After life....

I have thought about this situation on quite a number of occasions have found the question perplexing. I am not a religious person and, therefor, am not sure about heaven or hell, but it is almost impossible for me to think of myself as being unfeeling and unthinking. I cannot imagine that I will one day simply stop being conscious--it simple makes no sense to me. In short, I am not sure about what death holds for us in our futures, but I cannot bring myself to believe it is nothing...

I think humans made up this concept of the afterlife because we are absolutely terrified of oblivion. We can't understand the concept of non-existance, and it just plain scares the hell out of us to think that one day, we will just not be anymore.

I've done a lot of thinking about this, and I've decided that even if after we die nothing is all there is, it won't be too bad. It's not like we're going to care about living anymore.

Everything must come to an end, someday.

[edited by - twix on January 2, 2004 9:50:14 PM]

Every life form came from specs of dust in the beginnings of the universe. It''ll end that way too.

kthxbie

..but the big question is why are we here in the first place.
why is there a universe? why is there anything and everything? wouldn''t it just be simpler to have absolutely nothing? no space? no time? zip? nadda?

*head hurts*

How is reincarnation logical?

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Original post by Xtremehobo
wouldn''t it just be simpler to have absolutely nothing? no space? no time? zip? nadda?

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Probably. But what''s the fun in that?

I''m not sure except I do belive in an immortal soul.

I''ve had dreams I take part of my current belifs from.

First of all, when I was 5 years old I had a dream I''m not even sure just was a dream. I walked up the stairs to heaven, there were this HUGE golden gate. When I come up it closes and evertyhing dematerialises, I try to scream but I can''t make a sound. And it felt all so real, I''m thinking I maybe died(!?!) and were given a second chance!? Or maybe were denied entrence to heaven in a past life!?

I also had a dream where I met my soulguide, it was amazing. And I''ve had an OBE ^__^

/MindWipe

Sometimes, I''d like to think that I''m just playing an extremely realistic video game and you''re all just AI constructs designed to give me a hard time. Yay for solipsism!

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Original post by tHiSiSbOb
I have thought about this situation on quite a number of occasions have found the question perplexing. I am not a religious person and, therefor, am not sure about heaven or hell, but it is almost impossible for me to think of myself as being unfeeling and unthinking. I cannot imagine that I will one day simply stop being conscious--it simple makes no sense to me.

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The state of being conscious and existing as me , whatever it is that I am, doesn''t even make sense to me. So the permaneant state of not being conscious is completely bizarre. But I won''t presuppose anything about how it feels to be dead.

Think about ''exist''. What is it really?

Look at it this way, what are you before you are born? Dead? If you were dead, then how did you become alive? What were you before you were dead? Alive? Non-existant? How does something from non-existant go to existant?

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Original post by Xtremehobo
..but the big question is why are we here in the first place.
why is there a universe? why is there anything and everything? wouldn''t it just be simpler to have absolutely nothing? no space? no time? zip? nadda?

*head hurts*

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Why should anything be simple?

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Original post by NotAnAnonymousPoster

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Original post by Xtremehobo
..but the big question is why are we here in the first place.
why is there a universe? why is there anything and everything? wouldn''t it just be simpler to have absolutely nothing? no space? no time? zip? nadda?

*head hurts*

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Why should anything be simple?

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And maybe it is simple!? Maybe we don''t understand simple, maybe the real simple is advance to mankind... blarg!

I had a theory that we actuly don''t exist. And in that way exist in all forms and everywhere at once.

Hmm, it went something like: 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 * INF = 0

But it was a couple of years ago.

/MindWipe

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Original post by Programmer One
Think about 'exist'. What is it really?

Look at it this way, what are you before you are born? Dead? If you were dead, then how did you become alive? What were you before you were dead? Alive? Non-existant? How does something from non-existant go to existant?

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I'd say that we define our notion of existance in terms of memory. The particles that we consist of have engaged in some interaction with the world for a long, long time, but not until they come together and form something capable of remembering these interactions can we experience 'existance'. Thus, once we die and our memory is destroyed, it is as if we never even existed in the first place.

While dreaming, we remember the events that happened during the dream and act accordingly. But when we wake up, usually it is as if we never dreamed at all. I imagine that in the same way, as we die we feel our memory slipping away until we feel like we have never experienced anything.

Whether we wake up to something else after that is debatable.

[edited by - twix on January 2, 2004 10:09:36 PM]

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Original post by twix
I''d say that we define our notion of existance in terms of memory.

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I''d say the property of existence is an undefined term which is thrown around as we see fit.

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Original post by NotAnAnonymousPoster

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Original post by twix
I''d say that we define our notion of existance in terms of memory.

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I''d say the property of existence is an undefined term which is thrown around as we see fit.

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Ah, I phrased that badly. What I mean is that the nebulous "thing" that we intuitively consider our consciousness and our existance is simply our memory.

if we perfect human cloning then you can have your genetic information copied and after you died you''d be recreated once again, so you won''t have to worry your poor self about being non-existent. Because as we all know, all the soon to-be nonexistant people go off into some digital abyss on port 23.

"The Matrix"

According to several OBE reportings and/or small references, many people that had OBEs(Near Dead Experience or a ''normal'' out of body experience) felt great warmth and happiness. After returning to their body, they are truly convinced there is a God.

Some people have obtained the power to create an OBE on demand, using meditation techniques. These are also refered to as Astral Projection. During most OBEs the person is on a higher plane, which is nothing more then a reflection of out, with different laws.

Since people can reach a higher plane of existance it''s probably also where we go after dead(Maybe it''s just a small step in the entire process of dieing, can''t remember being there). Maybe this is where after-life begins.

My idea of AL is based upon this:
After we die, we seperate from out physical body and go to the mentioned plane(Also named Astral Plane). We stay there for awhile, and can also access all memories from previous lives. Based upon that, we can decide what we will be in our next life and then reincarnate.

Toolmaker

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-Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can.

I'm Christian so I obviously believe in an afterlife. What it's like exactly I don't know, and I've stopped caring. I just want to focus on this life because I don't know what earthly delights I'll be missing when I'm dead.

[edited by - mtw on January 2, 2004 10:21:07 PM]