Thoughts on the afterlife?

[dastarddamsel]

*Caveat: I'm aware that many of you are Christian and thus may have similar ideas. I'm not trying to start a flame war... I'm just sociologically interested*

What does the afterlife look like, to you? Is there one? If you are Christian, what are the specifics? I know different denominations see things in different ways, even if all under the umbrella of "Christian." How does your view differ from that of your faith? Does your view support the presence of ghosts? Do you find your vision of the afterlife to be comforting?

[Alecto]

I think the afterlife will be unique to everyone, but the one thing it has in common will be a closeness to God/Divine Spirit/Other souls. I think hell is not eternal torment, but simply a separation from all of that.

[treemom]

I don't believe in an afterlife. I also think the concept of an afterlife has been one of the most damaging things about religion and an excellent way for religions and governments to control the weak/poor.

[valsa]

The only afterlife I look forward to is being worm food. Well, that would be true if I weren't being cremated.

[Burris]

“When my second son was born, he found it difficult to breathe at first. He gasped a little, coming into the unfamiliar air. He couldn’t have known before or suspected at all that breathing would be what was done by creatures here. Perhaps the same occurs elsewhere, an element so unknown you’d never suspect it at all, until – Wishful thinking. If it happened that way, I’d pass out with amazement. Can angels faint?†– The Stone Angel, by Margaret Laurence

[aelar]

I don't believe in an afterlife. When we are dead, we are dead, so enjoy life while we have it.

But I do have a little myth I tell myself, that I enjoy even though I only believe in it because it gives me comfort, and not because it is in any way provable, or actually real. I like to believe that we have souls, and souls are made of some sort of energy we can't yet detect or explain (very silly stuff, I know). When we die, our soul-stuff scatters into pieces, little shards and big fragments. And some of these pieces will attach themselves to people and places and things that we cared about very much during our lives.

My little soul myth has more aspects to it, but the basic point of the myth for me is to feel comforted by being able to say that I feel a piece of passed loved ones still with me, and hopeful that when I am gone, a bit of me will stay with my loved ones too. (My family all knows that when I die, they can go find a bit of me at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, if nothing else, or Mont Saint Michel.)

[Aristeia]

I don't believe in an afterlife, and it's very freeing.

[amie]

..........

[bananacat]

I also don't believe in an afterlife, but I have another question.

For those of you who believe in the "typical" Christian afterlife and also believe in ghosts, how do you reconcile those two ideas? If you go to either Heaven or Hell, does God or Satan let some souls out occasionally to go back to Earth, or they delayed from getting in somehow? I'm not making fun; I am just curious how these things work together.

[ladypuglover]

For the people who don't believe in an afterlife but do believe in ghosts.... what then? Where did these ghosts or spirits come from?

Removed for acting just as bad.

[Cassandra]

I don't believe in an afterlife, and i also don't believe in having a soul.

Someone will probably ask what makes humans different then? And I would reply our intelligence and ability to create and exist in cultural settings.

[Alecto]

There are proposed theories about ghosts that have nothing to do with souls or afterlife, for what it is worth. The most common is that ghosts are leftover energy from the brain/nervous system.

[ladypuglover]

There are proposed theories about ghosts that have nothing to do with souls or afterlife, for what it is worth. The most common is that ghosts are leftover energy from the brain/nervous system.

Interesting, never heard that thought before. I will check that out. :)

[Buzzard]

Given that the earth recycles everything I tend to lean towards reincarnation. Not in the "striving for enlightenment " sense, just that we go around and around. Personally, I'd like to come back as one of my dogs.

It helps explain ghosts to me... They just haven't made it into a body yet!

[dcmhejbl62]

I believe quite confidently in an afterlife that is impossible to understand or describe because we haven't been there yet. Reincarnation may be an element.

I also believe in "ghosts" / spirits and feel the beliefs co-exist quite nicely (of course I also don't have a problem reconciling creation and evolution). I've had a lot of supernatural experiences and contact with "the other side," so I suppose that helps.

I have no evidence of this other than the ramblings in my own head, but I also like the idea of a pre-existence.

[mirele]

I don't believe so much in an afterlife for me--not sure I want an afterlife.

But I would like an afterlife for my cats. Because I'm thinking they'd enjoy snoozing in the sun or the shade, stalking critters and insects, playing, and getting skritches from Jesus (or substitute your favorite holy person here).

[Sola]

There isn't one. When you die, that's it, the end.

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm on the fence as to whether there is an afterlife or not. However, a part of me would like to believe that there is some soft of hereafter so I could see my husband, parents, certain other relatives and friends, and my cats.

[dirtyhippiegirl]

I took care of a patient with advanced colon cancer who was beginning the personal transition into understanding that he was eventually going to die of his condition. I posted about him several months ago on the old forum.

Aside from wanting to "save" me, he was fixated on near-death experiences and the afterlife that these people supposedly experienced. I could tell that he needed those stories -- clung to them as physical evidence that there would be something better once he passed.

As a non-believer, I found it a little bit perplexing. He was a very devout man, had been religious for a very long time, and obviously took great comfort in religion and also the friends that he'd made through religious groups. Yet he's basing the crux of his beliefs on stories you might see in the back of Reader's Digest?

Anyway, I still think about him from time to time and this thread in particular made me remember the reams of articles he gave me on near-death experiences. He was a good man. :)

[GeoBQn]

Jews don't agree on what the afterlife is like, so people in my family developed very different ideas. My dad likes to think that Heaven is like being in the sky boxes at a football stadium. The food is great, the seats are comfortable, and you can look out the window down on everything happening on earth.

For me, Heaven would be like watching all of my favorite TV episodes at once. That's probably a sign that I watch way too much TV.

[Flipsnippy]

I consider myself a Christian and I do believe in an afterlife, but it's not a version that would be considered traditional as far as the topic goes. Several years ago I died during a surgery and came back. My condition remained touch and go for a few days thereafter and I experienced some interesting things. During the period of time in which I was clinically deceased I received answers to some of my questions about life. The other side was full of knowing. I came to understand my psychic abilities that have plagued me since childhood. Everything became clear and made sense. I definitely believe in an afterlife, and it's nice.

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm the kind of person who doesn't (didn't) believe in things like that. For me, if it's not "There", then it doesn't exist. You died, so you were dead, either buried or cremated and the world went on. Then my whole world was turned upside down by a series of events (which are continuing to this day) that left me with no choice but to believe otherwise. I don't believe in an afterlife so much as a parallel universe (4th dimension, perhaps? I really have no idea)that our energies flit in and out of. Yes, I know, VERY "Woohoo New Age" stuff. But, it's the only way this can all make sense to me, unless I'm living a Truman Show-type existence and everyone and everything is fucking with me for kicks :P I kind of like where I am now, I can just enjoy all the strange little 'coincidences' without getting freaked out by them.

Edited cuz I'm a rambler :)

[browngrl]

I think that when you die - you die - that is it. Sometimes this makes me sad and sometimes it makes me relieved.

[Lainey]

Well, I would like there to be an afterlife, because I'd like to see my pets again. Unfortunately, reality doesn't seem to base itself on my preferences. :crying-yellow: I know, 'tis tragic.

I have had weird experiences, though, so sometimes I think that perhaps in the future, everyone's personality is loaded onto a computer and we become immortal that way. Far-fetched, maybe, but so is flying to the moon. :shifty: :confusion-shrug:

I really have no idea.

[Lainey]

I consider myself a Christian and I do believe in an afterlife, but it's not a version that would be considered traditional as far as the topic goes. Several years ago I died during a surgery and came back. My condition remained touch and go for a few days thereafter and I experienced some interesting things. During the period of time in which I was clinically deceased I received answers to some of my questions about life. The other side was full of knowing. I came to understand my psychic abilities that have plagued me since childhood. Everything became clear and made sense. I definitely believe in an afterlife, and it's nice.

Well, heck, please do share! I could do with some clarity and things making sense. Do you remember any of the answers to your questions about life?