Exactly what will happen upon my demise

[DoctorTwo]

You will have noticed the title is a statement not a question. What is certain to happen is you lot and all this will cease to exist.

I'm not trying to be mean, but that's just the way it is.

Well it's a point of view, but I have to break it to you that this is actually my dream/hallucination.

to the tune of The Reflex... :o

Our energy will one day return to the stars that it came from, and from there, perhaps to entropy, perhaps to eternity.

There was a book... and a woman who was just chatting and she said something like this:

posted too soon

She said something like this:

"When I die I want to wake in a big chair in an immense room full of shelves like a library. I want a kindly old man to be lifting a helmet off my head and saying "Well that was a sample of life on the planet earth. Would you like to try another or perhaps something different entirely"

:)

Turn into worm food?

Nitogen cycle?

Lots of people have strongly held beliefs but there is no way of proving any religion. Your views are as valid as anyone's.

I think the worm food is the only one with any clout seeing as we can see the body decay after death and cab see how catastrophic brain damage is to memory and cognition. Sadly there's no evidence for anything else so there's just no validity to them. Dearly held doesn't equal valid, longstanding doesn't equal valid and neither does amount of believers.

I would say the best we have to go on are peoples experienced who have actually clinically 'died'. Do some research on NDE's, interesting stuff.

Yup. I had a near death experience. All there was, was a big fat nothing. We die. We stop. It's really not that bad.

I'm sorry that was your experience Kay and I'm glad you feel so comfortable with death.

Don't be sorry :) It was what it was. And I am comfortable with death, yes. Because I'm living my life, being as much of a good influence as I can be and making the most of it while I've got it.

For the person who dies - nothing will happen
Life and existence for that person ceases to be.
Existence of that person, lives on in other's memories.
Then their body decomposes, gets incinerated or gets eaten.
Fairly simple really.

The fact is no one knows, you can speculate until the cows come home but no one can say for certain.

We stop. It's really not that bad.

This is basically my op in reverse. We just cease, apart from our atoms, which continue to be scattered across the universe. Who knows, maybe one day an atom of mine could be in your cup of tea. :o

There's no need to fear death. It is inevitable, after all. But to dress it up with all the afterlife bollocks is damaging and childlike.

I'm interested Winged in how you establish facts and probabilities in your everyday life? I left a pan of burnt baked beans in the sink 4 hours ago. I reckon it's still there. Would it seem sensible for me to surmise it's been washed up by unicorns?

headinhands -

I establish facts & probabilities through experience, as I assume most people do, perhaps you have a different approach?

Not many people have died and lived to tell the tale, those who have have given mixed reports of what they experienced.

I would be a fool to assume I 'knew' what happened, especially never having actually died myself.

So you'd agree that in light of intellectual honesty your chosen method of establishing validity means you are unable to discount anything.

I always cringe a bit when people who declare they know exactly what will happen when they die, on either side of the coin.

Even scientists and academics who research the dying process are in no way unanimous in their theories.

I appreciate people's opinions on what they think will happen to them, but at this point in time there is no way of knowing what will happen. I don't think this negates our choice to believe what we choose, based on our own experiences and what information is currently available to us.

i have to teach an a level philosophy of religion course on this currently. there is interesting stuff out there on the science/religion cusp. also some interesting data on nde's in terms of verifiable stuff rather than describing bright lights etc - eg. people being able to describe things going on in the room when they had no brain activity immediately upon waking. definitely interesting.

i have no real conviction about it. it strikes me as possible there is more - that consciousness is something more than just electrons firing but i can't bring myself to think about it in terms of souls and rewards and sanctions or all powerful dictators.

It never fails to amaze me that people who have no interest or belief in spirituality feel the NEED to keep posting on the spirituality board for the purpose of bullying others into thinking the same as they do.

Believe what you want - why does it matter to you what other people believe. And as for 'damaging' how patronising.

Doctor have you posted this in Bereavement?

Not many people have died and lived to tell the tale,

Actually no one has died and lived to tell the tale. When people say they died they just mean according to the definition that's used as a guideline for medical staff. If you come back then you were not really dead were you.

God would presumably be able to tell the difference.

So if no one has died and returned then we have zero evidence for an afterlife and lots of evidence that shows things die and disintegrate.

I don't think most people would claim that there's a heaven for daffodils or ants. If not then why would we think there'd be one for us.

lottieandmia Your assumption about our interest is incorrect and may indicate that your understanding of our position/s is shallower than you thought.

Perhaps if you joined in and debated instead of turning up to suggest we are trespassing it might be more constructive.

Just had a look and you haven't posted in Bereavement. Why not?

Why haven't I posted this in bereavement? Because I haven't died yet, plus that section is for those who have lost loved ones, and a thread of this nature in there could potentially cause upset to a vulnerable person or people. I'm not a complete and utter bastard I'll have you know.

lottie, I don't mock people for their belief, but consider all gods fair game. I'm pretty sure that if one of the thousands of deities exist he, she, or it has a lovely sense of humour. Though the god of the old testament isn't particularly full of laughs.