What reward do people think they’re going to get by pushing through and dying naturally?

[FTL.Wanderer]

Just something my dad used to tell me I was a kid n it's stuck in my head. Call it brainwashing or what have u but its there

I'm not religious, either, and I work hard to live as much in accordance with sound reasoning as I can, but like you, I can't escape my cultural history, the nagging fear that Christianity may turn out to be correct in some of its foundational arguments. And even though I'm ashamed to admit it, that's another big reason I haven't yet left.

 

[Mecha Man]

Since everybody seems to be talking about religion here, I might as well throw in some more of my own perspective.

No matter how you slice it when you take it down to the bare basics there's only two or three possibilities: That God exists and created the universe, or that he doesn't and the universe just came into being without any prior cause (or that it was just always there). All of these scenarios are, by all forms of logical reasoning, impossible.

I've long maintained that I believed that God exists and that there is an afterlife for us for the simple reason that I need to believe it to give my life meaning, and I've always thought that was a very weak foundation for a belief system: Believe in it because you want or need it to be true. But according to my psychiatrist, it is not weak or stupid. I'm not sure I understand why he feels that way, but I guess I just take his word for it. Whatever helps keep me sane, right?

 

[creatureoflight]

For many people, obviously it's religion. For many atheists and non spiritual people, I suppose it's the fact that they think that this life is all we have and they would rather live in misery than descend into the never ending darkness and nothingness of death.
It's very scary if you think about it.

 

[Dip]

It seems better to just end it

What most people don't know is that if you push through to the bitter end you actually get a little participation trophy and $5 gift certificate ^_^

 

[creatureoflight]

I don't get the reward of waiting to die with 90-in an old folk's home with diapers on and drooling as my kids feed me with a spoon. Who wants to live like this? i would rather die.

 

[MAIO]

It seems better to just end it

So your question is actually the main reason I am most likely going to take my life eventually. It sounds like you are at the point where you have rejected objective meaning. Nietzsche the man founded with creating nihilism thought as more and more people reject objective meaning(God) in the coming centuries there would be mass suicides evreywhere etc. Being the good pro life he was, he worked his entire life trying to prevent these mass suicides he believed were going to happen until he became insaine and spent the rest of his days in a mental hospital. These mass suicides never happened and ironically the religious have a slightly higher suicide rate. Philosophers have never answered the why continue question well, with all the majors philosophers stating suicide is a valid philosophical choice, it's reasonable in the eyes of philosophy. Basically the alternative is to just invent your own meaning, give into illusion, distract yourself with as much as possible to make yourself feel happy than die or in other words cellebrate illusion, blind yourself, giving something meaning that doesn't have meaning. The main issue in suicide is it's not getting a cup of coffee. It's very hard to do. You have to overpower the strongest instinct, survival

It seems better to just end it

 

[MAIO]

For many people, obviously it's religion. For many atheists and non spiritual people, I suppose it's the fact that they think that this life is all we have and they would rather live in misery than descend into the never ending darkness and nothingness of death.
It's very scary if you think about it.

I am not convinced cousiouness works the way you think it does. With some experts thinking the self is an illusion. All or atleast much of your brain is replaced multiple times throughout your life time. Even if neurons are not replaced, many of their internal molecules and atoms are, but it is usually done in an organized way so that functionality is not compromised. If I cut my skin, the cut skin is replaced by a copy of the skin. That part of you is dead forever. Likewise when part of your brain replaces itself, it's gone forever that part of you is dead forever. You have effectivly died or atleast mostly died already multiple times.(Evrey molecule in your brain most likely is replaced many times)