I think we can all agree that our physical form as we currently experience it will at one point fall away, whether suddenly, by disease, or system failure in old age. Our body/mind complex is temporary.
What, in your worldview, remains? What will you experience, if anything, after your physical form ceases to function? Will the experience be animated? Inert? Without the senses of the body/mind, what can you experience? Many speak of seeing their relatives after they die. How does one see without eyes? Hear without ears? Smell without a nose? Taste without a mouth? Touch (feel) without nerve endings?
What, if anything, do you experience?
It was my great relief to discover that the Bible does not teach that we have an immortal soul....(meaning that conscious life continues after death in spiritual form)......I lost my father at an early age and I could not come to terms with the fact that he was somewhere missing us, like we were missing him. How could he be happy while we were deeply grieving his loss? A heart attack took him suddenly at only 52 years of age....no warning...no goodbyes.
This belief in some kind of afterlife permeates most religions in some way or another......that life does not really end, it just goes to another place, in another form. But I believe that you are correct...
"How does one see without eyes? Hear without ears? Smell without a nose? Taste without a mouth? Touch (feel) without nerve endings?"
Science tells us that the consciousness of man is experienced in the brain.....the place where all our senses are interpreted. Without a brain there is no mind, no consciousness and no human life.
King Solomon backed that up by saying....
"For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all, nor do they have any more reward, because all memory of them is forgotten. . . .10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do with all your might, for there is no work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the Grave, where you are going." (Ecclesiastes 9:5, 10)
Those who have been in a coma and regained consciousness even after many years, had no memory of the time that passed. This proves that the brain must be functional to be aware of what is going on around them.
So why do people imagine being reunited with loved ones who have passed away? Simple.....we were never meant to be separated from them, because life on earth was originally meant to be lived here forever. Death was never the Creator's intention for us......it was only introduced as a penalty for breaking God's law. "Mortal" doesn't mean that we have to die....only that we can. God provided the means for man to go on living with no aging, sickness or death....but we lost it due to one man's disobedience.
Where do we get the idea that we go on living after death? I believe that continuing life is programmed into us....like a common expectation that is still there, but no one knows why?
Its a bit like our concept of paradise too....we all want to go there.....even for a vacation....I believe that we are programmed to live there....no one really understands why we are drawn to paradisaic places.
'The dead don't know anything'.....they are just "sleeping", according to Jesus who was on his way to awaken his friend Lazarus, who had died four days before. (John 11:11-14)
If one 'sleeps', one can 'awaken'....this is called a "resurrection". This is what the Bible teaches. A return to this life only with all the horrible things removed. It means that we get a new body and our consciousness is restored so that life can be experienced with all our senses......even better than before. (Revelation 21:3-4)
That resonates with me......I don't know about others.
And please be specific. Anyone who simply answers "God" will be locked in the staff lounge and whipped with a wet noodle.
Noodles??? Beef or chicken...?