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Do you think theres an afterlife?

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Reply 40
Original post by miser
I don't believe in one. I think that everything that constitutes "me" is physical, or, I don't think there is likely to be any non-physical element that will permit my consciousness or identity to persist independently of my physical constituents. I believe that when I die, "I" will not exist anymore.



I think a lot of people ascribe to this train of thought for fear of what will happen to them if there is indeed a life after death.

I refuse to believe that we live for 70-80 years and that's it.


There is an after life, you just refuse to acknowledge it.
Original post by DouglasAdams
There is no need to resort to petty insults, although for the record I would love to own a flying pig.
People do not only belive in eternal life because they prefer it to death; if often goes hand in hand with the teachings of religion. Not everyone follows their religion simply because they're afraid of death.
You're considering time's role in eternity and how it would function, whereas I am referring to what it would be like to "live" within that state of eternity, the two being extremely different.


It was not intended as an insult at all. I was trying to illustrate that your hypothetical situation was so implausible to me as to not warrant discussion.

That comes as a great surprise to me. I cannot believe that any sane person would come to the conclusion that there is an afterlife, purely through objective reasoning, unclouded by prejudicial desires and special pleading. Anybody who does this must surely face some tough questions: do bacteria have afterlives? Snails? Turtles? Frogs? Cats? Gibbons? Early hominids? Viruses? It just doesn't compute.
Reply 42
Original post by Quiet _One86
I personally don't of late, and esp. Since watching this morning and this woman was talking of a feather falling was a guardian angel giving a grieving man hope that his family member he lost was watching over him and another was talking about his pets soul energy had been transferred into something else so look for a sign. I've been quite cynical of late with all things religious (Easter weekend - afterlife it Jesus etc) and anything associated with it.


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Yeah I saw that, and the woman spoke about how her husband became a robin or something? It's easy to see how she became so fixated on the idea of his soul still existing.

There's no reason to think there's an afterlife, humans aren't special. Your brain stops working when you die so you no longer have an ability to think.
Original post by Flauta
Yeah I saw that, and the woman spoke about how her husband became a robin or something? It's easy to see how she became so fixated on the idea of his soul still existing.

There's no reason to think there's an afterlife, humans aren't special. Your brain stops working when you die so you no longer have an ability to think.


I guess people hope that there loved one is with them in some form which is a nice thought if you're regularly visited by an animal or something but I would feel it's extending that grief process and accepting the persons death more quickly and move on.


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Reply 44
Why do you care if there is an afterlife? Just enjoy your life and stop worrying about these things.
Reply 45
Original post by Red one
I think a lot of people ascribe to this train of thought for fear of what will happen to them if there is indeed a life after death.

I refuse to believe that we live for 70-80 years and that's it.


There is an after life, you just refuse to acknowledge it.

Well, you are right that I refuse to acknowledge it. I try not to acknowledge the existence of things unless I can be reasonably assured of them. That applies for both pleasant and unpleasant things.
Reply 46
I don't see any reason to believe in one so no. which sucks actually, because the thought of oblivion absolutely terrifies me. but oh well, can't be helped.

Original post by Red one
I think a lot of people ascribe to this train of thought for fear of what will happen to them if there is indeed a life after death.

I refuse to believe that we live for 70-80 years and that's it.


There is an after life, you just refuse to acknowledge it.


I think it could be just as well argued that people tell themselves there is an afterlife because they are scared of the idea of not existing after a few decades. telling us we don't actually believe in our opinion is a bit of a dick move
Original post by felamaslen
It was not intended as an insult at all. I was trying to illustrate that your hypothetical situation was so implausible to me as to not warrant discussion.

That comes as a great surprise to me. I cannot believe that any sane person would come to the conclusion that there is an afterlife, purely through objective reasoning, unclouded by prejudicial desires and special pleading. Anybody who does this must surely face some tough questions: do bacteria have afterlives? Snails? Turtles? Frogs? Cats? Gibbons? Early hominids? Viruses? It just doesn't compute.


To denounce another's argument as entirely implausible is rather insulting, at least in my opinion. Of course, according to you that may seem implausible.
I think it pretty obvious that I believe humans have a soul, which distinguishes them from the rest of the animal kingdom, as influenced by my belief in G-d and religion. Your inability to entertain the notion of a deity worries me, as I'm uncertain as to how you can dismiss it and adopt atheism without properly considering the alternative.
Reply 48
I'd rather think that there is an afterlife than to think we live, we die, we decay in a coffin or have our ashes scattered and that's it. That's only because although I don't go to church any more I do have Christian beliefs and have been educated in Christian schools and so I have been brought up a Christian and so it's more as I said what I'd rather believe because it's such a difficult question, everyone has their own depictions of what heaven and hell are and what the afterlife actually is and I'd like to think we have an afterlife in whichever form.
It's human fear- the development of our consciousness that is a base instinct which WANTS us to believe in something greater than us, the afterlife.

My issue with the afterlife- do you want people who have done horrible things to humanity to live on? Is it better that people die, so life ceases or for them to live on?

I like Aristotle's concept- quite similar to Dawkins- the only way we live on is through intellect, and the ideas we pass on to each other.
If there is an afterlife why was there no beforelife?

There's just life, I think. No before and after.

One shot, so make the most of it people! I've got another 60 years or so to go.
Original post by DouglasAdams
To denounce another's argument as entirely implausible is rather insulting, at least in my opinion. Of course, according to you that may seem implausible.
I think it pretty obvious that I believe humans have a soul, which distinguishes them from the rest of the animal kingdom, as influenced by my belief in G-d and religion. Your inability to entertain the notion of a deity worries me, as I'm uncertain as to how you can dismiss it and adopt atheism without properly considering the alternative.


This is as meaningless as me saying to you that I am uncertain as to how you can dismiss the concept of the flying unicorn and adopt a-unicornism instead. I never "adopted" atheism any more than I stopped believing in flying pigs. I never believed in any one god any more than I or you believe in any other gods. It is you that has the explaining to do.

There is no distinct line between what became humans, and other animals. In other words there was no non-human animal which one day gave birth to a human being. It was a slow process of gradual change. So when you say humans have souls, when precisely did the soul get implanted? Souls are discrete objects, surely? Or do crows and chimps and bacteria have some kind of "lesser" soul? Also, you need to explain what happens to the two separate souls of fused embryos which go on to develop into one person. That is, if you still don't see the absurdity of the concept. By the way, I am happy to accept a poetic or figurative definition of soul - that is, each person should be treated as an individual with rights and everything - but that doesn't imply an afterlife.

Anyway, if you're going to take disagreements as insults then perhaps we should end the discussion.
Goddamn I hope so and I hope it's fun
I'm pretty convinced by the seemingly increasing level of verified near-death experiences with people who claim about before (pre-birth) and after life. And the similarities between all of them. I think there has to be something to the messages and what they are saying. I think people dismiss them without doing adequate research also. It's a really interesting phenomenon. Quite a lot of people have extremely in-depth experiences.

I was fairly sceptical at first but having seen both sides and so much (I mean, so much evidence and research) I am in no doubt there is something to these experiences.

I think there is so much more to this universe than we have access to on this planet/realm.

I almost look forward to dying to be honest, it sounds great. The next stage of one massive adventure.

I just see being here on this planet as a platform for growing/learning and loving in a way you can't do elsewhere to become more complete. Make the most of it guys.

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Original post by honeyandlemon
If there is an afterlife why was there no beforelife?

There's just life, I think. No before and after.

One shot, so make the most of it people! I've got another 60 years or so to go.


Speaking purely philosophically here, many people say there was a beforelife, it's simply that the soul consciously chose to forget it so that it wouldn't interfere with life on earth.
Original post by felamaslen
This is as meaningless as me saying to you that I am uncertain as to how you can dismiss the concept of the flying unicorn and adopt a-unicornism instead. I never "adopted" atheism any more than I stopped believing in flying pigs. I never believed in any one god any more than I or you believe in any other gods. It is you that has the explaining to do.

There is no distinct line between what became humans, and other animals. In other words there was no non-human animal which one day gave birth to a human being. It was a slow process of gradual change. So when you say humans have souls, when precisely did the soul get implanted? Souls are discrete objects, surely? Or do crows and chimps and bacteria have some kind of "lesser" soul? Also, you need to explain what happens to the two separate souls of fused embryos which go on to develop into one person. That is, if you still don't see the absurdity of the concept. By the way, I am happy to accept a poetic or figurative definition of soul - that is, each person should be treated as an individual with rights and everything - but that doesn't imply an afterlife.

Anyway, if you're going to take disagreements as insults then perhaps we should end the discussion.


Well not quite, as one does not actively pursue argument versus the existence of unicorns, whereas the theory of evolution, one which you invest in as sound, directly opposes G-d. If there was a widespread theory that actively dismissed unicorns' existence, it would also be worth exploring the counter argument. Furthermore, although the "it came first" argument is slightly primitive, it should be given some thought. If Creationism was the widespread belief of human civilization for thousands of years, it cannot be merely dismissed as fantastical with a wave of the hand.

Your classifying of souls as discrete objects is interesting. If you are to believe in G-d and that He created the Universe, then you must infer that there was a time that there was no universe and in a sense therefore the Universe was created out of G-d and likewise G-d is everything in the Universe. Obviously, I am not suggesting that everything in existence is the same, but the concepts of souls fusing is not too difficult to understand. In fact, my religion believes a human soul to be part of G-d and they will eventually return to Him. Therefore, to fuse two together is not a ridiculous notion under these beliefs. Souls are also spiritual, and it is rather strenuous to explain them in physical terms (why can't we see the souls? how do they fuse? etc)

Concerning different levels of souls, we should perhaps refer to the 4 Kingdoms which is similar enough to my religion's ideas when it comes to differences between certain forms of life. In short, Judaism suggests (although not explicitly for we do not often concern ourselves with such impractical matters) that the lowest level is inanimate objects, followed by plant life, then animals, then humans. (Before you ask, no I do not remember the status of bacteria.) The best culmination of the life of one sect is to rise to the next e.g. animals eaten by humans etc. This does not however, I should perhaps point out, advocate for human cruelty. The Talmud recounts a story in which a cow called out to a certain rabbi when on the way to the slaughter (there are debates whether this is meant literally or not) to not be eaten, and the rabbi dismissed the cow's complaint by pointing out that this was what animals were created for and he/she should be pleased to serve their ultimate purpose. The rabbi was smitten with a terribly painful illness in old age for his insensitivity. But this is beside the point, and there are also answers for what about the animals which cannot be eaten, likewise for plans and inanimate objects, but they are discussions for another day and I wish not to delve into them now.
Nonetheless, the overall point is that if you believe in G-d as I do, the idea of souls is far from stupendous and stupid.

I feel not extraordinarily insulted, but remember it was Aristotle who pointed out that it is a stupid mind which cannot consider the ideas of another even when not believing in them. Great minds discuss ideas.
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
Speaking purely philosophically here, many people say there was a beforelife, it's simply that the soul consciously chose to forget it so that it wouldn't interfere with life on earth.


In addition, if you believe in reincarnation are beforelife and afterlife not essentially the same thing?
And if you don't, aren't you essentially asking the age-old of question of why we are here and how we came to exist?
Reply 57
Yup.
Original post by DouglasAdams
In addition, if you believe in reincarnation are beforelife and afterlife not essentially the same thing?
And if you don't, aren't you essentially asking the age-old of question of why we are here and how we came to exist?


Indeed, if reincarnation were real then it would be catastrophic to remember past lives. It would cause nothing but confusion and emotional trauma, especially if you knew you were someone like Hitler.
Reply 59
those people that do believe in one, do you believe we are able to contact friends or relatives that have recently passed?

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