Death.

[Holdek]

I would just like to say that the Christian belief in Heaven doesn't exist until the second coming of Christ. The Bible states that the bodies of the dead will be remade anew and all souls will be judged and either made full or extinguished.

That's mostly true...but I believe that the the souls judged as unsaved are cast into Hell.

It's what I have never understood about the Christians who have claimed to die and 'seen the pearly gates' so to speak. In their own misunderstood mythology, their bodies lay around and their souls are disconnected until all are judged.

At the close of the medieval period, the modern era brought a shift in Christian thinking from an emphasis on the resurrection of the body back to the immortality of the soul.[40] This shift was a result of a change in the zeitgeist, as a reaction to the Renaissance and later to the Enlightenment. Dartigues has observed that especially “from the 17th to the 19th century, the language of popular piety no longer evoked the resurrection of the soul but everlasting life. Although theological textbooks still mentioned resurrection, they dealt with it as a speculative question more than as an existential problem.”[40]

This shift was supported not by any scripture, but largely by the popular religion of the Enlightenment, deism. Deism allowed for a supreme being, such as the philosophical first cause, but denied any significant personal or relational interaction with this figure. Deism, which was largely led by rationality and reason, could allow a belief in the immortality of the soul, but not necessarily in the resurrection of the dead.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_of_the_dead#Modern_de-emphasis)
​

 

[Artard]

Resurrecting (sorry) this thread in light of a long and I thought rather remarkable meditation on death & dying from a 96 year old former editor who still has a marvelous way with words:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/23/-sp-diana-athill-its-silly-frightened-being-dead

The title is stupid and really doesn't do it justice.

It probably could have been written by someone much younger without changing anything but its effect. I just had a soothing and peaceful feeling from reading it from her.

 

[Kamen Rider Black RX]

Whenever I think about death, I remember a quote from my youth.
"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
I really, really have to finish the Harry Potter series one day.

 

[Partyboy]

At least in death, you have nothing left to suffer.

 

[Hyperion]

Death is the great equalizer. No matter how rich or poor you are, everyone dies.

It's also a natural part of life. All things that begin must end, except that you won't end at death.

Spoiler: the afterlife

Someday you and I will be fertilizer. New life will spring out of our very bodies.

 

[ASoulMan]

"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life. "

 

[exball]

"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life. "

Antelopes are assholes.

 

[Holdek]

"When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life. "

And then the antelopes poop you out of their butt-holes and from you a beautiful oak tree sprouts.

 

[Mister Lister]

I would like to believe in Quantum Immortality. Or at least I think I would, the more you read about it the more worrying questions it raises. You can call me mad or deluded, but it makes sense in a roundabout way to me more than any other explanations do. This is all really difficult to explain so don't worry if it sounds like complete nonsense as I lack a masters in quantum theory to properly articulate it.

Some of you may have heard about it before, but it basically works off of the multiverse theory, in that there are an infinite amount of possibilities and each of those possibilities branches off to create a universe in which it either happens or it does not. What I'm about to say sounds like a 'well duh' statement but: the only universe you are ever able to belong to, is one where you are conscious and existing, otherwise you would no longer be conscious or existing. It basically explains that where being conscious and 'alive' (in whatever sense of the word) are involved, luck will always work in your favour.

Take the quantum suicide theory as an example to better explain it.

You take a revolver and place 5 bullets into it. As you spin the chamber a number of possibilities suddenly arise. You either shoot and kill yourself with one of the bullets, you get the empty chamber, you are unable to shoot yourself, or you shoot yourself and still manage to survive in some form or other. It is not possible to have experienced being killed with no return, therefore the only branches you can travel down are the ones where you survive every iteration.

This of course only applies to yourself, in your branch universe, where your consciousness exists. I'm not telling people to go out and practice this theory, because of course in my particular branch universe you and others around me can still die.

It doesn't negate the afterlife either, as maybe that is simply just another possible branch where your consciousness can continue to exist and is therefore still viable in the rules of the theory.

Sorry for the huge post, and please don't think I'm a complete nutter, but this idea really intrigues me when it comes to death and existence. There is probably a lot of information out there on the subject if anyone is interested, and it will most definitely explain it better than I ever can.

 

[Marvin]

I would like to believe in Quantum Immortality. Or at least I think I would, the more you read about it the more worrying questions it raises. You can call me mad or deluded, but it makes sense in a roundabout way to me more than any other explanations do. This is all really difficult to explain so don't worry if it sounds like complete nonsense as I lack a masters in quantum theory to properly articulate it.

Some of you may have heard about it before, but it basically works off of the multiverse theory, in that there are an infinite amount of possibilities and each of those possibilities branches off to create a universe in which it either happens or it does not. What I'm about to say sounds like a 'well duh' statement but: the only universe you are ever able to belong to, is one where you are conscious and existing, otherwise you would no longer be conscious or existing. It basically explains that where being conscious and 'alive' (in whatever sense of the word) are involved, luck will always work in your favour.

Take the quantum suicide theory as an example to better explain it.

You take a revolver and place 5 bullets into it. As you spin the chamber a number of possibilities suddenly arise. You either shoot and kill yourself with one of the bullets, you get the empty chamber, you are unable to shoot yourself, or you shoot yourself and still manage to survive in some form or other. It is not possible to have experienced being killed with no return, therefore the only branches you can travel down are the ones where you survive every iteration.

This of course only applies to yourself, in your branch universe, where your consciousness exists. I'm not telling people to go out and practice this theory, because of course in my particular branch universe you and others around me can still die.

It doesn't negate the afterlife either, as maybe that is simply just another possible branch where your consciousness can continue to exist and is therefore still viable in the rules of the theory.

Sorry for the huge post, and please don't think I'm a complete nutter, but this idea really intrigues me when it comes to death and existence. There is probably a lot of information out there on the subject if anyone is interested, and it will most definitely explain it better than I ever can.

These sort of theories are irrelevant to normal people. A person's identity is the sum of all their experiences up until that point. Any deviations and you're not the same person.

For example, instead of a quantum suicide, consider a quantum birth. What if my mother picked someone else to be the father? What if she waited a year before having me? Or tried a year prior? Or what if both of my parents died when I was a kid and I became Batman? And I mean, literally Batman.

I'm only me because of all the events that led up to me. Any tiny difference and the tree of possibilities explodes into an innumerable set of people, with varying degrees of similarity to current Marvin, but only one of them actually becoming the current Marvin.

Some theories about quantum mechanics (which I don't necessarily buy) make these implications, but they have little relevance to what normal people mean when they talk about death or dying or immortality.

 

[Mechanism Eight]

Nothing is real.

Therefore you cannot die if you never existed in the first place.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

Death doesn't worry me at all. Even the concept of dying young doesn't bother me. I don't believe in any form of afterlife, I believe (no offence intended to religious people here) that the concept of an afterlife is just something invented because people couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that they must one day cease to exist. Therefore, to me, death is not something to be feared, because there is literally nothing to it. You just stop. It feels neither good nor bad. I'm more frightened about the deaths of those close to me, or how my death would affect them, than I am for myself. I guess in a sense, I feel like your afterlife is what you leave behind for the rest of the world when you die, and that's why you should try not to be a total prick in life.

 

[RV 229]

I would like to believe in Quantum Immortality. Or at least I think I would, the more you read about it the more worrying questions it raises. You can call me mad or deluded, but it makes sense in a roundabout way to me more than any other explanations do. This is all really difficult to explain so don't worry if it sounds like complete nonsense as I lack a masters in quantum theory to properly articulate it.

Some of you may have heard about it before, but it basically works off of the multiverse theory, in that there are an infinite amount of possibilities and each of those possibilities branches off to create a universe in which it either happens or it does not. What I'm about to say sounds like a 'well duh' statement but: the only universe you are ever able to belong to, is one where you are conscious and existing, otherwise you would no longer be conscious or existing. It basically explains that where being conscious and 'alive' (in whatever sense of the word) are involved, luck will always work in your favour.

Take the quantum suicide theory as an example to better explain it.

You take a revolver and place 5 bullets into it. As you spin the chamber a number of possibilities suddenly arise. You either shoot and kill yourself with one of the bullets, you get the empty chamber, you are unable to shoot yourself, or you shoot yourself and still manage to survive in some form or other. It is not possible to have experienced being killed with no return, therefore the only branches you can travel down are the ones where you survive every iteration.

This of course only applies to yourself, in your branch universe, where your consciousness exists. I'm not telling people to go out and practice this theory, because of course in my particular branch universe you and others around me can still die.

It doesn't negate the afterlife either, as maybe that is simply just another possible branch where your consciousness can continue to exist and is therefore still viable in the rules of the theory.

Sorry for the huge post, and please don't think I'm a complete nutter, but this idea really intrigues me when it comes to death and existence. There is probably a lot of information out there on the subject if anyone is interested, and it will most definitely explain it better than I ever can.

Considering all the times I've poisoned myself, accidentally or otherwise, this idea scares the ever-living shit out of me.

 

[Mister Lister]

Considering all the times I've poisoned myself, accidentally or otherwise, this idea scares the ever-living shit out of me.

I think my interest in the theory stems from almost dying myself and literal centimetres being the only reason I didn't. Years back I nearly got my face impaled through with a hunk of metal out of nowhere. I was sat at the side of the road with my hood up waiting for a taxi and out of nowhere it grazed past my cheek, slammed into the back of my hood and was big enough and travelling fast enough that it dragged me to the floor.

The pure luck of it. The fact that all these tiny little moments of my life that led up to that point somehow influenced that I would be there at that time in the first place, that I would be sat in that spot, and that my head at that moment was slightly to the right instead of the left decided whether I lived or died. Or got horribly maimed at the least.

It's that kind of experience that really makes a guy think. In the long run I think it's made me a happier and (hopefully) nicer person.

 

[Holdek]

I would like to believe in Quantum Immortality. Or at least I think I would, the more you read about it the more worrying questions it raises. You can call me mad or deluded, but it makes sense in a roundabout way to me more than any other explanations do. This is all really difficult to explain so don't worry if it sounds like complete nonsense as I lack a masters in quantum theory to properly articulate it.

Some of you may have heard about it before, but it basically works off of the multiverse theory, in that there are an infinite amount of possibilities and each of those possibilities branches off to create a universe in which it either happens or it does not. What I'm about to say sounds like a 'well duh' statement but: the only universe you are ever able to belong to, is one where you are conscious and existing, otherwise you would no longer be conscious or existing. It basically explains that where being conscious and 'alive' (in whatever sense of the word) are involved, luck will always work in your favour.

Take the quantum suicide theory as an example to better explain it.

You take a revolver and place 5 bullets into it. As you spin the chamber a number of possibilities suddenly arise. You either shoot and kill yourself with one of the bullets, you get the empty chamber, you are unable to shoot yourself, or you shoot yourself and still manage to survive in some form or other. It is not possible to have experienced being killed with no return, therefore the only branches you can travel down are the ones where you survive every iteration.

This of course only applies to yourself, in your branch universe, where your consciousness exists. I'm not telling people to go out and practice this theory, because of course in my particular branch universe you and others around me can still die.

It doesn't negate the afterlife either, as maybe that is simply just another possible branch where your consciousness can continue to exist and is therefore still viable in the rules of the theory.

Sorry for the huge post, and please don't think I'm a complete nutter, but this idea really intrigues me when it comes to death and existence. There is probably a lot of information out there on the subject if anyone is interested, and it will most definitely explain it better than I ever can.

Yeah, but, according to that theory I'm also licking Chris' taint in another universe, so...it doesn't really bring me comfort.

For example, instead of a quantum suicide, consider a quantum birth. What if my mother picked someone else to be the father? What if she waited a year before having me? Or tried a year prior? Or what if both of my parents died when I was a kid and I became Batman? And I mean, literally Batman.

I'm only me because of all the events that led up to me. Any tiny difference and the tree of possibilities explodes into an innumerable set of people, with varying degrees of similarity to current Marvin, but only one of them actually becoming the current Marvin.

In another universe you are literally Marvin and you are about to get shot in the face by Vincent.

Nothing is real.

Therefore you cannot die if you never existed in the first place.

You think, therefore you exist. (c) Holdek 2014, DO NOT STEAL

 

[Mister Lister]

Also in one universe you are leading a life identical to Chris. Be thankful for who you are is what I have learned.

 

[Zeorus]

You think, therefore you exist. (c) Holdek 2014, DO NOT STEAL

I assume Descartes will be contacting you shortly.

If anyone's interested in hearing it when finished, I recently started composing a Requiem Mass for choir and organ (with a few vocal solos).

 

[BellaKazza]

An old friend of mine passed away recently. He was the man who had baptized me. He was an excellent mentor, father and friend.
I had a discussion with another friend of mine about death the next day. We were talking about how death was not always tragic, it depends on the circumstance, we feel that too many people look at death as a tragic thing instead of a positive one.

On death, I have belief as most Christians, once we die we wait till judgement. In which the goats will be separated from the sheep.

 

[Strewth]

I'm far more affected by the thought of losing others than I am by the thoughts of dying myself.

My father was diagnosed with a terminal illness nearly two years ago, and it's looking like he could pass on any day now.
The thought of living the rest of my life without his presence and guidance absolutely terrifies me. I wish I had faith in a lie, because it would at least ease the sense of finality.

 

[Pickle Inspector]

I would like to believe in Quantum Immortality. Or at least I think I would, the more you read about it the more worrying questions it raises. You can call me mad or deluded, but it makes sense in a roundabout way to me more than any other explanations do. This is all really difficult to explain so don't worry if it sounds like complete nonsense as I lack a masters in quantum theory to properly articulate it.

Some of you may have heard about it before, but it basically works off of the multiverse theory, in that there are an infinite amount of possibilities and each of those possibilities branches off to create a universe in which it either happens or it does not. What I'm about to say sounds like a 'well duh' statement but: the only universe you are ever able to belong to, is one where you are conscious and existing, otherwise you would no longer be conscious or existing. It basically explains that where being conscious and 'alive' (in whatever sense of the word) are involved, luck will always work in your favour.

Take the quantum suicide theory as an example to better explain it.

You take a revolver and place 5 bullets into it. As you spin the chamber a number of possibilities suddenly arise. You either shoot and kill yourself with one of the bullets, you get the empty chamber, you are unable to shoot yourself, or you shoot yourself and still manage to survive in some form or other. It is not possible to have experienced being killed with no return, therefore the only branches you can travel down are the ones where you survive every iteration.

This of course only applies to yourself, in your branch universe, where your consciousness exists. I'm not telling people to go out and practice this theory, because of course in my particular branch universe you and others around me can still die.

It doesn't negate the afterlife either, as maybe that is simply just another possible branch where your consciousness can continue to exist and is therefore still viable in the rules of the theory.

Sorry for the huge post, and please don't think I'm a complete nutter, but this idea really intrigues me when it comes to death and existence. There is probably a lot of information out there on the subject if anyone is interested, and it will most definitely explain it better than I ever can.

How is it anything other than a thought experiment though?

It seems to me like a way for people to explain how time travel to the past might be possible without paradoxes occurring even though that's just another thought experiment with no basis in reality.