I was raised a Christian since birth. As a Christian I accepted death. I was sure that once I died I would go to Heaven and spend the rest of eternity in paradise. Death was not something to fear, it was sort of akin to changing your clothes. Once my earthly "clothes" were worn out, I would go to Heaven, where I could enjoy my heavenly "clothes". Being a human being on earth was akin to having shorts and a t-shirt on, whereas being in heaven was akin to having an extremely nice tux on. I was living with total security pertaining to the world beyond this one. Then I became an atheist.
During the time that I transitioned from Christianity to atheism I wrestled with many questions. Christianity told me that there is a God watching over us and that there will be a Heaven after we die and many other nice things. When looking at atheism in comparison the belief system was more like there is no God so you are on your own in this world in that sense and when we die we are buried in the ground where we rot and our bodies are eaten by worms and shit out as little specs of dust. The Christian views are much more optimistic, but I chose to go with the atheist views largely for one main reason: they are true. I could believe that there was a God and that we went somewhere when we died, but then I would just be lying to myself to feel better. Instead I chose to accept the world as it was, with its harshness and everything.
As an atheist I had to find new answers to questions such as "why are we here?" and "what happens when we die?", among others. The latter question I struggled with up until earlier this week. My reasoning told me that the most likely thing that happens when we die is that we simply cease to exist. Thats it, game over. I didn't like that, but it was the truth and there was no use hiding from it. My beliefs about life after death have not changed. When we die, thats it, its game over, there is no after life, there is no reincarnation, there is nothing after we die. We simply cease to exist. However the other day I had an epiphany that made this truth acceptable.
Recently I have been studying more extensively eastern religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. I've been amazed at how different the philosophy of these religions are from the western religions that I was raised around. Many of these religions have no god and/or do not have any eternal life, making them somewhat more atheistic. All of the eastern religions I mentioned believe in reincarnation. Once you die you are reborn. What you are reborn as depends on the level of karma (the difference of your good and bad deeds) you have. However the cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth (known as samsara in Hinduism and Buddhism), is not forever. Another major concept in all of these religions, especially Buddhism, is that as long as one is alive, one will suffer. One wont be suffering 24/7, but with life suffering will inevitably come. Many eastern religions maintain that the suffering we endure in life is due to our attachment to the material world. When our dog dies, we are saddened because we were attached to the dog. If we become homeless we suffer because we were attached to having a home. If we abandon attachment then we circumvent suffering. Instead of suffering when our dog dies, we say "that dog was a good dog and I had many good times with him, but he is gone now and I cannot change that so I must accept it". With that mindset our suffering is minimized.
When we can be unattached to this world we are considered to be enlightened by eastern philosophy. Once we are enlightened the cycle of samsara ends and we are liberated from it. From the perspective of western religions, this is when you would think that one goes to Heaven, but it is not so. At that point your life truly ends. You simply cease to exist. That is exactly what my view of death is without any reincarnation. I learned this and my first reaction was "why would I want to achieve enlightenment then?". At first glance, by achieving enlightenment you would just commit ultimate suicide. However I then thought back to the idea of suffering being inherent in life and realized that final death is a liberation from the suffering brought on by life. Now this is all fine and dandy, except for the fact that you also can no longer experience the joys brought on by life. I am a man who lives in extremes. I do not do things conservatively, I allow myself to feel the greatest joys I can in life and at the same time allow myself to feel the greatest pains. Dying to avoid suffering is not a good reason to die in my book, because I can handle true suffering if it means I can experience true joy.
