The Afterlife

[Trailblazer]

We don't have mediums... There is no other side. I have no idea why you believe these things. This is all unproven nonsense and they usually disclose that in their businesses to protect them from being sued.

The kind of proof you want is unobtainable, but proof is not what makes anything exist, proof is just what some people want so they can believe something exists. The same applies to God. There is no proof, but that does not mean God does not exist.

Of course there is another side, or whatever you choose to call it. Nothing could be more obvious or more logical. If there wasn't, there would be absolutely no reason for us to go through this life of suffering. This world is preparation for the spiritual world just as the womb world is preparation for this physical world.

But those like you will not believe a spiritual world exists until you cross over and are faced with that reality.

 

[Cacotopia]

All living conscience beings are naturally wired to fear death. The finality of death isn't understandable to the living, all of us naturally desire a continuation beyond that line. Living beyond death is as imaginative as faster than light travel. The most that can be hoped for in the far future is continuous living, meaning change out our old worn body parts for synthetic cybernetic parts until we migrate into a machine or download into a new body, or possibly change or DNA to stop aging. Extended lifespans will change us regardless, we will be as different as when we were children to when we were adults. Same identity but mentally two different people with faint memories of our human past experiences, our thinking and morals will change also.

I guess the next question to ask when and if we can conquer age, is can the mind accept an eternity? Or does our conscious self have it's own limitations regardless of age or not aging.

If we do conquer death of old age, that brings a whole new subset of problems. I'm sure a chunk of you know I think we are overpopulated. And I have entertained drastic and extremely unpopular solutions. But let's take our propagation into the equation and add a few hundred maybe a 1000 years to our lifespan. I think if we are going to extend our own lifespan drastically, we should seriously consider altering our birth rate at the same time. We would be unable to sustain ourselves for very long if everyone was able to live for an eon.

Maybe the smart people and innovators of our species should only be allowed to have a taste of immortality.

 

[Vaderecta]

This is a subject I find to be quite fascinating. I was brought up to believe that there was no such thing as an afterlife, but rather that God would resurrect those who were faithful into a New System.

I continued to believe this even after leaving that religion, but then various things occurred in my life with regard to losing family members and friends that caused me to begin to rethink what I had been taught. I'm now trying to look further into some of these ideas to try to fit all the pieces together.

I was brought up as heaven is a real place and hell is just the ground. 144,000 were going to go to heaven but the rest of the faithful would be resurrected here on earth and while we were dead we would not really be in hell... hell is just the earth. So we would have no conscious memory of it. Jehovah's witness. I've spent a ton of time exploring religion and these ideas and my current belief is when we die we are not in pain or suffering or going anywhere. It's a lot like going to sleep but more like a surgery with no dreams.

However I wasn't really satisfied with that. I kept coming back to I. Where do I go. What is I?

I read a lot of books, started meditating and I felt I was making progress but I wasn't going anywhere. Felt like I was just spinning my wheels with little progress.

Eventually I settled upon an idea I had read that maybe there is no I. Meditation got way more interesting watching the I thought I was wander away and trying to control it. I is a really nebulous term. I still havent put all the pieces together but I think I kinda get what is actually happening around me now. Still miss my Grammy... might be selfish but I loved her a lot. Cancer sucks.

 

[Cacotopia]

What are you expecting, corpses to return to life and tell you what it's like? That will be a bit difficult since the brain starts turning to mush pretty much as soon as it's deprived of oxygen.

I am not expecting that, no where near it.

I just find it absurd that people seem to think they know what the afterlife is. And that having a close call gives you some idea what it could be. Sure being close to death makes you want to live more than before you came close to leaving this world. But that doesn't necessarily mean you have knowledge no one else has, and I would think if you were humbled by that near death experience, why flaunt information you might not have. I have to reiterate myself it seems. Death is not near death. You only experience it once. You don't respawn to run some more tests.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Maybe the smart people and innovators of our species should only be allowed to have a taste of immortality.

You mean rich scumbags like Peter Thiel who happen to have billions of dollars? That's a nightmarish, dystopian scenario that has been done to death already in sci-fi and horror. We should not make such things a reality. People like that tend to be narcissists and megalomaniacs who can't face the reality of their death.If death means non-existence (which I don't believe it does) then I hope humanity never finds "eternal life".

 

[Cacotopia]

You mean rich scumbags like Peter Thiel who happen to have billions of dollars? That's a nightmarish, dystopian scenario that has been done to death already in sci-fi and horror. We should not make such things a reality. People like that tend to be narcissists and megalomaniacs who can't face the reality of their death.If death means non-existence (which I don't believe it does) then I hope humanity never finds "eternal life".

Quote where I said wealthy people? Oh no where? Cool.

 

[Cacotopia]

It's gonna happen, humanity has had a terrible track record of doing things they have no business doing. That's how curiosity works buddy.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Quote where I said wealthy people? Oh no where? Cool.

I'm glad that's not what you meant but unless there's a drastic economic change, only rich people would be privy to such technologies. There are leftist transhumanists but they aren't the ones funding the movement.

 

[Vaderecta]

The kind of proof you want is unobtainable, but proof is not what makes anything exist, proof is just what some people want so they can believe something exists. The same applies to God. There is no proof, but that does not mean God does not exist.

Of course there is another side, or whatever you choose to call it. Nothing could be more obvious or more logical. If there wasn't, there would be absolutely no reason for us to go through this life of suffering. This world is preparation for the spiritual world just as the womb world is preparation for this physical world.

But those like you will not believe a spiritual world exists until you cross over and are faced with that reality.

Ok I guess. I will say this though. The dark elves of menzoberranzan are real. As real as Lloth. You dont want to believe in them but this world is just a preparation for the forgotten realms. Our Sage Elminster, blessed be his name, will guide you into this world on your passing. He is very wise and a great mage. When you get to Menzo... (Thats what we call it for short) look for Drizzt and his black panther. You will know him by his shining scimitars and odd eyes and dark skin. He is the chosen one. He will guide you to a safe place.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

It's gonna happen, humanity has had a terrible track record of doing things they have no business doing. That's how curiosity works buddy.

If you're talking to me, I don't think it will ever happen just as I don't think AI will ever happen on the level that weirdo technology cultists like Kurzweil want it to. There's too many technological limitations and science doesn't even know how the brain works, what the mind or consciousness is or even how to define those things. This is all science fiction.

 

[Vaderecta]

If death means non-existence (which I don't believe it does) then I hope humanity never finds "eternal life".

Awesome, you sound like you would be fun at hospitals! And Parties!

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Awesome, you sound like you would be fun at hospitals! And Parties!

Yeah, I'm sure a freak ranting about sci-fi fantasies of technology that likely will never exist in a cancer ward would be surely uplifting, and why would I be talking about this nonsense at a party? We're all going to die. Does that bother you or something?

 

[Vaderecta]

Yeah, I'm sure a freak ranting about sci-fi fantasies of technology that likely will never exist in a cancer ward would be surely uplifting, and why would I be talking about this nonsense at a party? We're all going to die. Does that bother you or something?

A bit. I like existence so far. Although I don't remember a day before I was born so I will probably not have any feelings about death.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

A bit. I like existence so far. Although I don't remember a day before I was born so I will probably not have any feelings about death.

I like being alive, as well. But I accept death as part of life. Loved ones of mine have died. I don't think I deserve to live "forever" in this realm more than them. But I also don't believe this is my first time around the block, either. Hopefully my last, though.

 

[InChrist]

I was just wondering, since no one has reported on what it actually is. People just say it's a place your soul goes. Is it physical? Or is it ethereal? If the latter why recently are there questions that correlate to this current life, even remotely relevant to the afterlife. If it is a destination for souls then I'm guessing isn't physical.

The only think I can imagine would be close to 'heaven' would be a virtual world where any and all desires can be realized but not physically experienced. Although, new advances in technology may get us closer to feeling what happens to us in the digital realm.

But would such a place even grant you access to those desires when restriction of self in this world is part of the requirement to even get into heaven. What would have been the purpose of denial here if you had no restriction there? And once you get there can you still get banished to hell? There are so many questions. But a whole lot of it makes no sense.

Some have presumably reported on the heavenly realm and there may be some validity to those reports, but I prefer to trust the information provided by God the Creator concerning the subject. According to the scriptures, I think it will be more real than the physical we experience in the present on earth. Jesus showed His resurrected glorified, eternal body to His disciples. Heaven is portrayed as a place of exquisite beauty. I think since God is a creative God, heaven will be a place where those who have been created in His image and transformed by Christ to desire God's love and beauty will have endless opportunity to create, explore, and learn to their heart's content.

 

[Cacotopia]

If you're talking to me, I don't think it will ever happen just as I don't think AI will ever happen on the level that weirdo technology cultists like Kurzweil want it to. There's too many technological limitations and science doesn't even know how the brain works, what the mind or consciousness is or even how to define those things. This is all science fiction.

remember when cell phones came out? If someone told you what a phone could do today, back then, you would blow em off like you are blowing of the possibility of limited immortality. Y ou would call em a techno cultist conspiracy theorist.

 

[RedhorseWoman]

I was brought up as heaven is a real place and hell is just the ground. 144,000 were going to go to heaven but the rest of the faithful would be resurrected here on earth and while we were dead we would not really be in hell... hell is just the earth. So we would have no conscious memory of it. Jehovah's witness. I've spent a ton of time exploring religion and these ideas and my current belief is when we die we are not in pain or suffering or going anywhere. It's a lot like going to sleep but more like a surgery with no dreams.

However I wasn't really satisfied with that. I kept coming back to I. Where do I go. What is I?

I read a lot of books, started meditating and I felt I was making progress but I wasn't going anywhere. Felt like I was just spinning my wheels with little progress.

Eventually I settled upon an idea I had read that maybe there is no I. Meditation got way more interesting watching the I thought I was wander away and trying to control it. I is a really nebulous term. I still havent put all the pieces together but I think I kinda get what is actually happening around me now. Still miss my Grammy... might be selfish but I loved her a lot. Cancer sucks.

Ah, so you were brought up as a JW, as was I. I really didn't have any problem believing what I was taught as a JW until life experiences that occurred caused me to step back and rethink things. These experiences simply didn't fit with what I had been taught, so I've been researching various books and articles dealing with the subject of an afterlife trying to decipher things.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

I was just wondering, since no one has reported on what it actually is. People just say it's a place your soul goes. Is it physical? Or is it ethereal? If the latter why recently are there questions that correlate to this current life, even remotely relevant to the afterlife. If it is a destination for souls then I'm guessing isn't physical.

The only think I can imagine would be close to 'heaven' would be a virtual world where any and all desires can be realized but not physically experienced. Although, new advances in technology may get us closer to feeling what happens to us in the digital realm.

But would such a place even grant you access to those desires when restriction of self in this world is part of the requirement to even get into heaven. What would have been the purpose of denial here if you had no restriction there? And once you get there can you still get banished to hell? There are so many questions. But a whole lot of it makes no sense.

For those who follow the Bible:::::::

There really can't be an immediate afterlife at death, for that would contradict the Bible's teaching of a Resurrection.....

The Resurrection

 

[`mud]

No matter what we say, or the thoughts we have,
we'll all lose our spirits to meld with the Cosmos' spirit.
And we won't be aware of it, and we won't even care.

 

[BilliardsBall]

I was just wondering, since no one has reported on what it actually is. People just say it's a place your soul goes. Is it physical? Or is it ethereal? If the latter why recently are there questions that correlate to this current life, even remotely relevant to the afterlife. If it is a destination for souls then I'm guessing isn't physical.

The only think I can imagine would be close to 'heaven' would be a virtual world where any and all desires can be realized but not physically experienced. Although, new advances in technology may get us closer to feeling what happens to us in the digital realm.

But would such a place even grant you access to those desires when restriction of self in this world is part of the requirement to even get into heaven. What would have been the purpose of denial here if you had no restriction there? And once you get there can you still get banished to hell? There are so many questions. But a whole lot of it makes no sense.

Some consider quantum theory as helping to account for human consciousness. The consciousness, if it exists post-death, finds a new receptacle, per the Bible, for judgment/blessing.