Question of Opinion...

If you keep up with my journal, you know already that life has been pretty hard to handle these days. Suicidal tendancies and waves of rage that keep coming. The thought that plauges me is this.....

I ask you the reader, IF, there truly is NO God, or Savior, or life after death, and when we die, we simply die into blank non-existance. What in the hell is the point of coping with the pain of life anyways? If there is no reward to it in the end. Only non-existance....

The simple answers would be love, hope, reproduction...ect... But how is any of this relevant when your dead. All these great things that happened to you in your life, and all these great things you did, mean nothing to you. Because your simply not existing.

I have had the mindset of an athiest l8ly, how do you cope with it? How does one get up every morning knowing his life is meaningless.


If there truly are no continues. Game Over.

I think about things like this all the time

What if when we die, we cease to exist, no afterlife, no second level of conciousness, nothing...

All I tell you, and this I tell myself, is that to take in every moment of this life, savor it and try to make as big of an impact in life and in lives of others....

Some people live without living, making it more like surviving.

I say take the time to savor these moments...
Stop and smell the roses....

Try and put as much happyness as you can, no matter how down you or others get....

You are not your body. You are not your mind. You have always been here. You will always be here. The 1st law of thermodynamics states that, basically, nothing can actually be created or destroyed, merely converted into different forms. I know deep down this is as true of consciousness as it is of everything else. It's like the old buddhist proverb about the wave in the ocean who fears crashing on the beach. If he sees himself as a wave he is terrified. But he is actually WATER. Once he realizes that, there is no fear. So it goes with matter, energy and consciousness. Ego makes us feel seperate, even though we are only a imperminent slice of the universal whole. This isn't religion or philosophy, it's just how it is. Just do your job, and worry about nothing. There aren't any ends any more then there are any beginnings.

Peace Dr Toker.

Dr Toker,

Wow man!!! I prefer not to think about this, more when NO ONE can say what will happen after death. Now what, i'll just enjoy my life the best i can. Girls, computers, sports, parties, fun... and work because i don't want to die yet and i need the money to eat and dress my self... and to have fun too!!!

Bye.

Dr. Toker, I've read your journal and have seen the pain you've expressed through verse. I am a religious person and won't argue or comment on religion. But the pain you speak of....it passes. It really does. Sometimes things can be so painful and we can be so close to the subject that we can't see it for what it really is...clearly, and objectively. The important thing to know is that NOTHING is worth giving up on life. These "painful" situations...even the ones that seem to go on and on are only temporary. The pain will pass.

Quote:

---

[1] The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
[2] Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
[3] What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
[4] One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
[5] The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
[6 ] The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
[7 ] All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
[8] All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
[9 ] The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

---

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/k...1&byte=2546945

I used to sit in the dark hours of the night, coming down from
an acid trip, exhausted, looking at the vanity of life and
wondering the same as you.

If there is no ultimate meaning, it really is an icy cold
eternal night, alone.

It is one thing for a man of faith to struggle with his doubts
and fears, and another thing entirely to hate and reject the
creator. You have my prayers, man.
:cool:

Hey Dr. Toker, I'm not really a religious person. The only time I go to church is on Christmas. The only reason why I want to live longer is because...well, to have fun. In essence, life is all about enjoying the short time you have on this green earth. I was lucky enough to be born so I am taking advantage of it and enjoying every minute of it.

life is life, it is what you make of it. regardless of whats after, jsut enjoy life while its here, youll know in time, everyone dies.

Deep subject matter here Dr Toker. Life after death? No way to prove or disprove either which makes it obvious as to why religion is based on faith and beliefs. As doctorf00bar pointed out, nothing can be created or destroyed (as we understand physics), and energy falls into this catagory also. While we as humans are technically a collection of minerals and water (our basic components), we also host energy. We see, we think, we feel....all because of electrical impulses that course through our bodies powering our nervous systems, generating and processing thoughts in our brains. When we die, that energy doesn't just disappear...it does not cease to exist.

I do have religious beliefs, but I'm not going to air them here. I will say that I can reconcile my religious side and my scientific side though. I tend to equate our existence here on this earth with the life cycle of the butterfly. The larval stage would be likened to being a fetus in the womb, then birth moves us into a "caterpillar" state where we grow and develop into adults. Death then becomes the cocoon from which we emerge for the next stage of existence as a "butterfly", so to speak. Sound far fetched? Maybe so...blame it on whatever you choose, but its the point of view that I have....nothing about our universe is random....not even the chaos theory. Everything and everyone has a place and a purpose.

Dr Toker, you just keep on keepin' on....the pain and angst you feel today makes you into a better person tomorrow. In the future you may well be able to assist someone who is going thru circumstances not unlike your own because you've been there yourself. And IF you do something like that, you do achieve a sort of immortality...if you can help bring a positive change and make a difference in the life of one person, then you affect their entire lineage from that point forward. As an example....by talking one person thru a suicidal episode, you might facilitate the birth of a great leader sometime in the future who would have never existed if that person had not lived.

I'm done rambling on now.....I hope that someone finds this helpful. and if someone reads this and laughs, thinking that Al is crazy as a loon, thats fine too....I made them smile, so I made a difference. ;)


<edit> Suicide is nothing more than a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Im deeply into spiritualism , and i think i know the answer, the theory that i believe.
A similiar thread i had posted in an MSN group, where i had got a very vague, or lets say , undecipherable answer. I dont know if the person was trying to act very smart or what , but i didnt understand what the hell was happening. Typing my viewpoint is going to take time, i will though.

Here's the link for now :


http://groups.msn.com/TheSpiritsRoom..._Message=14103