I have always found cessation of existence to be vastly more terrifying than hell. At least I can understand hell, the true reality of the situation just makes my whole mind flinch away in terror. Until I found out about transhumanism and began to see that death might just be possible to defeat, I was only able to cope by watching my thoughts closely and making sure they didn’t stray anywhere near the concept (which is itself worrying, since it suggests a very strong reason why I might be biased).
I suspect this is also why I tend to meet lots of people who say they no longer believe in God but still believe in the afterlife, but I have never met anybody who is the other way round.
Your comment surprised me. I didn’t think anyone would prefer hell to cessation of existence. Does your preference also extend to other people, e.g. your loved ones? When someone dies, are you willing to press a button to resurrect them and send them to hell?
I have always found cessation of existence to be vastly more terrifying than hell. At least I can understand hell, the true reality of the situation just makes my whole mind flinch away in terror. Until I found out about transhumanism and began to see that death might just be possible to defeat, I was only able to cope by watching my thoughts closely and making sure they didn’t stray anywhere near the concept (which is itself worrying, since it suggests a very strong reason why I might be biased).
I suspect this is also why I tend to meet lots of people who say they no longer believe in God but still believe in the afterlife, but I have never met anybody who is the other way round.
Your comment surprised me. I didn’t think anyone would prefer hell to cessation of existence. Does your preference also extend to other people, e.g. your loved ones? When someone dies, are you willing to press a button to resurrect them and send them to hell?
I’m not sure, probably not.
What scares me isn’t always quite the same as what I would prefer not to happen, probably a system 1 vs system 2 thing.