What do you think happens when we die?

[Frosty6611]

Just had this discussion with my DP and mum and we all had a completely different answers.

I believe in reincarnation.

My DP is an atheist and believes nothing happens.

My mum believes in heaven/hell.

We're buried in the ground or burned in a fire, and that's that as far as I'm concerned

Zilch. Nada.
Convent schooling with incessant heaven, hell, Purgatory put me off forever.
Probably going to die sooner rather than later so has crossed my mind - I imagine it's like a light being switched off 🙂

Nothing, you die it goes dark and that’s it! I don’t belive in heaven/hell or people being reborn or coming back as cats or butterflies

Realistically I think nothing, but factors combined to make "me" exist as a consciousness inside this body, looking out. I do wonder if, sometime, this might happen again and there will be another "me" in another body in another time. Not reincarnation exactly, because I don't mean I will float off and find a new foetus, but another being that "I" am inside.

I'm in the "nothing" camp too. Why should there be anything after we die? We die, we rot (or get burned) and that's it. I think it's pretty arrogant to believe that anything special happens just because we're human.

Nothing. My body will go back to the earth and be recycled. My memory will hopefully live on in the hearts of those who love me.
Live the best life that you can, you only get one shot at it.

I will tell you exactly what happens.

Whatever you want to happen.

If you believe Heaven exists, and you will go to Heaven, you will... if you believe in God, then he exists... if you don't believe in God, then he doesn't exist. If you believe you are dead and gone, (after death,) and there is no other world or life out there, then that is what will happen to you.

If I believe in God, then he DOES exist, if you don't believe in God then he DOESN'T exist. It's all subjective and no-one has any right to tell anyone else that their beliefs are wrong.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and view, and no-one can tell anyone they are wrong, because no-one actually knows what happens.

I always find when this subject comes up, people who don't believe in life after death (or Heaven,) rush to mock and deride people who DO believe it. Yet I don't see anyone who DOES believe, taking the piss out of the naysayers and disbelievers.

Speaks volumes really about the disbelievers. They are, more often than not, rude and ignorant about other people views and beliefs, and don't give a shit about their feelings, or how their comments hurt.

If you don't believe, then don't. But bore off with your rude comments, and mocking those who do!

Re Stephen Hawking saying 'you just die and that's it,' I had a lot of respect for this brilliant man, but he had no more of a clue what happened after death than I do, (or anyone else on this forum.)

@ginmakesitallok

I think it's pretty arrogant to believe that anything special happens just because we're human.

What a laughable and ludicrous thing to say.

Everyone is entitled to their own views, but they are NOT entitled to take the piss out of the views (and beliefs) of others.

I echo the majority, nothing happens... lights out, your times up.

However.. I do sometimes get a bit caught up in woo, making me wonder if residual energy is a thing...

I have belief in any kind of creator or heaven/hell scenario. I’ve always wondered how that works with people that were widowed and then happily remarried afterwards. Which partner do they believe will be waiting for them?

I have no belief in any kind of creator or heaven/hell scenario

Dark, nothing.

As pp said - Game Over.

Funny how everyone is so sure their opinion is right. You can be no more sure that there is nothing than you can that there is something.

You're right, only someone who died could tell us, and they're dead. Back from the dead stories don't count because they wouldn't have had time to shut down properly.

I think being dead will be similar to being in an oblivious deep sleep. Nothing. And you don't know nothing's nothing, so it's fine. Personally I find that more comforting than to think that there's more to come. I think we all hold onto whatever theory we find most comforting.

Actually no, my favourite theory is that we're aliens dropped on some kind of purgatory planet, and when we've done our time or learned our lessons we get zapped up to a much better more civilized planet. Yep, I like that better!

Funny how everyone is so sure their opinion is right. You can be no more sure that there is nothing than you can that there is something.

Not really true. That's a bit like saying no-one knows anything about Black Holes or Dinosaurs because they haven't experienced them directly.

People do study how brains work, the nature consciousness etc

I'm with you OP, reincarnation.

Lindalee, you come across as someone with very little openess to others yourself! I haven't seen anyone slag off anyone else's views yet. All you needed to say was ' Live and let live'. It's a board on MN with the OP asking an interesting qu, not a spiritual debate!
People quoting the bible make me just switch off, but they have a right to their views. As a long time atheist ( after a strict, Catholic upbringing) I have a right to my views of there being nothing but rot/ ashes too.
And too your negativity towards believers, the rudest comment I ever had was from a Christian who called me naive and lacking in education ( I beg to differ with my degree and love of books) for disagreeing with the existence of God and an after life.
. Wind your neck in.

To not too*

My carefully nurtured organs could get transplanted ( if I die young enough) but as I'm planning to live beyond 100, they'll be out of date .

I will get re-incarnated

If my organs are donated , I will come back to make sure they're being cared for and if not I will haunt the recipent.

I will leave enough money for my family to contact me via a private reading with Derek Acorah then they'll know I'm ok.

Nothing
But we leave a legacy behind us
So best to be nice when alive hey

Categorically believe we just switch off. The brain is a computer, stores information, copies new stuff in, goes on ‘standby mode’ (sleep). However, when our brains switch off for good, it’s like smashing your computer into pieces. All the information it collectively possessed is gone forever. Some of it remains in other places, through the memories of others or though things we’ve left behind, but everything that made us ‘us’ is forever gone.

The idea of heaven is horrifying to be honest, and hell wasn't even mentioned in the bible, as with all religious nonsense it’s an idea appropriated from elsewhere and used to keep believers in line with their theology.

I think I believe in reincarnation. I don't believe you come back as a snail if you're bad, more that snails come back as snails and humans come back as humans. I'd like to believe this, I find it quite comforting.

I also think there's been a few things my daughters have said as toddlers that have made me a bit . One of them I'd describe as an "old soul" and the other is definitely a younger soul I think it makes sense in that energy can not be created or destroyed, just passed from one form to the next. But I understand "naysayers" see this as being passed to the ground. I believe we are more than just physical matter and chemicals .

As an atheist I find that a few Christians openly pity me, they view me as having nothing to live for.. On the contrary, I believe this is my only shot, I have to be the best me I can be as there is no second chance 😊

I don’t need fear or worship to guide my moral compass.

I don't think anything happens. 'You' no longer exist, your body is lost one way or another, and if you're lucky you are fondly remembered by those who love you and recall you to mind from time to time.

I believe our ‘spirits’ go somewhere in the universe to chill out because earth sucks. Well, the planet itself is gorgeous, but the human condition not so much.

Crikey. Big question for a Sunday afternoon OP

The thought of death being the end terrifies me, if I’m honest. Not the dying process itself, or my body decomposing/being cremated, but the idea of my consciousness ceasing to exist – not being aware any more.
Non-existence is completely incomprehensible, but I take comfort in the fact we know very little about the universe and what we do know of it is cobbled together from the parts we think we already know. There are still a lot of gaps in our knowledge (I study planetary science, and the longer I study the more I realise we know absolutely fuck all!)

What came before the big bang? What caused the universe to begin?
The entire universe will die one day and return to the ‘nothing’ it came from – but can ‘nothing’ really become a universe without there being a ‘something’ to start it off?

These kinds of bigger thoughts about the universe as a whole, the demise of planets, stars, galaxies and eventually everything that exists, comforts me. We don’t know anything about ‘non-existence’ and are unlikely to ever know.
I like to think that when I die, I’ll end an ‘existence phase’ and move into a ‘non-existence phase’, perhaps returning to existence again at a later time, or in a different universe, or as part of another reality.

I am not sure, but I think people find it comforting to think there is something else when we die?

I believe our ‘spirits’ go somewhere in the universe to chill out because earth sucks. Well, the planet itself is gorgeous, but the human condition not so much.

But then all the douchebag spirits will be there as well, so it'll just be same old same old