Existence after death

Two old men are sitting on a park bench. One asks the other, "How's your wife doing?"

The other thinks for a while and replies, " You know, I think she's dead."

His friend is incredulous. "Why do you think that?"

"Well, the sex is the same, but the dishes are piling up!"

 

Thank you for the chuckle of the day. =)

Regarding the topic at hand, this might be better off in the philosophy section. As for my answer - it changes many times a day. While sometimes I would prefer a circular timeline of life, I am bombarded by Western thought where everything is linear - mainly due to Christianity. Not necessarily a bad thing, it does have it's limits.

If this topic interests you, try and pick up Mercea Eliade's The Myth of the Eternal Return. While it isn't for everyone, I suggest you pick it up and see if it is to your liking - just ouf of reading interest. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691017778/qid=1090413668/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8953619-9026568?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

 

IF one achieves highest state of enlightenment as a Human, I believe one then comes back as a dog.

 

But then you come back as a servant. Then again, you can lick your own privates. I guess that's the trade off?

 

fanciful theories of what happens after one dies are naught but delightful concoctions of the frail human mind, afraid of the dark.

doody.l

 

you ****er. you just made me spit my coffee out on my monitor!



doody.

 

One dies and then they are dead, that is that, end of story.

 

Actually, we become fertilizer. As to the "spirit" or "soul" or the existence of an intelligent being that continues after the biological death of an individual, i cannot believe that there is any trace of the particular individual's conscience, or personality, that remains to be "re-routed" anywhere. But, and here's where i am unclear, the world, and the "collective intelligence" of human beings as a whole remains. As individuals, we are not "connected" in any real sense to this collective, except to the extent that we overtly communicate with each other in bits and pieces with all the hazards of misunderstanding, based partly on language, partly on experience, and partly on innate intelligence. And yet, at the same time, there are obviously instances in people's lives when they "connect" without saying a word, sometimes at great distances. So, i guess my thesis is, we somehow have the capability- entirely untapped- to plug into a greater collective intelligence, and while we may die a biological death, there remains that collective intelligence, devoid of any individual personality, but somehow vital nonetheless. Or, maybe i did too much acid. Thoughts?

 

No one has ever come back from the "dead" to tell us how it REALLY is. Many speculate on what it is like, I think it is like walking from one room to another just that you don't have your physical body with you. By the way, I have never seem a Car Transporter behind the funeral cars so all of you can leave me the Ferrari's and since I don't plan on dying for at least another 150 years, I will take good car of all your toys.

PS Leave the "service fees" under the driver's seat. About 10,000 per car will be enough for gasoline, wax, etc.

 

Good question. Who knows. Many theories, no definitive answers. However, since we will all die one day, we will all find out. Although I deeply contemplate issues like this myself from time to time, in the meantime, I live life the best I can. Do good, be good. Simple. The rest will come...sooner or later.

Eggman.

 

I would agree that we all become fertilizer. I am at a loss however to explain near death experiences as told by many people. They all share very similar feelings, observances, and sensations. From what I have read, these experiences are4 not limited to any religious sect.

So, is there an afterlife? It depends upon your religious beliefs. Will we ever know for sure? Yes, but we won't be able to spread the news.

At my sister's funeral, the priest commented that she now knows the mystery of life. I think he's right.

 

koo koo k-choo.

that's the way i see it, usually. (systems of belief are best modified to suit desires of current circumstance)

for instance, there's a new "blockbuster" movie coming out. obviously the best option is to see it in the cinema, where it was designed to be seen. however you get people who just can't help themselves and feel the NEED to know what it is and what happens BEFORE it's time, and then tell everyone else what they think before other's get to make up their own mind.

me, once the movie's made it's made. i'd LIKE to see it in it's best format, but either way it's always gonna be there next month on dvd, next year on cable or next decade on tv, either way i'll see it.

point is, death is coming, every day it's a day closer. it's not an exclusive club, gazillions of people have done it before me and will do it after, and of all those people, NONE are semi-convincing either way as to what's going on afterwards, so i'll think what the heck i want about "the afterlife".

either way, every couple months i see the simspon's episode of homer and his list of stuff to do before he dies, and each time i can see half a dozen more things scribbled off my list.

it's gonna happen, all's i can hope is that i have some sort of control over the circumstances, but then, that's a living-mode assumption that you'll care afterwards. oh well, duzna matter, it's just life, get over it.

 

I have a parallel with Eggman's thought as well. There is also connection as to why we weep when someone close to us dies. Why there is such strong emotional distraught when we die. It's as thought its not supposed to happen. There is something to be said about that. How is it, that our cells constantly replace themselves with new ones, our body is always repairing itself, yet we get old and die? This is why I revert back to the fact that if evolution were true, we should have evolved to accept death and discard the carcuss right away for sanitary reasons. Why weep? Its expected, so why the big show and emotional lamentation? There has to be more to it.

We simply 'fall asleep' in death. But its not entirely over at that point. Everybody who has died is waiting like the rest of us. We do in fact, physicaly become land fill fodder. The soul or body is gone, but what makes "us" or our spirit will be remembered at a later time.

As to the sooner or later as Eggman pointed out....much of it has to do with being a good person in our hearts, not just going through the motions. It has to be in us in everything we do. I will leave it at that.

 

DAMN! I had a good one a minute ago but my fingers melted!

DL

 

All of you seem cracked to me....as for f40 lover, haven't you heard?? Jesus came back from the dead !!
Dont want to get religious here, last thing we need is a flame throwing event. But one should believe, there is life after death. Not the life we know it on earth, but of a life of love and fulfillment, where there is no pain and sorrow. There has to be an afterlife....there is noway this world or us humans were created through evolution. Refuse to believe, my .2cents. Hope you see it in the same light.

 

How will you know your dead if your dead? If thats the end and theres nothing afterwards and your just gone, then how will you know your dead? Its not like your brain will say your dead now, goodbye.

 

why wait and struggle through the turmoil of living, when love and fulfillment is just a mortal coil away?

 

Suicide is not the way to get into the promised land. Come on, why the silly comment?

 

I've talked to a guy before who actually died after a serious car accident, only to be revived at the hospital moments after he died. I don't know how long he flatlined, but I'm sure there's some doctors who have a certain amount of time required on flatline for someone to be legally dead.

Anyhow, he said there is no "light at the end" or "heavenly voices" or any of that Touched By An Angel crap. Everything just fades to black.

I believe him.

 

It's a very interesting topic and most discussions are based on religious beliefs.

I am a Buddhist, so this issue is very widely discussed. According to Buddhism, it's actually a fairly complicated state of affair. Very simply put, after your physical body dies, your spirit will be out searching for the next path to take, depending primarily on your own karma. Of course, karma is something you can influence for better or worse during your physical existence. This is just a very watered down view.

 

i was amused at your effort to support an assertion of the existence of an afterlife with a statement like this.

obviously either one has pure blind faith that there is a g-d and an afterlife or one does not.

there is no logical debating of it, that's for sure!

doody.

 

There is no convincing evidence that we survive death in any meaningful way. To quote Bertrand Russell, "When I die, I shall rot."

No one has come back from physiologic or biologic death-"clinical" death is simply a state of cardiac or respiratory arrest. In the past, this always led to death, hence the name, but really it is not death in modern terms and can be reversible.

Physiologic death refers to when the cells are still alive, but not performing as coherent organs. This invariably leads to biologic, or cellular, death.

The near death experience seems to be a result of the CNS insult of poor perfusion and can't be taken as proof of souls, spirits, etc.

We have to distinguish what we would like to be true and what the evidence supports. Thus far, no proof of continuation of consciousness after death.

 

I can see that....good point of view. Makes sense to a Christian like me. As for the afterlife part,it hurts me to see that there is little belief on the board. The fact that the body decomposes is reality. Its something I firmly believe, there is noway that things could have been created by evoultion alone, I know I amuse DOODY with that line, but some things just cannot be explained by science.Hence, created by a greater force, I call it G-d, someone else calls it something else, but it is a belief you are correct. So I choose to believe, the same way I believe that a Ferrari TR is the best looking fcar.... lol.

 

I am Buddhist as well, I practice Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan Book of the Dead explains in detail the travels the consciousness goes through after death.

A more user friendly version of the same book is the Tibetan Book of Living & Dying