This is mainly to all the people that think there is no higher power:

Doesn't thinking about dying make you sad? Religions believe that after death eternal happiness/sadness awaits. So what do you atheists think happens when you die? I thought about from an atheist point of view and almost instantly got sad. Maybe I'm just chronically depressed.

What is there to get sad about? You wouldn't feel anything, sadness or happiness. You wouldn't exist.

That doesn't make me sad at all. I'm indifferent really.

I think life is an eternal abyss. It's all endless, all infinite. I genuinly believe life is like floating into outer space, with nothing but infinity in front or behind or anywhere else.

Henceforth, I think the same way about death I guess. I think death is just the beginning of something new, but I just dont know

Example: One of my best friends brother's died last year, I was quite good friends with the guy too. The way I see, I cannot imagine a world in which my best friend and his brother wont meet again somewhere down the track.

quote:Originally posted by spaawn7:

I thought about from an atheist point of view and almost instantly got sad.

Ask yourself this, where is the sadness coming from? Why do you feel sad? Is it because you think that you will be missing out on life's pleasures?

Yes, it is sad. It makes me appreciate and value life better though. I don't expect an afterlife, so I try to make this one as good as possible.

Once you're dead, being sad or glad is no longer an issue. Death absolves all feeling. How could you be chronically depressed about a state of being (death) that is definitely the most sure-fire, fail-proof way of relieving you of any sadness whatsoever? It's not unusual to have feelings of anxiety when you realize that you're not gonna be around anymore. Just don't let it keep you from really LIVING. Accept it as an inevitability and carpe diem while you're still around.

That's why it should be real important to maintain as much positive feeling as possible while you're alive. One chance, one life. Living that life with an unnaturally high fear or sadness of the inevitable death at the end seems like a big fat waste.

If I believed that there was truly nothing beyond this life, I wouldn't be sad, I would be afraid of dying.

I agree with elfstone...if that were the truth, I would live very differently.

Since I am a Christian, I tend to be more relaxed about the exit.

I just know I'll miss my dogs, family, hopefully wife, everything.

quote:If I believed that there was truly nothing beyond this life, I wouldn't be sad, I would be afraid of dying

That fear you have of death is what keeps you religious.

quote:Since I am a Christian, I tend to be more relaxed about the exit.

Ignorance is bliss.

To the original poster, you already know what it is like to be dead, you have already been dead.

Before your conception. Death is just the abscence of life, like darkness is the abscence of light.

i believe taht when we die we get buried and rot (or suffer a fiery immolation etc).

we remain in the grave until such time as god remembers the work of his hands and calls us.

death doesn't sadden me.

Death is a fact of life, accept it and move on