Ceasing to exist isn't scary to me. If you cease to exist, how would you know? You must exist in order to do anything or know anything.

I totally agree with Slickie.
When we die, I don't think that us (and looking like us) go anywhere.
The places called 'Heaven and Hell' are nowhere on the map, nothing is in the centre of the earth so how is hell below? And also, if we were going there, how could we get there?
Our brains do not use their whole ability and human's are not intelligent enough to figure these things out.
I believe we just end, and never exist again.

In a way, you could consider life as reincarnation.
However it can't ever be proved as you as a person/soul cannot have another life and remember the last. We would not be re-incarnated as 'us' would be a completely new person and we wouldn't be continuing a life into the next life.
People dying and being born could be said to be re-incarnating, but it wouldn't be any different from being two different people.

It's not that I think we do cease to exist, I'm just not afraid of that. Some part of me wants to believe that I do go on living. However I would rather stop existing than go somewhere as boring as heaven or as horrible as hell.
If you think about it, heaven is rediculous. Eternal paradise? If everything is always good, how do you enjoy it? You have to feel bad in order to feel good. same thing with hell. You have to feel good in order to feel bad. It is the balance.

I think that when people claim there is something that happens after you die, they are only saying that to try to make death more acceptable and less feared.

I'd like to think that i'm more than a fleshy organism that is useless of anything besides reproducing my own species. I like the idea of having a purpose. But obviously if I stop existing, I won't be terribly dissapointed:mrgreen:

Originally Posted by slickie

I'd like to think that i'm more than a fleshy organism that is useless of anything besides reproducing my own species. I like the idea of having a purpose. But obviously if I stop existing, I won't be terribly dissapointed:mrgreen:

-Points up to her post above your's- thats exactly what I'm talking about. People create a place for them to be after death to get through with the fact that they are just going to die and that be it. Its fear that heaven and hell derived from.

Originally Posted by Oukan

-Points up to her post above your's- thats exactly what I'm talking about. People create a place for them to be after death to get through with the fact that they are just going to die and that be it. Its fear that heaven and hell derived from.

no, actually I'm not "creating a place" out of fear. If you read MY above post I state that I am not afraid of the unknown. I am just a somewhat spiritual person, not out of fear, but out of self worth.

well, in my religion I know that we ALL will die, and we all be separated according to our actions,not believing that there is a god and that those beautiful things we have and should try hard enough to keep and save were made by anything else is kind of strange to me, I read Quran and I am 100% sure that people will go heaven or hell according to their actions and what they do bad in life.
edit:
answering lunanuova doubts about heaven and hell existence:
God created us to test us, and he created 2 places for us to go after we die, heaven and hell, and no one says the exist just to make the people less fearful of dying, people SHOULD be fearful of dying, specially when they know they have done something bad, even if you don't believe in heaven or hell, you always are scared that something bad may happen to you after dieing.

I have never really tried to put a final statement on what I believe death is.
I believe that humans only know a very small percentage about what life actually is, much less death.
What I care more about, than where I go after death, is how I die.
If I could choose (which no one can) I'd like to peacefully sleep in, with my family and loved ones around me. If I have to die a violent way I just hope it will be quick... I am not much for pain....

But it will probably show up to be just a pitch black something, death...
But until I die, I won't be able to know (obviously)