This question has been bothering me for a while.
Please note I'm not asking if we are alive. That's a different question and I think it's pretty obvious to anyone paying attention that we are in fact the dreams of a tortured god.
why do you feel like perceptions need to exist outside the moment in time in which they take place?
It's more an ontological thing. Like all of life is effectively a memory, and death destroys all our memories, so how can we have the memory of being alive in the present?
How can we have the perception of being alive if death destroys our perception of ever having been alive?
We have the perception of being alive because we are alive. When we die, we are dead.
Existence precedes essence. When your existence ends, your essence ends.
I am she that painteth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and sing to you the keys of Pluto and Hades.