1. You cease to exist. Thus, there's neither eternal darkness nor eternal light -- it's the absence of your self-awareness. So in this case, you won't miss anything anymore.
2. Your "soul" reincarnate to another life, in which you have no past life's memory. However, in this scenario your self-awareness goes on, just not your past experiences. Is it possible that you'd reincarnate to the past instead of the future?
3. You go to heaven or hell and receive your eternal reward / punishment. Then you get to know what happens 10,000 years later, if you still care.
4. You wake up in another "life" and realizes that everything that had happened, your birth, life, and death, is just a dream, and how you measure time maybe entirely different in the "real world".
5. The world / universe / multiverse all cease to exist -- it's just a show in your mind and nothing besides you truly exists. "I think, therefore, I am", the only "thing" that I know to exist with a high degree of certainty. I "imagined" the rest and thus when the "self" dies, all else dies with it.
I don't know if it would be worse to realize you are utterly alone in the Universe like in #5, or to realize that all of reality is just an ignorant childish joke like in #3. The others don't seem so bad.
Francis Bacon is already dead..... no more bacon for you.
0 Replies
Angelgz2
1
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Thu 2 Jun, 2016 02:07 pm
@Angelgz2,
Hmm, interesting.... I am trying to grasp this Buddhist concept as in #1 but it's hard. Supposedly the absence of awareness is the ultimate escape and Buddhism teaches you shouldn't be scare of it. But still, aren't you afraid that your existence is just a speck in the grand scheme of things and eventually no one will know you ever existed?
aren't you afraid that your existence is just a speck
Then bacon and speck would simply fly away.
0 Replies
spooky24
1
Reply
Tue 7 Jun, 2016 06:12 am
@Angelgz2,
At this point I would recommend Milton. No one has ever deciphered his thoughts on the subject however #5 seems to fit.
He is like Cardinal Richelieu who believed that the 'real world' after death was a place of great 'divinity' so, I would say #4
The Prophet used the word 'divinity' as well with a different meaning of the word so here I would say#3.
0 Replies
evilsorcerer1
1
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Fri 18 Aug, 2017 07:04 pm
@Angelgz2,
It's hard to say. Because we are physical beings without a soul when we die we cease to exist. Then when each person who will ever be born has been all people will have to be resurrected. Some to live on a new everlasting earth in new everlasting bodies and some to live inside lava or a lake of fire. It all depends on how long the world goes on, but it will be no time to us because we have ceased to exist.
0 Replies
hightor
1
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Sat 19 Aug, 2017 06:27 pm
@Angelgz2,
Nos. 2, 3, 4, or 5 — any one of them — would be an extreme disappointment on a cosmic scale.
#1 is the only one that makes sense to me. Dead is dead.
The others don't scare me as much as some Stephen King does.
you are correct
0 Replies
brianjakub
2
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Sun 20 Aug, 2017 07:34 pm
@Angelgz2,
When I try to decide what something's purpose is, I look at what it was designed to do. Since humans are the only creatures we know of contemplating this question, maybe seeking the answer is our purpose.
Option 1 and 5 require no answer, so why bother thinking about them and have fun. Problem is, we all seem to wonder the same thing, suggesting, somebody built us to seek an answer. Whether that is true or not, we enjoy doing it so let's assume it is 2, 3, or 4 and see which fits the evidence we observe the best. If nothing else it will occupy our time while waiting for 1 or 5 to happen. Maybe we will discover the truth along the way.
0 Replies
Fil Albuquerque
2
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Mon 21 Aug, 2017 03:33 pm
@rosborne979,
rosborne979 wrote:
Angelgz2 wrote:
Which scenario scares you the most?
I don't know if it would be worse to realize you are utterly alone in the Universe like in #5, or to realize that all of reality is just an ignorant childish joke like in #3. The others don't seem so bad.
Nature is alone? Too much order, too much implied design. Too simplistic. It sure looks like somebody went through a lot of thoughtful planning so we can debate this topic today, to ignore that as a likely possibility. But, if YOU decide it's not a possibility, it more than likely won't become one. Why not join the majority. Maybe we are not as childish and ignorant as you thought. I don't think Thomas Aquinas was childish and ignorant.
I don't believe you. Would you casually kill someone that stood in your way if you new you wouldn't get caught?
0 Replies
Leadfoot
1
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Fri 25 Aug, 2017 07:32 am
@farmerman,
Quote:
pigs go extinct nd there is no more bacon.
Why do you care? They're off your diet anyway.
0 Replies
Leadfoot
1
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Fri 25 Aug, 2017 07:44 am
@rosborne979,
Quote:
to realize that all of reality is just an ignorant childish joke like in #3. The others don't seem so bad.
I'm curious. Just hypothetically, what is it about #3 that makes it an ignorant childish joke? Is it that it requires the existence of something greater than yourself? Or is that what actually makes it so scary? Would you really mind if it were true?
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