When I die, I will be just like my grandmother, my mother, the very best dog in the world - I will be dead just like they are.  They all really do hold a place in my memories.  And I hope the people I love will remember me when I am dead.  If not, then why should I care?  I will be dead and I won't know.

Like friend Butterbattle, I will savor what life brings me.  Ice cream, truffles, sex, rain on the roof, autumn leaves tumbling through the air, waterfalls, and all the other joys of my life.  My purpose is to make my corner of the world a little better before I leave it permanently.  Maybe not a lot better, but to do what I can.  Remember, even religious people have no better handle on life - god/s/dess does not tweet them every day with updates on meaning, purpose, goals and directives.  They, too, are just putting one foot in front of the other.

So get up off your ass, get a hug, go for a walk, clean your place, and generally get on with your life already.  You will die when you die and not a second earlier.  Put one foot in front of the freaking other and move it!

Hi liberatedatheist,

Sorry to hear you're feeling depression. That really sucks.

(I'm not a professional, this is merely my own opinion.)

First, I'd like to recommend this recent discussion that seems very closely related to me: http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/29497

Second, to re-emphasize my major point in that discussion: Take the idea of your mental health as seriously as you would usually take the idea of your physical health. If you had a broken arm, it seems obvious you'd want to get it treated. Unfortunately, there's an unfounded bias in much of society against treating mental health the same way. If you are experiencing depression, which suicidal feelings are a clear warning flag of, then realize that depression is a medical condition just like having a broken arm, or diabetes, or cancer, or an infection is. There are causes of depression, and it may not actually be your contemplation of death that's the root cause, but it could actually be something else, and your contemplation of death just triggered it to go into suicidal thoughts. Anyway, it might be worth seeing a mental health professional, or even just your regular doctor to get a referral. That's up to you, of course. I only mention this because it's not as common knowledge as it should be.

Regarding death: There's a saying that sums up my feelings on the subject quite well, which paraphrased goes something like this: Why should I be bothered by death? I didn't exist for billions of years before I was born, and I didn't suffer one bit from it, so why should I fear not existing in the future?

Another one: I don't fear death. I fear the process of dying.

There will never be a time when you will ever feel anything like: "Argh! It sucks so much to be dead!!!" It's logically impossible.

Now, there are two other related concepts, one of which you focused on, so I'll just get the other one out of the way as quick as possible: The process of dying may suck and be painful, but at least it's finite and will eventually end.

So, to answer your questions about 'why bother?':

1) While 'you' or 'I' will not necessarily be around to directly observe it, the universe and all its inhabitants will still be around after you and I die. For example, if you have any friends or family, many of them will survive you, and the question is: Will what you do NOW have a positive or negative impact on your own life now, but also on the lives of those you care for when you're gone?

If I die tomorrow, I would not have accomplished all I've wanted to accomplish, but I will have left at least some positive legacy behind, such as all the posts I've written here on RRS and elsewhere, as well as the impact I've had in the lives of my family members, the students I'm now tutoring, etc.

While 'I' will not be the one experiencing these beneficial effects of 'my' life, why should I consider that beneficial effect as completely and utterly worthless? It isn't. It is valuable to people I care about, and that makes it valuable to me.

And what makes 'me' so special anyway, such that nothing else matters except my own experience? Seems a bit on the ego side of things. The ego is good for self-protection sometimes, but it can also be very self-destructive if it dominates your life. You are not your idea of you. You are you. Your idea of you, your ego, is just an idea. It is part of you, but it is not you.

You are a conscious mind. It is consciousness which is the valuable thing here. And your consciousness is not the only consciousness that exists. And it's not only your friends and family that are conscious minds, too. There's the entire human species, and--if we are completely honest with ourselves--there are countless other non-human animals who can experience joy or suffering, also.

What we do in this lifetime has inevitable consequences which ripple out into the future, even after 'we' are technically dead.

Our sphere of influence extends not only beyond our immediate physical environment (e.g. I'm communicating with you while you and I are far apart), but also extends beyond our own brief lifetimes into the future, where we can have a real, lasting, measurable effect on whatever conscious minds continue existing after we die.

So, our lives have real, tangible meaning beyond our own particular conscious awareness of that effect.

2) Even disregarding the conscious minds of others or the future, life can be enjoyed simply by living it (assuming something like depression isn't interfering with your ability to enjoy life). Why bother waking up tomorrow? Simply because there are things that I would like to do that I haven't done yet. Who cares if there's some infinite chain of meaning forever and for all time into the future. It's meaningful to me, right now, to be writing this reply to you. It is the thing that I want to do. And it harms no one else, so there's no reason not to do it. And, heck, it might even help you out a bit, and the thought of that simply makes me feel good and motivates me to do it.

And that's good enough for me, at least to keep on living and keep on trying to do better and better things in my life to help myself and to help others as well. Any way you look at it, it is more valuable to me to keep going and keep trying to make the world into something that I think would be better, than to give up, stop wondering what I might be able to do, stop being curious about the future, stop caring about everything, and just quit the game. Quitting remains an option for me, it's just that it is by definition the VERY LAST possible option because as soon as I quit, there are no more options to try.

So, to sum up: I would recommend getting checked out, just to make sure there isn't some underlying issue you might not be aware of which might be influencing your thoughts and feelings. And, regardless of that, your life has meaning for you in this very moment of your existence, as you sit there reading this (assuming you're sitting), otherwise you wouldn't be reading it. And regardless of that, your life also has meaning for every person who is influenced by you (me included; see, I just spent 20 minutes writing this simply because you asked and I had a feeling I could answer something helpful), not only while you live, but also after you die.

None of this requires believing in anything supernatural or god-like.

In fact, you may want to ask yourself what 'eternal life' would really get you!? If you could live for eternity after this brief life, then what the fuck is the point of this mortal life?! Think about it. Valuable things are rare and precious. You get one life, and it is short and finite. You've got a limited amount of time to do whatever it is that you really want to do. Every second that passes, in which you're not doing what you really want to do, is a second wasted.

So, my suggestion: Figure out what you really want to do, and just do it. You've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.

(I repeat: My suggestion only works if there isn't some underlying issue that's interfering with your ability to enjoy life. So, I would again suggest to get that checked out first.)

Good luck! I've struggled with depression too, and am actually getting help with it now, so I at least have an inkling of what you're talking about. There can be a better life. You just have to make it a goal to keep trying to find it for yourself.

And how upsetting was it while you were knocked out?

Because you're dwelling on it, instead of being pleased that you're alive.

If you were ever convinced that you were about to die, and ended up living, your thoughts would predominantly be about making the most of every living day.

It's more about reconciling that no amount of energy spent will change what is inevitable, and focusing on the opportunities that being alive affords you.

It appears to me that you don't have a lot of love, happiness or passion in your life. Those are the kinds of things that make you eager to greet the next day.

It's not about being nonchalant, IMO. It's about being a realist.

I've always flirted with death. I'm an adrenaline junkie. I grew up racing motorcycles for most of my life, and did some vintage sports car racing. I'm also into extreme skiing.

In my case, I've already used up most of my 9 lives, so, I feel like I've won the jackpot and been reborn more than once.

I don't need willpower. There's not enough hours in a day for me to do everything I'd like to do. I don't have time to dwell on negative things that I can't do anything about.

I find this question loaded and quite frankly silly.

You miss the context when asking this question.

Why should I be concerned about death? It depends. I am not concerned about death anymore than I am concerned about gravity, cant do a damned thing about it ultimately, but I don't go looking for it. You don't worry about birth and that can have just as much pain and misery as death.

That would be like worrying about the seasons changing or the tides being caused by the gravity of the moon.

We do worry about pain, and we do worry about suffering, and we do worry about what our loved ones would go through without us. But it is silly to worry about nature as if you can change it.

Just like although I don't worry about gravity, I don't jump off cliffs or buildings to test it.

I simply hope for myself, that my death is quick and as painless as possible, and I dont see it coming.

But death as a reality of nature does not, nor should not prevent one from enjoying the time we do have here and now. Just like you can watch a movie or go to a sporting event and enjoy it knowing it will end at some point.

Pain and suffering are a reality and life is not static or infinite. You are going to have happy times, and bad times, and no matter what, your body, will falter and give out to something at some point. That doesn't mean you have to spend your life worrying about a fact of reality.

Humans wouldn't have evolved if we spent every moment of our lives scared saying "I'm going to die". And there ain't a damned thing you can do accept try to delay it. But no human will ever escape it and live forever.

 I saw a man die relatively recently. The tormented look of anguish on his face haunted me nightly. I had dreams that I was dying and that it was more horrifying than anything I'd ever imagined.

Strong men have the worst time getting old dying. My friend worked half a year as a nurse in England. She took care of elderly people. The worst were the military men, even a general or something. They treat the old age as war and death as just another enemy. They hold onto life so much, that they make a completely miserable and undignified long self-torture out of dying. Or they manage to make their body stay, though the wits are gone and then they live like zombies for about 10 years before the life wears out of them. That's often the case with materialists, I mean, those who make a great deal out of material possessions. 

I think we get a bit scared of the word 'death'. Basically it is just going back to not existing. Before 1966 I didn't exist. In 1066 I didn't exist and I wasn't bothered by it at all. In fact before I was born I didn't existed for billions and billions of years and I didn't even notice it. I probably won't be around in 2066 and will in the same non existent state as I was happily in before.

It's a simplistic way of looking at it but it suits me.

Dean

 I have gone through this kind of depression and have felt like rushing death. I am glad I held on and didn't try. I might have failed and maimed myself and been worse off. Just give it time and there is some great advise here about just pushing yourself to doing something different. Nothing big, just something simple and build from there. You are just having feelings. There is a reality beyond it. You can honor them by just feeling them. They will pass in time.

Just think how rare life is in this great universe and the odds of you being alive are extremely small.  I now love the world I live in and just keep finding new things I am interested in. I recently picked up kayaking. I don't have to go down some great rapids. I just have a few small rivers by me and I floated happily down the stream. Also I bought a crank forward bicycle and love riding it. Think of something you have never done before and give it a try. I recommend doing something physical to give your brain a break and maybe get some endorphins going.  You don't have to like it and you don't have to do it again. There is a wealth of info on the internet about every conceivable thing.

Hang in there. You will thank yourself in time.

 Speak for yourself; I plan to live forever. 

Awhile back, I wrote a blog post regarding death. Here it is. The point made there is atheism better equips us for dealing with death than theism does by making us realize our own mortality.

I realize that it's difficult to deal with death, but think of it this way: Whoever you lost is still alive in memories and in consequences of their actions. In a way, we're all immortal.

 This documentary I found on Netflix entitled "Flight From Death" raises some interesting facts, including a study in which subjects were subliminally caused to think about their own eventual demise and then given a questionnaire concerning some kind of ethical situation.  It's been a week or two since I watched it but I'm pretty sure I remember the results showing that people in general, when reminded of death, tend to become less tolerant of those with different lifestyles or political viewpoints or something like that.

I'm probably not doing it much justice but I found it rather fascinating.

Anyway, regarding the OP, I just wanted to say that you are not alone.  I've just recently come out of a years-long grapple with my own what's-the-point-of-it-all demon.  The only reason I didn't kill myself the many, many times I wanted to was to save my family the heartbreak.  When I found out that I was pregnant, I thought I was going to have to eventually apologize to my child for bringing it into such a dog-eat-dog world as this.  But now, five months preggers and long past the horrible, HORRIBLE first trimester period, I'm realizing that my life's duty will be to prepare this baby for real life so much better than my parents did.  I'm going to make sure that he doesn't spend the first 18-20 years of his life hearing the same b.s. that I grew up on, just to get out into the real world and have life kick him in the gut over and over.  I want him to know from the start that things will be difficult and take massive amounts of effort and that college is only a good idea if it's a degree that will get you a job OTHER than "Starbuck's barrista".  And he'll also have the support and guidance of two very logical, down-to-earth  parents who both had to figure real life out on their own because their parents were too busy getting divorced and re-married and divorced again to get too involved in, you know, raising their children.

Yes, I'm still a bit bitter about certain things and I have regrets about all the time I've wasted on all the wrong things, but what's important is that I'm slowly realizing that just because it's been rough so far, MY LIFE IS NOT OVER JUST YET and it's up to me and nobody else to make the best of what's left, which is hopefully at least as long as I've lived so far.  

Hope that helps, and also you should go to the pound or pet store and play with puppies for a while.  It's been proven that when a person pets their dog, they get the same happy hormone rush as a mother breastfeeding her baby.    

...Erm, perhaps that was not a good choice of comparison.  O.o  Uhh...  *wiki's 'oxytocin'*...  It's also called the "love hormone"...  so...  petting a puppy makes you feel like you're in love.  There.  No nipples involved at all.  >.>

That is to say, mod approval is required to have your 'guest' comments posted, unless you register.

I see youre concerned then about death. lol. Here's the dealio. The reason why is because atheists are dead spiritual. So since they are dead spiritual, then why would they be consciencely worried? Now some are via the Imago Dei but it's rare.

Perhaps you're an elect Christians and you don't know it yet. or perhaps you're just worrying about death, but the ground and worms you shouldn't worry about as much as while you're in hell when the demons scrape your balls off.

Respectfully,

Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).

After multiple occasions were I came within a hair of death, and a lot of introspection, I ceased worrying about it. There is only one difference between not being born and being dead. That difference is the mark you left on everyone you ever encountered directly or indirectly. Any time you taught someone something, every time you helped someone, even every time you screwed someone over had an impact on that person, which in turn had an impact on everyone they had an impact on. You will exist as long as humanity exists, because you made changes in people's lives, and those changes propagated throughout the species. The more impact you made, the more of you lives on after death.

This is not to say my adrenaline doesn't pump when I forsee danger, nor does it mean I ignore death (my survival instinct is as strong as it gets), but it does mean that death doesn't haunt me.

I believe my final breakthrough was....

Worrying about death is a common way of rationalizing one's deeper, unidentified fears. I'm using the term 'rationalizing' in its psychiatric sense, i.e. when someone's trying to attribute his/her worries, anxieties, agony, etc. to some real dreadful possibility/-ies in order to make them more manageable, since fear of the unknown seems to be far more scary. Other fears that might be socially or otherwise unacceptable may be hiding behind the fear of death, which, by definition, is to various degrees shared by all, and is therefore not a shame to have.

Do you find that your death fear is intensified when others speak ill of you, underestimate you, or pay no attention to you? When you are (or think you are) rejected? When you don't feel you can summon enough courage to ask for something you want? Then chances are that at least part of your problem has nothing to do with how you apparently feel about death. More likely you're afraid you might find out you're not as brave or as successful etc. as you think it would be socially acceptable for you to be.

I've had a strong fear of death myself, I still have it to a lesser degree, but I couldn't help noticing that each time I was positively received by others that fear was lessened or even disappeared. I'd suggest seeking professional help if you haven't already done so. I have and, though I can't say all my problems have been solved, I've certainly been much better off since I did.