Do You Ever Worry About Where You Were Before You Were Born? If Not, Why Worry About After Death?

[timechained]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

 

[SchizoGymnast]

People in cultures where reincarnation is a pre-eminent belief actually do concern themselves with what happens before birth.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

Yeah it doesn't make sense to fear Non-existence. I didn't exist before I was born and I didn't have any problems any second of those 13.8 billion years before I was born

Very big problems began only after they birthed me into this evil world

1 second after my brain dies I'll return to the time before was i born but this time to forever Non-existence to never exist again

 

[Darkover]

thats just it there no way to prove or disprove whether we only have one life or many
i am not suggesting that we have a soul i am merely suggesting there no way of proving or disproving if you have live more than once
we know we came alive once before whats to say it could never happen again

 

[tpboy]

thats just it there no way to prove or disprove whether we only one life or many

pretty sure its already been proven

 

[darksouls]

I am afraid of being reborn
unfortunately I believe in reincarnation
that is why I often wondered what happened before my birth
but I cannot remember anything
I do not understand why I have these thoughts

 

[Darkover]

pretty sure its already been proven

There is no definitive scientific evidence proving we have more than one life — just strong reasoning it happened once before.
There is no definitive scientific evidence proving we only have one life either — just strong biological and neurological reasoning.

 

[tpboy]

There is no definitive scientific evidence proving we have more than one life — just strong reasoning it happened once before.
There is no definitive scientific evidence proving we only have one life either — just strong biological and neurological reasoning.

The issue is with the supernatural It cannot be proven and anything that is concerning afterlife, souls, spirits, ect is supernatural. It has been proven that a dead body has zero electrical impulses, So the question remains how a soul or spirit can exist after the body dies? What is left of you after death and how can that be possible?

I am afraid of being reborn
unfortunately I believe in reincarnation
that is why I often wondered what happened before my birth
but I cannot remember anything
I do not understand why I have these thoughts

most likely because you learned it somewhere. we are all athiest when we are born. this world passes down its beliefs to us from a early age on.

 

[Darkover]

The issue is with the supernatural It cannot be proven and anything that is concerning afterlife, souls, spirits, ect is supernatural. It has been proven that a dead body has zero electrical impulses, So the question remains how a soul or spirit can exist after the body dies? What is left of you after death and how can that be possible?

Is There Anything Left of You After Death?

No — not in any meaningful, scientific sense.

Your memories, thoughts, emotions, and identity are all bound to the structure and function of your brain.

Once the brain decays, you cease — just like a flame extinguished when fuel is gone. The atoms persist, but the pattern — the "you" — is erased.

No soul, no spirit, no continuity. Not unless some yet-undiscovered mechanism exists — and there is currently zero evidence for that.

So yes — you end. Entirely.

But Does the Universe End With You?

No — the universe continues, indifferent.

Galaxies keep spinning, stars keep exploding, and other conscious beings (human or otherwise) may still live, suffer, love, and die.

Even if you're gone, the potential for life — or even something like you — remains, so long as the universe continues to exist in a state that permits complexity.

The Potential for Life Continues — But Not Your Life

Let's be precise:

Your potential ends at death. You are a one-time phenomenon — a specific arrangement of matter and energy with a unique perspective that won't recur.

But life itself? Consciousness in general? The universe still has the raw materials to build new minds — if conditions are right.

So no, your death does not collapse reality or erase the possibility of others experiencing life.
the potential for life remains

 

[FuneralCry]

I could never fear death as I believe death to simply be non-existence, I'd just never wish for this torturous and futile existence where there is no limit as to how much agony one can feel, what I fear is existence, it terrifies me how one can suffer in this existence I always saw as a mistake for so long, for me non-existence really is the only peace. I'd just never wish for the abomination of existence that just causes harm and suffering until non-existence takes away all anyway, for me ceasing to exist would be the relief, all I hope for is to be unconscious for all eternity with all finally forgotten about but more than anything I wish I never suffered at all.

 

[SmilingNoMore]

The question makes me think that maybe we should worry about what happened before birth. If we had to get reborn somehow, then at least we would know something about what went wrong the last time and hopefully don't end up in the same hell again.

 

[Kbeau]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

EXACTLY!!!! Or remember anything before we were born. When we die, we die. That's it. No memories, no "regret" no nothing. You existed briefly and then you don't exist

 

[tpboy]

So yes — you end. Entirely.

Correct! That is why you can't continue to exist after you are dead.

 

[DTA]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

That's the source of my fear with karma. If I am paying back some sort of debt now with my shitty life in this hell, then I must've been a terrible person before. But all this 'payment' has done is create more negative karma! So how does one ever break the cycle?
Take someone like Hitler. He presumably wouldn't have been reincarnated into a good life, so he's left to spiral downward on and on.
Karma and reincarnation - if they exist - are broken systems. Or deliberately evil.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

most likely because you learned it somewhere. we are all athiest when we are born. this world passes down its beliefs to us from a early age on.

One Gazzilion percent this^

No one exists before some random sperm and egg get together to make you. What? Do some of you think there is some giant shelf, in some far, far away place, in some mystical "beings" warehouse, that has an infinite amount of "soul variations" of you, the right variation of which comes and inhabits your body, upon your creation, depending on whose sperm and egg, or which variation thereof, got together to create you?¿ Preposterous.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

I don't believe in reincarnation, so I don't ever think about shit like this. You only have one life and that is that. I think I would probably be considered more of a naturalist, though I don't have much in-depth knowledge of that philosophy so I might be wrong.

With that in mind, if we were to put aside my lack of belief in reincarnation (and the supernatural in general), why would someone be afraid of where they were before they were born? Whatever happened would have happened. It has already passed. It wouldn't make sense to fear before you were born, especially since you wouldn't even have any memory of then. By comparison, death is something that is inevitable and we could end up experiencing it at any moment. It's something that all of us will experience at some point in the future. We evolved to survive and reproduce and thus having an instinctual fear of death and an urge to avoid it as long as possible would have probably been favourable from an evoluntary perspective. Fearing where you were prior to being born, meanwhile, isn't going to do much for you in the evolutionary sense, so most people aren't going to be predisposed to worrying about stuff like that.

That's, of course, not even getting into the fact that a lot of people don't in believe in the idea of reincarnation/past lives. Meanwhile, death is something that we all believe in (because it's literally happening all around us), so of course you are going to have way more people worrying about stuff in regards to death.

 

[JesiBel]

No, because it doesn't make sense. You simply didn't exist, or you will cease to exist.

The idea of an afterlife/reincarnation is to calm people who fear death and disappearing forever.

Karma doesn't exist either, otherwise all kinds of bad things should happen to evil people, and that's not the case; paradoxically, they are the ones who have the best times in life.

For me, consciousness (soul/spirit/ego/myself.. whatever it's called) would be like another sense of all of us who are alive; when you die, it also ends.

After all, among all the religions that have existed until today... which one would have the ultimate Truth?

 

[Linda]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

Because before we were born we hadn't been indoctrinated with religious superstition. Fear of death makes no sense. (The process of dying may itself be unpleasant, for some people, but that's another matter.)

 

[kamyzyak]

There are some problems with this.
First, it is more natural to fear what will be or may be than to fear what has already been.

Second, the situation before your birth and after your death are not the same, since events have occurred—you were born and you existed. This does not necessarily imply the existence of an immortal soul, etc., but the identity "before birth = after death" is broken.

Third, it is impossible to determine whether you experienced existence before your birth or not, and the absence of memory of this is not a viable argument, at least because memory can be lost during life (childhood amnesia, trauma, illness, etc.), but this does not mean that you did not exist during the period that has been lost from memory.

 

[timechained]

There are some problems with this.
First, it is more natural to fear what will be or may be than to fear what has already been.

Second, the situation before your birth and after your death are not the same, since events have occurred—you were born and you existed. This does not necessarily imply the existence of an immortal soul, etc., but the identity "before birth = after death" is broken.

Third, it is impossible to determine whether you experienced existence before your birth or not, and the absence of memory of this is not a viable argument, at least because memory can be lost during life (childhood amnesia, trauma, illness, etc.), but this does not mean that you did not exist during the period that has been lost from memory.

First, trauma from past is just as impactful as fear of future.

Second, events i.e. life, occuring is irrelevant because we don't know what happens before or after. They are both non-life from our point of view of living - you didn't exist, you no longer will exist.

Third, the same goes for life after death.

I don't believe in reincarnation, so I don't ever think about shit like this. You only have one life and that is that. I think I would probably be considered more of a naturalist, though I don't have much in-depth knowledge of that philosophy so I might be wrong.

With that in mind, if we were to put aside my lack of belief in reincarnation (and the supernatural in general), why would someone be afraid of where they were before they were born? Whatever happened would have happened. It has already passed. It wouldn't make sense to fear before you were born, especially since you wouldn't even have any memory of then. By comparison, death is something that is inevitable and we could end up experiencing it at any moment. It's something that all of us will experience at some point in the future. We evolved to survive and reproduce and thus having an instinctual fear of death and an urge to avoid it as long as possible would have probably been favourable from an evoluntary perspective. Fearing where you were prior to being born, meanwhile, isn't going to do much for you in the evolutionary sense, so most people aren't going to be predisposed to worrying about stuff like that.

That's, of course, not even getting into the fact that a lot of people don't in believe in the idea of reincarnation/past lives. Meanwhile, death is something that we all believe in (because it's literally happening all around us), so of course you are going to have way more people worrying about stuff in regards to death.

To be fair ancient cultures were obsessed with before and after. I think it's only in our current age that we started to "believe" the opposite. I agree that for some people it's a comfort.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Because we've already experienced or rather, not experienced that. How can we compare a past event- that we've been through and vaguely understand to a future event, we haven't? How do we know for certain that pre-birth is the same state as post-death? The only thing those two states have in common is that we don't fully understand them. With pre-birth, we at least have the advantage of being able to remember (or, not remember as the case may be.)

I also like to hope they will be the same- simply non existence but, I don't think it really works as a definite conclusion- that pre-life is the same as post.

 

[overcastdays]

Why are we so afraid of after death but never fear anything from before we were born?

I guess it's because there isn't really a practical function of being afraid of what has already happened. Fear is a function of preventing the events that lead to certain undesirable outcomes from occurring. You can fear a similar outcome that has occurred in the past in that you want to prevent it from occurring again, but you don't fear things in the context of them being in the past. That's just my take on it though. There are many factors that can influence this opinion of course, but I don't really fear death, just the pain that comes before it, and the effects my death may have on the people around me.

 

[dearlydeparted44]

I don't worry about neither. I don't remember if there was a before this for me. I don't have any control over what happens after, or at least none that I know of. Death is inevitable. It's GOING to happen. Whether stick it out and die the "appropriate" way, as defined by humans, put it off, or die randomly, I am going to die. Worrying about it is not going to change it. It'd be pretty unfortunate for me to sit and worry about what's going to happen after I pull the trigger, only to walk outside and be hit by a car or a stray bullet or have a stroke and die. That'd be a bitch, and I'd have been stupid for worrying about what I'd miss most, or an end-of-life music list, and life just takes me out anyway. There is no "ready."

 

[timechained]

Because we've already experienced or rather, not experienced that. How can we compare a past event- that we've been through and vaguely understand to a future event, we haven't? How do we know for certain that pre-birth is the same state as post-death? The only thing those two states have in common is that we don't fully understand them. With pre-birth, we at least have the advantage of being able to remember (or, not remember as the case may be.)

I also like to hope they will be the same- simply non existence but, I don't think it really works as a definite conclusion- that pre-life is the same as post.

From our point of view it's a future event, but it might not be. We really don't know. What if birth is death and death is birth??

 

[Forever Sleep]

From our point of view it's a future event, but it might not be. We really don't know. What if birth is death and death is birth??

It could be- of course. It might not be too.