Do you believe in life after death?

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Do you believe in life after death?

Postby DamianaRaven » Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:44 am

Despite the lack of evidence supporting or disproving it, I really do want to believe that this sordid existence isn't all there is to what we are. My favorite theory is that we're actually godlike beings, not unlike Star Trek's Q, and this "life" is a vacation or therapy of sorts. Immortal omnipotence might wear on the mind, so perhaps when we die, we return to the continuum with a greater appreciation for what is. Maybe it's a game. Who knows?

In any event, I thought it might be fun to compare beliefs, if we can keep it light-hearted and not have it turn into a religious debate.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Dottoe » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:05 am

I'm not entirely sure this isn't all an illusion. Without another self-aware, intelligent species, how can we actually claim to exist? Would you accept a freak result if you were doing an experiment in a lab if you'd done it billions of times already? Probably not.

I think nothing happens after we die. In a sense, we go to Heaven, I suppose. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, much like the soul, so our matter returns to oneness with the universe.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby DamianaRaven » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:11 am

Dot, I love the way your signature plays into what you said.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Dottoe » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:31 am

Thanks, haha
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Learned Nand » Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:19 am

Dottoe wrote:much like the soul

What soul?

Image

Basically, I don't believe in the afterlife because there's no evidence it exists. But to go into that a bit further, the concept of an afterlife doesn't really make sense. There can't be life after death: life, by definition, ends at death. And I know that seems like a kind of naïve interpretation of the phrase "life after death", but really it reveals something important: if you think there's such a thing as life after death, then you have to imagine some entity comprising life that also doesn't end at death. Well what is that? The soul? I think it's pretty well scientifically established that the functions of life are entirely corporeal. If you want to assume that there's some other aspect of life that persists after brain death then I suppose you're free to assume that (despite the lack of evidence of lack of necessity for such a thing to be the case), but then I have to ask why you're assuming that.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby deathknight928 » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:20 am

Call it a consciousness after death then. The whole idea that when we die is that we simply cease to be seems like none sense and terrifying! What is the point of living if all we face is oblivion in the end regardless of how we live our lives? Eternity in any form scares the hell out of me. I like how in one Cracked article the author wrote that hell and heaven would wind up being the same. After a billion years to you think you will even remember what being alive was like? You can't tell comfort from pain if you only experience one. I have a theory that when I die the universe dies with me. I mean anybody else can die but if I do then it's all over. That means my "self" is not constrained by time and can be reborn in another universe. I have thought long and hard on what death could be like and all I come up with is "life". This existence is all I know and all I can conceive. So I hope when I die i get to live again. Try new things and hope my life comes out better.
Call me crazy but I believe I remember vividly the day I became conscious for the first time. It was feeling similar to when I awoke after fainting once. The feeling of flying and small lights shooting past but being completely unable to think. After that I saw my family and I knew who they were and who I was. Like I had just be put into that body at that time. Weird I know.
I believe we are more than just highly evolved monkeys. And when we die part of us lives on. That more awaits us in death than just oblivion.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Learned Nand » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:29 am

deathknight928 wrote:Call it a consciousness after death then.

This doesn't solve any problems. Consciousness exists within the brain, and when that dies, where's consciousness? If you want to argue for the existence of incorporeal consciousness, where's your evidence?
The whole idea that when we die is that we simply cease to be seems like none sense and terrifying! What is the point of living if all we face is oblivion in the end regardless of how we live our lives? Eternity in any form scares the hell out of me. I like how in one Cracked article the author wrote that hell and heaven would wind up being the same. After a billion years to you think you will even remember what being alive was like? You can't tell comfort from pain if you only experience one.

The facts do not change based on our feelings about them.

I have a theory that when I die the universe dies with me. I mean anybody else can die but if I do then it's all over. That means my "self" is not constrained by time and can be reborn in another universe. I have thought long and hard on what death could be like and all I come up with is "life". This existence is all I know and all I can conceive. So I hope when I die i get to live again. Try new things and hope my life comes out better.
Call me crazy but I believe I remember vividly the day I became conscious for the first time. It was feeling similar to when I awoke after fainting once. The feeling of flying and small lights shooting past but being completely unable to think. After that I saw my family and I knew who they were and who I was. Like I had just be put into that body at that time. Weird I know.
I believe we are more than just highly evolved monkeys. And when we die part of us lives on. That more awaits us in death than just oblivion.

Do you have any evidence for this hypothesis? If not, why do you hold it to be true? Also, a word of advice: posts are substantially easier to read if you put a blank line between paragraphs.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby deathknight928 » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:45 am

Aviel I'm not debating with you. And that was stream of conscious writing. Was just thinking out loud. No one knows what happens when we die. I don't need evidence as that is impossible for either side. Maybe you should focus on the philosophical question I posed. "What is the point of living if all we face is oblivion in the end regardless of how we live our lives?"
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Learned Nand » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:07 am

deathknight928 wrote:Aviel I'm not debating with you.

If you continue to disagree with me as you do in this post then yes, you are. If you don't want to argue with me that's fine, but then don't argue with me.
And that was stream of conscious writing. Was just thinking out loud. No one knows what happens when we die. I don't need evidence as that is impossible for either side.

When something is unfalsifiable you generally assume the null hypothesis. It's fine if you're going to assume another hypothesis, so long as you recognize it isn't substantiated or necessarily true.
Maybe you should focus on the philosophical question I posed. "What is the point of living if all we face is oblivion in the end regardless of how we live our lives?"

Considering how remarkably off-topic that is, no. You can start a thread about that if you want.
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby 52xMax » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:46 am

I think it could be very interesting if everyone on this thread went to watch "Waking Life" and THEN came back to discuss the very same topic.



it looks like the embedding doesn't work, but you know how to youtube, right?

Edit: Embedding seems to be working now. The problem was the https so I replaced it with a regular http on the url. Thanks for the tip, aviel.
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Last edited by 52xMax on Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:19 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Learned Nand » Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:02 am

Try these two things: don't capitalize youtube, and use the full URL (i.e. a youtube.com address, not a youtu.be address)
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby 52xMax » Thu Jun 06, 2013 9:11 am

I've done it before, and it's worked. Maybe you're right about the shortened url, but the capitalized 'Y' on the tag is automatic when I use the button provided by the forum.
Fixed.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby JamishT » Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:49 am

Of course I do.


Carry on.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby Learned Nand » Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:50 am

JamishT wrote:Of course I do.

"Of Course" because it's obvious or because you're Christian?
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Terry Pratchett wrote:The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Click for a Limerick
OrangeEyebrows wrote:There once was a guy, Aviel,
whose arguments no one could quell.
He tested with Turing,
his circuits fried during,
and now we'll have peace for a spell.
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Re: Do you believe in life after death?

Postby JamishT » Thu Jun 06, 2013 11:55 am

Because I've made my Christian beliefs clear in other threads.
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