What do you believe in regarding death

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Do you believe in the idea of an after-life in some shape or form?

Maybe reincarnation some way or another?

perhaps your spirit or 'life energy' transcends your body, and you can explore the galaxy?



Personally, I haven't ever really been able to cling to any belief behind death...I'd like to believe that we are more than just a lump of flesh, nerves and synaptic relays, but...I dunno, the brain is an amazing thing, so amazing that it can even fool itself I think.



The only thing I don't believe in, is hell. I solidly don't believe in it, the concept just doesn't compute for me.



Whenever I think about death I get really depressed, because I can't grasp the concept of not existing...rather, not existing consciously, because even when I do die, the matter that made me will still exist in some form or another.



If you believe in something, what leads you to believe it? what conclusions did you come across when thinking about it? did you ever sit down and really think about it?



When you press "post new reply" did you think long on the BS 'joke' answer you will provide?



anyone care to start this one off?
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 75
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    I believe in the biblical way of thinking. After death we are judged by God and He chooses whether we go to Heaven or Hell. I believe that those who go to Heaven will live on with God in paradise for eternity. As for those in Hell, they will live in darkness, in eternal separation from God.



    Personally, I don't fear death, nor do I welcome it, but I'm not afraid of it because I know there are better things ahead.
  • Reply 2 of 75
    It's the same as when you pass out. Everything starts fading and goes black. Except when you die that's it. I firmly believe that this is all there is.
  • Reply 3 of 75
    homhom Posts: 1,098member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by InactionMan

    It's the same as when you pass out. Everything starts fading and goes black. Except when you die that's it. I firmly believe that this is all there is.



    Ditto.



    There is no afterlife. When we die, that's it, game over.
  • Reply 4 of 75
    The best sleep EVER.



    A distinct lack of dreams, though, which will make it a little less satisfying.
  • Reply 5 of 75
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    Ditto.



    There is no afterlife. When we die, that's it, game over.




    yeah, that's basically the conclusion I come to...which is really depressing.
  • Reply 6 of 75
    Quote:

    Originally posted by HOM

    There is no afterlife. When we die, that's it, game over.



    How sad for you to believe such a thing



    I suppose this means you only believe in the physical world, that which you can see.
  • Reply 7 of 75
    ibrowseibrowse Posts: 1,749member
    I have a very odd mixed view on this subject, however I am wayyyy past how late I should be up tonight (stupid Boggle...) so I won't be writing the essay that never finishes itself that I had in mind. I don't really have any beliefs that can be tied to any one religion. I do believe that there is is something more to life than just us being here. I find it hard to believe in the Christian 'good dog/bad dog' concept of Heaven/Hell. I know that the thought process is a system of electric impulses in the brain but I still think that there has to be something more to us. Not necessarily the 'soul', but there is something that is you that is still you every day that is not just your thoughts. This is the part where I would babble on and on about a person's personality being like the soul in a way, but different, and I'd probably throw in something about the energy that is you, and that bit about energy not being created nor destroyed etc. etc. But instead I'm going to bed.
  • Reply 8 of 75
    fellowshipfellowship Posts: 5,038member
    I believe in the message of the Bible. I believe there is eternal fellowship with God after our time on Earth. I believe the Bible speaks of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus came to forgive us of our sin and to pardon our faults. The Bible is about two subjects. God's principles are given to prepare us and add wisdom to our life on Earth. God's grace given by Jesus prepares us for life after our Earthly death.



    I believe God is all about relationships. Everything in creation relates to other things in various ways. The order of nature shows us the relationships within the biology of living plants and animals within and amongst the wider realm of creation. Everything relates in this system. We are relational beings and have relationships with others in our life here and now. I believe God is seeking our recognition of his will and purpose for this master order. I believe God is a spirit and longs for our spirit to come into accordance with His be it a range of our least of earnest attempts to our more clear attempts to seek Him. God asks for our obedience but forgives us of our sin. God makes promises and the entire Bible is packed with messages or teachings of obedience to God's principles and / or the understanding of God's will. Such yielding and gaining of knowledge and practice of these truths are rewarded be it in the natural or the supernatural. Rewards that nourish the flesh or rewards that nourish the spirit for the prospect of further developed understanding from our standpoint.



    I believe life is a supernatural gift and God without doubt is supernatural. To God be all glory as he is the source of all that is.



    Fellowship
  • Reply 9 of 75
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Dale Sorel

    How sad for you to believe such a thing



    I suppose this means you only believe in the physical world, that which you can see.






    Rather that which you can touch
  • Reply 10 of 75
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Another materialist here. Once that oxygen stops, it's like pulling the plug for good. But I'm hoping for 70 virgins.
  • Reply 11 of 75
    existenceexistence Posts: 991member
    I really don't know. I am completely agnostic. I acknowledge that there could be a god(s) or an afterlife, but then again, who knows? It seems the prudent thing to do would be to hedge oneself and perpare for the possibility that there is an afterlife, but the whole thing seems to ridiculous since there are so many religions--who's to say which one is right? You really can't be a muslim, a christian, a buddist and a jew at the same time (although my grandmother tries). I don't consider myself an athiest because I think athiestism is not prudent--say there is a god(s), then you're royaly screwed!



    The closest thing I consider to death is falling into a black hole--the curvature of spacetime gets so extreme as one approaches the event horizon that the entire external universe vanishes into a point and disappears into nothing (think of it as going deeper into an infinite tunnel where the light at the end of the tunnel is the rest of the universe).



    I think the real question is what is existence?
  • Reply 12 of 75
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I'll answer next season when we don't have a CBA.
  • Reply 13 of 75
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Existence



    ...what is Existence?



    you're freaking me out man :lol"
  • Reply 14 of 75
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by murbot

    I'll answer next season when we don't have a CBA.







    Yes, there will be no NHL Center Ice down here and therefore plenty of extra time to contemplate such things. Even if there is no lockout and the Pens get Ovechkin (Malkin at worst), there still might not be anything worth watching for some of us... word is they're staying in Russia regardless of whether they get drafted. Ovechkin signed a multi-million dollar contract extension already so there's little incentive to come over here. He's either going to be with Pittsburgh or Washington... I'm sure he's thrilled.











    But seriously, we've been down this road before. I have to hope there is some kind of afterlife for most of us. The heaven and hell thing seems a little to obviously a means of controlling people, as every religion and every primitive tribe known to man has some version of this and the only way to get in is to always "play by the rules". Even if the rules of one tribe or religion are completely at odds with another. The whole notion is just very inconsistent and even less so when you consider the nature of God.



    Unless he just likes to create us for entertainment to see where free will takes us, I have to imagine that for most of us, when we die he brings our consciousness back to him somehow... so that we can understand everything that is now beyond us. The stars, the universe, the hows and whys.



    Near as I can figure, I the only way you miss out on this is to deny your own humanity and basically treat everyone (including yourself) like an ass. The wreckless people who act like they just don't give a damn, whether it's cutting in line or running you off the road or screaming in your face or something worse. I'd like to think those people just take a dirt nap literally, and all consciousness leaves them. Sort of like they stamp out their own spirit in life and by the time they die, there's nothing left.



    Whereas with the rest of us (hopefully), there's something left and it goes... out there somewhere... to see the cosmos maybe and the origin of all things.
  • Reply 15 of 75
    nebulousnebulous Posts: 193member
    I have somewhat scattered beliefs about the afterlife. To put it simply, I believe that whatever scenario you set yourself up to believe in life will be what you experience. There is no "right or wrong" belief. If you think that you will be judged and go either to Heaven or Hell, then you will certainly be judged by God.



    Myself, I believe in reincarnation. When I die, I'll go to sleep for a little while, then wake up somewhere beautiful, with friends from this life and lives of the past. This place will be a nice spot to just chill out for a little while - reflect on the life I just completed, chat up some old buddies, talk to the gods a little. It'll be good times. When I'm ready to join the living again, I'll be reborn into a whole new scenario.



    The afterlife is what we make it out to be, really. If my ideas sound outrageous, then just accept that they only really exist as padding from the unknown. After all, how many people can tell you that they have experienced the afterlife first-hand? In the end you just have to believe in whatever makes you the most comfortable with death, or whatever you find to be the most logical. Those two factors don't always match up. \
  • Reply 16 of 75
    tigerwoods99tigerwoods99 Posts: 2,633member
    Man....this thread is effin depressin....



    its real weird to think that nothingness can exist...has there been any scientific study of this???
  • Reply 17 of 75
    crazychestercrazychester Posts: 1,339member
    Wow I'm amazed there are so many people who don't believe in an afterlife.



    Me neither. There are no repeat performances, no encores, the show isn't going to tour. So make it a good one.



    But then seems to me that makes it all the more special; all the more important to try and get it right.
  • Reply 18 of 75
    billybobskybillybobsky Posts: 1,914member
    human intellectual frailty places belief in a spirit or a significance in consciousness. we die. end of game. (and we are not the only animal to mourn the dead, indicating that we are probably not the only animal to have the ability to think about death).
  • Reply 19 of 75
    thttht Posts: 5,421member
    Put me down as another nonbeliever. No afterlife, no reincarnation, spirit or life energy doesn't exist. When we die, all we become are food for the kings of the Earth, bacteria. All the life-after-death concepts are like billybobsky says, it's an artifact of human self-consciousness.
  • Reply 20 of 75
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by segovius

    I go for 'eternal recurrence' - that is on death you are born again to the same parents in the same place in the same year and live your life in exactly the same way till you die at the same time.....over and over and over.....



    That's why you get deja vu - you really have done it all before, it is not a signifier of reincarnation and makes no sense as such.





    Actually, this is kind of an interesting take on things, especially if you apply the "multiverse" thinking to it. Where, you may be the same person, born to the same parents. But maybe your actions are exactly the same up to a point, where upon you do something or make some decision differently than you did the first time (or time before), and from then on everything in your life could be subtley (if not completely) different.



    Or maybe your life is totally different because in this multiverse, your parents conceived you a month earlier or later, or a year earlier or later. Basically the whole multiverse thing boils down to the possibility that there are potentially "other yous" out there (past and future), and each one follows a unique path based on the decisions made by that version of you. How all those "yous" would be tied together (assuming it's possible), I have no idea.



    The whole multiverse thing is kind of flighty IMO (not as scientifically grounded as other cosmological principles), but I think parts of this theory / thinking are worth investigating as they might be a part of the puzzle. I think truly all major religions and all reasonable ideas about these sorts of things are "partyly" right, and maybe in the end, we find the "truth" is an amalgamation of some or all the ideas. That we sort of "sense" some of it, but because of our own biases and cultural issues we can't sense the whole truth as long as we're down here living.
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