Views on the Afterlife

[CockneyMafia]

I am not a religious person, but the concept of the afterlife intrigues me. I guess in this respect it is possible to be spiritually philosophical without being religious.

 

I guess there are a number of possibilities present when we die.

 

1. Nothing happens. We were just a carbon based presence acting and behaving in a certain way who only thought about the afterlife in the first place because we couldn’t comprehend a mortal life being all their was.

 

2. We go to heaven. What exactly is 'heaven' though? What would it look like or consist of. My Nan once said it was a place that was full of friends and people you knew. So what would happen if you died at birth? Who would be in heaven then?

 

3. We go to hell. What exactly is 'hell' though? And who would go there? Anyone who had committed a sin? Well that’s about 99.9% of the human population for a start. And if hell existed, that would suggest heaven existed, and therefore God existed. And if God existed, then it would be rather hypocritical to for him to start dictating who went where in the afterlife, considering he created that individual in the first place. The fact is someone born into poverty and violence is likely to commit a lot more sin than someone raised and nurtured with love and kindness. Or are we led to believe that if we beleive in and commit to Jesus then we will be absolved of sin and therefore by pass this abode of the damned?

 

4. We are re-incarnated / born again. Maybe we could come back as a bird or a Slug, or another human being. The possibilities are endless.

 

5. We move on to the next stage of our journey. As the medicine man says, "we are not humans on a spiritual adventure, but spirits on a human adventure" But what would this adventure consist of? Other worlds, other dimensions?

 

I would find it disappointing if after our body gave up breathing that were it. On the other hand, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to prepare ourselves for such disappointment. As a famous rock star recently said after being declared clinically dead for three minutes

 

"Its boring when you die - nothing happens"

 

What are other peoples views (or hopes!?)

[nick2]

I believe number 4.

[BobbyBunny]

Personally I think there HAS to be something after we die. It seems unfathomable to me that we die and then thats it. We can't just live for 80+ years and then die. That would be pointless. I've had a lot of dreams about dying, and every one has been different. I also believe in ghosts. A friend of mine has very vivid recollections of what his life was like 'before' he was born. He's traced his past, and worked out so far that if his beliefs are right, he's been alive for 1500 years. Not in the body he's in at the moment (obviously!) but in various other bodies. Its strange, because he can tell you things that happened in such detail, and he can speak German, and a few other languages without ever having a lesson in that language.

 

I suppose we all hope that there will be something after we die. I hope there is, I hope I get to see the people I've lost and the people who lose me get to see me too. I think the notion of 'heaven' and 'hell' is a nice one, that some people use to describe simply what happens after we die. There must be something upstairs, some higher being that controls what we all do, even if it is just fate, or destiny, or whatever.

 

I too would be dissapointed if it was scientifically proved (before I die) that there is nothing after death. But certainly, I don't think death is the end. I've started to think that the only probable and believable theory is one of reincarnation. I believe that people die (ie. the spirit is taken from a persons body) so that spirit can be given to another body. I suppose a lot of people would disagree with this, but everyone has a sense of 'deja vu' every now and again, when they visit somewhere they've never been before.

[funkymiss]

I believe in number 5

 

Dying doesn't seem so boring then

[peterw]

A lot of people believe that Heaven is the earth on which you live, and Hell is the ground beneath which you are buried. Despite what others have said on other threads, I believe that in some cases — not all but I don’t know why and neither does anyone else — the body’s spirit remains closely linked to the earth, hence the ghosts or spiritual figures that people see, sense or hear from time to time.

 

I also think I have one of those spiritual figures looking over me. Never seen anything, never heard anything, never sensed anything but from time to time my home experiences a very distinctive, unique fragrance which I recognise immediately, and from which I can make a very precise guess as to who is there, in the house, with me.

 

Somewhere in the region of 400 years seems to be the time limit for earth-bound ghosts. What happens to them after that I do not know, but I will eventually find out when I die.

[davyboy]

 

I would find it disappointing if after our body gave up breathing that were it.

 

"If that were it" you wouldn't be around to be disappointed so make the most of the time that you have, although that too is an unknown quantity.

As someone said ..."life's a bitch and then you die", or "life is not a rehearsal".

[Swan_Vesta]

IMO the afterlife consists of soil, worms and in the worst case scenario, necrophillia.

[LordChaverly]

And the correct answer is.............................number 1.

 

Come on down, the worms are waiting.

[cgksheff]

Here's one old view of Attercliffe.

[torin8]

I'm sure like many I've tried to bend my head around trying to work out what happens when we pass on from this life. I truely believe there is something and I feel like I've been around and experienced a lot of history - a lot before my current life started.

 

I like the Buddhist point of view and of course my own variance of it - that created by one 'Terry Pratchett', that death comes asks what you truely want to happen/ believe does happen, it then happens and the sun rises on another day.

 

Now as to the question 'what's the point of life?' I've no idea...