how many of you believe in an afterlife?

[HolyPhoenix]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

If you're the sorta person who goes to church for the sole purpose of getting into "heaven", you're the epitome of human greed and arrogance.

What if I go to church for other reasons. Infact I don't think that you would be excepted into heaven if you just went to church for that. That seems kinda selfish. They would probably go to purgatory for a while to learn to love God some more.

Are you sure?

No, but hopefully I will.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

I finally got to read Thiaoouba Prophecy, and the idea of a(n) [after]life described in the book doesn't sound so bad.

*the author makes an account he supposedly experienced in this book. Make what you will of it.

The people on the planet described in the book by Michel(the author) ate only once every two days... which is a single glass of liquid nourishment(it seems like they feel no need to eat;remember what happens when you DO eat a big meal? looks like they learned their lesson ) Their bodies seemed perfect, and they were blonde hermaphrodites who took the form of women instead of men(take what you will from that;at first the author thought he was in a room full of women). There were many things I liked about this planet that the author described, but the coolest IMO, was that everyone had FUN. Sunbathing, flying, all that cool stuff. And then there's parts of a house(looks like a freaking EGG) that shut out all sounds and disturbances, and allows you to actually sleep. What a convenience!

One really didn't "work"(there were people that did jobs, managing other planets and such, but it wasn't the kind of work we do on earth), and in your new body you could live as long as you wanted, there was no aging process! And all the cool abilities you'd have like reading other's thoughts, aura sensing, levitation, looking into your past lives, astral projection...

I think that kind of life sounds really fun.

[Magik]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

Heaven is a nice and cozy construct, but at this juncture, I can't say I believe in it, or an afterlife in general. It's uncomfortable for me to think that once I die, everything I did or said is pretty much rendered either meaningless of destructive for the people left behind, but at the same time, when I'm dead I won't really have the capacity to care one way of the other, right?

I'm hoping for some astral reunion with all of my loved ones, but at the core I think that this body and this mind has an expiration date. Once that date is reached, it's over. Better make use of the time we have, n'est-ce pas?

[The Toecutter]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

The people on the planet described in the book by Michel(the author) ate only once every two days... which is a single glass of liquid nourishment(it seems like they feel no need to eat;remember what happens when you DO eat a big meal? looks like they learned their lesson ) Their bodies seemed perfect, and they were blonde hermaphrodites who took the form of women instead of men(take what you will from that;at first the author thought he was in a room full of women). There were many things I liked about this planet that the author described, but the coolest IMO, was that everyone had FUN. Sunbathing, flying, all that cool stuff. And then there's parts of a house(looks like a freaking EGG) that shut out all sounds and disturbances, and allows you to actually sleep. What a convenience!

One really didn't "work"(there were people that did jobs, managing other planets and such, but it wasn't the kind of work we do on earth), and in your new body you could live as long as you wanted, there was no aging process! And all the cool abilities you'd have like reading other's thoughts, aura sensing, levitation, looking into your past lives, astral projection...

I think that kind of life sounds really fun.

Sounds a lot like the film Zardoz.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

You mean the movie? Totally different from that.

[DarkwingChuck]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

And in a place that's supposed to be perfect, we need happiness. And let me tell you, I can't be happy very long simply looking at the Tree of Life.

You're supposed to be perfectly happy just from being in the presence of the Lord and if you can't be then you're not worthy of heaven to begin with. That's why when John was shown heaven all anyone did all the time was praise god forever. That's all people get to do in heaven and if that's not your idea of perfection then you don't get in.

[ErikaFuzzbottom]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

I refuse to be a mindless slave as well. Bowing down all day long without the slightest thought of going out and eating a doughnut? Not going to happen, and I refuse to believe that is really the case.

[Pagerron]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

I remember hearing a Christian lady speak who was near the end of her life because of a bout with cancer. She was a professor at a college that I attended and she was asked to speak with the student body about her thoughts on heaven. She said many encouraging things to us. One thing I remember was that she was looking forward to being able to see replays of the parting of the Red Sea and other amazing things that God has done throughout history (that one, in particular, I remember her mentioning ). She died a few weeks later. Her words left quite on impression on everyone because she was looking forward to dying, to being in the presence of Christ, her Lord and her Savior. Heaven, for her, was the opposite of total boredom. It was eternal joy and fulfillment in the presence of the fierce, loving warrior King who created everything and cares for each one of us.

[hitogoroshi]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

Well, I think it's something like what Draygone said, with lots and lots of stuff to do, and you can live to your hearts content. However, assuming we retain our humanity, we would eventually get bored, and then I think our souls are wiped of our previous life and we are placed into the body of a newborn. The fact that our population is growing is easily explained: There are probably many billion souls in heaven, and the humans on earth are only a slight amount of the total souls.
Like I said, I can't trust the Bible. I mean, we're supposed to believe that because the authors say it's Gods Book, it's Gods Book? No thank you.

[Alutra]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

Wow, I love this topic. Where do I begin? I was raised christian, but stopped believing that way when I was a teenager.(almost 30 now). Started studying science, and felt that science could give more answers to life...

Then I realized that neither science nor religon can gave all the right answers, because, to put it simply, we are just not ready to hear them. We, as a race of beings are far to arrogant to learn of our own true nature. It is not untill we evolve beyond this that we will truly understand death, life, god or whatever...

Chew on this for a sec, It is one of my favorite analogies:

Pretend for a minute, that you have an ant farm. And, now you are going to fill it up with little ants (that you created out of pure thought), to be your companions. Except you Are all-knowing, therefore you know the future of all ants...how many there are, what thier personalities are like, their every actions etc. Your are also all-powerful, and therefore you get to choose inevitably all of the subrutines and characteristics of each and every ant. sort of like making a game, where you can "tweak" the stats of each character.

Now, because you only want the best ants with you in the end, (because you only want the ants that love you, and not the ones that dont) you tell the ants that after the life they have on this ant farm, some of them will get to go to the new DELUXE ant farm, while others will get piled up in your ashtray and they will be lit on fire and burned to death.

So, it would make sense that since you are all-knowing, you already know from the begining which ants will live on, and which ones will burn. right? Even though you are giving the "doomed" ants a chance to love you, you already sealed thier fate when you made them, and inevitably they wont be able to love you enough, because you were all powerful and you designed them that way.

Now replace all the ants with people, the ant farm with earth, and instead of you lets insert an arrogant god.

This is what I believe the Bible is trying to say.

It is in fact arrogance that allows us to also give in to fear. Why wouldn't we also create a beliefe of an arrogant god and be afraid of him? We are already so afraid of each other...

It is also arrogance that has infected our scientists. I KNOW that sounds harsh, and I DO NOT include everyone. It is arrogance to believe that if you have proven something through a scientific method, then it must be imperical data.

500 years ago we all believed the earth was flat.

Later we believed the Earth was round, but the entire universe revolved around it. THEN we believed it all revolved around the sun.

only 100 years ago we all belived there was only 1 galaxy.

I ask you this dear friends... how much has our current state of scientific facts actualy effected our spirtual beliefs in the past and the present?

What will we learn scientificly in the next 100 years that will also change the way that we believe spiritualy? It is all so subjective.

Again, we are arrogant. we WANT to believe that what we know spiritualy and scientificly is true. Our own ego demands that we defend what we believe in on a daily basis, even beyond rationality. The moment we believe something, is the moment we START to become closed to other possibilities. And so then we start building our lives around these beliefs, and we start biulding new truths and tales to support them. I mean this from the smallest moment, to the greatest spiritual books.

Why do we do this? Becuase it is SO difficult to believe that our life is without meaning. But no one said it was meaningless, we just assumed it. and therefore we had to create a meaning for it. How? we are very creative beings. You can see it every day on TV, or with your friends, or watching anything that lives. Is it not thinkable that a human, or a collection thereof, could have written a book as great as any of the spiritual books? I find it easy to imagine...we can accomplish anything...even if it was over 2000 years ago.

The problem with thinking about Death is mearly a perception. We all have been programed to percieve "Time". that there is a begining, middle, an end.
It is likely that we are all permanantly Attached to the concept of time.

I Suggest that we should let go of our attachments, and let go of our perceptions. I believe that the begining, middle and end, already happened, is happening, and will continue to happen, and that time is actually an hourglass tipped on its side, we are looking at it sideways.

When life gets tough for me, It helps me to imagine this...All of this already happened...And I CHOSE to come back and live through this life, through all the great and horrible things that it would bring me. I NEEDED to live it. I wanted to learn and grow from it. EVERY moment is full of meaning. Even the great, empty spaces. Life is like music, and music cannot be understood with out carefully timed rests and pauses. Everything happens for a reason. All you have to do is listen to the music.

One more thing. I dont disbelieve in god or Jesus or whoever...I just believe in being the best version of myself that I can. And even though I dont go to church or pray everyday etc., I believe that if there is a great creator, that it would accept me no matter what I did, because I was part of it, and because through me it understood more of itself, which is probably what it wanted in the first place.

One day I believe our arrogance will vanish, and our science and spirituality will meet each other face to face, and we then will be ready to understand ourselves. untill then, we should enjoy what we have been given.

STILL WORRIED ABOUT DEATH OR HELL? GO RENT THE MOVIE "GROUNDHOG DAY". I mean it.

I'd like to end this super long post with a quote from my favorite wise man, Buddah. (paraphrased) "Do not follow me. You must find your own way".

[H2SO4]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

It's hard to belive, but yes, I believe we humans have a purpose more then just being born and dieing. There has to be more.

[The Toecutter]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

And what if there isn't anything more?

Regardless, whatever purpose there is in life, you'll either have to figure it out for yourself or just sponge up someone else's views on the matter.

[Crimson Knight]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

While I don't know the meaning of life(or choose not share it, whatever), one person told me something that could help: Be more aware. Toecutter knows what I'm talking about.

[Valkysas]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

There has to be more.

Why?

Because people want there to be something more?

[H2SO4]

Re: how many of you believe in an afterlife?

Yeah, more. If all we are meant to do is be born, marry, repopulate, and die, then whats the point of our existance? I just wish it was more clear what our purpose is :/ bah, this topic makes my head hurt, enough of my philosophical blabbering :P