Option 12: What Happens After Death?

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The discussion centers around beliefs about life after death and the implications of these beliefs on how individuals approach life and health. Many participants express skepticism about the existence of an afterlife, with some favoring the idea of oblivion or reincarnation. The conversation touches on philosophical perspectives, including those of Albert Camus, emphasizing the importance of appreciating life in the face of mortality. There is also debate about the nature of atheism and agnosticism, with distinctions made between strong and weak atheism, and discussions on the validity of the multiverse theory as an explanation for existence. Participants argue about the role of science in understanding life and death, with some suggesting that current scientific models do not adequately explain the universe's origins. The dialogue reflects a blend of existential inquiry, philosophical debate, and personal beliefs, highlighting the complexity of human perspectives on mortality and existence.

Death is...

  • Oblivion

    Votes: 66 32.4%
  • A Portal Mystery

    Votes: 6 2.9%
  • A Chance to Roam the Earth

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Another Chance at Reincarnation

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • My Ticket to Nirvana

    Votes: 1 0.5%
  • A Gateway to Heaven or Hell

    Votes: 18 8.8%
  • A Transition to Another Simulation

    Votes: 14 6.9%
  • A Bridge to Another Realm

    Votes: 14 6.9%
  • I Honestly Don't Know

    Votes: 55 27.0%
  • I Don't Know and I Don't Care

    Votes: 27 13.2%

  • Total voters
    204
  • #151
EnumaElish said:
For the conscious self death is a dreamless sleep -- verbatim from a friend who technically died and was resuscitated.

There may be a part of my being that will outlive my corporeal existence, but it is not equivalent to "me" -- only part of "me."

Enumaelish, please go on, was your friend brain dead? Cardiac arrest? What happened?

I wonder why some people have NDE's and others dont?
 
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  • #152
Death: "THE FINAL FRONTIER"
 
  • #153
Some how i think you choose what it will be..I know its the endings, beginning...
 
  • #154
I think it has more to do with the situation and chemicals at play. No matter what people say, your brain is still active when people have NDEs. There is no way possible you could have conscious experience with a completely dead brain/nervous system.
 
  • #155
A religious person once told me long ago that I should consider life to be 'a gift'. If a person has never existed and never will then that person cannot be unhappy or in bad health and never lose everything in the end including its life. If we go to the morgue or the cementary and we see nothing but the dead then what after life could there be? If the human conscious/awareness is determined by the flesh, brain, nerves and various chemicals which decay after death then how can we exist in an afterlife? We are determined by the body of this life. Does the invisible soul overpower the bad behaviour of the drug addict?
 
  • #156
PeteKL said:
A religious person once told me long ago that I should consider life to be 'a gift'. If a person has never existed and never will then that person cannot be unhappy or in bad health and never lose everything in the end including its life. If we go to the morgue or the cementary and we see nothing but the dead then what after life could there be? If the human conscious/awareness is determined by the flesh, brain, nerves and various chemicals which decay after death then how can we exist in an afterlife? We are determined by the body of this life. Does the invisible soul overpower the bad behaviour of the drug addict?
One does not need to be religious to consider life as a gift. Indeed, it seems to me that a non-religious person like myself has even MORE reason to consider life as a gift.

Religion is a great solution to the "what is the meaning of life" question. But reject religion, and one is left with nothing except to consider life as a gift.

yesterday is history, tomorrow a mystery, and today is a gift - that's why we call it the present. Enjoy it.
 
  • #157
Thankfully, death isn't.
 
  • #158
I think it's as simple as a never ending dream. And since dreams are related to your current life, you either spend eternity dreaming about bad things.. or good things, depending on how you lived your life.

Just pray to whoever it is that you pray too that you don't die after you've watched a week long marathon of horror movies while eating peanut butter pizza with Balls soda!
 
  • #159
baywax said:
Thankfully, death isn't.

Thankfully, death isn't what?
 
  • #160
Esnas said:
Thankfully, death isn't what?

Death isn't. It is not. Death doesn't exist. (our only evidence is the result of death)

Death is an empty address book.

Death is no ring tone.

Death is never - never - ever having to say you're sorry.

Death is when you smell bad, but you don't know about it.

Death is when you miss your own, big send off.

Death is a word.
 
  • #161
baywax said:
Death isn't. It is not. Death doesn't exist. (our only evidence is the result of death)

Death is an empty address book.

Death is no ring tone.

Death is never - never - ever having to say you're sorry.

Death is when you smell bad, but you don't know about it.

Death is when you miss your own, big send off.

Death is a word.

Death is as much a mystery as life. The two cannot be seperated. If death does not "exist" then, neither does life.
 
  • #162
Esnas said:
Death is as much a mystery as life. The two cannot be seperated. If death does not "exist" then, neither does life.

Life is only a mystery if you haven't lived. Death is a mystery because no one has returned from a year of being dead to tell us about it.
 
  • #163
11.) Death is when I am no longer able to perform life's functions, am put in the Earth and rot and then decomposed by worms and other organisms.
 
  • #164
baywax said:
Life is only a mystery if you haven't lived. Death is a mystery because no one has returned from a year of being dead to tell us about it.

Someone once told me not to speak of death as being the opposite of life. He said that death was only the opposite of birth. I am intrigued by this view. When you say "life is only a mystery if you haven't lived", I assume that you mean "if you have not lived fully". Is this correct?
 
  • #165
Esnas said:
Someone once told me not to speak of death as being the opposite of life. He said that death was only the opposite of birth. I am intrigued by this view. When you say "life is only a mystery if you haven't lived", I assume that you mean "if you have not lived fully". Is this correct?

Some people are so afraid of death yet are so afraid of life that they have never lived.

People like this hate living because it, quite logically, means certain death.

Fear of the unknown is a natural reaction. And death is a complete unknown.
However, a person who hates life or is frightened by life will not have experienced much of what life has to offer. So, in this instance, life is an unknown as well, and the person will be afraid of it too.

"Fully" or a "full life" would have to be defined.
 
  • #166
Death is the opposite of life, birth=went from nothingness to existence.
Death=existence to nothingness.

Death is eternal sleep, what else could it be, floating off to eternal bliss and giant man in the sky? Highlllyyy doubt it.
I don't know for sure but god just seems way illogical and very imporbable.
Of course, all just speculation, you can't know for sure until youve been there and done that.
Im not trying to find out anytime soon though, Ill get my chance to find out, plus I am a procrastinator so I plan on being late.
 
  • #167
Death is... never having to say your sorry, least for me as an agnostic. :smile:
 
  • #168
Here is a nice summary of what Heidegger had to say about death:
http://www.yorku.ca/zorn/additional_files/Phil_of_death.pdf
 
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  • #169
Here's what the dead have to say about death...

"......"
 
  • #170
baywax said:
Some people are so afraid of death yet are so afraid of life that they have never lived.

People like this hate living because it, quite logically, means certain death.

Fear of the unknown is a natural reaction. And death is a complete unknown.
However, a person who hates life or is frightened by life will not have experienced much of what life has to offer. So, in this instance, life is an unknown as well, and the person will be afraid of it too.

"Fully" or a "full life" would have to be defined.

"The full life." "A life well lived". There have been attempts to describe this. I suspect that a person who has lived life to it's fullest would not be afraid of death. He or she would embrace death as the natural consequense of having been born and would not be bothered much by it.
 
  • #171
Esnas said:
"The full life." "A life well lived". There have been attempts to describe this. I suspect that a person who has lived life to it's fullest would not be afraid of death. He or she would embrace death as the natural consequense of having been born and would not be bothered much by it.

On the other hand. Having experienced life to what a person thinks is its fullest may make leaving it a rather difficult thing to do.

However, naturally, death is part of life... and a person with an inkling of this idea could also consider the coming of death as a "topping off" of their "fullness of life".

Very nice way to put it thanks.
 
  • #172
Death is a terminal STD.
 
  • #173
Like was said earlier, we've been "not alive" for an eternity, we suddenly spring into existence and after about 100 years, go back to where we came from. No god, no heaven or any of the such. You turn into food when you, about on the same mental function as a rock.
 
  • #174
Death is one temporal extreme of your existence in spacetime.

It is about as scary as being born, or going to Florida (which is the spatial extreme of my existence in spacetime).

:smile:

Of course it's also sad because of the consequences it might have for those you love.
 
  • #175
Death is not part of life. In fact, they are kind of disjoint sets in a sense... Except that death's cardinality is infinite. =/

Quite frankly, I don't buy into afterlife, or the possibility of my particular consciousness "reocurring" since I neither believe the Universe to be infinite nor everlasting.

However, I do think that in the future, unfortunately one which I won't be part of, humans will be able to mantain "consciousness" after the rest of their body has ceased working. It will be like dreaming forever (well, until the machines that keep you going stop working). Not so bad actually, especially if you get to choose the "script".

To answer the question:

Death is... damn scary and unfortunate. But I'd rather not die of anticipation, besides I already have a tough enough time going to sleep at night thinking about too much **** already. =P
 
  • #176
http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/death/content/class-sessions

Watch the course and learn what death is (read the material to get a deeper understanding, too).
 
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  • #177
Death is Brad Pitt in a boring movie.
 
  • #178
Death is another dimension just like life is a dimension. What happens in death may just be another life with our soul moving on.
 
  • #179
Personally I think when you die, you're dead (<- logic) and the electrical currents in your brain (which is you) stops flowing and you're gone forever.
 
  • #180
*-<|:-D=<-< said:
Personally I think when you die, you're dead (<- logic) and the electrical currents in your brain (which is you) stops flowing and you're gone forever.

Quoted for truth.
 
  • #181
Death is: never finding out what happens when you die.
 
  • #182
life and death are like - and +. Example: -a+a=0 .
 
  • #183
Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above the ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost the sense of something that lives and endures beneath the eternal flux. What we see is blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.

-Jung
 
  • #184
Death is...
the end of the manifestations of the 4 fundamental forces. Starring in the play - 6.53 billion characters, Producer: Unknown

"All characters in this film are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

END.
 
  • #185
WaveJumper said:
Death is...
the end of the manifestations of the 4 fundamental forces. Starring in the play - 6.53 billion characters, Producer: Unknown

"All characters in this film are fictitious and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

END.

Nice! :D
 
  • #186
death is life.
 
  • #187
Daniel Y. said:
http://oyc.yale.edu/philosophy/death/content/class-sessions

Watch the course and learn what death is (read the material to get a deeper understanding, too).

Thanks for the link! I plan on following the lecture. Does Yale have other recorded classes?
 
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  • #188
Death is the thing at the end of the tunnel.
 
  • #189
And just one of many unknowns.
 
  • #190
I know that my death will be other peoples "Ticket to Nirvana".
 
  • #191
Death is the future.
 
  • #192
Damn! I was going to say what petm1 said, but couldn't find a good way to phrase it.
 
  • #193
Death is your deadline.
 
  • #194
You have already been dead for an infinite amount of time... before you were born. After you are alive, you die and it is identical to what you experienced before you were born. Absolutely nothing!
 
  • #195
Legion81 said:
You have already been dead for an infinite amount of time... before you were born. After you are alive, you die and it is identical to what you experienced before you were born. Absolutely nothing!

Nothing dies if it hasn't been born yet. If what you're saying is true then rocks are dead... but they aren't because they've never been born. Death refers to the end of life. Not the time before life begins. Further to that, how are you so sure about what you've stated? Have you experienced any of the before birth or after death states? No, you haven't because in both states you're neurons are either unformed or... dead.
 
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