Thread: The Afterlife? Is this all there is?

I said yes, because I know there is life after this life...not exactly an afterlife, but not nothing either....

it's interesting the percentage of people that believe that this lifeis all there is, and that nothing comes after. 66%.
are we all sceptics?
I had a belief, (which i still hold to an extent) that when you die, you are reborn, in some other guise (NOT necessarily as cow dung, for all you darwinists!), but maybe you come back as someone else.
I'm thinking past lives here as well, i think.
think of all the children that are born. There's a great many people born than there is dying right?
to my mind, that has to mean something. And i'm not talking the whole science bit, of people living longer. That is true.
I used to think, that if i died, it wouldn't matter, because i would get another chance.
i explained all this to my father, (who is an Agnostic) and he said, 'no way, when you die, that's it, end of.'

If you believe in the notion of an eternal soul, unfortunately reincarnation (and more specifically, past lives) becomes rather improbable. Our species has grown by a factor of about 5000 over the past few tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, either the VAST majority of us are "first round humans" (ie. new souls, first lifetime), or the original souls have been splitting up into fractions of souls.

By that logic, if you believe yourself to be the reincarnation of King Tut, Mary Magdelene, Joan of Arc, Elvis, etc. Then you, along with a few hundred, or thousand others were all that person at the same time, and you are merely a reincarnation of a piece of their soul.

Make sense?

Waking Life

Before Sunrise actually, but the characters do continue that conversation into Waking Life.

we should continue our post on those movie in the entertainment section! i will post a reply tomorrow

I believe that after I die I will move on beyond this world past universes and dimensions into new places so that I can explore and create my eternal existance forever. I also believe that if I do not live up to my full potential in this life I will have to be reborn into another body to fufill my potential and move on to greater things.

I think the idea that we somehow continue to exist after we die is just absurd.

Much like how we did not exist before we were born, I believe that when we die we also cease to exist. Everything we know about consciousness and awareness, the way the human brain and body work, seems to indicate this to me.

It seems foolish to belive in an afterlife at this point in my life.

I voted yes, I would have checked maybe, but I was forced to decide, and so I checked yes.

Not only do I scincerely hope there is more than just this life, but my perspective on the world is such that the very concept of the ending of everything as far as I'm concerned is inconceivable. In pondering brain functions I realized that, from a scientific perspective, there's nothing that makes us the same us as we were yesterday aside from the external things which fail to capture the essence that we see from a subjective position. This and the fact that my intuition just screams it, leads me to having a weak belief that I have an atemporal soul of some sort.

At least I won't realize I was wrong.

If the universe is infinite, maybe we always exist somewhere. Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any verifiable evidence that there is an afterlife.

Originally posted by bradybaker
If you believe in the notion of an eternal soul, unfortunately reincarnation (and more specifically, past lives) becomes rather improbable. Our species has grown by a factor of about 5000 over the past few tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, either the VAST majority of us are \"first round humans\" (ie. new souls, first lifetime), or the original souls have been splitting up into fractions of souls.

By that logic, if you believe yourself to be the reincarnation of King Tut, Mary Magdelene, Joan of Arc, Elvis, etc. Then you, along with a few hundred, or thousand others were all that person at the same time, and you are merely a reincarnation of a piece of their soul.

Make sense?

Yes, it does make sense.
and it's something to think about. Like my dad has often said, 'no one's come back to tell us'

I wasn't necessarily saying that if you did come back, you'd be aware of the fact that you'd had another life.
It'd be like, you die, are reborn, but every single memory of a former life is erased, therefore you just begin again.
I certainly don't believe myself to be the reincarnation of anyone famous, but i've often wondered if i've lived in another place and time before this one. it might be fifty years ago, it might be a hundred.
I might have been born in a victorian slum, and died as a baby, and now here i am. Who knows?
it's just something to wonder about.
i don't believe that this is all there is, that you are born and you die, bingo.
otherwise, what's the point?
what's the purpose in making a great life for yourself, only to find at the end, that it's not really going to mean much, because you have to leave it all behind?
just a thought...

Originally posted by irishcream+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(irishcream)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-bradybaker

If you believe in the notion of an eternal soul, unfortunately reincarnation (and more specifically, past lives) becomes rather improbable. Our species has grown by a factor of about 5000 over the past few tens of thousands of years.

Therefore, either the VAST majority of us are \"first round humans\" (ie. new souls, first lifetime), or the original souls have been splitting up into fractions of souls.

By that logic, if you believe yourself to be the reincarnation of King Tut, Mary Magdelene, Joan of Arc, Elvis, etc. Then you, along with a few hundred, or thousand others were all that person at the same time, and you are merely a reincarnation of a piece of their soul.

Make sense?

Yes, it does make sense.
and it's something to think about. Like my dad has often said, 'no one's come back to tell us'

I wasn't necessarily saying that if you did come back, you'd be aware of the fact that you'd had another life.
It'd be like, you die, are reborn, but every single memory of a former life is erased, therefore you just begin again.
I certainly don't believe myself to be the reincarnation of anyone famous, but i've often wondered if i've lived in another place and time before this one. it might be fifty years ago, it might be a hundred.
I might have been born in a victorian slum, and died as a baby, and now here i am. Who knows?
it's just something to wonder about.
i don't believe that this is all there is, that you are born and you die, bingo.
otherwise, what's the point?
what's the purpose in making a great life for yourself, only to find at the end, that it's not really going to mean much, because you have to leave it all behind?
just a thought...[/b]

We are trying to study to see if we can recall past lives in dreams. Maybe there will be an answer in that.

Now, that's an interesting study!
will you keep me posted on it?

Therefore, either the VAST majority of us are \"first round humans\" (ie. new souls, first lifetime), or the original souls have been splitting up into fractions of souls.
[/b]

this put me in mind of a book i recently finished reading, Stephen King and Peter Straub's 'The Talisman'. Its about a young boy who has to go looking for this thing to save his dying mother, and he has to flip between worlds. This other world contains a 'twinner' of his mother, and what happens in that world, affects what happens in this. A sort of parallel universe.
So who's to say we're not all connected to someone else in some way?

Originally posted by irishcream
i don't believe that this is all there is, that you are born and you die, bingo.
otherwise, what's the point?
what's the purpose in making a great life for yourself, only to find at the end, that it's not really going to mean much, because you have to leave it all behind?

First of all, why does there have to be a point?

Secondly, could the point not simply be to pass on your genes to the next generation? Few would argue that the ultimate goal of an amoeba is anything other than to reproduce (the 'epic lives' of amoebas will most likely go untold). Furthermore, few would argue that the ultimate goal of a fish is anything other than to reproduce...so why do you give humans a special dignity?

I guess one could view our genetics as some sort of 'eternal entity'. As long as our species exists, some part (copy) of your DNA will always exist.

you know, i never thought of it like that!
thanks for your insight!

I had an interesting talk with a friend about anything of ourselves being and infinite entity. We outlined the detailed process of our physical procreation, and really found it hard to believe we were merely just matter, that we were something transcedent that takes place in our lives. Although I believe in a God creator, and she in endless reincarnation.

Bradybaker, you put a very interesting point that I've thought of during my days. How the souls branch out to the next following generations, is pretty logical. For this to work, a single soul isn't necessarily a single consciousness, but probably the essence of it.

I've had trouble believing in the reincarnation theory that we could be certain past lives. When we die, our energies dissipate without deliberate control, who knows where they go? The afterlife is simply whatever's left of us that goes on, doesn't have to be a heaven/hell thing.

I'm feeling this is simple and complicated at the same time.

Well...just to clarify...I only applied a bit of logical thinking to an otherwise illogical idea (actually, credit for the idea goes to Richard Linklater and wherever he may have heard it). I don't actaully believe in souls or reincarnation or any of that mumbo jumbo.

Originally posted by irishcream
Now, that's an interesting study!
will you keep me posted on it?

Therefore, either the VAST majority of us are \"first round humans\" (ie. new souls, first lifetime), or the original souls have been splitting up into fractions of souls.

this put me in mind of a book i recently finished reading, Stephen King and Peter Straub's 'The Talisman'. Its about a young boy who has to go looking for this thing to save his dying mother, and he has to flip between worlds. This other world contains a 'twinner' of his mother, and what happens in that world, affects what happens in this. A sort of parallel universe.
So who's to say we're not all connected to someone else in some way?[/b]

When I find the article on it I will. It is being conducted by a few psycologists(excuse my spelling I am tired). They are getting together and trying different things. I found it in my monthy dream magazine.

i have chosen:

NO


but then again, it sounds really scary if you say: "there is no life after death.", if you say it all ENDS just like THAT...

creepy.... but true
i think

http://www.downloads.nl/cgi-bin/meta/do/np...age=2&where=mp3
the 2nd

I want to beleive that there's an afterlife but i cant really beleive in what i cant know exists for sure..know wat i mean? religeon is different. But i honestly think that the human mind cant imagin itself not existing, so it wants to live on, therefore create an afterlife, i dont want to not exist is wat it'd think yes? but maybe its when we die then thats it, nothingness, we dont exist anymore, or is it that the human population have beleived in an afterlife for thousands of years..how cant it exist? have we all been dreaming of a next life for nothing how could we have been following something for so long to be a mistake...just a few thoughts...

Get rid of the silly idea that You are just your body, mind, or soul and You will realize what You will be after "your" physical body dies. Its the same thing You are right now and what You were before the big bang. You can be aware of your body, You can observe your thoughts float by like clouds, these are objects that are not You. Who is aware?

There is no afterlife. We die and then we are gone for ever...