Black holes are perhaps the strangest objects in our universe. A black hole is a region of space that has such a high density that gravity forces the matter contained in this region of space to collapse upon itself infinitely. As an example, if one could squeeze the mass of the sun into a space no larger than an apple, gravity would cause it to collapse inwards upon itself. This leads to black holes having an infinite density and an infitely small volume.
Black holes, having an infinitely small voume, are not really noticeable, except for their huge gravitational force. Physicists define the "size" of a black hole by its event horizon, or the distance light has to be from a black hole to be drawn in. Event horizons lead to a rather interesting phenomena as well, which is called Hawking radiation. To fully understand Hawking radiation, one must first have a basic understanding of a couple of quantum mechanical principles.
Quantum mechanics states that even in the vacuum of space, there are still random quantum fluctuations. These fluctuations can cause a pair of complementary particles to come into existence, requiring energy, then collide with each other and annihilate, releasing that same amount of energy. However, if this happens very near a black hole's event horizone, one particle will be pulled in to the black hole, and the other particle will merely be deflected into space. In this case, the particle must get its energy from some other source. This other source is the mass of the black hole, which is converted into energy. It is in this way that over time, a black hole will eventually dissipate, and this is also how a black hole could theoretically be detectable. The problem is that most black holes are very massive, and comparitively less massive black holes give off more radiation, which makes it very hard to definitively prove Hawking radiation.
Death is something that many humans seem to be irrationally afraid of. However, it does not seem nearly as frightening if it is looked at from a logical point of view. To begin with, many religions claim that there is a paradisal afterlife that awaits their faithful followers. Any devout adherent to one of these religions, therefore, should not fear death. However, I will largely be explaining this issue from an atheist's point of view, and thus religion will not largely enter into it.
In my opinion, death should not be feared. I firmly believe that once you die, it is the end. There is no afterlife, your conciousness does not continue. It simply ends. There is really no logical reason to fear this ending. I believe that in death, you would pass into complete obliviousness. As your brain would be dead, there would be no thought, no feeling, no passing of time. I feel that this concept of nothingness is difficult for some people to fully comprehend, so I will attempt to describe it in a different way. I believe that death is much like falling into a deep sleep, in which you have no recognizable dreams, the sort of sleep where you feel as if time has passed instantaneously from the point in time which you closed your eyes. However, in death, you never wake up. I try to describe death, but I do not think that the human mind is capable of fully comprehending such a concept
However, there is a theory in physics, known as quantum immortality, in which one can never die. The premise behing this theory is that there is an infinite number of alternate universes, branching every time a choice is confronted to pursue all possible outcomes. As an example, imagine that you stand in a room with an electronically controlled gun pointed at your head. Every second, there is a fifty percent chance that the gun will fire and kill you. This means that every second, two universes branch off, one in which the gun fires and kills you, and one in which it does not. There are technically an infinite number of outcomes, but these two are the only ones which matter. Anyways, when these universes branch, in one of them, you are dead. However, in the other one you are still alive. As in the universe in which you are dead no longer has your point of view, your point of view continues in the universe in which you are still living. However, from the point of view of a person watching this, your point of view is not necessary, and therefore you can die from their point of view.
Now for my most controversial topic, which is quite impressive given the content contained in my discussions on my other two topics. In case you were not aware of this fact, atheism is the belief that there is no deity. Many people seem bothered by this fact, and I have encountered many people who seem to believe that atheists are evil and need to be converted. So, I will be attempting to calmly and logically state my reasoning for my belief in no god. As a note, I will be using Christianity for many of my points for the simple reason that it is the religion I am most familiar with. I mean no offense to anybody who believes differently than I do, and I apologize if this website makes you feel that I am attempting to insult either you or your religion.
I will begin with a very common question amongst atheists. "If your god is omnipotent, why is there still pain in the world?" Now, I am not a theologist, so I apologize for any mistakes I make in my discussion, but I believe most Christians would answer with something along the lines of, "It is through our suffering that we find redemption." This however, brings up another good point. Why is redemption necessary? In Christianity, God sends Jesus to Earth, where he suffers, dies, and is reborn, in order to cleanse the sins of humanity. However, if God is omnipotent, why would he not just simply cleanse the sins of humanity himself. Now the Christian may respond with, "Well, humans commit evil, and God will not take away our free will." This brings up a very interesting point. What exactly constitutes free will? Humans are constantly bound by a huge number of things. If a person would like to kill somebody, for example, but do not do it because their conscience does not allow them, then how is this any different than some omnipotent force stopping them. People would argue that a conscience is a person's own thoughts, not an outside force, but regardless of that fact, the result remains exactly the same. Could an omnipotent force not simply create such a conscience in every human? However, this is a highly argued point, and there is no definite answer.
We now move on to something that, to my knowledge, every religion has in common. That point is that the faithful gain a paradisal afterlife. I personally find this point to be the easiest one amongst these to argue. My argument is very simple. Once you die, your brain is, well, dead. You can no longer experience anthing, for you can no longer receive stimuli. There could be no afterlife, because with your brain dead, you could not see, hear, smell, taste, feel, or in any other way sense said afterlife. Christians would argue that your soul continues on to heaven, but there is no evidence of any such thing as a soul. People might argue that a soul is what gives us our emotions and such things, but I would argue that there are simply chemicals in the brain that trigger emotional responses.
My arguments are backed up by centuries of science. Their arguments are based on millenium of belief. Choose whichever one you want. If you want to believe that humans have souls, and that these souls defy our known science, you may. If you would like to believe that there is a benevolent, omnipotent god watching over us, that all of your suffering means that after death you will be granted paradise, you may. I did not write this to try to convert people to atheism. I wrote this simply to explain my side of the argument.