Discussion Is anyone else afraid of the afterlife?

[favourite]

Being dead doesn't differ very much from being unborn, and I don't have bad memories of the times when I wasn't even conceived.
But we are wired - both biologically and socially - to be afraid of the great unknown. My head hurts when I think about it

 

[throwaway123]

I wish I could say that I'm not afraid of death but I am. I am afraid of hell/reincarnation or whatever comes after it.
I know I shouldn't be scared but it feels like I'm just not ready to go.

 

[Righttodie]

I'm an atheist and don't believe there is anything after death. I find it more plausible that the concept of hell was invented by people in positions of power to control their subordinates, rather than out of divine revelation.

And yet I'm still mortified of going to hell and being punished for commiting suicide or for leaving a hurtful suicide note (for people who deserve it).

I deeply believe that hell doesn't exist and I'm still scared of going there after I die. Does anyone feel the same? Anyone scared of hell even though they don't believe in it? (or reincarnation or whatever)

Not scared. It's gonna come anyway, whatever is to come.
What was before ? Nothing. What will be after ? Possibly nothing.

It's such a small period of time, what we call life, when you compare it to the length of time before you were born and th length of time after you will die.
Millions of years have went by without me having any conscious idea of it, I am guessing the same is to come ahead.

Nothingness. Scary, of course. But it's nothing. And nothing can be everything, for me it's the sweet deliverance that I crave.

Everyone will meet their end.
I just look at it rationally, whether to continue suffering or ending things which are bound to end anyway.
I simply choose the latter.

 

[Forest Fire]

I was really unwell a few years ago to the point where I believed I died or was extremely close to doing so. I ended up in a hellish place and was given a choice of whether I lived or died in that moment. In my mind it's 50/50 whether it was a mad hallucination or I actually was on the verge of being condemned to hell. Up until the past year or so I was convinced I actually saw hell and it affected my life in many ways.
It's the main (but not only) reason I've not killed myself yet. I was open minded about the possibility of an after life before this experience but i'm not and never have been religious in any way.

 

[DreamCatcher]

I'm an atheist and don't believe there is anything after death. I find it more plausible that the concept of hell was invented by people in positions of power to control their subordinates, rather than out of divine revelation.

And yet I'm still mortified of going to hell and being punished for commiting suicide or for leaving a hurtful suicide note (for people who deserve it).

I deeply believe that hell doesn't exist and I'm still scared of going there after I die. Does anyone feel the same? Anyone scared of hell even though they don't believe in it? (or reincarnation or whatever)

Nope I don't believe there is a realm designed for suffering other than this one. Whatever comes afterwards has to be better. And if it isn't I'm sure we can CTB out of there too!

Tear down the entire reasoning behind a "hell" and look at it logically. There isn't any proof of any such thing, unless you want to trust a millennium or two old work of creative fiction over science and logic.

 

[ish]

Hello, I am new here, although I have been browsing your forum for a long time, in this thread I would like to post two thoughts found on the internet:


1."Suicide - a curiosity ... the organism "by itself" - means "the genetic program" leads to suicide - and this is '' natural ''. But when the mind, not the properties of DNA, want to end the 'action' of its body - it is not natural anymore ...?"

2."By shaking the whisper of inspiring superstitions, common sense tells us
that life (of man) is only weak weak light between two perfectly black eternities.
There is no difference in their blackness, but we tend to look at the abyss of the pre-consciousness
with less embarrassment than the one to which we fly with speed
four thousand five hundred heartbeats per hour. "

 

[Rollinggirl]

I am more afraid of this life right now than the afterlife, to give a shit about the afterlife

 

[Codieb1]

Hell, even though very negative, our brain wants to just believe that there is some kind of existence after it stops working. It doesn't know how to comprehend reality and consciousness beyond its own existence. That's survival instinct. I can say with full certainty there's nothing to worry about, death is just incomprehensible pure nothingness.

 

[Final Escape]

Ask for forgiveness for all your past sins before you ctb so you can go out with a clear concience. Go to confession lol! I'm just suggesting what might help ease this feeling. Then the only sin was suicide. I think having this fear makes me think that there's a God. Just because I know I've done evil immoral acts in my life.