Dealing with the reality of death. How do you? (page 2)

thenoblelodge

Confliction

It took me several years to get used to the idea that I was going to live forever in a paradise earth.

When I left it took me just a few months to accept that it was really ok to die, and because of my faith in God and his Son I know there is something way way better.

I will admit to feeling depressed to begin with, but it passed. I am now getting a life and not feeling guilty every time I do something just for me, (like sleeping in on saturdays and sundays). Enjoy your life, leave your mark, be kind to others and just be happy and not waste a moment. Become what you would have if you had never been part of the WT. They steal peoples lives, don't let them steal anymore of yours.

Your free.

confliction

@alice

I don't understand what you're trying to gain from repeatedly invading my threads with... whatever it is you're trying to say. I'm not trying to attack and insult you, so why do you do to others what you don't want done to you?

Because I'm not personally entitled nor required to refute every episode of ignorance in the world, I will just say this.

The bible appeals to the idea of eternal life- great.
The bible says that God put it in our hearts to live forever, thus why people seem to want to. Great.

The issue here is where you start saying that medical professionals speak of desperacy when people have impending threats to their life.

All I can say is that you have dumbfounded me. Every organism in the world will fight for it's life if it feels threatened- this is one of the most basic biological functions of almost all organisms called the fight-or-flight mechanism. The fact that people get desperate during the end of their life is no different. So, once again, you can attribute a natrual function inherent for survival to your almighty deity, or can choose not to add to the explanation something that has no evidential backing. Doesn't this mean that God also put it in the hearts of animals to live forever? But WT theology obviously states only humans want to and will live forever. To me this all just seems to exploit the basic human desire for "more".

As to the reason people want to live long and fight for it with this desperate response is because the longer you live, the better chance you have of finding a mate for reproduction, the more time you have to collect information and interpret the data around you, and then you get to pass this information on to the next generation. Thus, we fight to live as long as we can and do not desire to die, simply because death means that you are no longer in existence to do so. Add on to this the layer of consciousness and intelligence in the human mind and this basic biological function becomes expounded upon and unnecissarily reasoned upon by people like you, and those who wrote the bible.

I find it interesting that all of "God's" wisdom always seems to be by proxy through man.

The fact that you call my questions "ridicules" is insulting, and shows how human you are.
All I can say is that you need to get ready for the reality of death in your organization, because you will die. Your life will come to an end. If you try everything in your life to avoid that fact, including logic and common sense, it shows your weakness and aversion to the reality of mortality. And since you have this weakness, the WT exploits it by placing the "carrot" of everlasting life in front of you. This gives you hope, even when all logic goes against it- once again, represented by human emotions overriding the logical mind.

Because of this, you have surrounded yourself with information to confirm beliefs that you would otherwise be unsure of, and try to demolish evidence that contradicts it. Because of this desperacy to fight against opposing evidence, I see a long road ahead of you, as there is a lot of evidence you have to get rid of or ignore.

Good luck with that.

chickpea

i took to heart the phrase
(which i cannot attribute
but somebody else said it)

get busy living or get busy dying.....

i chose to spend what is left of this ONE ASSURED
experience of conciousness as engaged as possible
in living a life that is meaningful, in terms of the
human experience... and meaning is entirely subjective
and personal

get busy and stay busy!!

p.s.

i just plain stopped being afraid of mortality
and gave up completely the notion of divinity!

been doing the happy dance ever since

flipper

CONFLICTION- I was a born-in witness. Got out after 44 years over 6 years ago. What has helped me to face the reality of death ? Living my life to the fullest every day ! I stay very busy in my self employed ventures with work, but have developed great hobbies I share with my wife as well, and alone . We play Scrabble constantly, listen to music, take long walks with our dogs, swimming, hiking in the Sierra mountains . We grow a great vegetable garden and tend to it. I enjoy cutting firewood to get ready for our harsh winters . Enjoy reading psychology books , mind control subjects , etc.

I just realize there is very little I can do about life after death if it doesn't exist- so why worry about it ? I try focusing positive energy into my life , not damaging negative energy . We will all find out one day when we are dead if we are floating around somewhere - until then I get precious little sleep as it is - not gonna spend my days and time worrying about what I can't control. Life is stressful enough- why make it more so ? Just my 2 cents. Hang in there, you'll be O.K. Peace out, Mr.Flipper

designs

Existentialism....................now go out and make something of your life

Mall Cop

Hi Confliction! Dealing with the reality of death. How do you do it? Well, it's not easy having this reality hanging over our heads. Recently I have read two very interesting books that have opposite views and experiences when it comes to dealing with death.

1) The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker. it deals with the "why" of human existence and man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality.

2) Searching for Eternity,a scientist's Spiritual journey to overcome death anxiety. Dr.Don Morse. It deals with his conflict over death anxiety and his search for some form of an afterlife.

Two scholars with opposite conclusions about your question on dealing with the reality of death.

Of course there are many more books on this subject that I read, however if you find the time goggle these two and if you find them interesting go ahead and get them. Maybe they will be helpful and maybe they will do what they have done for me, kept me conflicted.

I'm 65 years old and can't stop the clock of death that we all will meet up with sooner or later.

Take care.

Blueblades/ Mall Cop

thetrueone

Being that the soon to be Paradise was just a culling marketing ploy by a publishing house to increase the circulation

of its literature, humanity has to all join in the reality of the human existence and to proportionately deal with life as it is.

We can fold are hands up and wait for a god to correct all that is wrong with the human experience or we can endeavor

to improve what we need to improve on.

As it can be seen by ALICE'S JW comment that death is an exploited reality, that is commonly used and utilized when preaching door to door,

pulling more people into delusional compliance and social irresponsibility .

Its an act of irresponsibility where a JWS is given something great that they

think no one else has but really creates an attitude of apathy and abandonment of reality itself.

This kind of social separation from humanity is somewhat selfish and self absorbing that not only hurts the individual alone

but the body of humanity as well.

ziddina

Everything dies. Even galaxies die.

I've realized that it would be the height of hubris - or self-important delusion - to believe that I, a mere speck of flesh upon a speck of dust in a minor galaxy wherein the galaxy itself will die someday...

To realize that, and then to pretend that I'M so important that I could outlive a galaxy?? That is the height of egomaniacal delusion, in my mind...

Yeah, I'll die soon. Probably within a few decades. I'm glad to be alive right now, and I've got a "hungry" mind - I read just about anything and everything scientific - heavily weighted towards Oceanography, Geology, and Archaeology - that I can get my hands on...

That 'extends my reach', so to speak... Reading about "continental drift" lets me see what happened far into the past. Reading about dinosaurs, the Cambrian period, the Paleogene - all that takes me where no human could ever tread... Also, being a member of an historical re-enactment group, actually gives me more than one "life" during this lifetime...

I am content with that... Zid

Mythbuster

Zid

The Finger

I was more worried about death when I was an active JW. I sometimes feel now what a relief it will be. I think an off button would have been a good idea. I believe in God and a better life.

Dealing with the reality of death. How do you?

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