h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is funny how we (including myself) fear death. It is not a fact to be mourned. All that is created, all the comes into existence, must necessarily be removed from existence. We see that in man-kind as death. We come, and then we go. It happens to everyone, and it creates space for more people.

No biggie.

Except that for most people, they won't be around to see themselves be removed from existence, and therefore won't be able to appreciate it as an action of little consequence.

~~A~~

How come? You still KNOW what will happen; and once can find comfort in this knowledge. The details rest deeply in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy; I won't bother you with that.

Please do, I don't know thatm much Hindu philosophy!

~~A~~

One of the underlying principles in Hinduism is the idea that all of existence (specifically the universe) is created. It then exists for some time, and is then dissolved back into a homogenous material(there's a word for it; I forgot )
Every thing comes out and then goes back from where it came. We believe that every soul (or individual) has a choice before existing (physically), to come into birth or not to. Usually, our attachments to things (like ice-cream) force us to take birth in human form to experience those things. The law exists that all who are born, must die. Why do you cry about dying, when you yourself chose to be born?


Shaggy

Does it state whether you get to choose what you are born as? People born into third-world countries may not have had that choice...

~~A~~

Another aspect of this is Karma; which basically translates to if you do something good, you get good returns, if you do something bad, you get bad returns. It basically aligns with the law of cause and effect. Every action you commit in the present will cause some reaction in the future. Its like sowing crops; if you sow bad seed, you get bad crop. If, for example, during your lifetime, you peresecuted other people, you would find yourself in the same position sooner or later. "What we sow, we reap."

It sounds a little cruel to say that the people born in third world countries DESERVED to be born there, but its true in a way. It gets a little more complicated than that, but that's basically it.


Shaggy

But someone at the bottom of the human part of the cycle might not have enough money to live, and resorts to stealing or crime to survive. It becomes a downward spiral as they steal to live, and in the next life they are even lower, so they have to steal to live... etc.

~~A~~

I want to be down on record as protesting that the Third World countries are being used as garbage bins for sinners from the First World countries. This is religious racism is it not??

In fact it is the other way around....because of the physical torment people in third world countries suffer, they make great spiritual leaps and bounds into enlightenment. However, we in First World countries living in our miserable ease stagnate spiritually and likley are the ones on this downward spiral. The princes of earth are the paupers of heaven.........and vice versa.

I have realised that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves. There can be no such thing as death, it is only an illusion that we are seperate beings. We are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. God is love and love is all there is, and if that's all there is, there can be no opposite. So there is no need to be afraid.

i have a question...If God is love how come he made us have a brain? how come he made us all realize the fact that we die and let us experience all these horrible feelings such us death or your loved one's death? For people who belive in God, please answer me this question why do you love him so much if even by your religion we are sent here on Earth to be punished for something that Adam and Eve did? And why is God love if we most of our lives we suffer instead of enjoying things such us love, and if God made everything why would he make it so that when a person knows that the other person likes him/her, he/she doesn't like him/her anymore? I'm an atheist, but I just don't comprehend why people convice themselves to belive in God if they know that all they are doing is blocking reality from themselves and trying to deal with the fact of death.

i very much agree with that

I believe that "most" religions are a way for lazy people to get out of figuring things out for themselves.Thats just my opinion. Note that I am neither an atheist or Religious.

Not quite as extravegent as some other posts, but oh well.

I agree people are trying to avoid the problem of death by turning to religion, which really seems to have no factual backing what so ever. To this point I would also quote Karl Marx, the writer of the Communist Manifisto, who said, "religion is the opium of the masses." Opium being any drug that acts as a narcotic. This seems to be poetically true when we see the fact that drugs are just an escape from the fear of death as well as other things such as unemployment, depression, and the dictatorial figures in peoples' lives. We could talk about weither or not religion is a dictatorial figure or not, but I don't feel like it. I believe you don't need religion to not fear death, that can be easily obtained through logic. It goes something like this. You are born and you die. Your ancestors did it and you will too. So if there is an "after life" were all going there and we will have to stop calling it death, because death is the absence of life. We should call it assending or dessending, which ever you prefer. Dessending is more dramatically correct, because you do go into the ground, at least I have never seen someone float into the air, but who's to say gravity won't just stop doing it job someday. At any rate be glade that you will die someday for the following reasons: 1) You will be obeying the laws of nature 2) If you never kept up with the fads of the day, then this is one you can't pass up 3) People, who seemed to not care about you while you were alive, will for five minutes 4) Since God is supposed to be everything, then you will be become apart of him/her again, seeing as we were all just matter before we were alive 5) You don't know how you are going to die, so it not only makes life an adventure, but also give you a reason to get up in the morning and do your best at something, because this day might be your last.

hello there! i am completely terrified by the idea of death, which is why i suppress such thoughts most of the time. i am an agnostic, with extreme atheist tendencies. the only reason i'm agnostic is that i choose to take a maximally open-minded position. my extreme atheism can be characterized by my contention that the idea of God is about the same as the idea of Santa Claus, and the age-old, universal debate and contemplation about God's existence is just as absolutely preposterous as such a debate over the existence of Santa . therefore, i see death as the absolute cessation of existence. No consciousness. NOTHING. It is a state that is complete UNimaginable by ANYBODY. it is the same state as that before we are born. it is this unimaginable state of complete NON-existence that scares the sH!t out of me . My leading hypothesis about the creation of God is so humans don't have to face the reality of nonexistence after death. And, i am convinced that everybody who does NOT believe in an "Afterlife" must necessarily be terrified by the idea of death.
isn't this laughing face just adorable?

Hi

I do not believe in an afterlife, but neither am I scared of death. I don't want to die, at least not yet, but I aint 'terrified'.

And yes, the laughing face is adorable.

Hello Maniac!

do you believe in the absolute cessation of existence after death?
if so, would you say that your lack of terror stems from your effective suppression of such thoughts of ultimate non-existence?
i admit that i personally do not live in fear day in and day out, because i [like others] manage to focus on more mundane, everyday life issues, effectively blocking my ultimate demise out of the forefront of my consciousness. Plus, i'm only 30 yo, so i still have a long time to live. i imagine that the horror of death will be increasingly difficult for me to block out as i get older. but, i'm still almost certain that i won't resort to becoming religious at the last moment, as a defense mechanism .

hi, there! i totally dig your post and the apparent absurdity of believing in God as a senscient being who thinks like humans do [judges, punishes, rewards, etc.]. Preposterous beyond belief. . Totally outrageous. Sickening. i am not an atheist, but i have extreme atheist tendencies. i believe that God is just about as believable as the following: the keebler elves, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter Bunny; and certainly less believable than the Loch Ness monster.
And, i totally agree with your sentiment that everyone who believes in God is just trying to avoid the harsh and terrifying prospect of nonexistence after death. i, too, have been perplexed as to why all of these dumb f*cks don't seem to realize the mind tricks that are being played on them. those dumb @sses. i suppose they have pretty powerful defense mechanisms. plus, maybe they really ARE dumb f*cks.
anyways, how do you live day in and day out with the idea of ultimate non existence... that completely unimaginable state? i try to block it out and focus on mundane, every day stuff...

take it easy

ps: i want to send a big shout out to susan clark, whom i f*cking adore b/c she's totally hot and f*cking smart!
"HEY, SUSY!"

Steady on.

I am not religious as stated in a previous entry, but I know people that are and they are certainly not Dumb F*cks!
Far from it in fact.
I know very intelligent people with high flying careers who go to church once a week and belive in 'God'.
If they want to believe this, why not let them?
Their idea is only as incomprehensible as the big bang theory. After all, if there was such a bang, then where did all the stuff come from that went bang?
And where did that come from? and so on and so forth. Until we prove a theory, we can not judge each other on our beliefs can we.
So why not live and let live?
The world would be a much nicer place if we did.

Amanda