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Original poster

What do you think happens when we die?

555 replies

Frosty6611 · 05/08/2018 12:28

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
Frosty6611 · 06/08/2018 08:32

@ska was it just like the lights being switched off and you have no recollection of it at all?

OP posts:
TheABC · 06/08/2018 09:15

I have had some woo experiences, so I firmly believe our energy continues somehow, after we die. In what form or dimension is not so clear. On a practical note, I am planning organic reincarnation by getting a tree planted over my remains.

Readyforapummelling · 06/08/2018 10:41

We have mapped some of the brain but nobody knows where consciousness comes from. The bit that makes "us". We have absolutely no idea. There are different theories swimming round but consciousness is still one of the great mysteries.

If you don't believe me, type into google "where does consciousness come from?"

Scientists suspect it does come from the brain although they don't know which part, it's hard to move on to prove this because no one knows how to define consciousness from an objective, third person perspective. We only have access to one consciousness and that is our own.

Hawking refers to humans as computers quite a fair bit but I don't think it's a good analogy. I know my iPhone doesn't have feelings or a personality. If we are nothing but computers, surely we would come across people in our lives with identical personalities to our own? How can it be that we are all so different. Why do I hate bananas but my daughter loves them? Why does she hate mushrooms?

I guess the way I see it is metaphysical, maybe if we swap the word "spirit" for "conscience" and pose the question "does our conscience live on after we die?". If we remove the idea of faith and spirits, does the question sound less absurd?

I personally don't believe in God but I believe in some kind of energy moving onwards. As a pp said above energy can't be destroyed only transferred.

We know so little about the Universe and have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to physics, maybe we do live on but there is a scientific explanation for it?

Who decides our science and laws of physics are correct? There is a whole world of shit that we don't know and who wants to understand everything? I love pondering questions such as this. Gives life a little mystery.

If we had categorical proof of an afterlife and Heaven (or whatever) wouldn't people be killing themselves? What would be the motivation to overcome life's more troubling times?

Disclaimer: ^^ these are MY beliefs. I am not trying to force them on anybody and if you believe in nothing-ness after death then that is up to Smile. It's only natural Laws of Opposites that people believe in different things.

387I2 · 06/08/2018 10:49

I try not to think about it too much. What happens to a wave at sea when it has rolled against a shore?

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 06/08/2018 10:50

That energy goes back into the sea.

Vitalogy · 06/08/2018 11:23

Well said Readyforapummelling

If we are nothing but computers, surely we would come across people in our lives with identical personalities to our own? Unique organic computers maybe.

If we had categorical proof of an afterlife and Heaven (or whatever) wouldn't people be killing themselves? What would be the motivation to overcome life's more troubling times? Exactly, It'd take all the fun out of the game. Imagine if we come here in different lives an infinite number of times, surely we wouldn't choose easy successful lives every time, what would be gained from that. We'd want to mix it up a bit.

That energy goes back into the sea. Exactly, the sea of consciousness.

Skarossinkplungerridesagain · 06/08/2018 11:25

Yep. I just went to sleep, then woke up choking on the tube down my throat. Nothing, no white lights, no out of body experiences.

Itsnotabingthingisit · 06/08/2018 11:35

I would hate to die, then be able to be conscious of the sadness of the people I have left behind..maybe to see them struggling emotionally and practically.

No way would I want to ' watch over' my family and not be able to help them.

The whole heaven thing..someone with faith in this thread said about being reunited with her DH..practically speaking, what ages are you when you meet again, both in your adult prime?.

FeistyOldBat · 06/08/2018 11:45

I believe we just decompose, but as we can't get any empirical evidence to prove that nothing else happens (you can't prove a negative), it's still just a belief. I'm content with it.

Donthugmeimscared · 06/08/2018 11:54

I don't know why I'm reading this I have a big problem with thoughts of death.

I hope there is something else as what's the point of it otherwise. Better step away before the anxiety kicks in.

Mousefunky · 06/08/2018 12:12

I’m an atheist and I think nothing happens. We die and we cease to exist, we get cremated or buried. To some people this is unfathomable and rather depressing but it just makes me realise I need to make the most of the years I have.

BinG0wings123 · 06/08/2018 12:22

I hope that you end up in a place with all the people you loved and all your dead pets. Everyone is happy and you have no worries.

I have to think that though as my life is pointless and shit. If I thought this was it then I might as well end it all.

frogface69 · 06/08/2018 12:23

I believe in an afterlife. Maybe we aren't allowed to really, really know about it, or we wouldn't make the best of our lives on earth. Oh well..nothing matters...I am eternal anyway kind of thing.

eniledam · 06/08/2018 12:36

I used to believe that nothing happened after you died. Then I read a book called Vicious Depths, and now I'm convinced there's some sort of afterlife.

I know the book is fiction, but it describes two places after death: the Depths, and the Azure. Each is run by corrupt, charismatic figures and you then start to wonder if the hellish, depraved Depths is really so bad after all (it starts to seem like a lot of fun in the book!)

It made my imagination run riot and now I can't think of an afterlife without thinking of the one in the book. People are ranked in hell and the Azure based on how many sins they committed in their first life. It really got me thinking - murderers were lumped in alongside people who killed themselves or died of an ED because in the eyes of "God" they were sins!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 06/08/2018 12:48

Imagine if we come here in different lives an infinite number of times, surely we wouldn't choose easy successful lives every time, what would be gained from that. We'd want to mix it up a bit

For those of us who believe in reincarnation that's exactly the point, isn't it? It's not even just that we want to mix it up but that we have to, in the hope of learning the lessons needed to progress

And BTW I loved that link you posted about soul age; I'd not seen that one before Smile

Puzzledandpissedoff · 06/08/2018 12:53

If we had categorical proof of an afterlife and Heaven (or whatever) wouldn't people be killing themselves? What would be the motivation to overcome life's more troubling times?

If I might be allowed to answer that, for some believers suicide is no answer - because if we elect not to accept the trials we're sent in one life we'll only have to deal with them in the next

Or in other words, what seems to be solving things is just deferring them

DieAntword · 06/08/2018 12:53

Our souls are separated from our bodies (whatever that means) until the general resurrection at which point we are all raised from the dead, the world is renewed and we face God in the person of Christ, his mercy and judgement. Then we spend eternity on the renewed and perfected earth bathed in the light of God which to the saints is like paradise, to the repentant is a purging fire and to the unrepentant is intolerable.

Vitalogy · 06/08/2018 13:01

That's it Puzzledandpissedoff. I mean look at how us humans love a good film/play that's a tragedy. All the war films that have been made. All the extremes of life in a real war situation. You could look it as a sickening game but on the other hand if it's just a game anyway, wouldn't you want the extremes. Oh and all the violent video games people enjoy.

"Life is a game and love is the prize" Smile

KittyHawke80 · 06/08/2018 13:19

I’m not going to die, so it’s not a question I ponder much.

Keel · 06/08/2018 13:28

This thread is fascinating. My mum believes in reincarnation and after losing my dad and others I would like to think there is something. I have certainly had some unexplained things happen that make me think of my dad and my mum in law.

PolytheneSam · 06/08/2018 13:28

Wishing something to be true makes it true.

Vitalogy · 06/08/2018 13:30

Good for you KittyHawke80

RainySeptember · 06/08/2018 13:33

I love this thread. Lots of replies that you'd expect, main world religions, atheism, reincarnation. And then some utterly unique ideas that individuals seem to have just dreamt up. I wonder what attracts people to one idea or another. Their parents, their friends, a book they once read. Fascinating.

RainySeptember · 06/08/2018 13:34

Me too kitty they'll have invented a pill or something before it's my turn

Vitalogy · 06/08/2018 13:38

I wonder what attracts people to one idea or another. Their parents, their friends, a book they once read. Fascinating. Or the ultimate truth Shock