For me personally, death does not scare me as much as the unknown that follows proceeding death. Any number of things could be true, and all of the plausible outcomes seem unpreferable in their own ways from where I stand. Our births and the conscious entities we were forced to inhabit are inexplicably complicated, so to write life as a one-off doesn't sit right with me.
Reincarnation, permanent cessation, and a possible God entity are all terrifying to me in their own ways. I'll go down the list and the reasons on why they unsettle me so much next. Bear in mind these are all just my opinions, and this is purely speculation on my part.
A: Reincarnation.
If reincarnation is true, which I personally find to be one of the more plausible explanations, then insignificance is the least of your concerns. Rerolling as an even worse, even more intolerable lifeform is not only possible, but very plausible given enough time. You will have to restart from 0 and suffer through all of life's painful "lessons" again and again, and that's assuming you're even reincarnated as something resembling human. You may be reincarnated as a chicken, only to live your entire life in a 2x2 cage. What scares me is that this might be one of the tamer existences in an infinite timeline.
B: Permanent Cessation.
This is probably one of the more preferable outcomes, a "lesser evil." But even this is flawed in its own implications. Nothing anyone does here not only doesn't matter, but all the Hitlers and all the Pol Pots of the world will meet the exact same fate as the child who just starved to death in Africa. Something about this just doesn't sit right with me... but maybe that's just me. Justice is essentially a farce in either outcome, although at least this one gives some form of final closure I suppose.
C: God entity.
This is one of the more terrifying theories to me. Whatever it is, if it exists, I have serious doubts about its integrity. It is either incapable of or it simply chooses not to give a single damn about our suffering. I think if such an entity exists, we are either unintentional byproducts of its creation, or we are its toys designed specifically to disract it from its own hellish cage.
Of course, there are other possible motives to this theoretical God, and I think the more purely malevolent ones can be ruled out. If it was purely fed on our suffering, then why not create all entities for the simple reason of experiencing the utmost possible pain 24/7? That goes both ways however, ruling out benevolence, at the very least on the surface.
What I find more plausible, and what unsettles me about this so-called "God" is that if we "return" to this source after death, then we may just be trading whatever entrapment we experience here for another form. I think it's not entirely incoherent to muse that it too may have been forced into existence against its own will. We may be byproducts of its consciousness experiencing itself.
In the end, nobody can truly say what existence is nor what death entails. These are simply my own inferences about the possible outcomes, and rather pessimistic ones at that. It's not that my existentialism outweighs survival instinct entirely, but it certainly does make me pause at the sheer scale of possibilities. I'm not implying that my fears should ouweigh ones desire for death either, only that they make treating it casually feel dishonest for me personally.
I'd love to hear it from y'all: How do you personally reconcile with death's uncertainty?
Reincarnation, permanent cessation, and a possible God entity are all terrifying to me in their own ways. I'll go down the list and the reasons on why they unsettle me so much next. Bear in mind these are all just my opinions, and this is purely speculation on my part.
A: Reincarnation.
If reincarnation is true, which I personally find to be one of the more plausible explanations, then insignificance is the least of your concerns. Rerolling as an even worse, even more intolerable lifeform is not only possible, but very plausible given enough time. You will have to restart from 0 and suffer through all of life's painful "lessons" again and again, and that's assuming you're even reincarnated as something resembling human. You may be reincarnated as a chicken, only to live your entire life in a 2x2 cage. What scares me is that this might be one of the tamer existences in an infinite timeline.
B: Permanent Cessation.
This is probably one of the more preferable outcomes, a "lesser evil." But even this is flawed in its own implications. Nothing anyone does here not only doesn't matter, but all the Hitlers and all the Pol Pots of the world will meet the exact same fate as the child who just starved to death in Africa. Something about this just doesn't sit right with me... but maybe that's just me. Justice is essentially a farce in either outcome, although at least this one gives some form of final closure I suppose.
C: God entity.
This is one of the more terrifying theories to me. Whatever it is, if it exists, I have serious doubts about its integrity. It is either incapable of or it simply chooses not to give a single damn about our suffering. I think if such an entity exists, we are either unintentional byproducts of its creation, or we are its toys designed specifically to disract it from its own hellish cage.
Of course, there are other possible motives to this theoretical God, and I think the more purely malevolent ones can be ruled out. If it was purely fed on our suffering, then why not create all entities for the simple reason of experiencing the utmost possible pain 24/7? That goes both ways however, ruling out benevolence, at the very least on the surface.
What I find more plausible, and what unsettles me about this so-called "God" is that if we "return" to this source after death, then we may just be trading whatever entrapment we experience here for another form. I think it's not entirely incoherent to muse that it too may have been forced into existence against its own will. We may be byproducts of its consciousness experiencing itself.
In the end, nobody can truly say what existence is nor what death entails. These are simply my own inferences about the possible outcomes, and rather pessimistic ones at that. It's not that my existentialism outweighs survival instinct entirely, but it certainly does make me pause at the sheer scale of possibilities. I'm not implying that my fears should ouweigh ones desire for death either, only that they make treating it casually feel dishonest for me personally.
I'd love to hear it from y'all: How do you personally reconcile with death's uncertainty?
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