system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why do people fear eternal nonexistence?

I am currently having a debate with my Philosophy class (including my teacher) about death and nonexistence. I made the statement that death is a good thing for us to reach and that eternal nonexistence would be true paradise (paradoxically being the absence of paradise too). 
Nobody in the class has agreed with me and I don't understand, why does eternal nonexistence scare people? 
Surely it would be the ultimate experience, to never be conscious in any way possible, to never suffer again, to be able to rest eternally and to not have any thoughts again?
What's wrong with dying and never experiencing anything at all after that?


EDIT: I worded this badly and you all misunderstood what I meant. I'll revise the word *experience* and replace it with form/state (or non state rather).
gpt
The main problem with your view that it would be the ultimate experience is the "experience" part. You're dead. There *is no* experience. It can't be the ultimate experience, because it isn't one. Consciousness is necessary for experience - when it goes, so does your ability to perceive. So it's not true to say "you aren't suffering" because there is no *you* there to experience all the *not suffering* going on - you can't enjoy it, because there's nobody home to enjoy the lack of pain. When you say someone isn't suffering because they are dead, it's vacuously true - it's not because Judy isn't feeling any pain anymore, it's because *there is no Judy to feel the pain.*


That's the problem with your view. Now, this doesn't necessarily mean you should *fear* death, because, of course, when you die, you aren't going to be experiencing any fear either, because, again, there isn't anybody home. But that doesn't mean that death is a paradise or the ultimate experience - neither of those can happen if *you* aren't still able to perceive them.