Is Death the End?

Pad, i feel as if death is the end... because when you look at the universe, and what we humans have been able to figure out about the universe, it tells us over and over again... that nothing lasts forever, that everything is in a constant flux of change, and at the heart of change is decay and degradation. Because there is no viable evidence pertaining to existence beyond death.... and all evidence points to it being the end, my default position is the idea that when i die, i will cease to exist.

I cannot be certain of this, as i cannot really be certain of anything... but when emotions are put to the side, and i listen to reason and logic... all signs point to death being the end. Because of this, i still hold onto the idea that when i die i will cease to exist... but if i am to be completely honest with myself, i cannot be certain.

Which is exactly why i only have ideas with the closest approximations to the truth, rather than beliefs which hold claim to truth.

Originally Posted by DaSprout

There are actually answers to you questions all around us. You just need to be able to accept them. But, in my opinion. I believe that death is not the end. It is only the end of life as we know it (in our bodies) and the beginning of a whole new experience all together. It would be really depressing to think that this world was just "it". Wouldn't it?

i second that

Yes.......

Originally Posted by Zaehet Strife

Pad, i feel as if death is the end... because when you look at the universe, and what we humans have been able to figure out about the universe, it tells us over and over again... that nothing lasts forever, that everything is in a constant flux of change, and at the heart of change is decay and degradation. Because there is no viable evidence pertaining to existence beyond death.... and all evidence points to it being the end, my default position is the idea that when i die, i will cease to exist.

I cannot be certain of this, as i cannot really be certain of anything... but when emotions are put to the side, and i listen to reason and logic... all signs point to death being the end. Because of this, i still hold onto the idea that when i die i will cease to exist... but if i am to be completely honest with myself, i cannot be certain.

Which is exactly why i only have ideas with the closest approximations to the truth, rather than beliefs which hold claim to truth.

If you look at the universe, it tells us that nothing is every actually destroyed, but recycled or broken down. This is also describing matter, and your own consciousness and awareness are not matter, but the awareness of matter. When that consciousness leaves the body, it starts to rot.

"our own consciousness and awareness are not matter"

What are they?

What is "the awareness of matter"? What does that mean?

Doesn't consciousness and awareness have to be something tangible, even if it's simply a combination of chemicals inside our brains that is enabling us to experience a certain thought or emotion? We might just not be aware of it, but hypothetically, that's what it could be, right?

What if you pass on your conscious thoughts to other individuals throughout your lifetime? Don't they 'live on', in that kind of sense?

Originally Posted by Zaehet Strife

Which is exactly why i only have ideas with the closest approximations to the truth, rather than beliefs which hold claim to truth.

No one will ever be able to tell us the truth so we might as well live it up.

"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astounding universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy."
- Carl Sagan

In other words take a damn good look while you can, we will most likely not be in this universe when we are dead.
Unless there is a fps-game-like-spawn-point somewhere way out there in the distant reaches of the cosmos, but I doubt it.
There are endless possibilities of what might happen to us when we die, but no point thinking about the because when it happens it happens and
the time we spend on this useless conversation is wasted when could be seeing this astounding universe.

Originally Posted by Padawanbater2

Doesn't consciousness and awareness have to be something tangible, even if it's simply a combination of chemicals inside our brains that is enabling us to experience a certain thought or emotion? We might just not be aware of it, but hypothetically, that's what it could be, right?

We are beings of chemicals, we are carbon life forms with carbon brains that process thought and consciousness and awareness.
Our brains are made of matter and our thoughts are produced through matter so our consciousness must be an altered state of matter right?
Entirely tangible, but maybe not on our level.
We don't have awareness of matter, matter has awareness of matter and we just simply perceive it for what it is.
Life doesn't have to exist for matter to exist, we are irrelevant to what matter really is.
We exist of matter, matter doesn't exist of us.

We live only once ,as we are,Body, mind and indentity.Dont waste it in fear of ending someday,death is as natural as life.We cant comprehend if there ever was a purpose or a why to this experience,What Im saying is that we are aware of life/death on so many levels,to understand we will be here for a short time in the grand picture of existence and live with the contemplation of mortality from time to time invites a feeling of awe and respect to living.The wondering/pondering of why we are so aware of this chance to be alive and breathing brings refreshment of that awe to me.Death is another form of this infinite change or change itself could be seen as the essence of death and rearrangement we see in the universe never ending something indefinetly.Its only natural to not want to end,but to not end or change is unnatural.Peaceful change is the way i like to perceive death,Maybe more people can see it that way in the future.