Why do humans believe in an afterlife?

Because BELIEVING in something is the only reason to keep on going forward.

When you no longer believe, you no longer serve no purpose to anything or anybody.

I'm not particularly religious, I'm firmly agnostic in the sense that I know something is there, (yes i dared to use the word Know) but I'm not sure what.

I do believe that from a psychological sense the human mind can't comprehend the idea of simply not existing in any way shape or form, because that's my reason. It's just impossible for me to collect all this knowledge, information, emotions and memories for them to just dissipate upon expiry. A human needs to feel that there is a reward after work or hardship, and after working all our lives, its understandable a lot of people would feel compelled to be rewarded with a heaven.

From a mechanical/physical point of view though, there is a lot of evidence to support some sort of existence after death, as mentioned in an earlier post, all the electric fields, recordings and whatnot, I won't repost it. Not to mention the thousands of 'near death' experiences across the world which all have a common theme running through.
As well as the point of energy only being able to be transferred, what happens to all of our spiritual energy? a simple coincidential bond of neurones, muscle and bone simply isnt' enough to produce wonders like metropolises, art, music, something has to 'activate' it. just like a machine is useless without a power source. Spirit is our power source... sounds a bit crack pot-like, but in a nutshell thats the way i see things.

I came across this thread the other day, I think it would sit really well in this discussion.. read over it, it may even change your opinion. But i'll state it IS fiction (but hopefully you would've figured that for yourself!)

Tony

It's the ego that establishes a belief that "it will be okay after this life" in the human psyche. When in reality, death is as same as birth/life. The ego, false self, is fear of death.


Just watch.

Originally posted by adkchamp
It's the ego that establishes a belief that "it will be okay after this life" in the human psyche. When in reality, death is as same as birth/life. The ego, false self, is fear of death.


Just watch.

People dream....people experience things they also cant explain, such as near death experiences. People have had out of body experiences and made claims to of seen something while out of their body that would not of been known otherwise.

The ego is something that can be nurtured and matured...I wouldnt go as far to say that ego is a false self. Ego is the I in me....your ego is the I in you. Some egos are immature and full of themselves, but some have been worked on, matured, and humbled.

So what would you call a 'true' self...how would you describe that? Now I could go as far to say the only true self of us is Spirit...but its still impossible as a human to rid of ego (self).

Just sharing thoughts
LV

NDEs and a personal spiritual experience. That's why I believe.

The answer is pretty simple and very obvious. Corporeal human beings were shown by former corporeal human beings that there is life after tossing the corpse into the box. Not all human brains can perceive non-corporeal humans, but some can in various manners depending on the specific malformation involved, and these were the brains that detected what a fully normal functioning human brain can't detect.

The non-corporeal human has a bitch of a time aligning with the hyper-transitional corporeal realm, but again, some of these humans have been more talented than others in that sense, and have managed moments of connection with those humans whose brains are malformed in the right way to be capable of detecting these talented non-corporeals.

Of course, just as it took humanity quite a while to figure out corporeal fundamentals (like cell division and brain mapping) the non-corporeal humans - for the most part - are still a bit vague on the basics of non-corporeal existence. The issue for them (and us, eventually) is that learning new and novel concepts requires the acquisition of new information, and once the corporeal brain has gone inactive (dead), new information acquisition for the non-corporeal human ceases. Yes, it can reconfigure the relationships between information it possesses, but if a notion requires a new and unique bit of information that the non-corporeal human doesn't already possess upon brain death, then that notion can't ever form.

The same goes for misinformation. They think that they're spirits, because they've been taught (by those around them) that they're spirits. If it "works" for them, as a plausible description, then they'll always consider themselves as spirits, and if able to contact the corporeal realm, this is how they will present themselves as teachers of the corporeals they contact. I often wonder how non-Earth humans see the afterlife. I wonder if they see it as non-physical existence or if they understand the variety of ways that physical existence manifests.

I think life after death is a much scarier thought than non existence... . If there is life after death where are you going to end up? It's an unknown factor some people say one place other people say another.... I wouldn't mind just ceasing to exist, afterall I don't remember being alive before being born so It can't be all that bad....

Originally posted by LeoVirgo

Originally posted by adkchamp
It's the ego that establishes a belief that "it will be okay after this life" in the human psyche. When in reality, death is as same as birth/life. The ego, false self, is fear of death.


Just watch.

People dream....people experience things they also cant explain, such as near death experiences. People have had out of body experiences and made claims to of seen something while out of their body that would not of been known otherwise.

The ego is something that can be nurtured and matured...I wouldnt go as far to say that ego is a false self. Ego is the I in me....your ego is the I in you. Some egos are immature and full of themselves, but some have been worked on, matured, and humbled.

So what would you call a 'true' self...how would you describe that? Now I could go as far to say the only true self of us is Spirit...but its still impossible as a human to rid of ego (self).

Just sharing thoughts
LV

True, but when the I in me gets too comfortable in the material world, that is off-balance with spirit. Then fear begins, to the ego. But when that fear is eliminated, then the self is a new entire spirit (or in this case grown/nutured; an example is young terrorists in middle east that are told by elderly terrorists to blow themselves up and having rid of fear to do so) and the ego is then in the lower, watched.

It's all about balance in this world and the key to afterlife is knowing you are forever immortal. How? Well you can't think it or reason it logically but with faith it is so.