There is a natural human desire to survive and live forever, but all life eventually comes to an end. Life by definition includes death although some exceptions like cancer cells and Tardigrades are found in nature. I believe that when we die, it means the end of our existence hence I do not believe in an afterlife. For a long time, this made me sad, since I grew up Christian and thinking there is a heaven. More recently, I see death as a positive thing nowadays, since it is the end of suffering and the only path to real eternal peace. I do value life more than death and desire to continue to exist, especially for my family who needs me, but I no longer fear death nor see it as a negative as I used to view it. Death is a necessary part of life that we will all go through eventually, so you just have to enjoy life as much as you can while (and if) you have good health. If there is an afterlife, I would guess that there would be suffering there too,...
For a long time I have been suspecting that there is something false about life. I remember watching the movie The Truman Show as a kid and for a a little while I thought my life was a show, that I was being observed and monitored somehow, that goes beyond my ability to detect. Since learning about simulation theory, it has slowly crept into my philosophical views of life, shifting my epistemology, ontology, and has even my axiology. This has led me to some mixed thoughts that seem to contradict each other: The nature of reality doesn't matter. Simulation or now we may all be cogs in a wheel with little to no free will, as human behavior is dictated by evolutionary biology, genetics, the expression of those genetics, environment, nurture, social forces, and other factors that lead to our actions. Our ideas of what reality is or isn't has no effect on the reality we are limited to perceive. A simulation would make theology true and atheism false, since the creators of ...