this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
173 points (84.7% liked)
Asklemmy
43892 readers
781 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy ๐
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
As I see it, people keep developing mental constructs to make the experience of their own existence feel more meaningful, more important and potencially eternal, because the thought of insignificance and eventual death is just too scary.
For me, this is less an emotional support philosophy, and more an earnest curiosity about the nature of consciousness and reality.
For all the words we can use on it, it's lost on people who never had thoughts and experiences that prompted them to be curious about the nature of consciousness and reality.
It's like discussing the ~~bitterness~~ sourness of a lemon with someone who never tried one.
But on the other hand: have you tried psychedelics?
it's all a hallucination
It amazes me how many people will take the specialness of their experience as a given, even when thinking about the big picture is literally their job.
I don't think "eternal darkness" is a good descriptor. Was there "eternal darkness" before you were born?
not the person you're replying to, but I was too young to remember
And you'll be too old to remember the eternal darkness once you're dead.
People love to repeat this but it's not as comforting as you think it is.
I didn't repeat the comment you replied to, it was my original thought.
You might not find it comforting, but plenty of people do.
Why not?