Originally posted by Ozzie
sorry to inform you all but you all come from a state of non-existance and when you die you return to a state of non-existance. scary eh, why do you think religion takes the form it does, because the truth is to awful for most people to contemplate. and you try controlling the "masses" if they thought they were gona just be around for 70 years or so then fade away. civilisation would collapse.

I've thought this for most of my life... I believe that one of religion's main functions is to help people deal with death. When grandma passes away, no one wants to think that she's *poof* gone... it's comforting to believe that she lives on, whether reincarnated or in an afterlife.


When I came to this conclusion several years ago, my entire life changed. I think back to the middle ages. Frankly, I don't know what church doctrine was at the time (nor do I care), but I imagine the poor, suffering masses were told that they'd see heaven after the hell of their life on earth. Believing in an afterlife makes one care less about THIS life (the only life you have, imo).

I realized that being promised "something better" after this life (if i was a good boy, of course) only had the potential of making me satisfied with mediocrity. That was the day I became more brazen and decided that I was going to pursue my dreams. And I'm a much happier person because of it. When I die, I'm dead. Carpe diem!


[Edited on 10-1-2004 by BelowtheRadar]

I think this was a thread before or, maybe this is the same thread. Anyways, what happen when you die is, your body gets eaten/broken down by smaller life forms (worms, bugsm bacteria, etc...) and you once again become part of the Earth. Then organisms use you nutrients to become plentiful. So, in a way it's kinda like reincarnation but, you don't sustain your conciousness.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
whatever your mind has pre-conceived as happening when you die, will actually happen.

Good as guess as any. My question is what do you think happens to people that don't have their mind made up regarding what happens at death, don't think anything happens, or are more predisposed to thinking nothing happens, but are hoping there is an afterlife? Do they just cease to exist or what?

That depends on their subconscious mind. Perhaps some people will actually live in a illusion of "black" or "nothing". Unless they'll think that they're still alive. It's your subconscious that determines where you go, most of the time.

If thats true, when I am dead and gone, I am in for one fantastic ride, if I what I believe is going to happen happens...

TheBandit795 - actually i got to agree with you, i think when human dies, the brain still retains the electricity - which means we still live in your consience, and depending on your consience the brain creates an environment, if we feel guilty we feel bad, which means we go to hell, when the brain is finally dead, it's blank!

Well, I'm not talking about the brain at all there...

Originally posted by TheBandit795
That depends on their subconscious mind. Perhaps some people will actually live in a illusion of "black" or "nothing". Unless they'll think that they're still alive. It's your subconscious that determines where you go, most of the time.

This type of opinion makes me think that if this is indeed the case when you die, that people that think realistically regarding the chances of an afterlife are basically screwed. If there is an afterlife, I sincerely doubt that people who rationalized their chances of an afterlife at being nil would actually recieve nil or some dark state.

There is also the problem of people who don't even realize they are going to die and then die. Like people who die in their sleep or suddenly in an accident and weren't even thinking it was going to happen. I doubt people are screwed out of an afterlife if their minds weren't directly set on it at the moment of their deaths. Thats too technical for something so ethereal.

Originally posted by NotTooHappy
I think this was a thread before or, maybe this is the same thread. Anyways, what happen when you die is, your body gets eaten/broken down by smaller life forms (worms, bugsm bacteria, etc...) and you once again become part of the Earth. Then organisms use you nutrients to become plentiful. So, in a way it's kinda like reincarnation but, you don't sustain your conciousness.

Exactly! We're all Earth food. The earth is awaiting it's next meal. And the energy that once fueled your body will find a new niche. Consciousness is all in your mind, and you don't get to keep your brain.

I fully believe that souls go on, NDE and OBE's semi-prove this. Unfortunately, it is unknown to ALL, what happens after death, until it happens. Some say there is a "need" that we must go on after death, it being "lights out" doesn't make sense to some. Really, the only way to find out is to die, and thats a hard hypothesis to prove.

-wD

If you removed my brain, I would be dead.

IMO it's like turning off a tv. The signal is still there, but you don't see any images or hear any sound.

if we removed your brain, and preserved it correctly, you won't be dead, later we'd be able to place it into another body, and you'd be awaken

Like those cartoons???

I don't think so though. IMO the brain has nothing to do with the mind itself, besides "translation". (for lack of a better word).

haha, honesty in 21st century translates as stupidness, when you are honest and good to someone, he/she doesn't think you are just being good but stupid

Judgement day? lol! yea right! as i told in the other thread there won't be anything major next 50 years and i throw my 2 cents in on that

You are what you are. Did you know that in your lifetime every single cell in your body will have been shed and replaced with a new one? So what are we if we retain little of what we had years ago? Science has done many good things for us, it is based on fact and reality and stands for human understading, and has created many things that we consider fundamental to our lives, why shouldn't we believe in it? The evidence that science demands and presents is increasing about our world, we are matter and the laws of science apply to us like they apply to everything else. In other words you become unaware after 'death'