Do you believe in Life after Death.

[semi-pro waster]

I can't say I believe in life after death but equally I don't disbelieve in it, I've yet to see any evidence to convince me that it happens but I can't dismiss the possibility entirely either so as with a lot of things I hold any definitive statement in abeyance for the moment.

If pressed I think it more likely that this is it than not and there is no life after death but realistically I can't know either way so I remain open to the option that it could be true.

 

[Castiel]

Ah I see. Never heard of that before, sounds interesting. Do you think you end up in another Galaxy? Where there is similar life to that of earth?

Riverworld.

 

[Lysander]

So, basically how Hindus believe once they die, they are born as another person, or animal even?

Your next incarnation is dictated by what you have spent this life doing. If you spend this life selflessly helping others and in spiritual praise of the Absolute, you have a very good chance of a blissful return to that state. If you spend your life killing and pillaging everyone, you will start further down the evolutionary chain. If you spend your life thinking about sex you'll return as a dog [or similar], if you spend your life thinking about eating you'll come back as a cow [or similar].

It's all about what you have devoted your life to. On your deathbed, in your final moments, you will think of what you spent your life doing, and that will determine your next incarnation.

As amusing as it is to quote Peter Steele, it's relevant. Being an Atheist for most of his life, he changed his views shortly before his own death. He puts it rather well in layman's terms:

“There are no atheists in foxholes, they say, and I was a foxhole atheist for a long time. But after going through a midlife crisis and having many things change very quickly, it made me realize my mortality. And when you start to think about death, you start to think about what's after it. And then you start hoping there is a God. For me, it's a frightening thought to go nowhere. I also can’t believe that people like Stalin and Hitler are gonna go to the same place as Mother Teresa.”

No, you are still yourself, no re-born mumbo-jumbo, to you you wake up and everything is 'normal', you are just in an alternate reality.

That's not the Hindu philosophy. Sounds more like Red Dwarf.

 

[Spektor]

Do you believe that you have a soul or some equivalent that is distinctly you as oppose to anyone else.

That is just as mental as believing in life after death. Why not believe in the tooth fairy or the easter bunny if you're willing to have an 'open' mind on things with zero evidence to support them?

 

[Randomface74]

I don't believe in souls. I expect death to be my absolute end. Perhaps I'll experience some trippy things too when I'm dying, might make it easier.

 

[jp_bl_68]

I am not religious, yet experience has left me with an open mind on the subject.

My point was that I have no faith to fall back on in the absence of proof.

Do you believe that you have a soul or some equivalent that is distinctly you as oppose to anyone else.

No. I have a personality, a series of thought processes shaped by the things I have experienced.

 

[Deadbeat]

Dimethyltryptamine, very powerful class A substance. I'd stay away from that stuff....

Some academics think that the substance is released from our Pineal Gland (in our brain) close to death. Which could account for any trippy near death experiences.

This, pretty much. It's produced naturally in the pineal gland and has been tenuously linked to some of the more vivid dream states. There's apparently a flush in the developing mind of a foetus about 49 days into gestation, about the time when many Eastern religions believe the soul enters the body, and it's flushed again when near death. There's a strong belief that it's the instigator of the "tunnel of light" phenomenon that many people experience in NDEs, but not all breakthrough experiences take the same form. Some New Age beliefs align with more ancient notions that it's a lubricant for the soul, and that concentrated doses forcefully eject the soul from the body as it does at the moment of death. The ayahuasca potions employed by South American tribal shamans for thousands of years are based on DMT as their active hallucinogen, but most-used in modern-day society is the shorter hit smoked in a method similar to crack cocaine, with the trip beginning before the smoker is finished inhaling (leading to its uncommon street-name "crotchburner", after one's tendency to drop the smouldering pipe whe the trip hits). The whole trip in this state normally takes about 5 - 10 minutes, and it's one of the most intense psychedelic experiences available - it's as far removed from LSD and mushrooms as they are from the confusion one feels when drunk. Not recommended as a casual trip - in the words of Prodigy, this **** will **** you up.

 

[e36Adz]

I don't think it's a case of believing something just because you find peace in it, but rather believing it because your own mind/soul/logic compels you into actually believing it is true.

I choose to be muslim and I believe in God, the existence of the soul and in life after death.

In my opinion, science cannot measure everything. I believe in 2 forms of knowledge, that which is externally derived (or scientifically, it can be observed/measured) and that which is internally or spiritually derived. The modern godless world teaches us that we have these physical eyes to see, these physical ears to hear etc and that is it, whereas the Quran teaches us that the heart or soul can also see/hear. Just as you need light to see in the dark, you also need spiritual light in the heart to be able to see internally/spiritually, and only when a person is seeing with 'both' eyes is he/she able to grasp the reality of the world that we live in.

There have been cases of people who are blind from birth and after having a near death experience, they actually see for the first time. There are also many cases of people who having almost died have gone through an out of body experience, and have been looking down on their own physical body, I do find it interesting when scientists try to explain it.

 

[Vita]

Your next incarnation is dictated by what you have spent this life doing. If you spend this life selflessly helping others and in spiritual praise of the Absolute, you have a very good chance of a blissful return to that state. If you spend your life killing and pillaging everyone, you will start further down the evolutionary chain. If you spend your life thinking about sex you'll return as a dog [or similar], if you spend your life thinking about eating you'll come back as a cow [or similar].

It's all about what you have devoted your life to. On your deathbed, in your final moments, you will think of what you spent your life doing, and that will determine your next incarnation.

Wow. I didn't know it was like that, I just thought it was random. Really interesting if that's how it is. Thanks for the post.

 

[[TW]Fox]

I choose to be muslim and I believe in God, the existence of the soul and in life after death.

Surely such a belief is logically and physically impossible.

Where do all the souls go? If everyone who has ever died still exists, there must be billions of trillions of them?

I can appreciate that sort of beleif being held 500-1000 years ago but in these day and age is there really any place for it?

 

[Castiel]

My point was that I have no faith to fall back on in the absence of proof.

My point being that many people without a specific faith also believe in some kind of afterlife.

No. I have a personality, a series of thought processes shaped by the things I have experienced.

What about the accumulated memories and energy that create that personality, is it destroyed when you die, or does it like any other form of energy change into another form.

 

[Castiel]

That is just as mental as believing in life after death. Why not believe in the tooth fairy or the easter bunny if you're willing to have an 'open' mind on things with zero evidence to support them?

I can say that I do not believe in Fairies or the Easter Bunny without necessarily extending that to a general denial of everything I cannot explain.

Suggesting such a thing is what is mental, not the fact that some people have spirituality and some do not.

Besides there is not zero evidence of an afterlife, there is just no evidence you will accept. That is a major difference.

 

[Tombstone]

Nope, I believe we live , we die, we then either burn in a furnace or rot in the ground. Thats it. Just like every other plant and animal on the planet, thats all there is. We are no different.

 

[Castiel]

Surely such a belief is logically and physically impossible.

Where do all the souls go? If everyone who has ever died still exists, there must be billions of trillions of them?

I can appreciate that sort of beleif being held 500-1000 years ago but in these day and age is there really any place for it?

In an infinite universe the possibilities are infinite.

 

[mushroomsoup]

I agree with (about the afterlife) Carl Jung

 

[Vita]

Surely such a belief is logically and physically impossible.

How so?

Where do all the souls go? If everyone who has ever died still exists, there must be billions of trillions of them?p

The souls are laid to rest in their graves. Yup, there are loads, and they will all be resurrected on the day of reckoning. That's what Muslims believe.

I can appreciate that sort of beleif being held 500-1000 years ago but in these day and age is there really any place for it?

Considering nearly all Muslims believe in that, then yes there is still a place for it.

EDIT: Fox you can read this, to understand it a bit more. http://www.islaam.com/Article.aspx?id=603

 

[VFM Addict]

When folks ask me if there is life after death I give the only sensible answer there is - HTFSIK !

 

[[TW]Fox]

The souls are laid to rest in their graves.

So what are they doing now? Just laying there? For thousands of years?

Yup, there are loads, and they will all be resurrected on the day of reckoning.

All of them? All billion trillion dead people since the end of the world? You think they are all going to be resurrected?

Seriously?

 

[Lysander]

[QUOTE='[TW]I can appreciate that sort of beleif being held 500-1000 years ago but in these day and age is there really any place for it?[/QUOTE]

More than ever. Your stalwart clinging to modern material values shows that.

 

[e36Adz]

Surely such a belief is logically and physically impossible.

Where do all the souls go? If everyone who has ever died still exists, there must be billions of trillions of them?

I can appreciate that sort of beleif being held 500-1000 years ago but in these day and age is there really any place for it?

I don't think it's impossible at all.

The complete imbalance in this world, makes me believe that one day everything will be balanced. I strongly believe in God, who after creating us all the first time will have no difficulty in bringing us to life again to account for our actions. There probably are billions and billions of people who existed, I don't think anywhere close though to how many stars their are in the sky. I believe that God is so far above everything else in creation, that as the Quran says 'not even an atom's weight [of whatever there is] on earth or in heaven escapes thy Sustainer's knowledge; and neither is there anything smaller than that, or larger, but is recorded in [His] clear decree.'