A thread about DEATH for non-Christians

[rookie]

I am curious about what non-Christians of all persuasions (please all religions and all non-believers) think about death.

 

What is it?

Why does it happen?

What does it mean?

What, if anything, happens after?

What is its significance?

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

What rituals do you practice at a death?

 

I do not wish to offend Christians by asking for only non-Christian beliefs/thoughts, it's just that I already know all about the Christian position on this subject.

 

Thanks.

[Melissa in Australia]

Well I am a christian, just not mainstream ( and not practicing), and I believe when you die, You cease to be, you turn into dust, and are basically compost.

[Sarah CB]

Before I became a Christian, I thought that when you died that was it. Like stepping on an ant. I looked at it as a purely biological and natural process - eventually something wore out or went wrong with the body (or it met with an untimely accident) and the person died. I believed that when you were dead there was no part of you that carried on.

[Mejane]

Agnostic here. I think when the brain ceases to function and neurons cease firing, we are gone. No spirit, no soul... it's like a machine running down. I believe in organ donation and cremation, and I hate traditional funerals. I plan to have a party to celebrate the life of my loved ones and expect them to do the same (we've talked about it.)

 

I'm not afraid to die; I think it will be like going to sleep: you don't remember doing it, then you wake up. With death, you just don't have that awakening. Suits me. :001_smile:

[keptwoman]

I think death is death, part of the circle of life. Nothing to be afraid of.

I don't know what happens afterward, no idea.

I am also a funeral hater, OTT eulogies and making people who are holding back tears sing hymns, it's torture. Blerk. I like wakes.

[Cindyz]

I think everything is a form of energy and when we die, our energy is released back into the universe and becomes other things. I don't believe there is consciousness after death...we just cease to be as we were.

[dancer67]

I am SO SO glad someone asked this question!

 

Do you think that as an atheist/agnostic/non-believer that when you die, it feels like before you were born? Just nothing?

 

What about reincarnation. I was wondering f anyone believed that this is the only time you have ever been alive on earth?

[pooh bear]

Agnostic here. I think when the brain ceases to function and neurons cease firing, we are gone. No spirit, no soul... it's like a machine running down. I believe in organ donation and cremation, and I hate traditional funerals. I plan to have a party to celebrate the life of my loved ones and expect them to do the same (we've talked about it.)

 

I'm not afraid to die; I think it will be like going to sleep: you don't remember doing it, then you wake up. With death, you just don't have that awakening. Suits me. :001_smile:

 

These are my thoughts as well, except I'm an atheist.

 

I've let all my family know that I am not to be buried, and where they should scatter my ashes.

[OlgaLA]

I am an agnostic and I don't know :) Due to some personal experiences I find it hard to believe that once we are dead, there is nothing left. However, what exactly is left is beyond my understanding.

[Laura Corin]

 

What is it? The machine we call our body wears out

Why does it happen? As above

What does it mean? No particular meaning

What, if anything, happens after? Decay

What is its significance? Emotional for those around; no other significance

How does your belief make you feel about your own death? I want to live in such a way that I can accept death when it comes. My father was an excellent example to me.

What rituals do you practice at a death? My father had a non-religious green burial. I don't know what I will choose.

 

I'm on the atheist end of agnostic.

 

 

Laura

[Carrie12345]

"What is it? The machine we call our body wears out

Why does it happen? As above

What does it mean? No particular meaning

What, if anything, happens after? Decay

What is its significance? Emotional for those around; no other significance

How does your belief make you feel about your own death? I want to live in such a way that I can accept death when it comes."

 

Ditto!

 

What rituals do you practice at a death? I've never "thrown" a secular funeral, so I can't say I practice any. I expect my family to do whatever comforts them most when I die.

I'm an atheist.

[Rosie_0801]

Aren't you full of questions this morning!

 

What is it?

 

Can I quote Ace Rimmer? "I'm about to lose all my breathing privileges." It's what you are when you aren't at all alive any more.

 

Why does it happen?

Our bodies wear out or malfunction. Or we have an accident.

 

What does it mean?

It doesn't mean anything. It just is.

 

What, if anything, happens after?

Now I'll quote the Lion King, "when we die, our bodies become the grass..."

 

What is its significance?

All major changes in our lives are significant because they take adjusting to. I don't think a dead person has much adjusting to do, but those who would rather they weren't do.

 

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

Pragmatic on my own behalf. For others, I hope it happens in a way that causes the least amount of trauma to those left behind. I'd like to be either sick or old so we all have time to adjust, but not drag on for long.

 

What rituals do you practice at a death?

I show up at funerals, dressed appropriately, and do my best to act appropriately because I'm too old to get away with skulking in a corner hoping no one will see me. I have told dh that when he dies I shall plant a memorial tree; a camellia, because like them, he has a nice face but is always dropping stuff everywhere ;) He's into the idea of memorial trees.

 

Do you think that as an atheist/agnostic/non-believer that when you die, it feels like before you were born? Just nothing?

 

Before we are born, we're a twinkle in someones eye, afterwards we're a smile in other people's eyes. If we were nice enough to them when were were alive, anyway :)

 

Yes, both before and after life, the only place we can exist is in other peoples minds. If we don't exist there, we don't exist at all.

 

What about reincarnation. I was wondering f anyone believed that this is the only time you have ever been alive on earth?

I have a great theory of reincarnation that I act as though I believe. My hubby can't handle that idea. It's funny :D

 

Rosie

Edited October 6, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[Audrey]

I am curious about what non-Christians of all persuasions (please all religions and all non-believers) think about death.

 

What is it?

Why does it happen?

What does it mean?

What, if anything, happens after?

What is its significance?

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

What rituals do you practice at a death?

 

I do not wish to offend Christians by asking for only non-Christian beliefs/thoughts, it's just that I already know all about the Christian position on this subject.

 

Thanks.

 

What is it?

When your body ceases to function, you are dead. That's it.

 

Why does it happen?

Because that's the natural conclusion to life.

 

What does it mean?

Nothing -- just that your body ceased to function.

 

What, if anything, happens after?

Well, depending on what you choose to have happen to your body upon death, you'll either be a useful study aid, a mantle decoration, or worm food. I'm having my ashes scattered over the farm in Spring and worked in with whatever is planted that year. I'm requesting flax, but I'll be flexible on that.

 

What is its significance?

I'm feeling a little repetitive here, but I don't think there is any significance other than the biological fact that your body ceased to function.

 

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

I'm quite at peace with the fact of death. I don't invite it in, but when it comes, it comes. I can't change that.

 

What rituals do you practice at a death?

I honour my ancestors annually, and my mother and father on the anniversaries of their deaths with a small ritual that involves candles, incense and meditation. I honour other people's deaths by participating in whatever ceremonies or rituals they, or their families, have arranged for them.

[keptwoman]

Rookie, what is your belief system? And why the curiosity?

[Rosie_0801]

Ok Audrey, why flax?

 

Rosie

[kalanamak]

I am curious about what non-Christians of all persuasions (please all religions and all non-believers) think about death.

 

What is it?

Why does it happen?

What does it mean?

What, if anything, happens after?

What is its significance?

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

What rituals do you practice at a death?

 

The end of life. The organism with now decompose.

 

Life is dependent on a huge number of complex conditions, and if a crucial one is not met, the organism dies.

 

The organism is an ex-organism (tip of the hat to Monty Python)

 

Biodegration. I suppose if you were stuck out in space the process might be different.

 

The significance depends on what it is that died. The moss on my roof is cause for a human celebration. The death of a rodent mother means the babes in the warren die, too. The meaning is what we humans invest in it, although I will give some animals the credit of mourning.

 

I fear it not. Nothing terrible awaits me. I will become like the majority. De Gaulle had a severely retarded child. When she died at age 20, I think, he told his wife: now our child is like everyone else's.

 

Meticulous care of the dying. Once dead, be hygienic, and follow the wishes of the dead, if possible and if articulated. And that is only to reassure the frightened living that theirs will be honored, too.

 

"Death is nothing to us, for when we are, it has not come; and when it has come, we are not."

[Audrey]

Ok Audrey, why flax?

 

Rosie

 

 

Because I find the sight of a quarter section of flax in full bloom to be one of the most magical, beautiful things I have ever seen. When the breeze is gentle and the sun is shining just right, it looks like a purple-blue sea in motion. I have cried at the beauty of it. I yearn to be a part of it.

 

ETA: But I feel pretty emotional about a field of canola -- its riotous and unabashed bright yellowness a scream of joy. Plus, canola in bloom smells like farts, and I think that is a wicked sense of humour that Nature has. Wicked good. :D

Edited October 7, 2010 by Audrey

[rookie]

Rookie, what is your belief system? And why the curiosity?

 

I have no defined belief system and I have been hyper-aware of my mortality lately. I think that I go through this each time I have a newborn. The start of a new life makes me wonder about my own and how in an instant it just ends and I am no longer a part of what is so important to me now.

 

I may be a deist but I am not claiming to know or believe anything in particular about the spirit/force/energy/God/god/etc., that may, or may not, be behind all of this. Sometimes it does feel as if we are all part of someone's dream - particularly the scary bits.

 

The thought of death is fine when I am speaking in an abstract way but much harder when I say to myself - I will die; I can die at any moment; I would leave my children without a mom; Will it matter? If so, really why? The questions go on and on.

[Rosie_0801]

Because I find the sight of a quarter section of flax in full bloom to be one of the most magical, beautiful things I have ever seen. When the breeze is gentle and the sun is shining just right, it looks like a purple-blue sea in motion. I have cried at the beauty of it. I yearn to be a part of it.

 

 

I haven't the romance to compose a deserving enough reply, so I can only thank you for sharing and head to Google images :)

 

It always interests me what sort of memorial plant a person would choose for themselves.

 

Rosie

[Ester Maria]

What is it?

A natural (or a violent, for that manner) retiring of a previously functional organism.

Why does it happen?

In asking why you're maybe assuming a purpose behind it, and there isn't necessarily one; it would be perhaps more exact to ask how - but to answer that question properly, one would have to exceed the format of the forum.

In short, beacause a living organism is pre-programmed to die by its biological and chemical nature. It evolves with time, but it also "wears off" with time and decreases in functionality as it ages. Various illnesses of age and decreased productivity (physical and mental) are in fact the first stage of it - "dying" is a pretty long process, if a natural one, that in humans occurs over decades.

What does it mean?

There is no inherent meaning or purpose to that process.

A meaning or a higher purpose is what you read into the process, but from the process itself one cannot read any inherent meaning.

What, if anything, happens after?

To body, the natural decomposition of organic matter. Nos habebit humus. :D

To "mind"/soul/psyche? Generally I view all of that as something that is a product of a brain, i.e. of neurological activity - therefore, with the stopping of it, mind no longer exists (no "soul"). I don't believe in minds not generated by brains (spirits, souls, etc.), as I see no reason to suppose their existence; I'm not a dualist to believe something goes on living when the body decomposes.

What is its significance?

It may have ramifications only in the lives of those who continued to live - emotional ones (sorrow, relief, depending on the relationship with the person), financial ones (inheritance, debts), etc.

For the actual dead person, the significance is none.

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

I have had my moments of crises, but I'm not intellectually honestwith myself if I try to make myself buy a religious idea.

I don't choose my beliefs based on whether they feel nice or not. I can't take part in the process of deluding myself into believing something which is so inconsistent with what I think.

Most of the time, though, I'm perfectly okay with me dying one day - I accept it as a fact of life.

What rituals do you practice at a death?

Jewish ones, out of tradition.

[nukeswife]

I am curious about what non-Christians of all persuasions (please all religions and all non-believers) think about death.

 

What is it?It is when I cease to be alive

Why does it happen?When my brain is no longer firing

What does it mean?nothing to me, to others that knew me I suppose it will either be hurtful or joyful, depending on whether they enjoyed me being around or not. My loved ones may feel that my spirit is with them, but I think that would really be the emotion that occurs when they think back on memories of me.

What, if anything, happens after?I'm not sure if I'll be buried, or cremated. So I guess I'll become fertilizer of some sort.

What is its significance?That would depend on the person who is still alive that is thinking of me

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?I'm ok with it, like others have said I don't wish it to come quickly, but when it comes, it comes.

What rituals do you practice at a death?I'm still thinking about what I would like for myself. I think a big old celebration of my life would be cool. For others I will participate appropriately according to their wishes.

 

 

 

My answers are in red, oh and I consider myself an atheist.

[Audrey]

I haven't the romance to compose a deserving enough reply, so I can only thank you for sharing and head to Google images :)

 

It always interests me what sort of memorial plant a person would choose for themselves.

 

Rosie

 

 

This was our crop from last year. :001_smile:

[bookfiend]

Ok Audrey, why flax?

 

Rosie

 

Reading with interest but precluded by the OP from responding, however, Rosie, I'm curious, should you care to answer, what memorial plant you would select for yourself?

[LibraryLover]

I think everything is a form of energy and when we die, our energy is released back into the universe and becomes other things. I don't believe there is consciousness after death...we just cease to be as we were.

 

Yes. :) I've taken enough chemistry to know we can't become nothing. Everything becomes something else.

 

I am so grateful to have this life. It's so precious. I love and am loved-- it seems more than enough.

Edited October 7, 2010 by LibraryLover

[LibraryLover]

Because I find the sight of a quarter section of flax in full bloom to be one of the most magical, beautiful things I have ever seen. When the breeze is gentle and the sun is shining just right, it looks like a purple-blue sea in motion. I have cried at the beauty of it. I yearn to be a part of it.

 

ETA: But I feel pretty emotional about a field of canola -- its riotous and unabashed bright yellowness a scream of joy. Plus, canola in bloom smells like farts, and I think that is a wicked sense of humour that Nature has. Wicked good. :D

 

Pretty awesome.

[kalanamak]

 

The thought of death is fine when I am speaking in an abstract way but much harder when I say to myself - I will die; I can die at any moment;

 

Aubade

 

 

 

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.

Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.

 

 

In time the curtain-edges will grow light.

Till then I see what's really always there:

Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,

Making all thought impossible but how

And where and when I shall myself die.

Arid interrogation: yet the dread

Of dying, and being dead,

Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse

- The good not done, the love not given, time

Torn off unused - nor wretchedly because

An only life can take so long to climb

Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;

But at the total emptiness for ever,

The sure extinction that we travel to

And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,

Not to be anywhere,

And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

 

This is a special way of being afraid

No trick dispels. Religion used to try,

That vast, moth-eaten musical brocade

Created to pretend we never die,

And specious stuff that says No rational being

Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing

That this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,

No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,

Nothing to love or link with,

The anasthetic from which none come round.

 

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,

A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill

That slows each impulse down to indecision.

Most things may never happen: this one will,

And realisation of it rages out

In furnace-fear when we are caught without

People or drink. Courage is no good:

It means not scaring others. Being brave

Lets no one off the grave.

Death is no different whined at than withstood.

 

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.

It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,

Have always known, know that we can't escape,

Yet can't accept. One side will have to go.

Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring

In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring

Intricate rented world begins to rouse.

The sky is white as clay, with no sun.

Work has to be done.

Postmen like doctors go from house to house.

 

Philip Larkin

[Rosie_0801]

Reading with interest but precluded by the OP from responding, however, Rosie, I'm curious, should you care to answer, what memorial plant you would select for yourself?

 

Lol, I don't mind answering, but my sense of humour didn't belong tacked onto Audrey's thoughts.

 

A lemon tree- I'm a bit sour at times, but I have my uses :)

 

Rosie

[bookfiend]

Lol, I don't mind answering, but my sense of humour didn't belong tacked onto Audrey's thoughts.

 

A lemon tree- I'm a bit sour at times, but I have my uses :)

 

Rosie

 

My apologies, I clicked on the wrong quote box. I certainly didn't mean to diminish the loveliness of Audrey's descriptions.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm sure you didn't diminish Audrey's post in any way :confused: I was just explaining why I hadn't tacked on my amusing (to me :D) thoughts onto the end of my previous post.

 

Rosie

[treestarfae]

I believe I live on through my children. I have recreated myself in the flesh and spirit and hopefully this cycle will continue. I myself am life of many people dating back centuries. If my children do not recreate then I will consider myself dead.

[Barb_]

I used to be a practicing Catholic to the extent that I attended 10 years of Catholic school and briefly toyed with the romantic idea of a vocation around the time of my confirmation. I'm practicing no longer and veer farther into atheist territory every year. Death used to terrify me as a religious person but now that I believe the current life is all you get, well, I have a lot less anxiety. You'd think the idea of an afterlife would be comforting, but really I never found it so.

 

Barb

[Rosie_0801]

I believe I live on through my children. I have recreated myself in the flesh and spirit and hopefully this cycle will continue. I myself am life of many people dating back centuries. If my children do not recreate then I will consider myself dead.

 

I dunno. Maybe you wouldn't be dead dead until there was no one interested in geneaology involving your branch of the family. My mother is in contact with a cousin by marriage who she'd never met, who came looking for our part of her stepfather's family. I'm sure I wouldn't take that kind of trouble, but some do.

 

Rosie

[Rivka]

Nothing is lost; the universe is honest.

Time, like the sea, gives all back in the end,

But only in its own way, on its own conditions:

Empires as grains of sand, forests as coal,

Mountains as pebbles.

Be still, be still, I say;

You were never the water, only a wave;

Not substance, but a form substance assumed.

 

- Elder Olson

[KidsHappen]

I have had two NDEs so that profoundly effects my beliefs regarding death. I experienced life followed by nothingness followed by life again. So I believe that while your physical body dies and decays, your energy is released back into the universe.

 

This is based on my experiences but I also know that in my everyday life I sometimes interpret experiences in ways that are different than can be logically explained so I am willing to entertain the possibility that my experiences were based on neurological activity in the brain due to lowered blood flow.

 

In other words, I know that I do not have the answers but I do have opinions based on my interpretation of my experiences.

[Peela]

I dont know.

I have had experiences which suggest to me that there is life on other dimensions all around us all the time and that death is just the death of this body in this dimension...life and consciousness go on.

I love reading about near death experiences. Reading them, and my own experiences in meditation over the years, have pretty much convinced me that death is not just "the end".

But...I am far from being able to define exactly what it is.

I think its great to question these things as long as you dont actually believe there is a definitive answer.

[Mejane]

You'd think the idea of an afterlife would be comforting, but really I never found it so.

 

Barb

 

:iagree: The whole idea of eternity, even in "paradise," makes my skin crawl.

[Ravin]

See: The Road to Hel by H.R. Ellis-Davidson.

[SailorMom]

What is it?

 

Well - if we don't worry about the obvious bioligical aspects - I just belief it is the end of this existence - but that doesn't mean it is the end of all existence.

 

Why does it happen?

 

Because our bodies just cannot last, and our minds could not handle eternity in the state they are in.

 

What does it mean?

 

I don't put a lot of meaning in death - but there is meaning in the life lived before it.

 

What, if anything, happens after?

 

I trust that God has that taken care of and I don't worry about it.

 

What is its significance?

 

That in our currently evolved state, we cannot comprehend or experience any other sort of existence, therefore can never understand the before and after of life - but death's only real significance is that it is part of our reality - and makes us cherish the time we have here knowing we do not have forever.

 

How does your belief make you feel about your own death?

 

I am very at peace with it. I would love to be with my fmaily for all eternity - but I have a feeling that whatever happens, God has made sure it is a good thing. I also would not want to live an infinite physical life - I find the idea rather terrifying.

 

What rituals do you practice at a death?

 

Nothing specific- whatever the person who has passed has requested. I believe greif is very personal and that even within one religion - this can be very different.

[PiCO]

What rituals do you practice at a death? I've never "thrown" a secular funeral, so I can't say I practice any. I expect my family to do whatever comforts them most when I die.

I'm an atheist.

 

I have thrown one atheist funeral, and attended one. I've also attended a Heathen funeral.

 

All were nice memorials- more a "celebration of life" feel to them. A few formal speakers and then friends & relatives shared stories of the deceased. Rituals involved at the Heathen ceremony, but other than that pretty similar.

[rookie]

I am just reading all of these and wanted to thank you for sharing. I appreciate all of the thought-out comments, poetry, and experiences.