The mere cessation of existence is no evil to any one: the idea is only formidable through the illusion of imagination which makes one conceive oneself as if one were alive and feeling oneself dead. What is odious in death is not death itself, but the act of dying, and its lugubrious accompaniments: all of which must be equally undergone by the believer in immortality. Nor can I perceive that the skeptic loses by his skepticism any real and valuable consolation except one; the hope of reunion with those dear to him who have ended their earthly life before him. That loss, indeed, is neither to be denied nor extenuated.
- J.S. Mill, The Utility of Religion
(HT: Adam Gopnik)
Also worth your time: You’re A Good Man, John Stuart Mill.
I’ve got no issues with death or dying. What will be will be. My issue is with life. I don’t want it to end.
Ah, but that’s because you’ve fallen into the trap that Mill describes – that you “conceive oneself as if one were alive and feeling oneself dead.” A life unending would be a life without value…
Bollocks. The Highlander had meaning.
Nah, he was just fooling himself.