Don't get me wrong but...

SimpleSam06

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Without meaning to sound too rude, wheres the science in the 'soul'?

I might just as easily ask you wheres the science in a puddle of mud transforming into self organising and evolving living creatures.

Rabies

Faith wrote:

I couldn't handle the idea of there being nothing after life. What would be the point in life then? I believe that, after death, your soul goes to a nice place. Not necessarily Heaven, or somewhere with God, but just a happy place, where you don't have a phsyical form, but where you are happy and at peace.

Not trying to be rude, but to me that seems like a fear of death. Can't handle the possiblity that when you die, that is it. You need something to make it worth while.

Now I'm saying that I'm right and your wrong. Ah, I don't know what I'm saying.


/wanders away to think about life

Sparky

When I got run over by a car (true story), I was in a state of comfort and other feelings unexplained, its a feeling you never want to leave. However I woke up later on and felt depressed.
Some people reckon the afterlife is like that, but I don't know for certain.

Faith

Rabies wrote:

Not trying to be rude, but to me that seems like a fear of death. Can't handle the possiblity that when you die, that is it. You need something to make it worth while.

I have absolutely no fear of my own death. The only thing I fear is the pain of the people left behind. I just don't like the idea that it's all for nothing. While I don't need something to make it worthwhile, I'd certainly prefer if it was worthwhile.

I don't see how you inferred that that meant I have a fear of death, though? I'd only fear it if I thought that the soul is trapped in a body and can never escape, meaning you have an eternity of nothingness ahead of you. Or if I believed in hell*. Thankfully, I don't believe in either of those!

*Although I have a wonderful hypothesis about Hell and the devil, so if I started to believe I might be destined for Hell, I'd still have nothing to fear.

the Shades

Spanky-s wrote:

When I got run over by a car (true story), I was in a state of comfort and other feelings unexplained, its a feeling you never want to leave. However I woke up later on and felt depressed.
Some people reckon the afterlife is like that, but I don't know for certain.

That may have just been a psychological reaction to the pain your body was experiencing, a self defence mechanism for handling the trauma you'd experienced. Near-death is hardly the same as absolute death.

Anyway I also believe that there's nothing after death except a rather bad smell and the memories other people hold of you. You continue in that way until they die so yes in some ways what other people think of you and how you act does influence your 'after life.'

I also believe in ghosts though so not quite sure how they fit in hehe

SystemError

Im very confused with the whole life & death thing....

I believe in something after death. I dont know for sure what it is, or what I believe in but I cannot fathom not existing, and I dont understand how anyone can as much as I try.

For me, there has to be something after death, just as there was something before death. It just doesnt register with me that there isnt. I kind of feel as though my time on Earth is just a stage and that I already existed before this life, just as I will continue after.

But then again sometimes Im **** scared of dying and get nightmares about being in a coffin for ages with the worms. That would suck ass big time. I guess its a fear of the unknown.

I dunno, I dont like to think about the latter, but Im drawn to the feeling that even though my physical form will cease to exist, there is something in me that will continue to exist long after I die and I will eventually be reunited with my loved ones who had to leave prematurely (hopefully there'll be a mad session involved - the type where youre high on happiness, of course *ahem*)....

Guess I'll just have to wait and see like everyone else.....but I hope I get a chance to ask the higher power all the answer to all the unanswered questions I've had during this lifetime.

Like what came first - the chicken or the egg ?

kraggy

bluewolf wrote:

I wonder how many people would hope that there's nothing instead of something...

I prefer the idea of nothing to there being something. just in case the something turns out to be bad as a result of past wrong-doings on my part.

SimpleSam06

SimpleSam06 wrote:

I might just as easily ask you wheres the science in a puddle of mud transforming into self organising and evolving living creatures.

Noone ever called that science...

Dampsquid

Our mind is just chemicals and electricity. Once we die, thats it.

Althought I wish it wasn't

Elessar

The very fact that anything exists at all gives me reason to think that there are other shades of existence.

Smellyirishman

We die and that's it.

It's not depressing, it just means you have to realise that this life is the one chance we have. Stop fantasising about something better and enjoy what you have. There is no after life "carrot on a stick". This is life, live it.

D

O about the whole universe expanding and contracting, that won't happen this time, too much matter was destroyed. So instead of the Big Crunch, we get Heat Death.

CyberGhost

Personally I think it's just nothing, you exist, you sieze to exist, that's it like 1s and 0s, I of course believe that you move into another form, be it energy or mass but certainly not in a conciese way. Maybe we are a tiny, tiny part in a big engine? why are we so significent, why do we deserve this special afterlife?

And religion? an absolutely best business model that has ever excisted! that capitalizes on what humans can't live without..... hope. Give us money, and we promise you an eternal life in heaven.... amazing. And it caused more death, suffering and more wars than anything else.

And no wonder religion hates science, first it started with rocks, when it was proven that a rock is just a rock a land mass, then they moved to fire, and so on.... finally, they moved to air... puff, can't prove, can't disprove, perfect!

What I believe in however is balance in everything, dynamics and balance, maybe that's what some people are mistaking for god? you do something "bad", and you get punished when it fact, it's just a balance and it's coming back to you(and while we are at it, is there such thing as right or wrong? I don't think so, there's only opinions and interests). So in that way, when you die, you move into a different form of energy, but you as in YOU a person, will never realize it or see it.

And about comas, well there is still a brain activity, which means, your brain can make up some crazy things.

So the final point I'm making is: stop wasting your precious life, go out, enjoy it, because you will never EVER return the years you've lived....... I feel depressed....

monkeyfudge

Faith wrote:

But I still believe in a soul. For me, it is the essence of your being. It is different to your conciousness. Your soul makes you who you are. It gives you humanity and compassion and all those things.

Your genetic heritage and influences from your environment are what make you who you are.

And you've got to remember that emotions and feelings are observable chemical and electrical functions of the brain, if you somehow removed manged to remove your conciousness from your brain you wouldn't be anything at all. Also it looks like they've recently been able to pin down the molecule in the brain that makes learning and memory possible, so without the brain you wouldn't be able to remember anything either.

As for for what you think of as compassion and humanity, these also seem to be functions of the brain as a sociopath, a person without a conscience, will have a different brain pattern to a non-sociopath.

In the past couple of years we're starting to learn more and more about the human brain. It really is an amazing little organ that we've evolved for ourselves.

But it the lack of an afterlife isn't a problem for me... as when it comes down to the logistics of it the afterlife sounds like a terribly troubling place. So I'm more than happy with a state of non-existence.

What I do find troubling is the fact that it is starting to look likely that what we think of as free-will is just another product of the brain, before any thought reaches the surface of your mind your brain has already decided what the best thought to have is.

SimpleSam06

bluewolf wrote:

Noone ever called that science...

Exactly.

Or at least not yet, anyway.

monkeyfudge wrote:

a sociopath, a person without a conscience, will have a different brain pattern to a non-sociopath.

What are these brain patterns of which you speak?

monkeyfudge

SimpleSam06 wrote:

What are these brain patterns of which you speak?

PET scans and fMRI scans can be used to track chemical activity in the brain which shows us the parts of the brain that are showing activity.

tracert

SimpleSam06 wrote:

Noone ever called that science...

Exactly.

It's abiogenesis, baby*.


*well...

SimpleSam06

tracert wrote:

It's abiogenesis, baby

Which according to many scientists is closer to theology than science! (see what I did there?)

tracert

SimpleSam06 wrote:

Which according to many scientists is closer to theology than science! (see what I did there?)

Yes, it was very smart.

abetarrush

I think ill be one of them rings, but somethin more manly, like, a gem-encrusted chalice, YARRRRR!

User45701

monkeyfudge wrote:

If you get cremated you can have the carbon extracted and turned into a diamond... that's pretty cool.

Imagine having your dead wife turned into a diamond for an engagement ring for a new wife.

I wonder what the falue on said diamond would be, nice gesture for your family or children if you are not wealthy. "Kids when i die mommy is going to have me made into a diamond so you can have all the things you want"

Would be a interesting idea or even to have it made into a diamond and sold allowing the proceeds to go to your favurate charity (Bring Back Firefly Or Else Santa Strike Force )

monkeyfudge wrote:

Yep... I'm hoping to stick my brain in a jar at some stage and perhaps install it in some sort of killbot...

Why not some form of Evil santa kill bot like in Futurama?
That would be a great laugh

kingoftherodeo wrote:

We die and that's it, no heaven, no hell. It's difficult to imagine sometimes, but the easiest way to put it is that it's like before you were born, you're nothing.

Ive never actually thought of it like that. ive always be believed

User45701 wrote:

i think we end and that is it. nothingness i know its hard to comprehend but there is such a thing nothingness. we cese to exist and there is nothing

i would like to think we ascend to a higher plane of existence but religion has corrupted that idea for me

The way you pout it is interesting tho and would be qutite usefull to pull out in a argument when someone says that annoying line "if theres no heaven then describe what nothingness is"

monkeyfudge wrote:

Oh yeah... I almost forgot... you also sh*t yourself when you die!

No no no!

Cartman: "When you die you void your bowels"

Void your bowels wounds finnier to me

Archimedes wrote:

Reincarnation

As what? If it was possible what would you all choose
It depends i suppose a cat would be great, but it would have to be a cat with a good home.
the problem with that is a cats or animals brain could probably not support a human conscience
A baby ? a human again? well we know there is no such thing as reincarnation with full memories so one would assume you die but a small part of your essence just pops back into live inside a different living orginasm

Faith wrote:

I don't know about Hell though, I guess I don't believe in it.

But I have to believe that there's something after death. Life seems pointless enough as it is.

When it comes to hell it does not make sense even the very concept of it is moronic.

The devil was an angel who defied god right?
god punished this guy by casting him out of heaven and all the bad people with him when they die? and hell is a terrible place where you will suffer and be tortured and all the crap. Why?

Why would the devil and his "minions" punish you? you did what he did you defied god why would someone who hates god punish those who turn away from him? There is no Hell as religion describes it

Still i am still interested if there was reincarnation what would you all choose?

smashey

I think it was best put by Shakespeare (Hamlet). I might not have it exactly as said here, but it went along the lines of "man eats fish, fish eats worm, worm eats man".

InFront

The question of death is a very interesting one because it plays on human selfishness. It's one thing to say that there is no God when you are here on Earth, but when someone asks you whether or not you believe your parents or friends are wormfood, the natural inclination is to say "no, they're in a better place".

Either way, I do believe in God, and the ultimate fate that I think we will have to face.

Bet you a fiver.

Cake Fiend

What do you think happens to a dog when it dies? Apply that to a human.

Faith wrote:

But I still believe in a soul. For me, it is the essence of your being. It is different to your conciousness. Your soul makes you who you are. It gives you humanity and compassion and all those things.

This is hilarious! To continue the dog example, do you think a dog has a soul? If not, why not? How about a fish? An amoeba?

IMO, the only difference between us and an amoeba is evolution.