I have to applaud your unwillingness. It should hardly be an accomplishment but it is; I find it extremely depressing that I'm a member of a species apparently (usually) capable of simply deciding what to believe.
It's actually on both sides. Even as an atheist, I'm baffled by atheists who were formerly religious, become angry with God, and decide not to believe in him as a result. How the flying fuck does that work? My brain simply doesn't work even remotely like that. What I _want_ to be true means jack shit.
I've simply spent far too much of my life studying physics for religiosity to be an option for me. I don't really want this to be so but, unless science cures aging, I'll eventually be toast and that's that.
As for the loss of consciousness, comfort yourself with this: You won't be around to have an opinion regarding it. Look at it like this: How did you feel about it all before you were born? That's how you're going to feel about it after you die. All the matter that composes you existed before you were born and all of it will continue to after you die, but you're only going to have any thoughts on it one way or the other while particles are arranged in a way that yields your consciousness.
Death isn't so comparable to how you feel when you sleep; it's identical to how you felt when the dinosaurs were roaming the Earth.
why are you atheist? why are you theist?
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I have to applaud your unwillingness. It should hardly be an accomplishment but it is; I find it extremely depressing that I'm a member of a species apparently (usually) capable of simply deciding what to believe.
It's actually on both sides. Even as an atheist, I'm baffled by atheists who were formerly religious, become angry with God, and decide not to believe in him as a result. How the flying fuck does that work? My brain simply doesn't work even remotely like that. What I _want_ to be true means jack shit.
I've simply spent far too much of my life studying physics for religiosity to be an option for me. I don't really want this to be so but, unless science cures aging, I'll eventually be toast and that's that.
As for the loss of consciousness, comfort yourself with this: You won't be around to have an opinion regarding it. Look at it like this: How did you feel about it all before you were born? That's how you're going to feel about it after you die. All the matter that composes you existed before you were born and all of it will continue to after you die, but you're only going to have any thoughts on it one way or the other while particles are arranged in a way that yields your consciousness.
Death isn't so comparable to how you feel when you sleep; it's identical to how you felt when the dinosaurs were roaming the Earth.