Conversations at the Pool

Conversations at the pool are rather "random" to say the least.

Everyone knows I'm an Atheist. My wife always prefaces the fact that I was "Agnostic" when we were married and she feels like there's still "hope" and somewhere along the way, believes that if "she" believes in God, I get a free pass. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not aware of the rules working that way, but I digress.

Anyway, the conversation of life & death came up in a conversation with friends at the pool, and I always get asked, "what happens after you die?"

My response is always, "do you remember anything before you were born?"

"No."

My response: "It's the same."

I'm not afraid of death unto itself, I'm afraid of how that would occur. Slow death? Uh, no! Torture? Another no. Quick? Fine! Dying in my sleep. I'm good with that. Growing old and suffering through life? No. I'd prefer to die before that. I'm fine with an early death if life isn't productive and becomes mondain.

Anyway, I think the human mind wants to hang on to loss and at the abuse of all logic, wants to keep the emotional losses alive and the concept of an afterlife feeds that, so despite all logic, people want to believe in that. Hey, I have the same inclination myself. Anyone that has pets or a loved one that died wants to believe they "went over the rainbow" yet keep the connection.

But the reality is that they died, like the mosquito you swatted, the ant you stepped on, the beef & chicken you eat every day for lunch, the animals that are raised to be killed, "oh, that calf is so cute, but we're going to kill him come season for the almighty $$".

Life is cruel. Reality is cruel. But hey, if it makes you feel better and your brain prefers fantasy over truth, intentionally believe in concepts that don't exist.