Life sucks and then you die

Some of the greatest questions us nonbelievers are faced with is "What happens to you when you die?" and "What is life for?"

These are tough questions, indeed. I'm something of a nihilist at times. I've often thought that life has no value. If there is no afterlife, it's not like we'll be punished, or on the flip side, rewarded, for what we've done in life, so what is the point in living? This question is almost impossible to answer without answering the other question "What happens to you when you die?"

I don't claim to be one hundred percent sure of anything. I would say I'm probably about 70-80 percent sure there isn't any sort of god or other supernatural being (I am what is called an "agnostic atheist"). Saying you're absolutely sure is bad science. I am, however, pretty sure, that once we die, that's it. We're dead. We're just gone. Our conscious ceases to exist and that's all. Oblivion. Nothing.

It's much like global warming. You have no clue how much I'd LOVE for global warming to just be a conspiracy by quack scientists. I WISH it was all bullshit, that it was a myth, and that my beloved winters were safe from extinction. I really wish I was wrong. The sad thing is, I (along with most scientific institutions) am not wrong.

I'd love to believe that after I die I get to live in paradise for all eternity. I really wish that was the case, but it's (most likely) not.

I suppose if you share some Buddhist beliefs you may think that perhaps we're reborn as someone else. If you share even more of these beliefs, what you are born as depends on how you lived your previous life. If you lived well, you may be born to live a happier life. If not, you may be born into a less fortunate life. This raises the question, though, of who determines how well you lived your life. If you don't believe in something to determine this, then it seems like it may be a groundless belief.

Many claim to have had what's called out of body experiences, in which their mind literally leaves their body and travels about. Perhaps this is what happens. Your conscious self is just left behind. There is no scientific evidence, though, for or against this.

Epicurus, one of the earliest skeptic thinkers, believed that death is something not to be feared, as it is the end of body and soul. I look at it like this: How can you suffer from nonexistence if you don't exist to suffer to begin with?

If you believe in an afterlife that is determined by how full your life was, or reincarnation, or simply fading into nonexistence, or whatever, one thing is certain: you have to live your life as best as you can.