In a discussion with a group of eighteen men I proclaimed, it was more than I just said, “I am comfortable with dying and just becoming a scattered random bunch of individual atoms that are part of the physical universe, without my individual identity.” This was in response to some others there, who claimed they were inhabited by a spirit that will live eternally. I gently asked for any verification of their statements and was told it was true because their faith in the Bible meant it was true.
They, of course, asked for my proofs and I said that everything I have ever observed followed the pattern after dying of reverting to nonliving matter. A dead leaf or squirrel planted in my garden will help the new plants grow better, but that plant isn’t a squirrel. Some of the new plants might create nuts which the squirrels do eat but this new squirrel will be a totally different individual. They will have some crossover DNA in their common ancestry but their life experience is unique.
I don’t see my body being any different from a squirrel’s in this dying, becoming organic matter enriching the soil and being reborn as a plant and then possibly as a mammal. I am like a tiny leaf on the vast tree of life and while I am a living part of that tree I will treat all of it with love and respect because it is all part of me and I a part of it. When the time comes for me to die it will be like a leaf, having fulfilled its purpose of nourishing the tree, it breaks off and falls away to nonliving oblivion.
Back in the ground my atoms can perform other functions to help a new tree to grow, but my individuality will be gone forever. I’m comfortable with that.
Probaway - Life Hacks 