The Afterlife

[Magic Man]

I recently had a discussion with a religous friend of mine, who tried to convert me to christianity because she feared for my soul.

Now i tried to take her seriously, because shes a good friend.

After a long talk, it seemed the best reason she could offer me was that if i didnt believe, i'd go to hell; and if i did i'd go to heaven.

So fear of death is the main reason for me to get religous.


I wanted to hear what you guys think of the Afterlife, is there one?? Whats it going to be like?? Who runs the place??



I sorta imagine life as a road, the further you go the harder it gets.
When you get to the end of that road theres nothing, just blackness; an abyss.

Religion offers a rope to hang onto, that will pull you up to the next level. But for the rope to be there you have to carry an extra weight with you along that road. And the thing is, the rope might not even be there.

I believe that when i leap from the road into the abyss, ill cease to exist, or i'll be taught to fly.

Thoughts??

[Dracula]

If you did not exist before this life and will not exist after it,there would be no reason for you to exist now .Since it is imposssible,something does exist before and after ...

[Ältester der Motten]

If you did not exist before this life and will not exist after it,there would be no reason for you to exist now .Since it is imposssible,something does exist before and after ...

Someone's failed the biology class, didn't he? You know you shouldn't sleep during lessons, for shame.


Real Protip: The mass from which we evolve is already there, and will remain when we die.


And musa, I always found the islamic depiction of paradise to be really great. But a winter inbetween would be nice too. <3

[Giorgos]

How is it going to be like? Exactly, no one knows.
We know that it's not going to be demons with pitchforks pinching your behind towards a pit of tar and fire(you have to love popular culture).
It's going to be more of an extreme senses state. On the one hand you'll have perpetual, fulfilling and unending happiness that is impossible to describe in human terms and on the other hand, unending mental and physical suffering that is impossible to describe in human terms.
Additionaly, there is no point discussing whether the Afterlife actually exists, because each person has their own ideas, some are very vocal about it, and at the end of the day we'll all going to die sooner or later. We'll find out whether it exists or not together.

[Captain Blackadder]

Yeah I always disliked that arguement for religion there are better ones out there I would just say in the words of Homer Simpsons the great thinker

What if we are praying to the wrong God and we are just making him madder and madder

There is no reason to think about what happens in the afterlife now it happens when it happens and since god is omnipresecent he would know if your been religious for what are selfish reasons

[The Bronze boy]

I dont really belive in an afterlife, and I dont currently belive their is some authoratian god who desides who choses who goes to hevean or hell, seems pointless

I sorta belive in reancarnation, and thats all Im going to say.

[Ummon]

We might speculate that only certain kinds of "souls" survive death to pass in the "something-else-beyond" called paradise. To acquire the characteristics needed for the passage, atheist materialism might infact be unhealthy.

[Ummagumma]

It just goes on forever and ever, we are all immortal and will live to the end of time. Of course, it is all subjective - once you are dead there is no time..
If God is real, and has created heaven, then it proves that all this is a set-up. Assuming he is real, then he created us, 'designed' us, and knows our 'operating parameters' - and designed many to fail. What kind of screwed up mentality is that? It is the apple in the garden of Eden on a much larger scale. If (used to the fullest extent of implausibility) he (she) exists, I'll slap him (her) for being a twisted sadist.

[Ummon]

Actually, we might say, that nobody is designed to fail. Infact, failure is just the consequence of choice. And the aforementioned choice is: not to grow up.

[Chaigidel]

the egyptians thought it was alot like sleep and dreaming--- sleep if you were not righteous and if you were you got to live in paradise; (not sleeping)

all unworthy souls would drift into a permanent unconsciousness.

I mean how much of yourself do you remember when you dream?

I Know of God and feel it exists; I cannot say the same about any sort of "afterlife"--in fact im pretty sure there is not one.

[Giorgos]

God didn't design people to fail. We choose to fail. He knows how we'll end up either way.

[Gaidin]

I wanted to hear what you guys think of the Afterlife, is there one?? Whats it going to be like?? Who runs the place??

MMMmmmm.....dirt....yummy.

As far as what I know...ask me when I get there.

[Metellus]

I recently had a discussion with a religous friend of mine, who tried to convert me to christianity because she feared for my soul.

Now i tried to take her seriously, because shes a good friend.

After a long talk, it seemed the best reason she could offer me was that if i didnt believe, i'd go to hell; and if i did i'd go to heaven.

So fear of death is the main reason for me to get religous.


I wanted to hear what you guys think of the Afterlife, is there one?? Whats it going to be like?? Who runs the place??



I sorta imagine life as a road, the further you go the harder it gets.
When you get to the end of that road theres nothing, just blackness; an abyss.

Religion offers a rope to hang onto, that will pull you up to the next level. But for the rope to be there you have to carry an extra weight with you along that road. And the thing is, the rope might not even be there.

I believe that when i leap from the road into the abyss, ill cease to exist, or i'll be taught to fly.

Well put, HarryMate. One of the reasons I'm no longer a Christian is that I cannot stomach the idea of a God who would punish humans for eternity just because they didn't believe in him.

I think complete unconsciousness for the rest of time is a way better option than the Heaven/Hell dichotomy that seems to me a human invention. I have often found total nonexistence/unconsciousness hard to imagine, but then I thought: do I remember anything that transpired in the time before I was born? No. That's what its like to be nonexistant.

I can "live" with that

Its certainly better than a God who puts homicidal maniacs to shame. And I refuse to believe in God out of fear, which was my primary motivator when I was a christian.

[Dayman]

Now, I obviously don't believe in an afterlife but I can't tell you what happens when you die. My guess is as good as anyones and if someone tries to tell you that they know, they are a charlatan and a liar.

[Irishman]

Well, Im not really afraid to die, because the way I see it, I have nothing to fear.

If I am right, and death is it, there is nothing to fear because death cannot be experienced.

If there is a Just and moral system of afterlife, I will be rewarded, because I live my life trying to help others.

If there is an unjust or arbitrary afterlife, I need not fear because I have no control over it.

With any of these outcomes, I need to have no fear as long as I live my life well.

[Dracula]

You are missing the concept of whether you have acquired anything spiritual,Irishman .Besides the classical view is quite devoted to communion with God,not to what do you do for the others,which is anyways surely not that much .So you have no positives actually .

[Dunecat]

I don't understand why eternal life is that good. Wouldn't you want to go to sleep eventually? Your consciousness would just go on, and on, and on, and you would remember this moment, but you would have another infinite number of moments with the same feeling of powerlessness and despair, not being in control of your own soul.

It's all bullocks, to me.

[Magic Man]

I don't understand why eternal life is that good. Wouldn't you want to go to sleep eventually? Your consciousness would just go on, and on, and on, and you would remember this moment, but you would have another infinite number of moments with the same feeling of powerlessness and despair, not being in control of your own soul.

It's all bullocks, to me.

It might be more like a dream, where you continously live out your happiest moments.. But everytime you start reliving it you forget it.

So it doesnt become monotonous.

Maybe..

[Irishman]

You are missing the concept of whether you have acquired anything spiritual,Irishman .Besides the classical view is quite devoted to communion with God,not to what do you do for the others,which is anyways surely not that much .So you have no positives actually .

Like I said, if there is an arbitrary or unjust afterlife, I should not fear it, because there is nothing I can do.

If God is just, he will not punish people like me (who try to help people and live their lives justly) and reward people like you (who are openly racist) on the sole basis of belief. If they do, then they are entirely corrupt Gods.

[Dracula]

But my dear,you can not possibly know whether God is not also racist !