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What do you believe happens when we die

  • 03-09-2020 12:16am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭


    Complete the poll and let us know

    What do you believe happens when we die 795 votes

    We simply cease to exist (like before we were born)
    64% 513 votes
    We go to heaven for eternal life
    28% 223 votes
    We keep reincarnating
    3% 25 votes
    We stay around the earth as ghosts
    2% 20 votes
    Other
    1% 14 votes


«13456726

Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 16,109 ✭✭✭✭Pherekydes


    I'd like to "complete" a Pole. :eek:


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,306 ✭✭✭bobbyy gee


    Having died and been brought back there's nothing there. You don't know you died until you read medical report it's like you never existed.
    You don't have any thoughts. You don't walk towards the light
    You don't see dead family members. Seeing someone you know die is scary as they panic and your not able to do anything to help them. All you can do is hold their hand and tell them they are not alone.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,810 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Complete the poll and let us know

    Customary to provide your own opinion, OP

    Life ain't always empty.



  • Registered Users Posts: 33,810 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    bobbyy gee wrote: »
    Having died and been brought back there's nothing there. You don't know you died until you read medical report it's like you never existed.
    You don't have any thoughts. You don't walk towards the light
    You don't see dead family members. Seeing someone you know die is scary as they panic and your not able to do anything to help them. All you can do is hold their hand and tell them they are not alone.

    :pac::rolleyes:

    Life ain't always empty.



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭s1ippy


    I have an idea about mortality which I'm basically certain is correct. I have thought about building a sort of movement around it or writing a thesis on it, but I feel it would be an exercise in futility because the market for religion is over saturated and based on my experience of people, most of the ones who didn't understand it would just get angry. The idea isn't based around worship in the slightest, just a concept around life and death that I feel that I have sussed, because like everyone else I've thought about it for so long. Somebody was bound to figure it out.

    I find the theory really revealing when applied to existence and our place in it. Believing this premise to be true doesn't advocate any specific way of life or subsequent beliefs. It's just a scientifically and philosophically grounded perspective on meaning and sentience. It gives me immense solace whenever I think about life within the parameters it indicates.

    I've explained these thoughts to friends and family (it's easy in when you're casually conversing... "death is weird" or some such throwaway existential comment. "Do you think so? I think it's just...") and we've pulled the whole notion apart and picked at any dubious aspects.

    Death is a fascinating thing to discuss if you're pragmatic and logical instead of sentimental or superstitious; I think anyone comes away from a spirited conversation about it feeling enriched and less threatened by their own fear. Its like the talking cure; you reason things out and they start to make more sense and become a more acceptable thing for your brain to process without trauma or prejudice.

    Tl;dr something something jeebus zombie


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,202 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    s1ippy wrote: »
    a concept around life and death that I feel that I have sussed, because like everyone else I've thought about it for so long.
    i think we'd to take a bit more convincing than that!


  • Registered Users Posts: 26,004 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    s1ippy wrote: »
    I have an idea about mortality which I'm basically certain is correct. . . .
    There's not much point in telling us this unless you are going to go on and tell su what the idea is - you tease, you!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,358 ✭✭✭LessOutragePlz


    How would we know that we alive if we had not once been dead?

    We aren't born so we don't die.

    Energy can't be destroyed so the energy inside must live on once our body dies.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,202 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    it can be changed from one form to another though.
    and i don't think 'consciousness' has an 'energy' in strictly physical terms. it's basically just electrical and chemical energy.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,247 ✭✭✭pauldla


    Louis C.K.: Lots of things happen after you die, it's just none of them involve you.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,358 ✭✭✭LessOutragePlz


    it can be changed from one form to another though.
    and i don't think 'consciousness' has an 'energy' in strictly physical terms. it's basically just electrical and chemical energy.

    Yeah but consciousness can't be measured though so to say it's electrical and chemical energy isn't really true tbh as we don't truly know what it is.


  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,202 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    we don't truly know what it is.
    how can you claim it can't be destroyed if you don't know what it is?


  • Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    op here. Have to say I’m very surprised by the results. So many atheists. I guess it’s probably due to posting this in the atheist forum. Perhaps I should have posted it in after hours to get a wider view.
    I used to believe in nothing for so long but then I realised it’s naive to think nothing exists after we die. There has to be more to life than just living and dying. I personally believe that life is a sort of test but I don’t believe in any religion. I believe we probably remain in a spiritual world after we die and what area of that world would depend on how good we are


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,541 ✭✭✭dubrov


    s1ippy wrote: »
    I have an idea about mortality which I'm basically certain is correct. I have thought about building a sort of movement around it or writing a thesis on it, but I feel it would be an exercise in futility because the market for religion is over saturated and based on my experience of people, most of the ones who didn't understand it would just get angry. The idea isn't based around worship in the slightest, just a concept around life and death that I feel that I have sussed, because like everyone else I've thought about it for so long. Somebody was bound to figure it out.

    I find the theory really revealing when applied to existence and our place in it. Believing this premise to be true doesn't advocate any specific way of life or subsequent beliefs. It's just a scientifically and philosophically grounded perspective on meaning and sentience. It gives me immense solace whenever I think about life within the parameters it indicates.

    I've explained these thoughts to friends and family (it's easy in when you're casually conversing... "death is weird" or some such throwaway existential comment. "Do you think so? I think it's just...") and we've pulled the whole notion apart and picked at any dubious aspects.

    Death is a fascinating thing to discuss if you're pragmatic and logical instead of sentimental or superstitious; I think anyone comes away from a spirited conversation about it feeling enriched and less threatened by their own fear. Its like the talking cure; you reason things out and they start to make more sense and become a more acceptable thing for your brain to process without trauma or prejudice.

    Tl;dr something something jeebus zombie

    I too discovered the same idea and thought I had solved it. However, there was one little item that made the whole idea fall apart. I think there is little point in sharing with you as it would be an exercise in futility and likely make you angry.


  • Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    dubrov wrote: »
    I too discovered the same idea and thought I had solved it. However, there was one little item that made the whole idea fall apart. I think there is little point in sharing with you as it would be an exercise in futility and likely make you angry.

    Nobody will get angry. Share with us


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,980 ✭✭✭s1ippy


    Yep, it's a shame as they want the truth but they can't handle the truth.


  • Registered Users Posts: 548 ✭✭✭pawdee


    Here's my take on it.......

    1) You die and that's that (most likely) = Grand.
    2) You die and go to heaven (most unlikely) = Grand* too.
    3) You die and suffer 'physical' and 'mental' torment for all eternity. Not so good.

    Only scenario 3 gives any cause for concern. You wouldn't guess it from the simplicity of my hypothesis but I think about this every day.





    *unless you're Christopher Hitchens who called heaven "a celestial North Korea".


  • Registered Users Posts: 26,004 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    pawdee wrote: »
    ,. . . *unless you're Christopher Hitchens who called heaven "a celestial North Korea".
    Which, ironically, leaves him more or less togging out with Kim Jong-Un, who considers North Korea to be an earthly heaven. :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 28,007 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    Peregrinus wrote: »
    Which, ironically, leaves him more or less togging out with Kim Jong-Un, who considers North Korea to be an earthly heaven. :)

    Presumably it is, for him. It depends where you are standing.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,301 ✭✭✭John Hutton


    Could end up in hell, heaven or perhaps purgatory for a bit .


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  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,202 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    one thing i wonder about; as any animal with a brain has brain activity while alive, and if this brain energy cannot be destroyed, does that mean that any animal which ever had a brain also has a 'soul' which lives on?
    and does that mean we all share the same heaven, should there be such a thing? or does each species have its own heaven, e.g. one heaven for blue tits, one for coal tits, one for great tits, etc. etc.?


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,904 ✭✭✭✭El_Duderino 09


    one thing i wonder about; as any animal with a brain has brain activity while alive, and if this brain energy cannot be destroyed, does that mean that any animal which ever had a brain also has a 'soul' which lives on?
    and does that mean we all share the same heaven, should there be such a thing? or does each species have its own heaven, e.g. one heaven for blue tits, one for coal tits, one for great tits, etc. etc.?

    One for moobs too?

    Yeah the consciousness discussions are total navel gazing. We call out experience 'consciousness' but in truth, all we know is that it's the result of our brains. I suppose my cat has consciousness in so far as her brain allows. Some people might consider cat-consciousness to be trivial. And an alien species could consider our level of consciousness to be trivial.

    I don't see any reason to see a distinction between mind and body. We have no evidence of minds existing without a body (brain specifically). So I just presume my consciousness ends when my brain dies. End of story - for me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,767 ✭✭✭Scotty #


    ...then I realised it’s naive to think nothing exists after we die.
    No it isn't. It's perfectly logical.


    It's those that believe there is 'something' after death that are naive IMO.


  • Registered Users Posts: 22,221 ✭✭✭✭endacl


    op here. Have to say I’m very surprised by the results. So many atheists. I guess it’s probably due to posting this in the atheist forum. Perhaps I should have posted it in after hours to get a wider view.
    I used to believe in nothing for so long but then I realised it’s naive to think nothing exists after we die. There has to be more to life than just living and dying. I personally believe that life is a sort of test but I don’t believe in any religion. I believe we probably remain in a spiritual world after we die and what area of that world would depend on how good we are

    1. It’s also naive to suppose that you continue in some form after you die.
    2. Why does there have to be more? Make your meaning while you’re here.
    3. Best of luck with that. Hope it works out for you.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 19,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭Bannasidhe


    I have absolutely no idea what happens - even though I have technically died but got better as it turned out I was only rebooting and a jump start sorted it out.

    I do not 'believe' or 'not believe' anything in particular happens.
    I shall wait and see - or not.

    I seriously doubt "I" will continue to exist but "I" might.


  • Registered Users Posts: 33,810 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    op here. Have to say I’m very surprised by the results. So many atheists. I guess it’s probably due to posting this in the atheist forum.

    Yeah, I mean who could have predicted that?

    Life ain't always empty.



  • Registered Users Posts: 9,555 ✭✭✭antiskeptic


    bobbyy gee wrote: »
    Having died and been brought back there's nothing there. You don't know you died until you read medical report it's like you never existed.
    You don't have any thoughts. You don't walk towards the light
    You don't see dead family members. Seeing someone you know die is scary as they panic and your not able to do anything to help them. All you can do is hold their hand and tell them they are not alone.

    Was your body rotting in the grave when you were brought back? My guess is that you lacked some classic signs of life. Which is a different matter.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 19,219 Mod ✭✭✭✭Bannasidhe


    Was your body rotting in the grave when you were brought back? My guess is that you lacked some classic signs of life. Which is a different matter.

    I wasn't aware that "rotting in the grave" was the definition of being dead.
    You'd think we'd see a lot more clinically dead but never made it to a grave people wandering around wouldn't you?


  • Registered Users Posts: 26,004 ✭✭✭✭Peregrinus


    Well, what is the definition of being dead? When you say that you were "technically dead", what exactly was going on (or not going on) that meant you were technically dead?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,781 ✭✭✭KungPao


    I’d love for me to continue in some way, be it me at my best in heaven or even a (nice) ghost.

    But yeah, like every other animal on the planet, Death means lights out. Adios.

    The only reason we think there could be more is because we are so intelligent, so we invent stupid **** to make us feel better and pretend life goes on in some way after the curtains fall.


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