Option 12: What Happens After Death?

[easyrider]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't mind living for eternity but it is just too good to be true. Dont get me wrong though I have no problem going to sleep for an infinite amount of time.

 

[JoeDawg]

I believe religion gives us the impetus to go on.

I believe religion is dogmatic indoctrination about clearly impossible, fantastical and primitive beliefs, and that it is detrimental to modern society and actually holds us back from achieving so many worth while things... like stem cell research, like vaccinating children against disease, like taking responsibility for the size of our populations.. like acting like adults.

I'm an atheist, not a sociopath, I don't need some childish fear of hell to keep me from killing everyone in sight, and I don't need some Santa Claus like sugar daddy in the sky to motivate me to get all I can out of life for me and those I care about.

The only impetus I see religion giving people is towards a primitive form of tribal nationalism and hatred of people who are different, because since they are different they are by definition 'evil'.

 

[sysreset]

I believe religion gives us the impetus to go on. To strive. To be a better person. It strives for the better person by telling us there is an afterlife where we will live for eternity.

I wish you would explain. I do not believe in any religions or afterlives but I feel I have a very strong impetus to go on, to strive, to be the best person I can be. My impetus comes from, I suppose, either an inate animal drive or a sense of purpose to create a better world. Religion might tell people to do good things, but what actually makes them WANT to do them? Is it really the religion or is is something else??

 

[ptalar]

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't mind living for eternity but it is just too good to be true. Dont get me wrong though I have no problem going to sleep for an infinite amount of time.

Your funny easyrider. I can go either way also.

 

[ptalar]

I wish you would explain. I do not believe in any religions or afterlives but I feel I have a very strong impetus to go on, to strive, to be the best person I can be. My impetus comes from, I suppose, either an inate animal drive or a sense of purpose to create a better world. Religion might tell people to do good things, but what actually makes them WANT to do them? Is it really the religion or is is something else??

Sysreset,

If there is no god, no afterlife, then what is the point of our existence? I read an article somewhere that indicates man has a God Gene. A gene where man must have a God no matter what so that he can focus, strive and move forward in life, give him a reason for going on. Otherwise, there is no initiative. That gene, if it exists, is what has driven man to achieve and progress throughout history. If we didn't have the gene then we would probably not be where we are today.

Of course some of us who are more "enlightened" and are not sure of God's existence can still strive and achieve and move forward and be a better person because that is how they are. Its not the goal of an eternity in heaven that drives them. It can be self actualization, wealth, the capacity to good as well as evil.

That is about the best I can explain the paradox of the need for God causing man to achieve and behave in a civilized way vs an innate instinct to achieve without believing in God. The Western World appears to be getting less religious so we may be more incentivized by the vices of life and don't realize it.

 

[EnumaElish]

For the conscious self death is a dreamless sleep -- verbatim from a friend who technically died and was resuscitated.

There may be a part of my being that will outlive my corporeal existence, but it is not equivalent to "me" -- only part of "me."

 

[sysreset]

The Western World appears to be getting less religious so we may be more incentivized by the vices of life and don't realize it.

I think that religious and non-religious people alike are motivated by many things other than vices. People seem to derive pleasure from helping others, and also from positive experiences such as creativity, productivity, and discovery. I think the secular world is rich with positive lifestyles and moral people. Of course, I wouldn't claim that the secular world is 100% pure or anything, but neither is the religious world...

 

[rewebster]

No one has picked "A Chance to Roam the Earth "----a lot of people do roam the Earth (if they are able) before they die as an adventure--maybe that's what they do 'after' too?

 

[sysreset]

No one has picked "A Chance to Roam the Earth "----a lot of people do roam the Earth (if they are able) before they die as an adventure--maybe that's what they do 'after' too?

The problem may be the word "Earth". It may be too confining for the serious explorers out there.

 

[rewebster]

another option:

A chance to be stardust (in another 5 to 10 billion years)

 

[easyrider]

For the conscious self death is a dreamless sleep -- verbatim from a friend who technically died and was resuscitated.

There may be a part of my being that will outlive my corporeal existence, but it is not equivalent to "me" -- only part of "me."

Enumaelish, please go on, was your friend brain dead? Cardiac arrest? What happened?

I wonder why some people have NDE's and others dont?

 

[hubertg]

Death: "THE FINAL FRONTIER"

 

[Sky Scripter]

Some how i think you choose what it will be..I know its the endings, beginning...

 

[easyrider]

I think it has more to do with the situation and chemicals at play. No matter what people say, your brain is still active when people have NDEs. There is no way possible you could have conscious experience with a completely dead brain/nervous system.

 

[PeteKL]

A religious person once told me long ago that I should consider life to be 'a gift'. If a person has never existed and never will then that person cannot be unhappy or in bad health and never lose everything in the end including its life. If we go to the morgue or the cementary and we see nothing but the dead then what after life could there be? If the human conscious/awareness is determined by the flesh, brain, nerves and various chemicals which decay after death then how can we exist in an afterlife? We are determined by the body of this life. Does the invisible soul overpower the bad behaviour of the drug addict?

 

[moving finger]

A religious person once told me long ago that I should consider life to be 'a gift'. If a person has never existed and never will then that person cannot be unhappy or in bad health and never lose everything in the end including its life. If we go to the morgue or the cementary and we see nothing but the dead then what after life could there be? If the human conscious/awareness is determined by the flesh, brain, nerves and various chemicals which decay after death then how can we exist in an afterlife? We are determined by the body of this life. Does the invisible soul overpower the bad behaviour of the drug addict?

One does not need to be religious to consider life as a gift. Indeed, it seems to me that a non-religious person like myself has even MORE reason to consider life as a gift.

Religion is a great solution to the "what is the meaning of life" question. But reject religion, and one is left with nothing except to consider life as a gift.

yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, and today is a gift - that's why we call it the present. Enjoy it.

 

[baywax]

Thankfully, death isn't.

 

[P4PPY]

I think it's as simple as a never ending dream. And since dreams are related to your current life, you either spend eternity dreaming about bad things.. or good things, depending on how you lived your life.

Just pray to whoever it is that you pray too that you don't die after you've watched a week long marathon of horror movies while eating peanut butter pizza with Balls soda!

 

[Esnas]

Thankfully, death isn't.

Thankfully, death isn't what?

 

[baywax]

Thankfully, death isn't what?

Death isn't. It is not. Death doesn't exist. (our only evidence is the result of death)

Death is an empty address book.

Death is no ring tone.

Death is never - never - ever having to say you're sorry.

Death is when you smell bad, but you don't know about it.

Death is when you miss your own, big send off.

Death is a word.

 

[Esnas]

Death isn't. It is not. Death doesn't exist. (our only evidence is the result of death)

Death is an empty address book.

Death is no ring tone.

Death is never - never - ever having to say you're sorry.

Death is when you smell bad, but you don't know about it.

Death is when you miss your own, big send off.

Death is a word.

Death is as much a mystery as life. The two cannot be seperated. If death does not "exist" then, neither does life.

 

[baywax]

Death is as much a mystery as life. The two cannot be seperated. If death does not "exist" then, neither does life.

Life is only a mystery if you haven't lived. Death is a mystery because no one has returned from a year of being dead to tell us about it.

 

[Alex48674]

11.) Death is when I am no longer able to perform life's functions, am put in the Earth and rot and then decomposed by worms and other organisms.

 

[Esnas]

Life is only a mystery if you haven't lived. Death is a mystery because no one has returned from a year of being dead to tell us about it.

Someone once told me not to speak of death as being the opposite of life. He said that death was only the opposite of birth. I am intrigued by this view. When you say "life is only a mystery if you haven't lived", I assume that you mean "if you have not lived fully". Is this correct?

 

[baywax]

Someone once told me not to speak of death as being the opposite of life. He said that death was only the opposite of birth. I am intrigued by this view. When you say "life is only a mystery if you haven't lived", I assume that you mean "if you have not lived fully". Is this correct?

Some people are so afraid of death yet are so afraid of life that they have never lived.

People like this hate living because it, quite logically, means certain death.

Fear of the unknown is a natural reaction. And death is a complete unknown.
However, a person who hates life or is frightened by life will not have experienced much of what life has to offer. So, in this instance, life is an unknown as well, and the person will be afraid of it too.

"Fully" or a "full life" would have to be defined.

 

[easyrider]

Death is the opposite of life, birth=went from nothingness to existence.
Death=existence to nothingness.

Death is eternal sleep, what else could it be, floating off to eternal bliss and giant man in the sky? Highlllyyy doubt it.
I don't know for sure but god just seems way illogical and very imporbable.
Of course, all just speculation, you can't know for sure until youve been there and done that.
Im not trying to find out anytime soon though, Ill get my chance to find out, plus I am a procrastinator so I plan on being late.

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Death is... never having to say your sorry, least for me as an agnostic.

 

[Rade]

Here is a nice summary of what Heidegger had to say about death:
http://www.yorku.ca/zorn/additional_files/Phil_of_death.pdf

 

[baywax]

Here's what the dead have to say about death...

"......"

 

[Esnas]

Some people are so afraid of death yet are so afraid of life that they have never lived.

People like this hate living because it, quite logically, means certain death.

Fear of the unknown is a natural reaction. And death is a complete unknown.
However, a person who hates life or is frightened by life will not have experienced much of what life has to offer. So, in this instance, life is an unknown as well, and the person will be afraid of it too.

"Fully" or a "full life" would have to be defined.

"The full life." "A life well lived". There have been attempts to describe this. I suspect that a person who has lived life to it's fullest would not be afraid of death. He or she would embrace death as the natural consequense of having been born and would not be bothered much by it.

 

[baywax]

"The full life." "A life well lived". There have been attempts to describe this. I suspect that a person who has lived life to it's fullest would not be afraid of death. He or she would embrace death as the natural consequense of having been born and would not be bothered much by it.

On the other hand. Having experienced life to what a person thinks is its fullest may make leaving it a rather difficult thing to do.

However, naturally, death is part of life... and a person with an inkling of this idea could also consider the coming of death as a "topping off" of their "fullness of life".

Very nice way to put it thanks.

 

[KooCmstr]

Death is a terminal STD.

 

[easyrider]

Like was said earlier, we've been "not alive" for an eternity, we suddenly spring into existence and after about 100 years, go back to where we came from. No god, no heaven or any of the such. You turn into food when you, about on the same mental function as a rock.

 

[Lord Ping]

Death is one temporal extreme of your existence in spacetime.

It is about as scary as being born, or going to Florida (which is the spatial extreme of my existence in spacetime).



Of course it's also sad because of the consequences it might have for those you love.

 

[end3r7]

Death is not part of life. In fact, they are kind of disjoint sets in a sense... Except that death's cardinality is infinite. =/

Quite frankly, I don't buy into afterlife, or the possibility of my particular consciousness "reocurring" since I neither believe the Universe to be infinite nor everlasting.

However, I do think that in the future, unfortunately one which I won't be part of, humans will be able to mantain "consciousness" after the rest of their body has ceased working. It will be like dreaming forever (well, until the machines that keep you going stop working). Not so bad actually, especially if you get to choose the "script".

To answer the question:

Death is... damn scary and unfortunate. But I'd rather not die of anticipation, besides I already have a tough enough time going to sleep at night thinking about too much **** already. =P