the atheist within part IV

in a coffee shop two people talk in quiet tones after returning from a funeral

What happens when we die?

Nothing...., there is a flash of light from the last neuropotential in our eyes then it all goes dark and numb but at that point you don't know it,..... you just go out of existence.

Doesn't anything of us last?

The memory of who we've touched or hurt or what we've done, that lives on for awhile.

Only awhile?

Yes, because soon anyone who ever knew us will be gone. Look around, in fifty years no one in this place will be here anymore. We will all be dead and gone.... either ashes or dust in the ground or cryogenically frozen.

But what of the great ones? Odysseus, the Caesars.........

Even they are not immortal their memory won't on live forever either. No one is immortal only the universe goes on forever and we don't even know what that is.

Really?

Someday the sun will burn out and all life will be gone, extinct, nada, nyet...., there will be no one to remember, nothing. We are alone. The universe will continue to expand and some day the sky will be completely dark as the light will eventually disappear from the distant stars. This earth and the universe will be dead and cold. In time, the universe will implode and return to its original state. There may be another big bang and another and another and after a billion tries and a freak chance life may again be born but there will be no recollection of anything before. No recollection of us or our greatness because nothing is great when the memory of it is gone. Just as we have no idea what or who or if anything preceded us in the endless reformation of the universe nothing after us will be able to know either. No, nothing any of us has ever done will ever be known or remembered. Its as if we never existed and possibly in the context of endless time and space we really haven't.

That seems kinda dark and bleak.

I try not to think about it.