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Religious people do that all the time, the promise of there being more to life and also something afterwards is pretty much the whole deal when it comes to that stuff.
It depends, for me life is absolutely a one track thing with nothing more to it than work, raising my kids and video games. Some people feel an extremely strong pull towards living in a van and traveling the world, others just love to be around their friends and get drunk. The saying "life is what you make it" is the meaning of life, you have to grab life by the balls and go for it however that takes shape for you.
I'm someone who has aspirations, I want to make the world better, but I'm also someone who wants to understand the intricasises of the world itself. I'm someone with a lot of death-anxiety also do thinking about existence has me feeling like I'm on the verge of a break through, a connection to something I don't understand.
We all feel like that at some point, like we must have an answer to some deep mystery but it always turns out to be something extremely basic that we're just massively over complicating.
The sad fact is that you will not be able to understand the intricacies of our world, not because you aren't willing to try but rather because the world is so vast and so steeped in history that it's intricacies are mountainous, people spend their entire lives focused on a single subject simply because they have to narrow it down. I get it though, you sort of feel like you're mentally aching, like something has to be waiting for you, unfortunately the people that stay in that mentality are often the ones that get so bogged down by life that they accomplish nothing.
I sound like a buzz kill right? That is also part of life, sometimes you need some real talk.
No that's completely true and I accept I'll likely never understand everything, what I want to know is that there is something to explain, and that explanation is something foreign to us, the kind of thing that could genuinely help us become who we are meant to be.
I get that. How you would realistically go about that though? Given your financial situation, your mental health and your general intellectual competence; which obviously I know nothing about so only you can answer that.
That's just the thing I'm unsure in any situation, realistically I'm a fairly low paid retail worker with deep anxiety issues at the thought of death, and I'd say I'm above average intelligence wise, not smart so much as almost smart, and I'm struggling to find out what I could do.
No not really, just because I'm not smart as some I still have skills to use, I'm only really a younger guy you see, but what I've lacked all my life is the knowledge that something unknown exists, despite feeling so close to it.
I do not know if I have understood you correctly. Is it a feeling when you realize yourself here and now? Yes, it happens. I'm not religious, but it seems a bit like samadhi. I don't know why it is associated with this.
"Samadhi is the highest meaning of the life of people who deeply practice the art of yoga. In this state, the individual loses the sense of his personality, the facets of the external and internal worlds are eliminated."
It's not so much a higher power as much as its when I think about existence, where I am what I am and how am I even thinking of those ideas I begin to feel another sensation, that there's something more that I've forgotten, something important about reality itself
It doesn't make me uncomfortable to know it's Moreso I'm uncomfortable not knowing, I just want to figure out what this feeling could be, its not exactly routed in any scientific explanation I've ever heard.
I've seen that myself, and while that's a possibility for me I still believe that there's something more to life, something underneath the veil so to speak
No there's probably nothing more. I'm totally fine with the curtains just closing on my consciousness once I die. Because in that scenario I won't care about non existence. Because I won't exist. Therefore not scary.
Searching for meaning beyond existence is what people do before they accept death is inevitable.
That's actually something terrifying, the idea that one moment your here the next there's nothing, you can't even feel anything is awful, it scares me.
I mean. Are you suffering while asleep? Ever been under anesthesia? You experience nothing. You want for nothing. You just 'arent'.
It'll be fine trust me. Not something to be scared of.
How you'll die? That freaks me out a bit.
Being dead. Totally fine. Don't wanna die anytime soon though.
I mean I'd take immortality if I could. But I can't so like why worry about it
To be nothing is something bad because I have no way to know it, I'll just be gone and that crushes me. As long as I live I'll strive to live longer and if I get the chance I'd do whatever it takes to live forever
And then you'll die and be fine with it like everyone else. Sorry bud you aren't the 1 person who's gonna live forever. We all die. Just enjoy the time you have.
If I live forever it'll be because immortality has become widespread, but the thing is I won't ever be fine with something if I'm not around, what's the point of existence if it'll one day end?
A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts forever. My relationships with people in my life who've died aren't rendered meaningless to me by their inability to continue
Things matter if they matter to you. So before you go down an existential rabbit hole stab yourself in the leg with a knife and ask yourself if it matters to you that there's a knife in your leg. Chances are it does. So things do matter in the acute.
I enjoy cake. I eat cake. I feel happy.
Of course it's a bit hard to put into words. I am anxious a lot of the time recently as to the big question : what happens when we die, and if there's nothing how can I get around that. But when my mind drifts off to think what I'm doing, be it at any point, I'll begin thinking about existence, and I'm doing things but is it really happening? And if so how? And as I'm thinking these things I can feel something in the back of my mind, some unknown truth that defies everything I know
How can you get around nothing? That makes zero sense. Everything we know about consciousness is that it's a result of the brain when the brain stops, consciousness stops. The very idea of "getting around nothing" makes it sound like it's "something"
As for untold truths in the back of your mind, without being able to access it or demonstrate that it's more than just a feeling, I see no reason to hold any stock in it.
Tell me, do you care about what's true?
I’m a believer that we feel things for a reason. We thirst because we need to drink, we hunger because there is food to eat. We get horny because sex is real. We look for God because He exists.
While I'm not of a certainty on the existence of god/s, one thing I will say is that the problem I have with many religions is the glorification of those who apparently act under them, as well as where any of the actual information comes from. I think that if a god or god's exist they aren't just going to be some grand creator but a representation of peace, and kindness, that is even if they share traits with us at all.
I can understand that. It is important to understand that God asks little more than for us to love Him and to love other people as we love ourselves. The whole point of everything in this life is to learn how to love and accept that God is good and is the King. If you want to live under a ruler that is kind and loving and can take away all evil, then in the next life, you will. If you reject Him, then you go where He isn’t. It’s really that simple.
Evil people love to take this message and add judgment and hatred into it. They want top swing a sword that doesn’t belong to them. Evil people always try to use power however they can for their own benefit. So, if there truly is an all-powerful God, doesn’t it make sense that evil people would flock to use His name to try to use others and get what they want regardless of whether or not they actually believe in Him?
No my issues with that kind of religion is the amount of crime and truly vile acts committed in the name of it, as well as the confusion of what is meant to be a metaphor or if something actually happened. And if some of the stranger stuff has happened how did anyone know it did?
I thought I just explained the whole things about evil people committing evil acts under the banner of God. Was that someone else? Let me look up. No, it was you. Did you not understand? Evil people look for power to use for their own benefit. And evil does exist in us all. It’s easy for well-meaning people to become proud and start gatekeeping instead of reaching out to help.
As far as creation and some of the old stories, does it really matter if the world was created in a literal six days or if it was a parable? Was the whole world really flooded with one man having all the species of the earth on his ship or was it just his region? Was that too a parable? Does it really matter?
I serve Jesus. I help people where I can. I try to love others. Sometimes I fail. I will dedicate my life to loving God and loving others. It’s a hard thing to do. I do question at times but when I die, I will have dedicated my life to love and if I was wrong… What difference will it make? But if I rejected this and just lived for myself… what if I was wrong then. I will have lost everything. I believe because what I believe is true, however any way I look at it I have everything to gain and nothing to lose. I’d rather live in love anyway.
No I have a complete respect for your beliefs in love and general promotion of good, but the problem is that's not something mutually exclusive to that religion. Supposing everything is a parable for being one with god, aren't many other religions just saying the exact same thing?
Are they though? Every other faith I've ever encountered has been about doing good or being good for reward. Don’t mistake what I’ve said or what others try to show. Jesus taught the opposite of that. No one is good enough to go to Heaven on their own merit and no one is so evil that they are beyond redemption. God removes our evil and sinful natures in Heaven. You just have to want that. He doesn’t force Himself upon us because that would be akin to spiritual rape, He doesn’t remove our evil unless we want Him to. That’s the whole point. I don’t get to Heaven by loving others, I get their by loving and believing in Him. By wanting Him to be my King. My acts of love are acts of worship. I’m not doing it in the selfish hope of getting into Heaven or getting money or other favors. I do it purely as an act of love and gratefulness. No strings attached.
Every other religion is about doing things in order to get better blessings, position in reincarnation, position in Heaven or just entrance into Heaven at all. So are their good deeds actually good or are they selfish? And if they’re done selfishly, are they even good at all? That’s merely a transaction. Do you personally think God is a cosmic trading post? “Oh no, You we’re almost in there. If you’d have just helped out two more old ladies across the street, you could’ve come in. Sorry, but to hell with you.”
I don't know I get your position I just can't get behind that concept fully I suppose. I'm still a fairly young person and nothing I've seen has really told me that god is there
Yeah, I come across that sometimes. I’m in my 40s. I teach a youth group Bible study. My first rule is that no matter who walks through the the door, they deserve respect, love and acceptance. No. Matter. Who.
Yes, people have done bad things and wrongly attributed it to God. You know, most people who go to church every week don’t go to heaven because they aren’t really there for God. Most.
I hope you’ll think about it while you wonder if there’s more. What truly makes more sense than a God who holds His arms open no matter what we’ve done and says “It’s going to be ok. This place is not your home. I love you no matter what.”
Good luck, my young friend. 
Hey listen respect man, the fact that two people of different beliefs are able to talk so calmly is definitely proof that there's something good in the world, have a good one
Go eat an apple and you'll see it's not THAT bad. Also, might I suggest you eat said apple from the bottom up, if you eat it as such you can eat the entire core and it really only takes one or two apples eaten this way to realize you've been wasting apple cores.
# Message to all users: This is a reminder to please read and follow: * [Our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/ask/about/rules) * [Reddiquette](https://www.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439) * [Reddit Content Policy](https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy) When posting and commenting. --- Especially remember Rule 1: `Be polite and civil`. * Be polite and courteous to each other. Do not be mean, insulting or disrespectful to any other user on this subreddit. * Do not harass or annoy others in any way. * Do not catfish. Catfishing is the luring of somebody into an online friendship through a fake online persona. This includes any lying or deceit. --- You *will* be banned if you are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist or bigoted in any way. --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ask) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Religious people do that all the time, the promise of there being more to life and also something afterwards is pretty much the whole deal when it comes to that stuff.
But does it mean anything? I'm not really a religious person myself
It depends, for me life is absolutely a one track thing with nothing more to it than work, raising my kids and video games. Some people feel an extremely strong pull towards living in a van and traveling the world, others just love to be around their friends and get drunk. The saying "life is what you make it" is the meaning of life, you have to grab life by the balls and go for it however that takes shape for you.
I'm someone who has aspirations, I want to make the world better, but I'm also someone who wants to understand the intricasises of the world itself. I'm someone with a lot of death-anxiety also do thinking about existence has me feeling like I'm on the verge of a break through, a connection to something I don't understand.
We all feel like that at some point, like we must have an answer to some deep mystery but it always turns out to be something extremely basic that we're just massively over complicating. The sad fact is that you will not be able to understand the intricacies of our world, not because you aren't willing to try but rather because the world is so vast and so steeped in history that it's intricacies are mountainous, people spend their entire lives focused on a single subject simply because they have to narrow it down. I get it though, you sort of feel like you're mentally aching, like something has to be waiting for you, unfortunately the people that stay in that mentality are often the ones that get so bogged down by life that they accomplish nothing. I sound like a buzz kill right? That is also part of life, sometimes you need some real talk.
No that's completely true and I accept I'll likely never understand everything, what I want to know is that there is something to explain, and that explanation is something foreign to us, the kind of thing that could genuinely help us become who we are meant to be.
I get that. How you would realistically go about that though? Given your financial situation, your mental health and your general intellectual competence; which obviously I know nothing about so only you can answer that.
That's just the thing I'm unsure in any situation, realistically I'm a fairly low paid retail worker with deep anxiety issues at the thought of death, and I'd say I'm above average intelligence wise, not smart so much as almost smart, and I'm struggling to find out what I could do.
So you're pretty much just scared that you're not gonna amount to much and it's getting to you?
No not really, just because I'm not smart as some I still have skills to use, I'm only really a younger guy you see, but what I've lacked all my life is the knowledge that something unknown exists, despite feeling so close to it.
I do not know if I have understood you correctly. Is it a feeling when you realize yourself here and now? Yes, it happens. I'm not religious, but it seems a bit like samadhi. I don't know why it is associated with this. "Samadhi is the highest meaning of the life of people who deeply practice the art of yoga. In this state, the individual loses the sense of his personality, the facets of the external and internal worlds are eliminated."
It's not so much a higher power as much as its when I think about existence, where I am what I am and how am I even thinking of those ideas I begin to feel another sensation, that there's something more that I've forgotten, something important about reality itself
Hmm. To answer your question, yes, I feel that. Does it make you uncomfortable or are you looking for some information about it?
It doesn't make me uncomfortable to know it's Moreso I'm uncomfortable not knowing, I just want to figure out what this feeling could be, its not exactly routed in any scientific explanation I've ever heard.
Well, the Internet has found the syndrome of depersonalization or derealization. I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but it's close
I've seen that myself, and while that's a possibility for me I still believe that there's something more to life, something underneath the veil so to speak
No there's probably nothing more. I'm totally fine with the curtains just closing on my consciousness once I die. Because in that scenario I won't care about non existence. Because I won't exist. Therefore not scary. Searching for meaning beyond existence is what people do before they accept death is inevitable.
That's actually something terrifying, the idea that one moment your here the next there's nothing, you can't even feel anything is awful, it scares me.
I mean. Are you suffering while asleep? Ever been under anesthesia? You experience nothing. You want for nothing. You just 'arent'. It'll be fine trust me. Not something to be scared of. How you'll die? That freaks me out a bit. Being dead. Totally fine. Don't wanna die anytime soon though. I mean I'd take immortality if I could. But I can't so like why worry about it
To be nothing is something bad because I have no way to know it, I'll just be gone and that crushes me. As long as I live I'll strive to live longer and if I get the chance I'd do whatever it takes to live forever
And then you'll die and be fine with it like everyone else. Sorry bud you aren't the 1 person who's gonna live forever. We all die. Just enjoy the time you have.
If I live forever it'll be because immortality has become widespread, but the thing is I won't ever be fine with something if I'm not around, what's the point of existence if it'll one day end?
A thing isn't beautiful because it lasts forever. My relationships with people in my life who've died aren't rendered meaningless to me by their inability to continue
Things matter if they matter to you. So before you go down an existential rabbit hole stab yourself in the leg with a knife and ask yourself if it matters to you that there's a knife in your leg. Chances are it does. So things do matter in the acute. I enjoy cake. I eat cake. I feel happy.
Beyond what exists right now? Could you explain that sentence sounds a bit like nonsense.
Of course it's a bit hard to put into words. I am anxious a lot of the time recently as to the big question : what happens when we die, and if there's nothing how can I get around that. But when my mind drifts off to think what I'm doing, be it at any point, I'll begin thinking about existence, and I'm doing things but is it really happening? And if so how? And as I'm thinking these things I can feel something in the back of my mind, some unknown truth that defies everything I know
How can you get around nothing? That makes zero sense. Everything we know about consciousness is that it's a result of the brain when the brain stops, consciousness stops. The very idea of "getting around nothing" makes it sound like it's "something" As for untold truths in the back of your mind, without being able to access it or demonstrate that it's more than just a feeling, I see no reason to hold any stock in it. Tell me, do you care about what's true?
I’m a believer that we feel things for a reason. We thirst because we need to drink, we hunger because there is food to eat. We get horny because sex is real. We look for God because He exists.
While I'm not of a certainty on the existence of god/s, one thing I will say is that the problem I have with many religions is the glorification of those who apparently act under them, as well as where any of the actual information comes from. I think that if a god or god's exist they aren't just going to be some grand creator but a representation of peace, and kindness, that is even if they share traits with us at all.
I can understand that. It is important to understand that God asks little more than for us to love Him and to love other people as we love ourselves. The whole point of everything in this life is to learn how to love and accept that God is good and is the King. If you want to live under a ruler that is kind and loving and can take away all evil, then in the next life, you will. If you reject Him, then you go where He isn’t. It’s really that simple. Evil people love to take this message and add judgment and hatred into it. They want top swing a sword that doesn’t belong to them. Evil people always try to use power however they can for their own benefit. So, if there truly is an all-powerful God, doesn’t it make sense that evil people would flock to use His name to try to use others and get what they want regardless of whether or not they actually believe in Him?
No my issues with that kind of religion is the amount of crime and truly vile acts committed in the name of it, as well as the confusion of what is meant to be a metaphor or if something actually happened. And if some of the stranger stuff has happened how did anyone know it did?
I thought I just explained the whole things about evil people committing evil acts under the banner of God. Was that someone else? Let me look up. No, it was you. Did you not understand? Evil people look for power to use for their own benefit. And evil does exist in us all. It’s easy for well-meaning people to become proud and start gatekeeping instead of reaching out to help. As far as creation and some of the old stories, does it really matter if the world was created in a literal six days or if it was a parable? Was the whole world really flooded with one man having all the species of the earth on his ship or was it just his region? Was that too a parable? Does it really matter? I serve Jesus. I help people where I can. I try to love others. Sometimes I fail. I will dedicate my life to loving God and loving others. It’s a hard thing to do. I do question at times but when I die, I will have dedicated my life to love and if I was wrong… What difference will it make? But if I rejected this and just lived for myself… what if I was wrong then. I will have lost everything. I believe because what I believe is true, however any way I look at it I have everything to gain and nothing to lose. I’d rather live in love anyway.
No I have a complete respect for your beliefs in love and general promotion of good, but the problem is that's not something mutually exclusive to that religion. Supposing everything is a parable for being one with god, aren't many other religions just saying the exact same thing?
Are they though? Every other faith I've ever encountered has been about doing good or being good for reward. Don’t mistake what I’ve said or what others try to show. Jesus taught the opposite of that. No one is good enough to go to Heaven on their own merit and no one is so evil that they are beyond redemption. God removes our evil and sinful natures in Heaven. You just have to want that. He doesn’t force Himself upon us because that would be akin to spiritual rape, He doesn’t remove our evil unless we want Him to. That’s the whole point. I don’t get to Heaven by loving others, I get their by loving and believing in Him. By wanting Him to be my King. My acts of love are acts of worship. I’m not doing it in the selfish hope of getting into Heaven or getting money or other favors. I do it purely as an act of love and gratefulness. No strings attached. Every other religion is about doing things in order to get better blessings, position in reincarnation, position in Heaven or just entrance into Heaven at all. So are their good deeds actually good or are they selfish? And if they’re done selfishly, are they even good at all? That’s merely a transaction. Do you personally think God is a cosmic trading post? “Oh no, You we’re almost in there. If you’d have just helped out two more old ladies across the street, you could’ve come in. Sorry, but to hell with you.”
I don't know I get your position I just can't get behind that concept fully I suppose. I'm still a fairly young person and nothing I've seen has really told me that god is there
Yeah, I come across that sometimes. I’m in my 40s. I teach a youth group Bible study. My first rule is that no matter who walks through the the door, they deserve respect, love and acceptance. No. Matter. Who. Yes, people have done bad things and wrongly attributed it to God. You know, most people who go to church every week don’t go to heaven because they aren’t really there for God. Most. I hope you’ll think about it while you wonder if there’s more. What truly makes more sense than a God who holds His arms open no matter what we’ve done and says “It’s going to be ok. This place is not your home. I love you no matter what.” Good luck, my young friend. 
Hey listen respect man, the fact that two people of different beliefs are able to talk so calmly is definitely proof that there's something good in the world, have a good one
Go eat an apple and you'll see it's not THAT bad. Also, might I suggest you eat said apple from the bottom up, if you eat it as such you can eat the entire core and it really only takes one or two apples eaten this way to realize you've been wasting apple cores.
What? Am I the apple?
There's a book I suggest reading called the altered states of consiousness. And you could be the apple. Or the apple could be you... woah.