this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
31 points (72.5% liked)
Showerthoughts
41049 readers
937 users here now
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Never insinuated it wasnt a real fear. Just that it was being used against those who haven’t faced it
I guess that's true for many. However, there is also a possibility to face it and then "handle it" by taking Pascal's wager.
In my opinion non-existence is in the center of the fear. If you stop existing after death whatever you decide to do now doesn't matter any more. If you believe in existence after death (part of most religions) and it makes you happy, why not?
True that there are extremist sects of almost any religions and religion is a common cause of fights but I think that's more rare nowadays and many mainstream religious organizations preach peace and tolerance.
I don't understand how this makes sense:
How does existing after death make the things you do matter? How does not existing make them not matter? I genuinely don't understand what you mean.
Not trying to trivialize your position, just make sense of it, but I think the hidden assumption is something like: you are an algorithm for trying to create good experiences for your brain/human; the things you do matter only if they, ultimately result in better experiences for you; if, eventually, you have no experiences, there is no point striving for anything?
Is it something like that? That still doesn't really make sense to me. Even if we accept the assumptions, why wouldn't creating good experiences for your human temporarily, just until you die, matter?
I think my phrasing wasn't very good. Creating positive experiences for oneself makes sense regardless of life after death.
However, some behavior is motivated by long term consequences. These matter less or differently if you believe there is no afterlife.
E.g. some people behave differently in at a party with people they will never see again than a party with e.g. colleagues and family.
Or many people leave public toilets dirty while they keep the one at home clean.
People who believe in an afterlife might have the mindset they will see people from their life again and they might (if they believe in reincarnation) walk the earth again. So it's a motivation to keep the environment liveable for future generations (beyond just family and kids) or to be nice to people you likely don't meet again.
The behavior could be identical for people with or without a belief in an afterlife but their motivation and thought process behind it might be different.
Thanks, that makes more sense. I especially like the public toilet analogy. Afterlife beliefs really do bring the urinal home.
I actually think the way you are framing non-existence is exactly what I mean. I'm happy my existence and my choices are ultimately inconsequential. I can define my own meaning because all meaning is arbitrary. That difference in perspective is the key.
That feeling of freedom works only if you believe in non-existence after death. The thought that ones choices are inconsequential might (in some people) also lead to harmful behavior (eg harming later generations with environmental destruction etc). I don't mean to say it's going to happen, I just think on a society level it could lead to just as many issues as religious beliefs.
However, whatever one believes it shouldn't be due to doctrine, it should be the result of an active thought process.
To me you have it completely backwards. The fear comes from the unwillingness to accept the possibility of non-existence and ultimately the pointlessness of one's life that pins oneself into needing to believe in an afterlife. Its not that I believe there's nothing after, it's that I dont give a fuck either way
It's good that you don't give a fuck but not everyone is able to be that way. So if you give fucks and a religion makes you feel better, why not?
I don't care enough to argue the point anymore so I'll just leave it at, if anyone believes in an afterlife, I encourage them to get there as soon as they can.
Sounds like more like an emotional response than not caring to me.