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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To ask about the afterlife

113 replies

el1zabeth · 18/10/2019 23:36

I'm hoping that someone will be able to explain to me how the whole idea of an afterlife works (if there is one) I am not religious at all, but my genuine question is this. Does everything that has ever lived, from the smallest insect to the largest animal, including dinosaurs live for eternity in the afterlife? Do they age, and if so would that mean there's a whole load of people, animals etc etc possibly millions of years old?

Also, and this is one thing that really baffles me; if I die when I'm 80 years old, well my mum died when she was 70, dad at 72 (I was mid thirties at the time) so, how then would they know who I am in the afterlife because I would be older than them when I get there or will they have aged too?
It's a lovely thought to believe that you'll meet your loved ones again, but it just doesn't make sense to think that every single thing that's ever lived since the beginning of time will be there too.
My mind is blown!

OP posts:

Sparklesocks · 18/10/2019 23:44

The problem is...nobody knows do they! There are theories but nobody could possibly give you a definitive answer. But a key idea seems to be that the soul lives on rather than the body, so you wouldn’t be the age you are when you die - you may not even have a body at all.

PurpleDaisies · 18/10/2019 23:46

Most religions will have a different version of what the afterlife is. There isn’t one answer to this.

Ponoka7 · 18/10/2019 23:50

A Catholic explanation is that we are different in the Spirit world, so aging etc us irrelevant. We know each other instinctively, not by sight. They don't confirm or deny that animals go to Heaven, but it is said in the Bible and Popes have said so.

If you think of it as two worlds. The Spirit World operates differently and in various dimensions. Then there's room, until the Spirits fully pass on. Depending on the religion etc.

But if you think about what we know. That there's always a consistent amount of energy regardless of who lives and dies and we are energy, then we never die.

But that takes us to what makes us, us.

Ponoka7 · 18/10/2019 23:51

A Catholic explanation is that we are different in the Spirit world, so aging etc is irrelevant. We know each other instinctively, not by sight. They don't confirm or deny that animals go to Heaven, but it is said in the Bible and Popes have said so.

If you think of it as two worlds. The Spirit World operates differently and in various dimensions. Then there's always room, until the Spirits fully pass on. Depending on the religion etc.

But if you think about what we know. That there's always a consistent amount of energy regardless of who lives and dies and we are energy, then we never die.

But that takes us to what makes us, us.

ThreeLittleDots · 18/10/2019 23:54

It doesn't make sense because it's not real. We go back to the same state of non-consciousness we were before we were conceived, IMO.

AthollPlace · 18/10/2019 23:58

If that’s true there’ll be a heck of a lot of flies there and most of them will be pissed off with me for squashing them.

BuxbyFree · 19/10/2019 00:01

This has reminded me of what i have always wondered, If there is a heaven and a hell do you think people in heaven get visitations to people in hell? Cause its not the loved ones fault someone they love is in hell is it?

WagtailRobin · 19/10/2019 00:02

The reality is NO ONE knows, people can speculate, proclaim, whatever but no one actually really knows. We can choose to believe what your chosen religious denomination teaches but still, that's just a belief not a fact.

I hope there's an afterlife, I don't know for definite if there is but I will find out either way when I die, I suppose.

x2boys · 19/10/2019 00:05

Who.really know,s .

Helmlover1 · 19/10/2019 00:07

IMO Heaven or the ‘afterlife’ is basically a higher dimension which our souls enter when we die, that resembles earth, but without all the ‘sin’ in it ie. no poverty, war, famine etc. If you read about the phenomenon of NDR’s (near death experiences), most people’s accounts claim that they see bright but calming lights, meet their dead relatives again and feel an overwhelming sense of happiness, so much so that they feel depressed when they wake up again/pull around and realise they are still in this life. I suppose we have to take something positive from that.

ParkheadParadise · 19/10/2019 00:15

I hope there is.
I lost my dd 4yrs ago, 2 yrs later I lost my mum. I was with my mum when she passed away i can remember telling her to tell dd i loved her just before she passed.
I really believe that I will see them again to think otherwise is unbearable.

Walnutwhipster · 19/10/2019 00:15

No one can explain it.

PatriciaBateman · 19/10/2019 00:23

I'm not sure I believe in an afterlife, and will never know til I know (or don't)!

However, if I did, I would believe that there is only one soul, reincarnating over and over again into every possible life, into every possible time stream.

That means every person you see around you is really 'you' in a different incarnation, and so is everyone and everything living that has ever existed. We are literally one.

"The Egg" by Andy Weir (short story available online) is the nicest fictional representation of this belief I've ever found. I think it is actually cloaked at the core of many religions.

PatriciaBateman · 19/10/2019 00:25

Oh... and then I like to elaborate it by imagining that when you die, you are in your kind of 'master spirit form', which remembers all the lives you have ever lived and can recall/replay them perfectly as wished (or not)!

Aunaturalmama · 19/10/2019 02:17

Afterlife is for people that cannot cope with death.

ThighThighOfthigh · 19/10/2019 02:22

I can't bear to think there isn't, I'm desperate to be with my Dad again.

Dita73 · 19/10/2019 03:09

I wish I could believe in an afterlife but I don’t. I think it’s something all humans comfort themselves with knowing that one day we will no longer exist

SeaWitchly · 19/10/2019 03:10

Patricia I loved that story!

xJodiex · 19/10/2019 16:31

I nearly died once, and I did have an experience, I saw my body from the other side of the room for a few seconds, it was very very odd. I do not know if it means we have a soul that is infinite and goes on without our body.. or not. I like to think we do. That there is a place where time doesn't exist. That we are at peace there. I watch things like this below but I guess none of us will ever know until it happens, and then we can't tell anyone if there is an afterlife? sigh

Leflic · 19/10/2019 16:55

I think it’s a bit like Christmas lights. Turned on they are the most beautiful atmospheric, nostalgic things ever. They make a tree look devastating. Without electricity they are just plastic or glass on a spiky tree.
I think of the tree us Earth, our bodies are the lights and our conscious is the electricity. All three things exsist seperatly but the combination of all three elements makes something special . And obviously aren’t around for long.

Deicide · 19/10/2019 16:58

It doesn't exist

Original poster

el1zabeth · 19/10/2019 21:47

Thanks for the answers. Lots of differing trains of thought here!

OP posts:

DoloresDingo · 19/10/2019 22:05

It’s a lovely idea but completely implausible. When we’re gone that’s it. No second chances so make it count while you’re here.

PooWillyBumBum · 19/10/2019 22:09

Simplest explanation is that the afterlife is wishful thinking because we can’t bear the thought of non existence.

I don’t think there is one.

Hecateh · 19/10/2019 22:15

I believe that the atoms that make me up live on.

So, the atoms that make up my body are returned to the earth either by burial or ashes. These atoms will eventually be taken up and become part of other animals - which in a number of generations are likely (maybe) to become part of a human again.

I don't believe the consciousness that I possess will go on beyond me, I respect the faith of those who do. I don't respect the religions that promote that belief.

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