Do you believe in an afterlife?

[Balthazzar]

I wish I could understand why you might be under such an impression. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it, that I can see. When I think about what you say, since after your death any new life would begin with DNA (genetic information) totally other than your own, and I can find no vehicle for the transfer of "learned behaviour" from your dead body to a net new life.

One of the greatest mysteries in my life -- humans believe the most amazing, often bizarre things, mostly (really mostly) without having the slightest reasons for their beliefs. 'Tis a wonderment.

Progeny is one way. Another is the consumption aspect after death by other lifeforms. The "you are what you eat" adage comes to mind. It's a transfer of energy both ways.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Can you explain what you think is left, then?

Our atomic composition. Nothing really goes anywhere. Just rearranges into something else.

Question is what , where, how , and when ?

 

[blü 2]

The poll is open for everyone to answer, regardless of religious beliefs or the lack thereof.

If you answered yes, please explain why you believe in an afterlife. If you answered no, please explain why you don't believe in an afterlife. If you answered "unsure," then please explain why you are unsure. I decided to post my thread in the Religions Q&A forum rather than in the Religious Debates forum because I'm more interested in a civil discussion than in a vigorous debate on the subject. As always, please be respectful towards the members that you don't agree with. Thank you, in advance, for your response.

Sgt. Pepper

The case for NO seems to me to be unanswerable.

It's based on examinable evidence, for a start.

The evidence shows that humans are complex biological entities.

The evidence provides a well-based explanatory pathway to how we got that way.

The evidence does not suggest that we are anything more.

The evidence does not suggest that there's anything more that we could be.

Our evolved neural systems which produce dreams, fear of the dark, bonding and unbonding with particular individuals (and grief at unbonding), and which produce narratives to 'explain' our world, not least the unexplained and unexpected parts, and which give us our basic moral behavior tendencies appropriate to us as gregarious primates, and which cause us to observe group ceremonies for coming of age, pairing, birth and death, and which cause us endlessly to invent supernatural explanations for what we can't otherwise explain ... do not require supernatural explanations themselves to demonstrate their existence.

In addition to the absence of evidence, the sheer inefficiency and pointlessness of an afterlife stands out. Unlike human life, which is based on survival and breeding, and benefits from the senior women and men of the tribe, the afterlife has no purpose, and continues without purpose forever, without the relief of ultimately arriving anywhere that matters.

As Edward FitzGerald's Omar Khayyám put it ─

The Revelations of Devout and Learn’d
Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn’d,

Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep​

They told their comrades, and to Sleep return’d.​

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

As Edward FitzGerald's Omar Khayyám put it ─

The Revelations of Devout and Learn’d
Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn’d,

Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep​

They told their comrades, and to Sleep return’d.​

Now why does that conjure up De Rerum Natura by Lucretius in my mind?

 

[stvdv]

I think that people pursue happiness. Even the 1776 Declaration of independence says it...humans deserve happiness and pursue happiness.

The problem is that: how can you be happy, unless all the others are happy?
The awareness of that, that is all human beings deserve happiness, and their pursuit of happiness is a must for everyone, is what I call being at peace with the world. And being at peace with oneself.

That peace I call it afterlife, since it transcends death.

Thank you

My Master once had his students make a huge banner in the Ashram saying:

"Be Happy. Others will be happy. All will be happy. God will be happy"
@stvdvRF

 

[stvdv]

"Be Happy. Others will be happy. All will be happy. God will be happy"

If you smile at someone, naturally the other smiles back...don't put on a castor oil face (of being cramped and constipated)
@stvdvRF

 

[Balthazzar]

I wish I could understand why you might be under such an impression. There doesn't seem to be any reason for it, that I can see. When I think about what you say, since after your death any new life would begin with DNA (genetic information) totally other than your own, and I can find no vehicle for the transfer of "learned behaviour" from your dead body to a net new life.

One of the greatest mysteries in my life -- humans believe the most amazing, often bizarre things, mostly (really mostly) without having the slightest reasons for their beliefs. 'Tis a wonderment.

Also, altering genetic makeup is an adaptative reality for us. Like motor skills through daily exercise and repetition. It alters our genes enough to make the motor movements inherent in our offspring.. Habits becoming genetic realities in our kids. Predispositionary influences from our ancestors. Like alcoholism and even things like balance and having a knack for playing piano among other things. After life influences from our past reflecting in our abilities. Belief isn't required to understand, and I won't try to change your mind, but I am.willing to state what I stated.

Have a nice day

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Also, altering genetic makeup is an adaptative reality for us. Like motor skills through daily exercise and repetition. It alters our genes enough to make the motor movements inherent in our offspring.. Habits becoming genetic realities in our kids. Predispositionary influences from our ancestors. Like alcoholism and even things like balance and having a knack for playing piano among other things. After life influences from our past reflecting in our abilities. Belief isn't required to understand, and I won't try to change your mind, but I am.willing to state what I stated.

Have a nice day

Sorry, but I believe that most of that is unscientific nonsense.

 

[SalixIncendium]

"Life" implied embodiment. After this body dies, there is no life. Therefore, I voted "no."

That said, I don't die. I was before this body appeared, and I will be after it ceases. I am eternal.

 

[Balthazzar]

Sorry, but I believe that most of that is unscientific nonsense.

Which is fine. I know otherwise.

 

[sun rise]

That's something I've struggled with over the years. I understand consciousness, but not remembering past lives. I've been under the impression that we start over as brand new creations, perhaps while retaining genetic and learned behavior instictually.

We'd not be able to function if we remembered past lives. Just think two people get married knowing that they've been married before, parent/child, sister/brother, business partners/business rivals/friends/master,slave/ etc.

It's a blessing not to remember beyond an "instinctive" reaction to the other with a sense that person is special somehow.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Which is fine. I know otherwise.

If you "know" it, should you not be able to demonstrate it? That's one of the things that actually defines what knowledge means, after all.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Our atomic composition. Nothing really goes anywhere. Just rearranges into something else.

Question is what , where, how , and when ?

Yes, like sand. You can turn it into wonderfully artistic glassware. Does it know it used to be sand?

 

[Balthazzar]

We'd not be able to function if we remembered past lives. Just think two people get married knowing that they've been married before, parent/child, sister/brother, business partners/business rivals/friends/master,slave/ etc.

It's a blessing not to remember beyond an "instinctive" reaction to the other with a sense that person is special somehow.

Natural selection type of choosing. I agree with that much.

 

[Balthazzar]

If you "know" it, should you not be able to demonstrate it? That's one of the things that actually defines what knowledge means, after all.

Demonstrate what exactly? The verocity of the genetic influence as predispositions? That much is already a known and verifiable fact.

 

[paarsurrey]

paarsurrey said: ↑
After life is optimistic and positive, why not to believe in it, please?
Right?

Not believing in Afterlife is pessimistic and negative, why not leave it, please?

Why not do the virtuous deeds that are good both for us and the humanity and add to the peace of the world in present (here) living and also in the immediate and distant (after life) future (here-after), please? Right?

Regards

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Demonstrate what exactly? The verocity of the genetic influence as predispositions? That much is already a known and verifiable fact.

First of all, there's no such word as "verocity." Second, genetic influence comes from the arrangement of necleotides, which do not change throughout your body due to your behaviours. Practicing sports, won't alter the nucleotides in the reproductive cells (sperm/ova) in human beings, and thus cannot be passed on to offspring. This is akin to the nonsense of giraffes, reaching for food, passing on a "longing" in their genes to their offspring to grow longer necks.

 

[SalixIncendium]

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Debate in this thread is subject to moderation.

 

[Balthazzar]

The afterlife is a mystery - although certain parental traits are evident in offspring. I don't worry too much about it. I won't remember me then anyway, but it's nice to ununderstand a few things for the natural selection arena just the same.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

paarsurrey said: ↑
After life is optimistic and positive, why not to believe in it, please?
Right?

Why not do the virtuous deeds that are good both for us and the humanity and add to the peace of the world in present (here) living and also in the immediate and distant (after life) future (here-after), please? Right?

Regards

Based on my knowledge of the spirit world, a spirit's experience in the afterlife can be positive or negative. I'm not referring to heaven or hell, but an eternal state of existence that isn't constrained to a specific place (heaven or hell) and it isn't restricted by the laws of time and space. I'm not sure if I've answered your questions as you're expecting, paarsurrey, but if you'd like to know what I believe, then read my post here, if you haven't already. If I haven't answered your questions as you'd like, then maybe someone else can. I don't mind discussing the subject, but as I said in my OP, I don't want a vigorous debate about it. And this forum is non-debate too.