A dead uncertainty

(theinspirationroom.com)

What do you believe happens after we die?

I am not after a big religious discussion here.

I just want to hear what people believe is waiting for us on the other side.

Anything?

Nothing?

I have a severe fear of death.

Natural enough, yes.

But if I start to think it through;

the idea that with death comes nothing...for ever and ever..it is just the complete and utter end...

I get chills and sweats and really don't cope.

I was brought up with religion until my mid-teenage years.

I still have some beliefs.

Those Catholics do a good job ;)

But I don't have a real faith anymore.

I have a scientific background from my studies.

I find it really hard to grasp the concept of anything that isn't material or proven.

So such a spiritual idea as Heaven is a bit hard for me to accept.

(Then I have this whole practical issue with living with all your ex-partners or spouses, in-laws for all eternity.

Don't get me started on that as a design flaw)

I have a friend, also in her 40s, who is nothing if not pragmatic.
She believes that she will be ready to die when she is older.

That once the quality of life has gone, so then she should go too.

What gives her the strength to calmly and rationally accept this?

Not faith.

She has no religious beliefs and no belief in anything on offer once you have taken your last breath.

She just feels that once you are dead, it wont worry you anymore.

Another friend fears living forever.

He has the same chills and sweats thinking about that

as I do thinking about death.

But boy, do I envy people who have faith.

Not specifically in Christianity.

But a faith none-the-less.

A faith that gives them the ability to take life as it comes and run with it.

A faith that makes them feel supported and comforted.

A faith that helps them believe that everything happens for a reason.

I feel more and more fragile as I get older

and especially since I have become a parent.

I can't say I find the "Walt-Disney-freeze-your-head"

eternity option appealling

but I would like to believe in something.

I do have frequent periods of deja-vu.

Combine that with a pretty lucky life so far

and, if nothing else,

I hope for a repeat cycling through of my life as it is.

(Granted, maybe I just watch too much Dr Who)

Of course, then my scientific side kicks in with the theories of

what your brain is doing to cause deja-vu

and poof! That idea disappears in a puff of logic.
(see footnote below)

But I want to believe in something.

Cause the other option just scares me beyond belief.

(ascocarhire.com)

Footnote:
All of which reminds me...

does anyone else love Douglas Adams?

"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the nonexistence of God.

The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

"But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves that you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing"

 

(Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)