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Author Topic:   Immortality
nator
Member (Idle past 2170 days)
Posts: 12961
From: Ann Arbor
Joined: 12-09-2001


Message 8 of 30 (37317)
04-19-2003 10:16 AM
Reply to: Message 3 by Gzus
04-18-2003 3:10 PM


quote:
Terrifying, yes, in fact I find it so soul destroying that i would much rather spend an eternity in the fiery recesses of Hell than have my existence stolen from me. To cease to exist all together is to have everything that you have ever thought or felt made meaningless.
People might say, 'but others will remember you'. But what use is that if I am unable to experience that comfort? We live quite pathetic and inevitably doomed lives, spent in anticipation of our eventual demise. Some may say there is an afterlife, I would prefer not to subscribe to such fanciful notions.
Wow, you do have problems, don't you?
As an Agnostic, I don't seem to have such problems. I don't know, I don't think there's any way of knowing, so there's no use in tying myself up in knots about it.
Maybe it would help if you made sure to have as positive an impact as you can while you are here on earth.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 3 by Gzus, posted 04-18-2003 3:10 PM Gzus has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 9 by Gzus, posted 04-19-2003 2:21 PM nator has replied

  
nator
Member (Idle past 2170 days)
Posts: 12961
From: Ann Arbor
Joined: 12-09-2001


Message 11 of 30 (37382)
04-20-2003 8:55 AM
Reply to: Message 9 by Gzus
04-19-2003 2:21 PM


quote:
Admittedly yes. It's just that i find the concept of non-existence so incomprehensible that it scares the hell out of me. I just can't imagine not existing [quite an absurd exercise, i know]. I keep on telling myself, it doesn't really matter, but there's this little voice in the back of my head saying 'NOOOooooo! I want to LIVE! I don't want to die!' It really is that simple, I want to live forever. I think we all feel this to some extent.
Of course we all feel scared in this way. We are built and wired to want to live, and to reproduce.
I actually don't want to live forever, though.
quote:
The problem with this, I find, is that 'earth' and the reality that I perceive only has meaning if 'I' am around to perceive it, since my view of the universe is unique and special just as any other's. If i am no longer, then I will not experience the comfort of knowing that I have made a positive impact on the world that I have perceived.
Technically, since you can only perceive the Earth through your unique perspective, you can never actually know how others perceive your impact on them, since you can never, by definition, know anything outside your own perception.
If I've got it right, that is one self-absorbed phnilosophy of existence.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 9 by Gzus, posted 04-19-2003 2:21 PM Gzus has not replied

  
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