What Happens When We Die?

[Saint Frankenstein]

Is loving someone because you where told to real love though?

Nope. Jesus was revealing the workings of the Kingdom of God to us but it's not enough or convincing on its own to just love because it's expected of you. None of that "but for the grace of God go I" for you are that sinner. You are Adam, and Eve. You should love out of a deep feeling of empathy and compassion. It's similar to the difference between true contrition and imperfect contrition in repentance - one is due to selflessness and the other is due to selfishness.

 

[Mock Turtle]

That’s a shame.

Can't please them all and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I am long past having my faults or attributes reflected back at me as having much effect - although of course I do like it when others show more warmth and less hate particularly when it isn't really applicable. Mostly elsewhere though, so not here.

Seemingly inverse in beliefs but there is more than meets the eye.
There is a good reason I prefer to hang out with NONbelievers rather than believers.

You like to be challenged?

Hmmmm... That sounds like many nonbelievers I know who were formerly Christians. I do not know what your error was.

I am also making up for my errors but my errors are probably not the same as your errors.

I could whisper about them all but I fear others are listening. I suspect we all make the same errors, just rearranged in a different order - as I believe Eric Morecombe once said (or nearly said - 2.35).

 

[Trailblazer]

Can't please them all and it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I am long past having my faults or attributes reflected back at me as having much effect - although of course I do like it when others show more warmth and less hate particularly when it isn't really applicable. Mostly elsewhere though, so not here.

If you mean you do not really care what people think, I get it. I do not care either as long as I know I am not doing anything wrong. There will always be people who don't like us.

You like to be challenged?

I guess I do, but not as much as I used to... I am getting tired of rising to the occasion... I need some peace in my life. The problem is, I do not know what to do with it when I find it.

I could whisper about them all but I fear others are listening.

Me too...

 

[Faithofchristian]

What “created in the image of God” means is that we have some of God’s Attributes, but we do not have all of God’s Attributes; if we did we would be God.

Here are some of God’s Attributes that are unique to God: Eternal, Holy, Unchanging, Impassable, Infinite, All-powerful, Everywhere-present, All-Wise, All-Knowing, Simple (one in essence), Self-Existent, Self-Sufficient, Immaterial.

Here are some of God’s Attributes that humans can have: Goodness, Loving, Gracious, Merciful, Just, Forgiving, Patient.

Now notice (for God so loved the world)... That means God loves everyone, believers and nonbelievers.

We are talking about something different when we talk about eternal life. Everyone does not have eternal life, and that is because they are not close to God. But God still loves them nevertheless.God does not give love to get love because God does not need love. God loves everyone regardless of whether we love Him, but God’s love cannot reach us if we shut God out.

But God does not give up on people. God is patient. He just waits.

I believe that Jesus wanted his followers to have eternal life, a quality of life that implies leading a spiritual life and nearness to God.

Christian doctrines made salvation all about going to heaven in order to avoid hell, whereas salvation according to Jesus is gaining eternal life, which refers to a quality of life and not its duration. Jesus said to act in such a way that you may find eternal life, and that you may be born of water and the spirit, so that you may enter into the Kingdom (John 3:5). Eternal life is the gaining of rewards in this life and in the hereafter; so we can have eternal life in this world and in the spiritual worlds to come.

The rewards of this life are the virtues and perfections that man acquires when he is delivered from his animal nature and lives according to his spiritual nature. The rewards of the next world are peace, the spiritual graces, the various spiritual gifts, the gaining of the desires of the heart and the soul, and the meeting of God. Those who are deprived of these rewards, although their soul continues to exist after death, are considered as dead, because they are spiritually dead.

It is possible for atheists to come close to God in the afterlife but there are no guarantees, because it depends upon the loving mercy of God, not upon God’s justice.

683. We Can Help Every Soul Attain High Station

“Concerning your question whether a soul can receive knowledge of the Truth in the world beyond. Such a knowledge is surely possible, and is but a sign of the loving mercy of the Almighty. We can, through our prayers, help every soul to gradually attain this high station, even if it has failed to reach it in this world. The progress of the soul does not come to an end with death. It rather starts along a new line. Bahá'u'lláh teaches that great and far-reaching possibilities await the soul in the other world. Spiritual progress in that realm is infinite, and no man, while on this earth, can visualize its full power and extent.”

(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, May 22, 1935)
Lights of Guidance (second part)[/QUOTE\]

Seeing you have no idea, what it means to be created in the image.
Its like making a statue of yourself, it looks like you, but it doesn't have everything of you or about you. It's just an image of you and the likeness of you and that's all.

 

[Trailblazer]

Seeing you have no idea, what it means to be created in the image.
Its like making a statue of yourself, it looks like you, but it doesn't have everything of you or about you. It's just an image of you and the likeness of you and that's all.

Okay, that makes sense.

 

[Cary Cook]

We can't know if there is life after death. Knowledge claims either way are dogmatic BS. It is epistemically possible because we don't know it is impossible. We know software can be copied and pasted onto a new hard drive. We don't know if "soul" is anything more than software. Therefore, we don't have enough data to know if afterlife is ontologically possible.

There is zero reason to assume the writers of any body of scripture knew what they claimed to know on this subject.

It doesn't matter what we think about the probability. It matters that we be prepared for either possibility.

Pascal was on the right track. But he stopped short and sold out to the religion of his culture rather than take his logic it to its conclusion, which is - bet your life on the necessary preconditions of worthwhile life.

 

[Cary Cook]

What's it like in quantumland? I have no clue, but it must be desirable. What happens to us when we die? There would be no devil and no hell, which are the fabrications of sick, sadistic minds. We judge ourselves there, bathed in the undeniable light of Truth, where everyone can see the program of what and who we were. Those who were evil or wasted their time here, can mercifully opt out for oblivion to avoid the hellish, if you will, anguish. For those who pass the free will test in this life, I can only imagine experiencing the intimate social unity of countless individuals, each contributing to the experience, united in a one, whole Truth--quantumland could rightly be called heaven. Imagine a septapajillion souls uniting in a song and dance...as One.

I agree with most of your post, but I don't know how you can know what you claim to know in the last paragraph after "I have no clue".

 

[Trailblazer]

There is zero reason to assume the writers of any body of scripture knew what they claimed to know on this subject.

Depends upon who wrote it...

It doesn't matter what we think about the probability. It matters that we be prepared for either possibility.

I agree. But we do not need to be prepared for dying and there being nothing, because there is nothing to prepare for... We do need to be prepared for dying and there is something, so it seems rather odd that more people do not take that seriously.

 

[Trailblazer]

I just got to thinking, what exactly happens to us after we die? I don't mean our bodies. What I mean is, what happens to our "soul" after we die? Do you think it goes to Heaven or Hell? Do you think it gets reincarnated until we achieve Nirvana? Or do you think nothing happens? Or something else? Please put what you think below and possibly an explanation if you feel motivated enough to do so. Thank you!

I believe our soul leaves our body and wings its way to the spiritual world where it takes on a new form made up of heavenly elements that exist in that realm.

“And now concerning thy question regarding the soul of man and its survival after death. Know thou of a truth that the soul, after its separation from the body, will continue to progress until it attaineth the presence of God, in a state and condition which neither the revolution of ages and centuries, nor the changes and chances of this world, can alter. It will endure as long as the Kingdom of God, His sovereignty, His dominion and power will endure. It will manifest the signs of God and His attributes, and will reveal His loving kindness and bounty.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 155-156

 

[`mud]

I sense a bit of self supremacy here !

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

I agree with most of your post, but I don't know how you can know what you claim to know in the last paragraph after "I have no clue".

You are correct. It was only hyperbole to say I have no clue, when it's obvious that it being desirable would be a clue, of sorts.

 

[`mud]

"attaineth" ?
REALLY !