What happens when we die?

[cbd98]

As much as I'd like to say life is a video game, and we can just insert another quarter into the giant console we call our universe so we can all have another shot, that's not really what I believe. I do believe in a sort of "recycling of souls" though. I've heard of past life regressions and to me that seems like proof enough that we've done this before. Maybe we just slowly forget our old life as we phase into our new life and that's why we don't have many memories of being so young. Maybe the babies that cry all the time are the ones who had a good life and want to go back, but the quiet babies are just glad that they have a second chance at living how they should. Can we ever really know what happens without stirring up a debate between religions and beliefs and all that jazz? No, but that doesn't make other views any less correct, and it's interesting to see how other people feel about it.

 

[zakisrage]

If you're good, you go to heaven and get 72 virgins. (Just kidding, you just go to heaven!) But if you're BAD, you go to...that other place with the fire and the red-skinned guy with goat horns and a pitchfork.

I always thought the Hindu idea was kind of interesting. If you're good, you can be reborn as a cow.

 

[Kanzler]

Second, there is a growing public awareness about the empirical evidence for the existence of consciousness. Studies about what is colloquially referred to as paranormal events e.g. Near-Death Events, Visions, life-recalls etc, have been published in peer-reviewed literature. I've partially surveyed the evidence, and they are by no means anecdotal- and at least a good chunk of these events stand irreducible to naturalistic explanations.

You can also experience those "paranormal" events when you're high. Everybody is usually in a normal state of mind. But that state of mind can be altered, and your perception of everything can change. Everything seems unreal because we're not used to it - unless we get high on a regular basis - but at the end of the day, your neurons can and will get messed up if given the opportunity. Now if we want to describe what can be proposed as "neural malfunctioning" as a "meta-phenomenon" for consciousness we can, but that wouldn't be very meaningful because then we can do that for just about everything else. Just because we haven't been able to reduce these events to naturalistic explanations doesn't give us the liberty to ascribe them to supernatural ones.

I know you wrote a lot lot more but that was the most salient point that I could respond to easily because right now I'm kind of busy. But I'll treat you to a more honest response starting well in hopefully 2 hours damn I don't want to be late.

 

[The Cutest Sylveon In The World]

I believe in reincarnation, personally. After thinking about it a lot it makes the most sense for reasons that are difficult to explain, and to me, it's slightly nicer than thinking death is ceasing existence altogether. It's just nice to think we live on in different forms while not necessarily remembering the ones prior.

 

[Elaitenstile]

My belief is rebirth, but over no relation with the old soul. I believe that it is possible to be reborn as a person living in an older era than this one. I believe this rebirth is completely random, completely changed. I could be reborn as a spider, that's my belief.

Basically I feel that this should be true, but my religion being Hindu, we believe that if a person does no sins in his life he won't be reborn. We believe that being reborn is a curse, to compensate for the sins done in the older life.

 

[Legobricks]

Where do you think the human consciousness goes when it dies?
Here is an interesting perspective on consciousness:

Begin with a function of arbitrary complexity. Feed it values, "sense data". Then, take your result, square it, and feed it back into your original function, adding a new set of sense data. Continue to feed your results back into the original function ad infinitum. What do you have? The fundamental principle of human consciousness.​

This always struck me as intuitively correct. Consciousness being the purview of the living creature and serving ultimately to the end of survival through being able to process matters of concern to this end, and so decide due to past experiences on behalf of the body what is beneficial to it. What's curious is that consciousness does not precede life — take any microbe for instance. Consciousness could conceivably have been willed upon 'greater beings' by a higher power (as if we are correct to decide that our complexity makes us greater), but I'd like to suggest that it's simply a net result of one's senses as expressed through a central nervous system. Once this sytem dies, so does the consciousness which is one and the same with it, not an abstract. Immortality would thus be, one may not be surprised, a matter of biological sustenance.

 

[AzuGazer]

hmm.. well i believe u go to Heaven/Hell or stay on earth for sometime if ur somehow bound by regret. Now about reincarnation. i do think that it exist. i mean being a Christian i realize God can just plop a soul back if he wanted to for a reason, but one of the reasons i didn't take to the idea that everyone just reincarnated was because there are more and more beings on earth each day (then again u could just send souls back in time to fill the gap or new souls could just be introduced into the plain)

 

[MKGirlism]

Simple.
After you die, you either:
1. Go a metre under the ground, packed inside a closet. You get a nice rock above you too.
2. Go get burned in pieces, and get hidden in a bottle, which gets hidden in a wall.
3. Go get dropped into the nearest by sea.

To follow up this Thread, I don't believe there's life after death, Hell/Heaven, rebirth, etc.
What I believe is, once you're done, you're done.

 

[«Chuckles»]

Well when I die all I know is that I want my ashes spread across the internet.

I believe there is some sort of rebirth because our atoms go back into the abyss of space and will one day form into something again.

 

[Firox]

I don't think nothing happens after death. Our bodies become food for many insects (like maggots). Our families still alive will mourn us for many years. I don't believe in reincarnation or heaven/hell, so nothing more will happen. Couldn't think of anything else.

 

[MKGirlism]

Well, your family won't be upset for a long time, 4 weeks at the most.
My father died 2 years ago, and the first 2 weeks was spent on nothing more but anger and sadness.
But after that, it was all over.

 

[Dakotah]

This belief in an afterlife, in my own personal opinion, is nothing more than a manifestation of a fear of death. For some, the thought that there is an end to our lives with nothing beyond is too frightening to contemplate. And so we come up with a belief that there is something else for us after death. The very concept of a heaven and hell, for instance, was a creation of the church as a form of punishment and reward system that was used as a method of controlling the population. Death. to me, is just another process of life. All of us will die some day, it's just a matter of when. And when we do die, that's pretty much it. Our only existence after death is as food for the organisms that feed off our remains. I don't say any of this to belittle anyone's beliefs, but for myself, I just can grasp this concept of an afterlife. There is just no evidence to suggest just such a thing is possible.

 

[Precious Tears]

I don't think nothing happens after death. Our bodies become food for many insects (like maggots). Our families still alive will mourn us for many years. I don't believe in reincarnation or heaven/hell, so nothing more will happen. Couldn't think of anything else.

That is right, all will fall to oblivion when we reach that point.
Like sleeping with no consciousness;
Like sleeping but you won't feel hunger and thirst;
Like sleeping but you won't breath anymore.

Though I'd like to believe the afterlife theory, but it sounds too beautify and unrealistic to me... :(