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Life and death

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  • 24-06-2009 8:18pm
    #1
    karlog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,563 ✭✭✭


    This always freaked me out. If there is life after death whats after that? and then what's next. Will there be a never ending cycle of life and death forever and ever. When we do die will we know the truth or just pass on to the next life with no memory of the previous one. Of course no one knows but whats your opinion.


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    #2
    Dinner
    Registered Users Posts: 2,132 ✭✭✭Dinner


    I didn't exist before I was born, so chances are I won't exist after I die.


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    #3
    karlog
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,563 ✭✭✭karlog


    thats what i mean you could of existed without even knowing it. this could be my 567th life for all i know


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    #4
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 4,630 ✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I think that your posting this in an atheism forum will result in extremely biased opinions!

    My opinion is that there is no life after death - nothing. So, I don't trouble myself with the question you've asked.


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    #5
    branie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,429 ✭✭✭branie


    Who knows - we couild be living our life over and over again.


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    #6
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    branie wrote: »
    Who knows - we couild be living our life over and over again.

    Which is the same thing as post #2.


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    #7
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    What about grass? Does grass have an afterlife? Or reincarnation?


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    #8
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Flamed Diving wrote: »
    What about grass? Does grass have an afterlife? Or reincarnation?

    Yes it does.

    Grass is eaten by cows (and turns into bits of cow); cows are killed and are eaten by people (and turns into bits of people), people die and their bodies decompose; their rotting corpses makes a wonderful fertiliser for grass, and the cycle continues.


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    #9
    Flamed Diving
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,609 ✭✭✭Flamed Diving


    dvpower wrote: »
    Yes it does.

    Grass is eaten by cows (and turns into bits of cow); cows are killed and are eaten by people (and turns into bits of people), people die and their bodies decompose; their rotting corpses makes a wonderful fertiliser for grass, and the cycle continues.

    Hmm, and the same with all matter, when you think about it.


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    #10
    Evil-p
    Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭Evil-p


    IMO the questions you are asking youself are what caused the foundation of all religion. The uncertainty about what happens after this life is IMO why people believe in a God or an afterlife to begin with. And I am symhathetic to that - of course a parent losing a child will want to believe that they will be reunited with their child some day.

    However I believe that death is the end. The idea of reincaranation and the circle of life may have some merit as someone mentioned in cows eating grass etc, but if your biological remains are reused by nature they are in no recognisable form therefore insignificant.

    I think the only way to live forever is through your children. Pass on position traits and maybe your good influence will be behind the cure for cancer in a couple of generations.

    I have been with a couple of relatives when they have died and it seemed like a peaceful and pleasant.


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    #11
    Dave!
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,857 ✭✭✭✭Dave!


    karlog wrote: »
    thats what i mean you could of existed without even knowing it. this could be my 567th life for all i know
    You could be a brain in a jar being fed 'reality' electronically

    You could be a program called 'Life Simulator' being run on someone's laptop

    ...but let's just stick to what the evidence suggests and resist the urge to create more exciting realities.


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    #12
    TheManWho
    Closed Accounts Posts: 264 ✭✭TheManWho


    I think that life after death is just an idea, a human creation. But it is essential nonetheless, like a balanced equation. For every suicide bomber who kills himself to murder people and get into the afterlife, there's a man of faith who sacrifices himself to save people and get into the afterlife.

    Although if it is ever proven that a "soul" or lifeforce exists, I would sooner believe that it's recycled into new life rather than sent up to the metaphorical above


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    #13
    Newaglish
    Registered Users Posts: 2,734 ✭✭✭Newaglish


    karlog wrote: »
    If there is life after death whats after that? and then what's next.

    I just had an image of all the atheists from this board sitting up in the holy cloudiness of heaven, nodding in sagely agreement as they say "no, this is it - there definitely isn't another one after this!"


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    #14
    Undergod
    Registered Users Posts: 2,858 ✭✭✭Undergod


    Reincarnation says that we are reborn in new bodies when we die, as new people or animals.

    How are we to define the essence of what "we" are? My own feeling on the matter is that thoughts and memories define what we are (the ego, if that's the right term?). So if I was a mechanic in my past life, how come I can't remember it? It has nothing to do with who I am. On this basis I reject reincarnation.

    Similarly, I don't think I led any other life in any other worlds.

    Will I lead any more lives after I die? It's possible that this life I am currently living is my first, but as it doesn't seem that people are reincarnated in this world (by my criteria) then I would tend towards the belief that this won't happen. If people become reincarnated into some other world (heaven and hell, the outer planes, the next dimension) then we have no way of knowing, so I have no real opinion on this. It's possible that there is a heaven or some kind of afterlife, but there's no real reason to believe in my opinion.


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    #15
    dvpower
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,183 ✭✭✭dvpower


    Newaglish wrote: »
    I just had an image of all the atheists from this board sitting up in the holy cloudiness of heaven, nodding in sagely agreement as they say "no, this is it - there definitely isn't another one after this!"

    Isn't that the conclusion that Christians and other religious have already come to?


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    #16
    Mickeroo
    Administrators, Computer Games Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 32,201 Admin ✭✭✭✭✭Mickeroo


    dvpower wrote: »
    Yes it does.

    Grass is eaten by cows (and turns into bits of cow); cows are killed and are eaten by people (and turns into bits of people), people die and their bodies decompose; their rotting corpses makes a wonderful fertiliser for grass, and the cycle continues.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX07j9SDFcc


    Righteous :pac:


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    #17
    togster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,931 ✭✭✭togster


    karlog wrote: »
    When we do die will we know the truth or just pass on to the next life with no memory of the previous one. Of course no one knows but whats your opinion.

    In my opinion there is no life after death in the religious sense of the way.
    But we must go back to something since we came from something.
    I mean our bodies decay and decompose and get into the soil, and then it rains and then into the river and so on. The very absolute cohesion of it all. Everything happens for a reason.

    Just my opinion :)


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    #18
    Dr_H_Lecter
    Closed Accounts Posts: 116 ✭✭Dr_H_Lecter


    maybe interesting to someone else out there: ajahn brahm http://www.bswa.org/audio/podcast/AjahnBrahm.rss.php waffles alot about such questions. interesting guy. scientist/monk.
    also on youtube. deepak chopra interesting too, although i know the harder atheists dont really like his views so much.
    also this doc/lady ..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU&feature=channel_page had one or two interesting things to say.

    guess theres only one way to know for sure, funny feeling ill get the chance to find out. :rolleyes:


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    #19
    togster
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,931 ✭✭✭togster


    Evil-p wrote: »
    I think the only way to live forever is through your children. Pass on position traits and maybe your good influence will be behind the cure for cancer in a couple of generations.

    How can you live through anyone else? It's a contradictory sentence.


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    #20
    Undergod
    Registered Users Posts: 2,858 ✭✭✭Undergod


    Yeah, and besides, you're still dead.


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    #21
    Urizen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,354 ✭✭✭Urizen


    No one knows what happens when we die. Way I see it, whatever makes us us is gone. Where it goes doesn't really bother me.
    Even if Christianity was right, and we're all judged... Screw it. The very idea of being judged for your actions according to a system you don't agree to nullifies the idea of free will. Besides, Hell would probably have some fun peoples.

    No matter what, worrying your life away is only wasting time. Nothing can be done to change us dying. And this may be the Satanist in me talking, but ya may as well indulge in whatever the hell you want while you're around. So quit the melancholy musing, get out there and LIVE!

    Or not, your choice I guess. But it's surprisingly fun.


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    #22
    20goto10
    Registered Users Posts: 1,210 ✭✭✭20goto10


    If the multiple universe theory is correct then anything that could possibly happen, will happen. I'm not saying that means there is an afterlife, but if that were true then you are already dead in another universe. That time when I got knocked down as a kid and everyone told me I was very lucky to be alive, well there's a universe where I wasn't so lucky. In another universe Michael JAckson is still alive (and he's black!). We could, theoretically, be dying all the time. When that time actually comes in this universe, will I still be alive in another universe? Death could be meaningless until the final outcome where there is absolutely no possibilty of you living. So if you think about it, we could all (in our own universe) live to a very old age. To an age where all possibilities of staying alive are extinguished.

    But then again, there might be a universe where I am not yet born and will not be born in that universe until after I die in this universe.


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    #23
    Urizen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,354 ✭✭✭Urizen


    I make it a point never to think directly about the multiverse theory. Spend more than ten seconds on it, you'll probably spend a day.


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    #24
    rockmongrel
    Registered Users Posts: 644 ✭✭✭rockmongrel


    As the great Bender put it, "If I thought there was a whole other life, I'd kill myself right now."


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    #25
    aidan24326
    Registered Users Posts: 5,925 ✭✭✭aidan24326


    karlog wrote: »
    thats what i mean you could of existed without even knowing it. this could be my 567th life for all i know


    No it couldn't. What makes you 'YOU', is a unique configuration of matter between your ears. 'You' could not have existed before. If you think about it carefully you'll see that it's impossible.


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    #26
    Urizen
    Registered Users Posts: 1,354 ✭✭✭Urizen


    Yep. Other VERSIONS of you could have existed, in other universes, but not the exact you that's making this statement... I've started now, dammit!


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    #27
    drkpower
    Registered Users Posts: 5,475 ✭✭✭drkpower


    aidan24326 wrote: »
    No it couldn't. What makes you 'YOU', is a unique configuration of matter between your ears. 'You' could not have existed before. If you think about it carefully you'll see that it's impossible.

    But is it as simple as that?

    Identical twins with precisely the same genetic information, presumably an almost identical brain and very very similar environmental factors and experiences (if they were brought up together) can be hugely different people.

    What is the other factor at play?
    Is there another factor at play?
    Who knows - but I think we are way too early in our understanding of the brain and how it reacts and interacts to come to a conclusion that it is all there is controlling/affecting us and that it is impossible that we could have existed in a different form before?


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    #28
    CerebralCortex
    Registered Users Posts: 3,809 ✭✭✭CerebralCortex


    drkpower wrote: »
    But is it as simple as that?

    Identical twins with precisely the same genetic information, presumably an almost identical brain and very very similar environmental factors and experiences (if they were brought up together) can be hugely different people.

    What is the other factor at play?
    Is there another factor at play?
    Who knows - but I think we are way too early in our understanding of the brain and how it reacts and interacts to come to a conclusion that it is all there is controlling/affecting us and that it is impossible that we could have existed in a different form before?

    See word in bold.


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    #29
    Zillah
    Registered Users Posts: 17,371 ✭✭✭✭Zillah


    drkpower wrote: »
    But is it as simple as that?

    Yes. It really is.
    Identical twins with precisely the same genetic information, presumably an almost identical brain and very very similar environmental factors and experiences (if they were brought up together) can be hugely different people.

    What is the other factor at play?

    I could list a thousand. School, friends, TV, music, books etc
    Is there another factor at play?
    Who knows - but I think we are way too early in our understanding of the brain and how it reacts and interacts to come to a conclusion that it is all there is controlling/affecting us and that it is impossible that we could have existed in a different form before?

    There are an infinity of things we can't say are impossible. It doesn't mean they're not baseless and stupid ideas.


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    #30
    5uspect
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 10,517 Mod ✭✭✭✭5uspect


    Your brain is a neural network. It works by linking synapses between brain cells.
    This is done as you experience things in your life. So if you take identical twins their personal experiences will differ. Therefore the synaptic links in their brains will differ.

    More crudely Dell makes millions of identical PCs. They'll all experience different uses, infections and lifetimes.


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    #31
    Myksyk
    Moderators, Arts Moderators Posts: 3,550 Mod ✭✭✭✭Myksyk


    drkpower wrote: »
    But is it as simple as that?

    Identical twins with precisely the same genetic information, presumably an almost identical brain and very very similar environmental factors and experiences (if they were brought up together) can be hugely different people

    Well, typically, twins are not HUGELY different people in terms of personality, temperament, interests etc. The differences that do exist can be reasonably accounted for by the fact that the actual second-to-second experiences they have throughout their lives are almost entirely different.


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