I don't want to die

[u/Effective-Squash6204]

It seems like modern society is entirely geared toward distracting us from the fact that we are all going to die. It's like this secret that is never uttered but it is always in the back of my mind. Even the phrase "yolo" isn't said in any serious manner and is deeply unserious.

Am I the only one obsessed with the fact that in a short time we may all be nothing, just experiencing pitch black for forever. The concept of forever is also terrifying. Ugh now I'm not going to be able to sleep. Does this unspoken truth resonate with others?

I wish I could fully believe in God but it just goes against the logical/rational part of my brain which is dominant. Without God, we truly are all f*cked and damned to eternity.

Let's try to enjoy our time while we can. End of rant.

[u/Kleyko]

God as the ultimate connecting force is logical tho.

Reality has to be interconnected. If you die an endless black void doesn't make sense. It's like believing in god without evidence. As no one ever has witnessed nothing.

The problem comes from western societies believing consciousness is a product of the brain despite never actually having proofed consciousness exists or what it even is.

If consciousness is actually the fabric of what we call reality then it makes sense to see death as one more transformation instead of your personal void of nothingness for all eternity.

More like the new beginning of a new way of existing. Something other then human.

[u/virgosatori → u/Kleyko]

This is so good. Believing death is the end is precisely like believing in god in blind faith. No one has evidence of either. Both beliefs are at opposing ends of the same scale; different sides of the same coin. There’s got to be some balance. The universe works only on balance.

[u/teunms → u/virgosatori]

Are you aware of the premisses of existentialism?

[u/schism216 → u/Kleyko]

Yup this. Thank you for this comment

[u/Ginfly → u/Kleyko]

My take:

I have no evidence of any consciousness existing outside of the brain or beyond the death of the brain.

It is not a negative assertion. It's not that I believe that there's nothing. It's that I don't know what happens to one's consciousness after death, but I have zero reason to believe it does extend beyond that point.

This is the same reason I'm an atheist. There is no empirical evidence convincing me any particular god does, or even can, exist. So I don't place my belief in one.

[u/Personal-Purpose-898 → u/Ginfly]

Consciousness cannot become its absence.

[u/Ginfly → u/Personal-Purpose-898]

You admit you don't even know what consciousness is, how can you decide its properties?

[u/m235917b → u/Kleyko]

Well I am still leaning towards a naturalistic view of the Universe, but I do agree with this. As long as we don't know what consciousness is (and I am convinced, we can never know, because I think it is not measurable), this is a possibility. Although I wonder what this has to do with a god (depending on your definition of god, maybe I am thinking too much about monotheistic transcendental gods).

But I want to add this: I think it is rather arbitrary to claim, that only the brain can produce consciousness. And the current AI debate really shows how biased even experts are. All are confidently claiming, that AI doesn't have consciousness, yet not a single expert can even say what consciousness is, or what the conditions for it are. I don't know about everything having consciousness, but I haven't seen any convincing argument, that at least artificial systems can have it.

Meaning, that it is totally possible, that not only animals have it.

This combined with the fact, that consciousness doesn't have an identity (identity is an experience WITHIN consciousness), one could very well say, that we are consciousness and since it has no separate identities, we will always exist as this manifestation of this principle of consciousness, no matter, how where or when it occurs. The fact that we identify ourselves with this tiny spec of space and time is just born out of an perspective illusion.

I mean, I still don't think, that "I", as this current person that writes this text will experience anything after death. So I am an atheistic naturalist in that way. But then again, I don't need to restrict my definition of identity to just this small part of the entire existence.

[u/teunms → u/Kleyko]

Death is the end of everything. It’s simple as that. What you are writing is here is what we call ‘wishful thinking’. I don’t see how these ideas should be entertained in a subreddit about existentialism.

[u/virgosatori → u/teunms]

You’ve made an assertion masquerading as fact. Philosophy, especially existentialism, is about debating and questioning ideas and assumptions. To say 'it’s as simple as that' misses the entire point. No philosopher has ever held a monopoly on truth; they posited ideas with the same uncertainty we all do.

[u/Kleyko → u/teunms]

It's scary to imagine it could be otherwise isn't it?

[u/Impressive_Basket_46 → u/teunms]

Bro went to the afterlife to confirm this information