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How do you view death?
- Thread starter Nimos
- Start date
I think death (like described in Near Death Experiences) is an opening to the more beautiful and spiritual astral plane shedding all the problems of the material body. I actually held that attitude while I was at my mother's side for the last moment.
When my time approaches I believe I will be looking forward to the expansion of conscious experience knowing 'I did what I did (more good than bad)' with the physical body.
So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words. He was much like me in the sense that he valued and put his love and trust in humanity. The ceremony was really good, with closes family sharing memories, there were even live music performed by my talented half cuisine. And the usually (at least from what im used to) sadness and joy. Personally I am a person that prefer to celebrate the life of the deceased and their memories rather than be sad about the lost. But obviously think that there should be room for both.
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
When I lose someone, I recall who they were, how they interacted with my life and how their presence in my life continues to affect me, will affect my future and continue to affect my future choices. When I die, the life I lived will continue to have its effect on those I've interacted with. For better, for worse, hopefully more for the better. And their lives will go on to affect the future generations to come. My life is the affect of all those who came before me. Their lives continue through me and my life will continue on into the future and the fact of my presence here and now will be a part of that future.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Why do you think that the afterlife has its problems too? What do you think those problems might be?
I also believe that the afterlife is veiled from us. Baha'u'llah wrote that and He also explained why He did not reveal more about it.
“Know thou that every hearing ear, if kept pure and undefiled, must, at all times and from every direction, hearken to the voice that uttereth these holy words: “Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.” The mysteries of man’s physical death and of his return have not been divulged, and still remain unread. By the righteousness of God! Were they to be revealed, they would evoke such fear and sorrow that some would perish, while others would be so filled with gladness as to wish for death, and beseech, with unceasing longing, the one true God—exalted be His glory—to hasten their end.
Death proffereth unto every confident believer the cup that is life indeed. It bestoweth joy, and is the bearer of gladness. It conferreth the gift of everlasting life.
As to those that have tasted of the fruit of man’s earthly existence, which is the recognition of the one true God, exalted be His glory, their life hereafter is such as We are unable to describe. The knowledge thereof is with God, alone, the Lord of all worlds.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 345-346
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I think it would have problems because I don't see our reality as being supremely made. I can't really imagine what an afterlife would be like so all I have to go on is this world. Life is not a perfect fit here, and survival in nature has always been savage; the prey, and the hunter. Humanity has managed to make life more civil than it actually is.
I'll just say I think of it as a deadline, but not the final one.So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
Try to imagine a life that is not physical. If it is not physical it cannot have the same problems that we have in this physical world such as accidents, injuries and diseases The problems some people will have in the next life will be spiritual problems, such as longing for the physical world and everything physical that they were attached to here, food, drink, sex, which will no longer exist. That is an apt description of hell, wanting what you can no longer have.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
Well I would not care one bit about the loss of food, drink, hunger and sex. But to not have any senses nor means to act and express one's self would be a pointless existence. The loss of platonic relationships and things to relate over would be a hell. If the spiritual world had means to relate and express, to learn and to grow, then it would be worthy indeed. Having a romantic partner wouldn't be bad. But I constantly long to lose attachments, and dependencies on a lot of things already. Now if I could be master of my own being and be free of attachments and necessities, and not slave to things, I find that worthwhile.
Trailblazer
Veteran Member
From what you said I think you will be happy in the spiritual world.
We won't need the physical senses to express ourselves, but we will be able to express ourselves in some other way. The soul will work through a spiritual body. I don't know what that will be like because the afterlife is a mystery.
“The nature of the soul after death can never be described, nor is it meet and permissible to reveal its whole character to the eyes of men.........
The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother. When the soul attaineth the Presence of God, it will assume the form that best befitteth its immortality and is worthy of its celestial habitation.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 156-157
Suave
Simulated character
So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
Maybe it's indeed lights out and game over for everybody after ionic currents stop flowing across their brains' neurons, but who among us know for sure their characters won't be reanimated or re-simulated by the sims controller, reality-based virtual reality programmer of human consciousness?
Twilight Hue
Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
I think life and death are just continuations that have been going on for eternity. Like waves that rise and fall in the ocean. Everything is still here and the universe 'knows' what to do, like it always has.So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
Nimos
Well-Known Member
Well we don't, but that is not what I believe
How do you view your life in all the millenia before you were born?
That's how I view my death, too. I was dead for billions of years before I was born, and it never bothered me in the slightest.
That's how I view my death, too. I was dead for billions of years before I was born, and it never bothered me in the slightest.
So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
I find Jesus was Not happy for his 4-day deceased friend in John chapter 11. Jesus wept !
What turned 'tears to joy' was that Jesus restored (resurrected) his dead friend bringing him back to live life again.
So, as Jesus viewed death as a temporary ' sleep ' then death is Not permanent but the hope of living again.
This could even include ' lights on again ' for the sleeping dead because death is the asking price tag for sin.
No post-mortem penalty for the dead, No double jeopardy for the dead, just sleep until Resurrection Day when Jesus governs over Earth for a thousand years when the majority of mankind can live again on Earth.
Yes, afterlife is a mystery ( afterlife meaning: being more alive after death than before death )
Whereas, I find the nature of the soul after death is described at Ezekiel 18:4,20 as the 'soul that sins: dies '.
Since the dead know nothing, nothing but sleep - Psalms 115:17; Isaiah 38:18; Ecclesiastes 9:5; John 11:11-14,
then on Resurrection Day (Jesus' thousand-year day of governing over Earth) to reveal the whole character (whole person) to the eyes of men during that millennial-long day. ( suppose one could say a thousand-year "Reunion Day" )
amorphous_constellation
Well-Known Member
It's a reorganization of what you are. It gets dissembled, and the things that came together here, permanently go elsewhere, and do other jobs on the world. The soul is the core thing, it's a bit different in that I think it's the point that defines you, more than the other stuff. It uses the body to learn. It goes elsewhere, when the body stops working.
Suave
Simulated character
There are five reasons we may be living in a simulation:
1. Crude simulations and virtual realities have already been simulated by computers .
A study conducted by Henry Markram and his team at the Blue Brain project have successfully simulated elements of a rat’s neocortical column, a complex layer of brain tissue common to all mammalian species. " Henry Markram at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his team built their model based on experimental measurements of rat brain slices. The simulation represents roughly 37 million synapses, or neuronal connections, in the brain region that receives sensory information from the whiskers and other parts of the body. Using the model, the team simulated rat whisker movement and saw similar neuronal responses to those observed in rat experiments."
Computer model of rat-brain part - Nature.
I realize a computer simulation of a rat's neocortical column is nowhere near the complexity of a computer simulation of an entire living human brain, but this does demonstrate at least a bit of progress so far being made towards an entire human brain's consciousness being simulated by a computer.
Perhaps when scientists have figured out how to read the actual results of a consciousness simulation, then the simulation hypothesis will become a widely accepted theory.
2. Wave-function collapse - Matter exists as a probability wave that collapses to a particle upon observation. Wave-function collapse would be expected in a simulated reality, because computational resources would be conserved by only simulating observed matter.
3. Matrix glitches - Paranormal phenomenon might happen in a simulation where the rules governing the simulation are disrupted or changed
4 Compromises in simulation algorithms - The human mind and the internet use very similar algorithms or methods to manage the flow of information., these methods often take short cuts to conserve energy or conserve computational resources, this might be expected in a computer simulation.
https://www.studyfinds.org/study-brain-internet-algorithm/
5. Computer code found in string theory.
What if it's not lights-out game-over after your mind's ionic currents cease to flow across your brain's neurons. What if your character gets re-simulated or re-animated by the sims controller? Then what are you going to do?
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firedragon
Veteran Member
So were to a funeral today and I think my first actual or at least announced atheist funeral, so it were in a chapel, but no priest or any religious mish mash as the deceased had wished for in his own words
Anyway, it obviously got me thinking, because for me as an atheist, dead is end of the line, lights out or simply nothingness for the deceased.
But how do you as a religious person think about death? Because obviously a lot think that it is not end of the line, but maybe rather the ultimate prize to "finally" reach the end of the line and get to judgement day or what to call it. And I assume that most people hold the believe that the deceased is saved by Jesus, reincarnated or whatever afterlife you believe exist. So do you see it as a new and better beginning or end of the line?
Personally, given that I have been an atheist my whole life, I can understand the sadness of loosing someone as a religious person, but also if God and Jesus (if that is what you believe in) is the ultimate good and love, shouldn't one be happy for the deceased or if possible how would you describe it?
In some parts of India, people have a parade, drink alcohol, dance in the street and celebrate when someone dies. They believe the next life is better. I mean they really do the jig.
First, I don't know why I've had this life given to me. I try not to worry about things I can't change and death is on that list. I expect that death will be painful and there will probably be no new world waiting for me. I do hope I'm wrong and my parents and lost loved ones are there for my arrival and we are all young again, lol.....What a miracle that would be ! I've been too selfish in this life to have earned any rewards in the next.
But really, I only want to know the reason that you THINK you are living in a simulation!
Does your life not feel real? Do you feel as if you constructed and being manipulated every moment of your life?
Do you suspect that you couldn't exist without being created and driven by something else?
And how do you explain how that "somthing else" could exist without being created an d driven by something other than it -- and so forth unto infinty?
I mean really, shouldn't you have some basis for these suspicions? Or are you just repeating something somebody else said (who you never asked the questions I just did)?