Comments on: Conversation with a Street Artist

By: jmg

jmg — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:23:40 +0000

An important distinction here is that, if death is really the end of existence, then we wouldn’t “experience not existing” - we wouldn’t experience anything because we would have no consciousness. For the person in question it would be as if we never existed.

By: Winter

Winter — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:56:44 +0000

What about the absence of fear? I agree that the majority of society takes the “glass half empty” approach.

What are your thoughts on the few of us who don’t?

By: Neuville

Neuville — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 06:28:42 +0000

Hey Jeff, what were you doing in the City That Care Forgot, if I may ask? That was my home until Katrina. I taught in a middle school there.

By: garrett

garrett — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:41:16 +0000

My best guess is that the biggest difference between animal thought processes and (normal) human thought processes is that humans are conditioned to think in words and concepts instead of visually. This leads to the rather interesting side effect of autistic people being - some of whom are visual thinkers in a way that normal people are not - are better able to understand animals. This idea is nicely developed by Temple Grandin in “Animals in Translation” which is frankly one of the most interesting books that I have ever read.

That only really addresses two of the three questions, though. Not sure that I have any insights into the afterlife at this time . . .

By: DaveN

DaveN — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:43:01 +0000

An interesting post that raises several interesting points worth thinking about.

I don’t think I fear death per se. Rather, my objection is to the loss of the life I know and value. As for the act of dying, if it’s just an end to my existence, why fear that? How is it different than just falling asleep? And if it’s something more than that, it’ll be an adventure.

I’m not religious, and I’m skeptical of the concept of heaven to say the least. Still, there are some people I’d like to meet or see again in the afterlife, so I like to keep a little hope that the traditional model is right.