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.

[Seasawride]

I didn’t believe until I saw a psychic. She had absolutely no knowledge of me or my life and she told me a specific thing that only myself and my dear gran knew. She told me my gran, Gwen, had just told her.

She also predicted other things which had no place in my life but have since happened.

I cannot explain this in any way but I can’t dismiss it either.

[Vitalogy]

But then all the douchebag spirits will be there as well, so it'll just be same old same old I don't believe the douchebag is part of the spirit but the human ego.

[maamalady]

Beautiful piece there, @MrsTerryPratchett - it's all absolutely undeniably true, which I find very comforting.

I believe nothing happens when you die, bar the decomposition of the body. As others have said, the idea of reincarnation is horrifying to me, and heaven/hell seems even less likely.

I disagree that it's always atheists who are rude and dismissive though. When my grandfather died, several members of my deeply Christian made remarks along the lines of him being in a better place - which I found very upsetting, as did my mother. Being aware of the beliefs feelings of all the close, grieving family members is important regardless of your own beliefs. I didn't counter their remarks with my own beliefs ("don't be silly, he is gone forever and there is no chance we will ever meet again"), because I have more respect for the feelings of others despite the fact that I am an atheist.

[maamalady]

*my deeply Christian family

[Vitalogy]

the idea of reincarnation is horrifying to me If it's fixed so you can't remember previous lives then why would it be.

[Confusedbeetle]

Whatever we believe we should use it to help us live a decent life. If it's heaven you get your reward. If there is nothing, then this is it so make it good and worthwhile. Many people believe in stuff when things happen that appear to reinforce that "truth". It really doesn't matter, except when you have a belief that someone is in poverty and a beggar because they were bad in a previous life. That discourages both charity and compassion

[Eminybob]

What a laughable and ludicrous thing to say. hmm

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

Umm, pot, kettle, black.
Do you not see how contradictory those 2 sentences are?

Anyway, I personally believe nothing happens, we become worm food. Because although yes no one can know for sure of course, there is so much more science and evidence in life that points to that, than points to heaven or reincarnation or ghosts or any of the rest of it.

[VickyEadie]

Nothing. We no longer exist, just like before we were born.

Belief in an afterlife only exists - as anyone knows if they think rationally and not with the terror of non-existence - because we know we will die and are terrified of it.

'Signs' from the dead are just coincidence, coupled with humans' desperation to believe there's something there.

[RJnomore1]

That quote about the physicist has me in tears for some reason

[fieryginger]

Nothing happens. We cease to be.

[Atetoomanyjaffacakes]

Lots of things happen when you die, they just won't involve you

[AllRoadsLeadBackToRadley]

I believe in Heaven.

I don't believe we will all be waiting around for our loved ones, though- or it would be never ending, and someone down the line would always be in limbo. Hope that makes sense?

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I'm going to put the link I long form as well. Because I like it!

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly. Amen.

[lljkk]

Perfect peace, I hope so anyway.

Any sort of afterlife sounds dreadful. Wouldn't you worry about the people you left behind? The grief they felt at your passing? The financial loss of your income? Whether they had fixed their problems or had enough support, the pain they felt watching you suffer until death, how did your grandchildren turn out, what else did your descendants do & do you approve of it? What about looking down on Yemen or Syria conflicts & wandering just WTF is wrong with humanity. Never mind the environmental disasters humans keep trying to trigger. Who wants all that worry.

Give me oblivion instead, for sure

[Figgygal]

Nothing and being conscious of that is terrifying to me

I wish I did believe in something else it must be comforting

[Malwod]

Nothing. A shame really because heaven sounds chill.

[bailey999]

Have you ever heard the following quote -

"Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth"

There is so much that science cannot explain, for example, terminal lucidity seen in some Alzheimer's patients (doctors and scientists have no explanation for this), death bed visions, near death experiences (yes you can say that the person isnt really dead if they have been brought back but there was a case (I believe at Southampton hospital) where a patient was clinically dead and it was unique in that he didnt recount what had happened in the room around him but he recounted word for word a conversation that occured in the relatives room down the coridoor between his loved ones at the time he was beeing worked on).

If I am wrong in my beliefs of an afterlife, so what? I wont get to know that I am wrong because I will be dead, however it will have given me much comfort during my life so who cares!

[malfoyy]

Nothing. When you're gone you're gone.

Thunderstorms and other 'signs' are a coincidence.

[Lynne1Cat]

You either rot, burn, or (as I will be) end up in various bits for medical students to dissect and examine.

[ToadOfSadness]

I lean towards believing in reincarnation.
I also hope with all my heart that if my spirit or soul ever returns in any form, human, animal that it never has to experience anything like I have in the last few years, I am getting through the days with the hope that I will be reunited with the animals I have cared for, however not too concerned about the people that have gone before because that would not be a positive thing.

I also have a fear that what might come next will be worse than what is now. For some years I have lived with the thought (something I read or learned somewhere) that we return many times and that each life reflects something that we did in a previous one and we are affected by it. In some cases finding that there is nothing after death on this plane would be a relief.

Looking into various beliefs has just confused me, I just want to think that if there is something else that it is good, and not like the nagging feeling of despondency that hits me in the gut every morning when I wake. Another life like this would be hell.

[ApproachingATunnel]

We live in a different dimension in a different shape and form. Unfortunately our bodies are not really equipped to really tune in/ pick up that dimension hence most of us have no experience with/from that dimension. Most of us.
I think just as in physics the energy doesnt originate from nothing and doesnt just turn into nothing- we are energy and it lives on but in what shape and how i do not know. I believe we can inhabit bodies again though (reincarnation).

[BonnieF]

Lots of things happen when we die.

The heart stops, respiration ceases, brain activity stops, metabolism ends. Body temperature drops to equilibrium and the body starts to decompose quite quickly. Unless the body is preserved or incinerated decomposition continues until all that remains is a skeleton.

[VioletCharlotte]

Like some others on this thread, I believe in the spirit world. I believe that when we pass we go there to rest and watch over our loved ones until we're ready to reincarnate and come back to Earth for another lifetime. Every life we live is about learning lessons to develop our soul. Very developed souls can become spirit guides.

[Tunnocks34]

I’m always conflicted with this really. I was raised Catholic and honestly, struggle not to revert to heaven/hell, even though logically I am fairly certain we just sort of fade as if falling asleep and then we’re gone.

I think I’d like reincarnation to a degree, but knowing my luck I’d come back as a snail or something so maybe not!

[Tika77]

I’m not sure. I tend to thing that it’s the final end as I grew up in the modern age but I also find that fucking terrifying. Because.... what’s the bloody point? I could even end it all now... (I’m not suicidal. Just the whole idea of being here to procreate/fuck up the planet seems unfair.)
I used to believe in reincarnation and karma but since having children I find no comfort in these ideas, I want criminals to suffer in this life for their acts not in some other life that may/may not be.
Heaven, again is a bloody unfair thing, so many people have been born into circumstances that make it impossible to live a ‘good’ life.

I also know I will become religious on my deathbed as I have before in every scary moment.