Do not Fear the Reaper

A lot of people more or less consciously choose to believe in a religion because the concept of dying terrifies them on a very fundamental level. They simply cannot reconcile the idea that once they pass away, their consciousness, soul or whatever word they use for the immaterial sense of self and its repository of thoughts, memories, hopes and dreams is just gone, like the flipping of a light switch

I am not one of these people, in fact, I am the direct opposite.

The thought of once not being here anymore does not scare me, in fact it reassures me. A lot of events that must have been absolutely terrifying and world-destroying for a normal human being has happened multiple times during the short span of time that is human history. Here I am not thinking about the wars and other frequent bouts of human cruelty, it actually seems like we are generally getting better as a species in that field, I am thinking about the awesome and terrifying powers of nature that we have no control over: Ice ages, super volcanoes, mega earthquakes, solar flares, etc. One tiny cog in the cosmic machinery goes out of sync, and BAM! Humanity is gone - an insignificant mote of dust disappearing in a universe that is utterly uncaring about the fates of some 7 billion evolved apes on a planet somewhere in a galaxy among billions of others like it. Given these conditions, I do not mind at all that my time on this Earth is limited, as it would mean that there is actually a chance that my time here will be relatively safe and problem-free, or at least free of problems like ‘FUCK I HAVE TO EAT THE SPLEEN FROM THIS IRRADIATED CORPSE TO HAVE ENOUGH ENERGY TO ESCAPE FROM THE MUTANT CANNIBALS!’.

Not my ideal Saturday

And its not because I do not think that my thoughts and dreams account for nothing or that dying at any time is fine. I do believe, or at least hope, that I am doing things that matter both for my children, friends and extended family and I will have mixed feelings about a situation if some crazed tweaker jumps out from an alleyway and impales me with a rusty garden shears tomorrow, but it calms me to know that once my time comes and I draw that final breath, it’s over. If there is a nuclear holocaust the next day, I will not care, because my consciousness is gone and will be gone forever

Try to imagine the opposite: Living forever. It would basically guarantee that your departure from this world is going to be a violent one as you will either succumb to some horrible natural disaster or the hands of another human being in an act of violence. Either that or you will see the headline ‘sex-fueled drug suicide’ a lot in whatever the future equivalent of newspapers will be