If you are afraid of non-existence, why is this so?

@JLNobody,

One who believes in an afterlife may still conceive an idea of non-existence.

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

In that context, the label we put on such a creature (caterpillar) does not die when it changes into it's next phase in life (butterfly). It's life is non-existant when the butterfy dies, or equally, the caterpillars life is non-existant if it happens to die before metamorphisis. But it depends on what you mean when you say 'does not exist'. I feel this may end up like the 'does nothing exist' thread.

1 Reply

@Procrustes,

Procrustes wrote:

In that context, the label we put on such a creature (caterpillar) does not die
when it changes into it's next phase in life (butterfly). It's life is non-existant when the butterfy dies,

Y do u believe that he or she dies ?

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I don't, it's just a word to describe the state of a body.

1 Reply

@Procrustes,

I think believing in an afterlife seriously devalues life. Especially if an afterlife is infinitely long. It makes life infinitely close to nothing by comparison. Nice to wish for, but a childish fantasy.

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@dlowan,

oh I know, I won't be able to give a damn, then.

But now it matters, big time.

1 Reply

@Eorl,

I never saw you as a Hobbit man.

1 Reply

@dlowan,

Oh sure. Fan as an early teen. Was highly skeptical the films would be worth the effort. Very wrong!

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@JLNobody,

JLNobody wrote:

You don't consider the idea of non-existence and the idea of death to be (at least roughly) synonymous?

No, not necessarily.

More to the point though I was suggesting that the abstract concept of non-existence is in my experience a good deal more palatable to most people than the real, palpable prospect of their death.

1 Reply

One thing which could frighten me right now is the idea of non-existence without death. I'd rather be dead than to be alive and to "not be there."

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@Eorl,

I didn't say that I believe in an afterlife. I just don't know where 'you' go after death.

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@Procrustes,

Sorry, didn't mean to suggest anything about your post. I should have used the reply-all button.

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@georgeob1,

JLNobody wrote:

You don't consider the idea of non-existence and the idea of death to be (at least roughly) synonymous?

georgeob1 wrote:

No, not necessarily.

More to the point though I was suggesting that the abstract concept of non-existence is in my experience a good deal more palatable to most people than the real, palpable prospect of their death.

Do u have in mind the deaths of their human bodies??

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@Setanta,

Set, I know I don't have to repeat this again to you, but here goes: I am biologically and biographically alive, but "I" am also non-existent in the Buddhist sense of anatman (no-self or no-agent-of-existence). (and, of course--as I see it--so are you)

0 Replies

If you are afraid of non-existence, why is this so?

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