exchristian

881 readers

2 users here now

Welcome to the exchristian community! We strive to provide a safe space for anyone looking to leave the religion or seek comfort while dealing with the fallout from leaving. This site was originally hosted on reddit before the ~~Great~~ Minor Exodus of 2023.

You can find a related exchristian community on Discord.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

spaceghoti@lemmy.one

How does the great void of death not disturb you? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Flagstaff@programming.dev to c/exchristian@lemmy.one

82 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Or does it?

I know we were once nothing, but it is still terrifying and depressing to me to think about returning to this. In fact, as of late, I've been unable to not think about it: the loss of all experience and all memories of everything, forever. All the good times we had, and will have, with anyone or anything ever will totally annihilate into nothingness. All our efforts will amount to nothing because the thoughtless void is ultimately what awaits everything in the end.

The only argument against this would have to be supernatural, like another cause of the Big Bang or somehow proof of reincarnation, but if my consciousness won't exist for me to experience it, then what does it matter either way?

There is no comfort in Hell, either. The anvil of death weighing down, infinitely, on all values and passions is becoming unbearable for me, so I could really use any potentially helpful thoughts about this matter.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Brainsploosh@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Another answer to persistent impact is communality. Your actions echo in the people and places you've shared with others.

The laws, traditions, buildings, sentiments, norms, societal wounds, environment, relationships, etc. all come from people doing things during their lifetime. You can be one of those people, and choose what your contribution and legacy could be.

What will you leave for the next generation?

You can't affect if your consciousness will live on or not, but you can affect your conscience. Maybe start there?

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I already am; for half a year now, I've been running regular, even near-weekly, gatherings for the public to try to fight off loneliness in my community and help people make friends. But they will all eventually die; everything you said—these relationships, the environment, law, society, the Earth, the solar system—will eventually fall apart with enough time; I'm talking about going all the way past humanity colonizing Mars, to the point of our sun—no, all such main sequence stars in the universe—eventually becoming a red giant, then a white dwarf, and finally disintegrating into black holes. Eventually it will all collapse in one way or another.

I feel like all morals are shortsighted for not looking far ahead enough (I mean faaaaaaaaar ahead, eons upon eons) at what little basis there is for themselves; we're talking about eternity here by comparison. I guess religion's approach is to just cap it off with heaven and/or limbo and/or hell, but any of these is still tremendously disturbing IMO.

To clarify, I'm not gonna suddenly stop running my social gatherings nor trying to help other people with their problems, but this existential crisis puts quite the dampener on everything.