The Afterlife... (And a little bit about human nature, too)

Raggit · Tue 05/12/2006 04:48:27

We've talked everything from adventure games, to politics and religion, to racism, and violence in culture, and a bunch of other stuff I'm not even remembering.

But what about the final question?Ã,Â

What about that one thing that nobody can boast expertise of?

What happens to us after we die?

Do we simply cease to exist in all ways?

Do we go to Heaven, Hell, or are we reborn?

This is a legitimate question that I ask myself nearly every day.Ã,Â Sometimes it gets downright depression, and even a bit scary.Ã,Â

So what do we do when we get down and out, need to talk and find answers to our questions?Ã,Â We go to the forums, of course!Ã,Â Ã,Â

Seriously though, I'm very interested on both an intellectual and spiritual level about the beliefs of others, and on this topic specifically.

I want to have an open discussion about what we believe about what happens to us after we die.Ã,Â (Saying we go to the funeral home doesn't count.)

I'm relatively sure this can go over with little or no hardfeelings since death is such an enigma to us all.Ã,Â (Or that could be the perfect recipe for a blowup.)

Whatever your opinion or belief is, post it here.

Scummbuddy · Tue 05/12/2006 05:24:12

I want to be a head in a jar and never die. Well, I'd perfer a cyborg body, but yes, I don't want to die. I could see myself believing in an afterlife if we were the only beings on the planet, but we're not.

When I would think about God and Heaven, I would begin to see it as this life is just a game, and we're the toys. I think it's quite wrong for God to be treating us this way. (although I do buy the reasoning, somewhat, to what Bender realizes in that episode of Futurama when he becomes a God; about not meddeling)

I love religion. It helps keep some people on track in their lives. Ones that need it. On the other hand, it certainly causes wars.

I'm with Darth Manarb on this one. It will take nothing less than another intelligent being coming to our planet for humanity to become as one. And it would come together a lot quicker if our lives were in danger from such and even then, we would probably not last out against it.

Okay, so I side-tracked. For me, I don't believe in the afterlife. Funny enough, I am partial to believing in ghosts. Not fully, but I do believe there is something going on, and it may just be something as crazy as parallel universes to just energy outputs from something we dont know.

I need sleep. Don't do as I and post when in need of sleep.

Ponch · Tue 05/12/2006 05:29:41

Don't have a damn clue about it.

But as I get older, I content myself with the fact that life is enough. As near as I can tell, before I was alive, I did not exist. And it would seem that death will be the end of me. But for a while, at least, I am alive. And in that time, I (and all of us) have more nobility than any star in the sky. We are aware of those lights in the night sky, while they are aware of nothing, not even their own existence. Hell, even my dog doesn't seem to have a concept of self or anything approaching a soul (other than what I project on him).

But in this moment, I am alive -- and part of an incredible species, at that! Hell, we pulled ourselves (with a bit of divine help, I imagine) up from run-of-the-mill prey animal to the top of the food chain. And we created art, music, poetry and adventure games along the way.

If existance of some sort awaits after death, and I cannot say for certain that it does not, then whatever state we might exist in will be so different from what we know now that we probably cannot even imagine what it would be like. Consider: if you could have awareness as a baby in the womb, based on all you could learn of the world around you, how could you possibly imagine what awaits you after birth? How could you imagine what it is to walk? To be cold? To get a job? To pay taxes?

Life is enough, I suppose, because life is all I know. And it is an amazing thing, at that. Wonderful and frightening and boring. Each in turn and sometimes all at once. (I was in Desert Storm back in the day, and, yes, it IS possible to become bored with danger -- the tedium of constantly incoming scuds even as your body responds with adrenaline -- it's a helluva feeling!)

If something awaits me after life is over, well, I hope I can take it in stride and be a good sport about spending so much of my life paying taxes and changing the oil in my car regularly.

Just my two cents (and what an interesting topic!)

- Ponch

Evil · Tue 05/12/2006 06:00:39

All I know, is that I'm donating my body to science.

Sure you can donate your organs, but I've read somewhere that medical hospitals can keep a body for 10 or so years to teach medicine to graduate students. Save maybe a few lives with an organ or two, but you can save thousands by donating your body.

And if I've already sold my soul to the Devil, do I still get an afterlife?

Janik · Tue 05/12/2006 06:50:50

It's unknowable, pretty much by definition, until you die. But don't worry, you will someday, and then you'll know!

SSH · Tue 05/12/2006 08:43:37

Donate your body to Bodyworks or whatever that gruesome thing they have in Casino Royale is...

Nostradamus · Tue 05/12/2006 08:59:19

There's no afterlife.
Your body is just like the body of any other animal. Your brain is more developed and that's why you have the recognition and thinking abilities. Your recognition of yourself aka "the soul" is all in your brain. There's just no logic in any kind of life or being after the body dies.
man invented religion when he was too primitive to understand how things in the world worked through science. So religion solved all those questions. The idea of heaven and hell was invented by man originally to guarantee that people will act descent and later to simply force people to be religious or change their belief to the promoter's specific religion\sect\cult and in today's world even make money from it. If you believe your soul lives in another dimension, what about dog's souls, cat's souls, dolphin's souls and every other living creature on the face of the earth? if you say only human's souls go on that's hypocricy. And the idea of recycled souls (what's the right term?) is even more ridiculous than the concept of heaven & hell.
In conclusion, don't worry about it.

DGMacphee · Tue 05/12/2006 09:16:21

Quote from: Scummbuddy on Tue 05/12/2006 05:24:12Well, I'd perfer a cyborg body

Me too. I'd be part man, part machine... ALL COP!

Also: Earlier this year, I had a dream where I died and instead of waking up my soul started to float into outer space. So then I could explore the infinite reaches of space for eternity. Only problem was I only got a few lightyears away from earth before I woke up.

It'd be really cool if something like this happnes when you die. I like the idea of being a space explorer in the afterlife.

Maybe other souls are doing the same thing.

Perhaps I might meet my old dog Bugsy in outer space.

Timosity · Tue 05/12/2006 10:10:28

Nostradamus summed it up pretty well

If you want to believe any further than the life we know, (unless cremated) you will become food for micro organisms and your cell breakdown will provide nutrients for many other living things, may even help a few trees grow to supply oxygen or fruit for a few more creatures to live a bit longer, alternatively you might rot somewhere and create pollution that kills some creatures, it's all just a cycle.

There's no reason to know, I've always wondered why people want to know so much

DGMacphee · Tue 05/12/2006 10:13:30

Because we is curious motherfuckers!

SSH · Tue 05/12/2006 11:17:18

Quote from: DGMacphee on Tue 05/12/2006 09:16:21
Also: Earlier this year, I had a dream where I died and instead of waking up my soul started to float into outer space. So then I could explore the infinite reaches of space for eternity. Only problem was I only got a few lightyears away from earth before I woke up.

It'd be really cool if something like this happnes when you die. I like the idea of being a space explorer in the afterlife.

Maybe other souls are doing the same thing.

Perhaps I might meet my old dog Bugsy in outer space.

Perhaps you could write a book about this religious vision you had, and call it "Dianetics"

Raggit · Tue 05/12/2006 14:01:46

I think one of the things that nags me all the time is thinking about what it would mean if the Christians are really right.

What if the next thing I know after I die is God sitting on his throne reading all my offenses off to me, only to conclude by sending me to Hell.

Very interesting answers so far, though!

Adamski · Tue 05/12/2006 14:19:34

It nags me more to wonder if Buddhists are right, and I've been frittering away the confoundingly rare oppertunity of being a human which allows one to break out of the cycle of reincarnation to ultimately obtain a higher state of cosmic existance!

Actually, what nags me more is whether or not I'll win the bid for a rare polysynth on eBay. Nirvana can wait, there's a whole load of vintage machines that go 'bloop!' for me to play with first!

DGMacphee · Tue 05/12/2006 15:04:24

Quote from: SSH on Tue 05/12/2006 11:17:18
Perhaps you could write a book about this religious vision you had, and call it "Dianetics"

That's funny, but Dianetics doesn't actually have anything to do with the afterlife or souls. It deals with pseudo-science techniques that are supposed to purge all mental traumas and restore people with a clearer thinking mind. He wrote Dianetics in 1950 and didn't come up with his concept of souls, or "thetans" as he called them, until 1952.

It's also obvious to see how Dianetics gives you a clearer thinking mind, what with their members jumping up and down on couches on live TV.

biothlebop · Tue 05/12/2006 17:23:23

I've had a lucid-ish dream of the afterlife.
In it I was informed that I was dead and had the choice of
what I wanted to happen. I replied that I wished my consciousness
to dissolve in a comfortable way, to fade out of all existence
and never return. That kind of happened, I dreamed that first everything
around me faded out of existence until all that remained was my
awareness of that there was nothing left, and I could not be fully
at peace until my thoughts had ceased.
To fade away the world was easy, but to stop all thought and go the
full way was difficult. I had perhaps an 30 minute unaware stretch of
nothing before I awakened. I awoke feeling very calm and refreshed in some way.
I guess exploring space could be cool too. I'd go looking for dwarves in dwarf galaxies.

I do not know myself well enough to say if I would be scared at my deathbed,
but I do not wish for any reward or second chances after my heart stops.

I also had a dream of hell once. Fire and brimstone and 16th-century portrayals of hell do not scare me, but the hell I dreamed of had a cubicle allocated for me by people who knew me better than I do.
I remember wearing an iron mask that cut into my skull and the holes where my eyes had been (and some other kinky shit).
It was not especially scary though as I never(?) dream pain.

If hell and heaven exist, I guess I claimed my place in the former before I turned six.
What I wonder is:
1. If heaven/hell exist, do people spend an eternity there?
If the answer is yes, then I wonder about the following:
2. Are they limited dimensions or subdimensions, or will everything eventually happen
in both places?
3. Who controls all possible outcomes in each dimension?

I guess that most people who believe in an infinite heaven/hell believe it to be limited in the way that in hell only punishes and heaven rewards.
Somehow I don't think that any infinite, limited dimension would seem appealing to me, as I grow bored of repetition.
I guess I hope to achieve some kind of closure to certain things before death, set a couple brave footprints in snow, so I don't really dig the pursuit for Nirvana (as much as I know of it, although the middle road concept in Buddhism is appealing).

Privateer Puddin' · Tue 05/12/2006 17:38:35

I imagine it will be something like this:

Scummbuddy · Tue 05/12/2006 18:31:22

I dunno, I think I would eventually get used to burning "alive" for eternity in Hell. I mean, it would just get boring after awhile. That's a lot of trouble to go through to change my nerve endings so that they are fire-proof but will still retain their ability to feel the pain of burning, but wait, my nerve endings can't unless they aren't fire proof. It boggles the mind!

I wanted to say everything Nostradamus said; but he just said it clearer.

m0ds · Tue 05/12/2006 18:31:42

Interesting thread, Raggit! I sincerely hope the afterlife isn't isometric! Hehehe... I'm pretty certain there are greater things out there after death. Even if there aren't I guess we simply "won't know", so it's not really worth bothering about. My personal belief, if I were to really have one - is that I have been given a time and space to exist in, and forever will be part of that time & space. Therefore, I will always live the life I'm living now, only consequences of my actions will change it each time I die/am reborn. LOL, yes, it's a fantasy, but it makes me really happy when things happen that kind of back it up for me. I was almost a Christian, but the thought of going to some almighty white land or a place of hell fire just didn't really click for me. If there is a heaven, it's in yourself - and its finding the best life you can lead. If there is a hell, it's realising that everything is yours, and trashing it.

Just my opinion

Becky · Tue 05/12/2006 18:52:43

I'm really boring. I believe that you die and that's it.

How depressing

Ghormak · Tue 05/12/2006 19:17:01

I once dreamt I died and went to heaven. When I arrived I was standing in a vast field with grass stretching out as far as I could see. There were some people walking around, and also a coin-operated elevator of some kind, that they said would "take you to the various stages of heaven". But all the stages/floors looked exactly the same.

Everybody there was pretty disappointed about the whole thing.

The Afterlife... (And a little bit about human nature, too)

m0ds