Which "afterlife" stories makes the most sense?

[blü 2]

Some of us can see, hear, feel the spiritual world, because it's real.

My father is dead.

Describe him to me.

 

[blü 2]

Seeing God's creation all around us is how we see God because what we see exists in the world external to the self, which we know about through our senses.

I see nothing supernatural in the world external to the self. All of it is nature, by definition.

The only place we find the spiritual / supernatural / immaterial is as concepts / things imagined in individual brains.

 

[Skywalker]

I see nothing supernatural in the world external to the self. All of it is nature, by definition.

The only place we find the spiritual / supernatural / immaterial is as concepts / things imagined in individual brains.

There's no other explanation for how everything has an order and a purpose, besides God. We need the trees to survive and they need us.

 

[Trailblazer]

No examinable evidence supports the notion.

As I tell all my atheist friends, you'll get your evidence after you die.

 

[Trailblazer]

a story to mitigate fear of death.

 

[Trailblazer]

My father is dead.

Describe him to me.

You will have to contract a good medium for that. I do not communicate between the two worlds.
What if you did that and a medium described him to you, then what would you think?

 

[blü 2]

There's no other explanation for how everything has an order and a purpose, besides God. We need the trees to survive and they need us.

Other way round.

Reality is as it is, and evolution has fitted us to it. We breathe air because we have air. Oxygen can be a ferocious element, so our adaptation to it took place during the era ─ the first three billion years of life, pretty much ─ when the very basic forms of life at that time were eating what was available and excreting the oxygen we now take for granted. If they'd been giving us, say, a chlorine atmosphere instead, then whatever was living on land on Earth would need to have adapted to chlorine, and we'd be very different critters.

In the same way we can digest plants and proteins because plants and proteins are what is there to eat ─ not, as you suggest, the other way round ─ and other species have either done the same, or as microorganisms are good at, been able to adapt to eat whatever's to hand.

 

[blü 2]

As I tell all my atheist friends, you'll get your evidence after you die.

Sure, you can look at what's in the box AFTER you've paid me for it.

Well waddaya know! It's empty! Dang, all that dough and ...

You will have to contract a good medium for that. I do not communicate between the two worlds.

That's only because there's only one real one. The rest are imaginary.

What if you did that and a medium described him to you, then what would you think?

Well, to adapt something the late great Martin Gardner said, Evidence of ESP is overwhelming evidence of fraud.

 

[Trailblazer]

Sure, you can look at what's in the box AFTER you've paid me for it.

I'll look around for you on the other side but you might be in a different sphere.
I cannot say where skeptics end up, only God knows.

 

[blü 2]

I'll look around for you on the other side but you might be in a different sphere.
I cannot say where skeptics end up, only God knows.

God and I, then. Same place as everyone else, nowhere.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Physical senses are not going to to get anyone closer to knowing God who is not a material Being; it is the mind that sees God and that is why I said I know by intuition.

"It is the mind that sees god" isn't that aligned with god as an origin of a person's imagination (the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses)?

It's hard to shift through the scripture language. If you can summarize it, that would be better.

 

[Trailblazer]

"It is the mind that sees god" isn't that aligned with god as an origin of a person's imagination (the faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses)?

It's hard to shift through the scripture language. If you can summarize it, that would be better.

The mind is the power of the human spirit (rational soul). The soul is like a lamp and the mind is the light that shines through the lamp.

The best way to discover Truth is through the mind assisted by the spirit of faith. Anything else such as an emotional attachment to a certain point of view or belief can lead one astray. God gave us a mind to use for reasoning, but unless it is assisted by the spirit of faith, it cannot become acquainted with the divine mysteries. Everyone has a soul (lamp) but of one does not turn on the lamp and allow the spirit of faith to shine from the lamp one cannot become informed of the divine mysteries.

“The human spirit which distinguishes man from the animal is the rational soul, and these two names—the human spirit and the rational soul—designate one thing..…

But the human spirit, unless assisted by the spirit of faith, does not become acquainted with the divine secrets and the heavenly realities. It is like a mirror which, although clear, polished and brilliant, is still in need of light. Until a ray of the sun reflects upon it, it cannot discover the heavenly secrets.

But the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp. Spirit is the tree, and the mind is the fruit. Mind is the perfection of the spirit and is its essential quality, as the sun’s rays are the essential necessity of the sun.” Some Answered Questions, pp. 208-209