Hopefully it is okay to post this, after all this is the serious thread. Please, respect peoples opinions and religious views. What are your views on death? Do you think there is an afterlife? Do you think everyones after death will be different?
I grew up on strict religious beliefs and was taught that once you die, you go to Heaven. As I got older, I got wiser and strayed from all of that and now I believe that once you die, that's it. Nothing. No afterlife. Unless people I've known that are dead give me some sort of sign from above, I'm sticking to my current opinion.
Hmm. I'm don't really have an opinion on it to be honest. Sure it crosses my mind sometimes, but I figure I'm not going to waste my time whilst I am alive, thinking about something I can't change and probably will never understand.
I grew up with Islamic values but my family isn't all that religious when I think about it. I still do believe that there is an afterlife, and I believe everything I was taught according to Islam. I don't think not believing in an afterlife is fear of hell, some people just honestly don't believe there is anything beyond death.
I'm starting to believe that we are all born as somebody / something else after we die, that in each life we are a different being. I don't really have any sort of fundamental basis for that belief, only my own thoughts.
This. My parents were never believers, but I was sent to a Christian school as a child. Eventually, I decided that it was silly, and that I was an atheist (and still am) so I pretty much believe that there's no afterlife. I mean, I don't think we'll know until we die and whatnot, but I'm trying to enjoy life as it is without having to worry about being perfect in order to achieve a perfect afterlife. Just my own belief, though.
There is no evidence for afterlives, reincarnation, etc.. They are just myths with various levels of comfort (I think hell is profoundly UNCOMFORTABLE, especially when I am apparently going there because I disagree with you on the existence of God). I also dislike the idea that, under a worldview of Christianity, it logically follows that if you torture someone until they accept Jesus as their lord and saviour, it would actually be a good thing because no matter how much you made them suffer on earth, it is minuscule compared to the hell you saved them from. Reincarnation tends to make very little sense as it can't really account for the fact that the population of the planet (and one would imagine, of the universe) is not static. Where did all the new souls come from when the population increases? Where do they go when it decreases? The fact that we even have to ask these questions seems to show that the whole prospect is pretty silly. Notably, if we have no reason to believe it is true, then we really have no reason to try to work out the details of it. We can't 100% rule out the idea of an afterlife, but (like the toothfairy or santa claus) we have no reason at all to think it actually exists. Changes to the physical brain have notable changes on the personality of an individual, so it appears unlikely that any sort of a "soul" or anything else immaterial is necessary to speculate. I think the only reasonably conclusion right now is to admit we don't know 100%, but that there is no more reason to believe in any sort of life after death than there is to believe in the toothfairy. Most else strikes me as a misguided form of wishful thinking- and not a harmless one. EDIT: Also, I don't mean to call out Joe in particular, but I do think that when one says they don't find this issue important to think about, they on a deeper level clearly see no reason to believe in standard Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. mythology. Because, if you thought there was a decent chance that say, Christianity was true, you would think there is a decent chance that you would be going to hell to suffer for all eternity for not believing in it. I think when one says the issue is unimportant, they have discounted these hypotheses as if they were true, the issue would be about the most important thing you could tackle correctly in your entire life. It would decide the fate of your eternal soul.
I can see this turning into a 'This is what I believe in...' thread, which is fine, but anywho... I was raised Catholic, and was baptized when I was a baby and all that hoopla. Like Andrea, as I got older I started believing in pretty much what I felt like believing in. With that said, I think once you die then that's it. Supernatural Activities (ghost/spirits) aren't 100% proven at all, so I think once you die you just...die. You don't go to heaven, you don't go to hell, nothing. Your body just decays like everything else on Earth does. I respect people's opinions and I don't think this is really about religion or anything like that. I'm actually interested in reading what everyone has to say about what happens to us after you die. But when it comes down to it, none of us will know until you actually die.
I agree with you. I friend of mine is an atheist and he thinks that the Bible (no offense, and none intended) is a way that is telling people to live their lives. The odd thing is, I can't image not being here..... not being alive, not breathing.....not....anything....
I believe that too. I didn't like the whole idea of the Bible, but just because I don't like it doesn't mean I disrespect it or any of it's believers in any way. What grinds my gears is when people tell me I'll go to Hell for not following or believing in what they believe in, let alone anything at all. I just want to live my life to the fullest. As cliche' as that sounds, it's the truth. Why should I worry about how I'm going to die, or worry about how I should live? I should be able to do whatever I want and o what makes me happy without anyone jumping on my back. Aye, it's really hard to talk about death and stuff without dragging everything else that comes along with it. Though, I think if we keep it healthy and respect one another, then this thread could live a while. No pun intended...
Yep. I think if we are all mature about this and respect everyones opinions this thread can last a while. I also don't think that once you die you walk the Earth either. I don't really know what happens....
Since I'm sure we all know we have souls.. I believe that there is something. I'm not to sure what that is, and I do want to know oh so badly. I know we all have souls too. A soul is a feature of a person. I read somewhere, that a souls is like.. "A sailor to a ship". Similarly, A soul is to a body. Thus, we all have souls. A body can be generated through...well, i'm sure you know how babies are made. A soul goes with every new person. Thus, a soul exists before we are born. So if souls exist before life.. So if souls exists while we are alive.. So if a soul exists and continues to exists after we die.. I conclude that our souls go on. ("The spirit carries on") But where do our souls go? I don't know. But it has to be something... That is precisely what I'm curious about. Of course, this is my view of life/death.
I am sorry, but we do not all "know" we have souls, and nor should we. I gave an argument as to why in my past post, and additionally must note the burden of proof is on whoever claims we have souls. There is no evidence for a soul existing before, during, or after life. We have no reason to believe in anything immaterial at all. Before speculating where our souls go, I think it important to show why we should believe we have souls in the first place. Otherwise, it is like arguing over the nature of vampires. May be fun, but has no bearing on reality (as vampires and souls aren't anything beyond fiction).
I really just believe that once we're gone, we're gone. Which is why if I ever get into a situation where I'm a vegetable and there is no chance for recovery, for heavens sake, pull the plug. I don't believe in spirits or souls. At least not in any traditional sense. I don't think any thing passes/moves on. Basically what I think of as as soul is our consciousness and our subconscious. I believe that when we die our brains stop working and we lose consciousness and thus our soul dies when we die because without a conscious we basically can not be.
Philosopher of science Daniel Dennett has said that we must come to terms with the fact that "the mind is what the brain does". I would agree with this, and it seems like you use the idea of the soul in the same way. I stay away from using that terminology as people can be eager to misinterpret you and think you believe in things you don't (similar to Einstein being championed as a believer in a personal God when he was explicitly clear that he didn't) but I agree with your position.
Where do we come from then? This cycle of life and death that has been going on for ages now... how did it start, or more importantly why did it start? Just so that we can live up to 60 years on average and then go POOF? When I think about these questions, I can't help but believe that there is SOMETHING in the afterlife. What it is.. I don't know. I believe in God (Allah) and I think we just weren't wired to wrap our heads around this issue of life/death. It's simply beyond our comprehension.
Yeah that pretty much sums up how I interpret it. Also I've read a bit about the Einstien thing (Dawkins goes into it a bit in one of his books) But really, I make it pretty clear when people genuinely want to know what I believe.
We don't know where we came from. Postulating God doesn't help any though. You can't just make up answers. Also, asking "why" is improperly framing the question- there is no reason to believe there is an overarching purpose in the universe. Lastly, if the issue is "beyond our comprehension" then you shouldn't believe in any religion as religions take the opposite approach by claiming that we DO know the mind of God, we DO know what He wants, we DO know what happens after you die, etc.. Not knowing something is not a valid reason to start filling in the blanks with whatever fairytale one sees fit. The null hypothesis is that nothing happens, and we have no evidence for anything happening. When you don't know, you can't reject the null. I know what you mean. And we are just regular people so no one has any real interest in claiming us for their "side". I guess I just try to be cautious as I wouldn't want to be misinterpreted.
I pretty much agree with esaul17 here. Without trying to be offensive. I don't believe that just because we don't know an answer that we should automatically attribute it to X. In this case God. As for how we are here I take the evolution approach. As for why, I don't believe that why is any much different from how. Or that they should be mutually exclusive from one another. But if it's the meaning of life you're pondering about I believe that we make our own meanings. We do what makes us happy without hurting others and we set goals to try to achieve them and once we do we'll find an inner peace in ourselves.