat fucked up from it.  However, I learned something from it; the worst thing that can happen is that I can die and that's going to happen anyway.  So I can own my life and be who I want no matter how risky some things my sense of self requires.  And I try not to do anything I can't live with.  Knowing that dying is an option makes living a lot easier.

i_am_i

A piece of tooth broke off a little while ago. I was eating some Ben and Jerry's Americone Dream and bit down on something hard, which turned out to be a piece of my tooth.

I'm getting old I guess, breaking teeth for goddness sake. Fifty-seven isn't that old but next year I'll be fifty-eight and I know I'll be getting there sure enough and not all that long from now, getting to where it's real close to the end.

But it's the getting old part that frightens me, not the dying part. I'm going to have to go see a dentist about that broken tooth and for me going to the dentist is much worse than dying.
Call me J


Sapere aude

chrisbellekom

Quote from: "pinkocommie"
Quote from: "chrisbellekom"Hello HAFmembers,

Thans to Whitney for starting this thread. Good to be able to give my perspective in context.

Death is a fact.
One second I'm aware, the next I'm not.
It's a liberating thought that everything ends. If someone offered me perpetual existance, I'd kill myself.
It's a good thing death exists, death makes me enjoy life all the more...

As for organs... Harvest what may be needed. Bury the husk that remains.

Enjoy this friday  :-)
[size=90]
===============================================================
"To you I'm an Atheist. To God I'm the Loyal Opposition - Woody Allen (Stardust memories)
[/size]

PoopShoot

Quote from: "chrisbellekom"Actually, yes... I like the idea of slowly desolving back into the eart. It's even more environmentally friendly :-)
This assumes no casket (or a plain pine box).  As nice as the idea is, burial in this case should be under the stipulation that the deceased be buried in a compostable device.
All hail Cancer Jesus!

Asmodean

Quote from: "PoopShoot"
Quote from: "chrisbellekom"Actually, yes... I like the idea of slowly desolving back into the eart. It's even more environmentally friendly :D

In a cloud of toxic fumes and poisoning at least two independent water sources while at it  :headbang:
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

TheChainSmoker

Quote from: "TheWilliam"i refuse to die in wack ass florida.
Agreed.

As far as "for when I die".. I like the tree idea, but it got me thinking.. I want to made into a puppet, have someone in a tree control it, and just scare random people.
If not.. Eh, I'll let others do what they want.

As far as fearing, or caring.. I do neither. I'm here one day, gone the next. I like the quote from The Bucket List: "If I'm wrong, I win."

ciredrallop

I fear death now that I have two kids. I don't want to die until they are at least well into adulthood. The idea of missing their lives bothers me more than anything ever has.

Other than that I find it hard to fear a state of being that you cannot actually experience. Death is the release from dying so the prolonged dying or deterioration seems to be what should actually be feared. Thankfully I am young now and by the time I am old and decrepit I am sure forty to fifty years from now there will be legislation passed in this state that allows me to bypass dying and get on with death.

I have no doubt in my mind that there is no afterlife. I wonder though how someone that believe in an afterlife can find comfort in the fact that they will never die. I guess all we can do is exist so if I had the choice to exist or not exist then I would rather exist. But for eternity? Seems a little mad.

Byronazriel

If I am to die, I at least want to do it in an interesting, awesome, humourous, or memorable way.

It pleases me to no end to think that someday, someone will mention my death. I don't really care if they know my name, they could come across a blurb in some futuristic data terminal while reasearching history and say: "Hey, check this out. Some asshole died-" It doesn't really matter how that sentence ends really.

If I was dying, from something painful and swift, like say from "mexican jumping cancer" or whatever then I'd go out and do absolutely retarded stuff. Like fight in a war weilding nothing but a shovel and a slingshot, walk up to a mob boss and give him a noogie, or test something ludacrousy dangerous like time travel, teleportation, live genetic reengineering, or becoming a super cyborg.

Also, I should mention that there are plenty of afterlifes that are not eternal. Reincarnation, for one, comes to mind.
"You are trying to understand madness with logic. This is not unlike searching for darkness with a torch." -Jervis Tetch

notself

I want my ashes scattered under this lovely old Loblolly Pine tree in my back yard.  It's about 90 ft tall and oddly shaped from ice storms.  A young pine is growing at the drip line of its "mother".  The sapling is about 5ft. tall.  I hope my ashes have the right nutrient mix for the trees.  If no fool cuts it down it could live for about 250 years.  I figure it has about 200 years to go.

SomewhereInND

Most obvious prospective:
When your dead...your dead.  The end.
Anything else invites some form of religion.
Religion makes me chuckle.
--------------------------------
MENTAL NOTE-Reality is what it is, not what anyone wants it to be, and not what anyone thinks it is.
MENTAL NOTE-Make an effort to be a happy athiest.
My College Math Professor once said:Math is just an imaginary model of reality.
My Dog once said:Bark.
Coworker once said:If it looks good

Tank

Quote from: "SomewhereInND"Most obvious prospective:
When your dead...your dead.  The end.
Anything else invites some form of religion.
Unless one is not dead, but then not resurrected in any way currently not discovered. One can no more deny the minute possibility of life after death than one can not prove a negative. But to all intents and purposes I agree with you, once the brain is no longer functioning and is beyond recall, that's it!
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

tunghaichuan

Like a lot of posters here, I'm not afraid of being dead, but dying slowly in some painful manner. Death is the inevitable, natural end to living and is not something to be afraid of. It is the only thing that I, as human beings, am guaranteed: once born, I will die. There is no escaping it, despite the many theists who want to persuade me to believe otherwise.

Oddly enough, I'm reminded of a Bible verse, 1 Corinthians 13:11:

QuoteWhen I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. - NIV

For me "putting the ways of childhood behind me" means accepting and welcoming the inevitable end. No supernatural intervention will save me.

In a way, I'm looking forward to my death. Life has been a heavy burden from which death will release me. I have considered suicide, but I have a wife who loves me and needs me. There are only two other people left in the world that I love; my mom and my brother and if I survive all three of them I hope I will have the guts to punch my own ticket.

In a way, the thought of dying comforts me. I don't believe in an afterlife, so when I'm dead, that's the end for me. I spend a lot of time wishing I were dead anyway, mostly when I'm working.

My will stipulates that I be cremated. But at that point, everything that I was will be gone and I'll be past caring about what happens to my remains; they could be flushed down a toilet for all I care. And I find that very comforting.  :)
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
- Bertrand Russell

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17,