After we die..

You know, on this website we've debated everything..

Well...not everything. We've debated politics. We've debated ethics. We've debated capitalism (many times).

But we haven't ever discussed religion. Can you believe that?

My son asked me this weekend what happens to people when they die. I copped out on it and said that I didn't know because I haven't died before.

But it got my wife and I thinking. What happens after we die?
23,366 views 74 replies
Reply #1 Top
thread like this tend to disapear dramatically I don't know why
Reply #2 Top
Hard to say. Creative people tend to give these issues a lot of thought. The collective wisdom of the people here could shed some really insight on the matter.
Reply #3 Top
Purrrr... Wherever my soul ends up, I can only hope JG is there to welcome me.
Reply #4 Top
I'm just guessing, but you decompose? -or- you get mailed to someone the person who found your corpse didn't like
Reply #5 Top
One of the most interesting takes on it I've ever seen came from a movie: You go to this pretty little place where you're forced to sit and watch hours of videotape of yourself and defend questionable decisions you made thoughout your life. At night, you can go out dancing and eat all you want without gaining an ounce or feeling stuffed. There's even a past-lives pavillion where you can see who you were in a former life. Antway, I always thought that was neat. (Can't remember the name of the movie though...)
Reply #6 Top
yep. i remember that movie and no i cant remember name either.

heh the way theyre set as court is funny too.

as of my thinking on after death i got no idea. ill either know or rest in nonexistance after death.
Reply #7 Top
Are we really ever dying? Or is it just a matter of consciousness? If we are focusing our consciousness in flesh and bones of course we die, but are we only flesh and bones?
I think that we are what we believe about our self’s. Nothing is real, everything exists only because we think about it. So let us think better.
Reply #8 Top
The movie's called Defending Your Life.

Is it human arrogance to assume that we must have souls? Isn't this thing we call a soul simply electric impulses firing in our brains?

I think when you die, you simple cease to be.
Reply #9 Top
I think it's either arrogance or fear that prompted religious leaders way, way, way back to comfort others by making up stories of heaven, or reincarnation or whatever.

I find it odd that with all of the variations of religion in the world none of them (in my limited experience, anyway) says that you should be good even though you will be nothing but worm food when you die.

man. not beliving in an afterlife makes death suck even more.
Reply #10 Top
I believe there is a God, and depending on your Faith in him along w/ how you chose to live your life that when you die you have the "opportunity" to go be w/ him...

Reply #11 Top
Finally someone that believes in God! I was beginning to wonder in anyone here did?

All I can say is that when I die I pray that Jesus has written my name in the Book of Life!
Reply #12 Top
Jesus said: (I don't remember the exactly words)

From what I am and what I do, you will be better!

Jesus never die, do you remember?
Reply #13 Top
I seem to recall one scientific theory that matter and energy never truly grow or dissipate, they just change forms... following along that thread, I think it's quite possible that - at least a part of us - exists after death. What form we might take is the question. Do we remain a mentally coherent entity that is transported somewhere to be with the gods and goddesses of our particular beliefs or are we transformed into 'organic fertilizer' and become part of the earth, grasses and trees (or both)?

Reply #14 Top
I'm a Frisbeterian. We believe that when you die, your soul goes on the roof and you can't get it down.
Reply #15 Top
Until the roof comes down that is.

I'm with plainsong, when you die, you simply cease to be. All that remains is a corpse (hopefully) and memories. Nasty stuff, so I don't plan on dying anytime soon.
Reply #16 Top
I think it depends purely on what you believe. If you think you'll rot and cease to be after death, then that's what *will* happen to you. If you believe in heaven or hell, and that you're destined to end up in one or the other, then your mind creates this for you and that's how you sepnd eternity. Same with reincarnation, and all the other possibilities.

I believe in the soul, or at least the potential for one. I think it's what seperates us from the other forms of life on this planet. I consider the mind and the soul one in the same. And it's limitless in power. Belief is a powerful thing, and the mind follows belief. So whatever you truly believe aout the afterlife is what you'll get.

Same with God (or god(ess)((e)s)). If you believe in them, they exist for you, and the power you give them they have. Pretty simple actually, but really damned complicated when you start to consider the ramifications...
Reply #17 Top
I agree with you misterME
Reply #18 Top
"I think it's what seperates us from the other forms of life on this planet."

That would imply humanity being separate (or even "superior") from the rest of the flora and fauna. Not quite the way I see it. I don't consider myself to be anymore different from my dog than my dog is from my cat, certainly not separate.
Reply #19 Top
Energy always follows the thought, this is the golden rule!
Reply #20 Top
Everything is ONE, craeonics
Reply #22 Top
misterME: So you think those hijackers really are in Heaven with all those virgins, huh?
Reply #23 Top
Tarkus,

If they truly believed that's where they'd end up, then yes, I suppose they're in Heaven.

Regardless of how misguided we may feel their actions were, and no matter the pain and heartache they caused, if their belief was true, then so will be their fate.

The tricky point here is that the Muslim religion, on its tenets, sees such actions as unjustifiable and sinful. If any of those hijackers possessed the slightest doubt in their convictions, and thought that perhaps Allah would punish them for their actions, then I believe they're suffering the fate that goes along with that. If their actions were bourne out of hate and agression, rather than purely religious righteousness, then I daresay they're not lowering the number of virginal maidens in Heaven.

Faith and belief are slippery things.
Reply #24 Top
Crae,

It matters not. Since you believe that nothing comes after this life, I don't think making the distinction between man and animal is at all relevant for you.

I, on the other hand, believe I possess a soul; and while I love my two cats dearly, I don't think they possess souls. So I see a distinction. If, in fact, they *do* have souls, then I suppose they'll go wherever kitty-faith says they're supposed to go (catnip-covered fields littered with small defenseless mice and big balls of brightly-colored yarn, perhaps).
Reply #25 Top
misterME,

Everything that exist on this planet has soul, and in the end there is only ONE soul.
The difference is, how those lifes, (man,animal, plant and mineral kingdom), interpret the world, with a few words, their level of consciousness.