I have a feeling that the afterlife doesn't exist

[joelr]

Obviously a destroyed consciousness can be enabled.

What does that mean and what evidence do you have it's possible. A destroyed anything can return, but it doesn't.

 

[joelr]

I guess you're not familiar with my posts on this forum over the last two years, in which I've repeatedly stated that I'm not interested in convincing skeptics that the paranormal is real or that I won't argue or debate with them. I have long since resolved not to argue and debate with skeptics about my personal experiences with the paranormal. In fact, I don't believe it is my responsibility to convince them that what I've experienced is real. I mean no offense when I say this, but it doesn't matter to me if they choose not to believe in the paranormal because their skepticism doesn't change my belief in it or nullify any of my experiences with it. As I've stated many times on the subject, skeptics can decide for themselves whether or not to believe me. I've never once tried to persuade any skeptics that I converse with online or in person to believe in the paranormal, and I don't intend to start now. I just let it happen naturally.

Right. No offense when I say this but it doesn't matter to me if you hold true beliefs or have used confirmation bias to come to false conclusions.
I am interested in evidence, sounds like you don't have any beyond anecdotal stories.

Skepticism isn't looking to change beliefs or "nullify" your experience in any supernatural event be it gods, alien abduction, fairies or whatever.
What nullifies such beliefs is not having a demonstrable methodology to distinguish between hallucination, imagination and other events happening solely in ones mind vs actual events outside your brain. But I ask just in case you did. I doubt that you do.

Skepticism is a tool for me to separate reality from fiction because our brains are not wired to do a good job with this. You believe whatever you like.

 

[cataway]

some people just can't believe that dead means dead

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Right. No offense when I say this but it doesn't matter to me if you hold true beliefs or have used confirmation bias to come to false conclusions.
I am interested in evidence, sounds like you don't have any beyond anecdotal stories.

Skepticism isn't looking to change beliefs or "nullify" your experience in any supernatural event be it gods, alien abduction, fairies or whatever.
What nullifies such beliefs is not having a demonstrable methodology to distinguish between hallucination, imagination and other events happening solely in ones mind vs actual events outside your brain. But I ask just in case you did. I doubt that you do.

Skepticism is a tool for me to separate reality from fiction because our brains are not wired to do a good job with this. You believe whatever you like.

I just expressed my thoughts on skeptics who challenge supernatural phenomena in another thread, and I'd like for you to read it. You may read my post here. I'd also like to let you know that this will be my final reaction to your direct responses to my posts. I won't be drawn into a debate about my personal experiences or about anything else I consider to be paranormal. As you told me, you believe whatever you like. To each their own. I wish you peace, joelr.

 

[PearlSeeker]

I know religious people are absolutely convinced of some sort of afterlife but for me I am not convinced at all for me personally I feel like nothing will happen when I die now of course I don't know what happens but I just feel like nothing will happen anyway what are your thoughts on an afterlife ?

I haven' experienced any signs of before/afterlife. That's why I can't be sure of anything but this moment of being alive. Death seems like termination of life but I still have hope there is some kind of personal existence beyond death because there are some testimonies of paranormal events.

 

[PearlSeeker]

But....everything you are is entirely atoms and atoms fall apart and recombine continuously. None of it can be destroyed in any real sense.

You and me as well as anything else is actually timeless and those lights come on and off all the time under the right conditions.

Silica sand was here thousands of years ago but there were no computers. Stuff is not things. Also atoms by themselves are not everything "you" are.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Silica sand was here thousands of years ago but there were no computers. Stuff is not things. Also atoms by themselves are not everything "you" are.

What else aside from atoms are there?

 

[Spice]

@Spice - Here are 2 translations of Leviticus 21:11 that speak of the dead:

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And he shall not enter upon any soul of the dead and he shall not be polluted with his father or with his mother;

Brenton Septuagint Translation
neither shall he go in to any dead body, neither shall he defile himself for his father or his mother.

Now the thing I'm trying to bring out is that the word there translated as soul or body (dead) is the Hebrew nephesh, as you mentioned.
body נַפְשֹׁ֥ת (nap̄·šōṯ)
Noun - feminine plural construct
Strong's 5315: A soul, living being, life, self, person, desire, passion, appetite, emotion

Notice Strong's explanation of nephesh -- soul, living being, life, person, etc.

Your last response has me confused a bit on where you stand on death, so I came back to this one. I still agree that "soul" refers to the "living being, life, person, etc.", but the eternal-life part of the human. Every part is eternal, but only the soul is eternal life.

Now, to the scripture you've shared here, if you read back to the verse before, it will be re-emphazied that Leviticus is instruction for Hebrew priest. Then moving on, it is forbidden for a priest to touch a corpse, as it would make him unclean. This, granted in a round-about way, substantiates that the life part, or the soul of this deceased person is gone elsewhere.

 

[Spice]

Since the soul (aka nephesh in Hebrew) can refer to the life of animal or human, the possibility of life (not one's soul) returns to God upon death.

Why would the "possibility of life" not be one's soul? As per Jer 1:5, God knows us before we're born, and conscrates us, sets us on our individual path, prior to our temporary human existence.

Not a soul that leaves the body and lives on somewhere. One reason is because there is a resurrection.

That is what we're working to earn, IMO, our own resurrection. Matt 22: 31,32 "And as for the resurrection of the dead, ... He is not God of the dead, but of the living."

That doesn't mean God makes a body and tucks a soul in it. It means that a person returns to life and God remembered that individual, just as Jesus pointed out that every hair on our head is numbered. Thus we are souls. Take care.

We are indeed souls, who for a time are indeed, tucked into a body. Yes, God remembers that individual down to every hair on their head, and every error of his way, and every loving thought/deed.

Look to Job. After Satin put him to the test, over and over, and he held true, God (Job 42:12) "... blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning;..." (Job 42:16) "And after this Job lived a hundred and forty years,..." 140 years. After the flood God determined man's life possibility to be 120, as it remains today. If we remain extremely healthy, this vessel is still only designed for 120 years max. So how did Job live so long, with two completely separate families, etc. Two human lives, maybe? Rewarded in the second for the good heart of the first?

But the individual that God set upon this/these paths were the same soul, IMO.

Namaste

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

I know religious people are absolutely convinced of some sort of afterlife but for me I am not convinced at all for me personally I feel like nothing will happen when I die now of course I don't know what happens but I just feel like nothing will happen anyway what are your thoughts on an afterlife ?

I believe in it but the beauty of it is that if there is not, I won’t be able to care.

 

[Twilight Hue]

What does that mean and what evidence do you have it's possible. A destroyed anything can return, but it doesn't.

You gained consciousness when you were conceived and born. You didn't have any consciousness before the event, at least as the person called "you" when coming out of the abyss.

That's the evidence and since the odds are at a definite 1:? I suspect its also repeatable.

I think your personality permanently dies for real, but life itself is another story as the eyes will open again with a completely blank mind as this life was, with no recollection of any former lives , and I suspect this goes on for infinitum.

It's obviously not conclusive , but I think it qualifies as a decent educated guess.

 

[YoursTrue]

I don't disagree with that, as the soul lives forever, not duplicated, not of the world, but of God. The soul is the infinite speck of who we are. We are not this physical body. We are not this human mind. We are not this environmentally made ego. We are a speck of God, His breath (Gen. 2:7), if you will, and when the body/mind/ego lets it go, it returns to God (Ecc 12:7).

Then, let's use this analogy: Then the Father looks over our report card, determines the curriculum needed for our next grade, and sends us back to school in our new uniform, with our new textbooks, in our new book bag for more lessons by teacher Lucifer (Job 1:7-12). This continues until we graduate as our big brother, Jesus did, and we get to go home fully grown "into heaven." (Rev 3:12)

I'd like to offer another scripture for your perusal. Not every translation has it this way and that's interesting in itself, but here are two translations that equate life with soul, because it speaks of living souls that DIED.
Berean Literal Bible
And the second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood, as of one dead; and every living soul that was in the sea died.
King James Bible
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
(Revelation 16:3)
The Bible speaks of the soul as that which can die.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

I know religious people are absolutely convinced of some sort of afterlife but for me I am not convinced at all for me personally I feel like nothing will happen when I die now of course I don't know what happens but I just feel like nothing will happen anyway what are your thoughts on an afterlife ?

I agree.

 

[YoursTrue]

Have you ever been under general anaesthetic? When it feels like you have been asleep for one second but its been hours. And during that time absolutely nothing happens and you can't remember a thing.

That's what I think the afterlife is, eternal sleep and you won't even know it.

People are hoping there is an afterlife (And it would be cool and I hope sometimes as well) but really there is no need, this life has been enough.

That's kind of like what Einstein said before he died. He had enough of "life." But, according to the Bible, what I understand from it, this life is not all there is. As I understand it more, it makes sense to me. Speaks of "new heavens and a new earth" in which righteousness is to dwell. And I hope for and believe that to be true.

 

[Spice]

I'd like to offer another scripture for your perusal. Not every translation has it this way and that's interesting in itself, but here are two translations that equate life with soul, because it speaks of living souls that DIED.
Berean Literal Bible
And the second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood, as of one dead; and every living soul that was in the sea died.
King James Bible
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
(Revelation 16:3)
The Bible speaks of the soul as that which can die.

In Revelation the language is most definitely unique, making the allegory extremely controversial in meaning. I've made my personal interpretation of bits and pieces, but honestly, it's not a book that has ever interested me enough to delve deeply.

My Bible, that I've used for 60 years (Revised Standard Version, 2nd Edition) for this verse, states "...every living thing...", as does the 4 English Bibles that preceded King James, and a fair majority of others.

If I stopped using the word "soul" and replaced it across the board with "spirit", would you be able to present the same rebuttal? I could do that without changing anything about my view other than two words that I have always found interchangeable in most instances. I would find it awkward to try saying Holy Soul instead of Holy Spirit. [wink]

 

[YoursTrue]

In Revelation the language is most definitely unique, making the allegory extremely controversial in meaning. I've made my personal interpretation of bits and pieces, but honestly, it's not a book that has ever interested me enough to delve deeply.

My Bible, that I've used for 60 years (Revised Standard Version, 2nd Edition) for this verse, states "...every living thing...", as does the 4 English Bibles that preceded King James, and a fair majority of others.

If I stopped using the word "soul" and replaced it across the board with "spirit", would you be able to present the same rebuttal? I could do that without changing anything about my view other than two words that I have always found interchangeable in most instances. I would find it awkward to try saying Holy Soul instead of Holy Spirit. [wink]

View attachment 89898

OK. We'll go over the Hebrew and Greek and applications. That will help to understand why soul and life and animal or human can be interchanged. It may take some time because obviously it can mean a shift of understanding as to what we believe the Bible says about what happens when we die.

 

[YoursTrue]

some people just can't believe that dead means dead

Even before I knew what the Bible said (dead is dead) I did not think the soul leaves the body and lives somewhere. I was glad to learn what the Bible really says about this.

 

[Viker]

I know religious people are absolutely convinced of some sort of afterlife but for me I am not convinced at all for me personally I feel like nothing will happen when I die now of course I don't know what happens but I just feel like nothing will happen anyway what are your thoughts on an afterlife ?

I only concern myself with what is going on now in this life. I believe that what ever it may be like after I die to be like before I was born. I have no recollection of a pre-birth.

 

[YoursTrue]

I only concern myself with what is going on now in this life. I believe that what ever it may be like after I die to be like before I was born. I have no recollection of a pre-birth.

I believe, like you do, that when I die I will know nothing. Like a deep sleep. Of course our lives are limited even insofar as what we observe, experience and know right now. But I also believe that one day God is going to bring us back from the dead, i.e., wake us up. I know that because that is what I believe from the Bible. I know that now; I won't know anything when I'm dead.

 

[YoursTrue]

I only concern myself with what is going on now in this life. I believe that what ever it may be like after I die to be like before I was born. I have no recollection of a pre-birth.

Hi. There are some things (lots of things) we can't fix in this life, no matter even if we try.