So what does happen when you die?

[JLM]

The spirit moves on and the body becomes worm food

That was my feeling, but others tell me I have to adjust my thinking. :lol::lol::lol:

 

[VanIsle]

I think the only thing we can do here to prove this is that someone (everyone?) has to promise to come back and write one line on this thread right after they pass through the pearly gates. Wouldn't that shut us all up!!!! BTW - my emoticons do not work. Am I doing something wrong? Do I just not have that privilege yet - anyone?

 

[Cliffy]

That was my feeling, but others tell me I have to adjust my thinking. :lol::lol::lol:

As far as I'm concerned, the spirit evolves, never devolves, hence it is unlikely that we can become a cow or anything other than human. We may have been a cow in a past life, but that would have been before our first human incarnation. I have dreams of having been different animals, running like a horse or flying like a hawk.

 

[petros]

I think the only thing we can do here to prove this is that someone (everyone?) has to promise to come back and write one line on this thread right after they pass through the pearly gates. Wouldn't that shut us all up!!!! BTW - my emoticons do not work. Am I doing something wrong? Do I just not have that privilege yet - anyone?

It would be nice if somebody would.

emoticons and avatars sometimes don't load and will reappear sooner or later.

There are energy producing and information storing capable minerals which can never be chemically broken down (only reduced) that drive several brain and misc biological functions.

 

[Spade]

What the honest person must do is answer the question, "Is a belief in an afterlife positive or negative?"

Certainly, the belief offers solace to the dying or relatives of the deceased.

However, the negatives are far too glaring.
* Too many armies engaged in futile combat are manned by those who believe if they die they will be rewarded in a "heaven." This is just as true in the West as it is in Islam. How many parents would encourage their sons or daughters to enlist if they believed this life were the only gift? Recruiters would have a much more difficult time!
* The belief that this world is a temporary staging ground for the hereafter is exploited by those who resist social or environmental action.
* Belief, as with the Xian End Timers or idiot Islamic suicide bombers,is definitely a force for evil.

 

[JLM]

As far as I'm concerned, the spirit evolves, never devolves, hence it is unlikely that we can become a cow or anything other than human. We may have been a cow in a past life, but that would have been before our first human incarnation. I have dreams of having been different animals, running like a horse or flying like a hawk.

There is an idea that warrants merit, especially the part about evolving vs. devolving (which wouldn't make any sense)

What the honest person must do is answer the question, "Is a belief in an afterlife positive or negative?"

Certainly, the belief offers solace to the dying or relatives of the deceased.

However, the negatives are far too glaring.
* Too many armies engaged in futile combat are manned by those who believe if they die they will be rewarded in a "heaven." This is just as true in the West as it is in Islam. How many parents would encourage their sons or daughters to enlist if they believed this life were the only gift? Recruiters would have a much more difficult time!
* The belief that this world is a temporary staging ground for the hereafter is exploited by those who resist social or environmental action.
* Belief, as with the Xian End Timers or idiot Islamic suicide bombers,is definitely a force for evil.

Spade - you've almost got to a point beyond the limit of my intelligence, so excuse me if you find my answer poorly worded. We already know that the human animal is far from perfect, so naturally I question the examples you cite. Your negative points are all derived from the weakness of the human animal. The purposes of the afterlife are to reward/punish and improve the human animal, so using his/her weaknesses to debunk the idea needs further consideration..............................if I'm making any sense at all. :lol::lol::lol:

 

[talloola]

If there IS a life after death, I would rather be safe (in believing that there is) than sorry, as the all-knowing intellectual who KNOWS otherwise.

what would you be sorry about?

 

[lone wolf]

I could never figure why some folks obsess entire lifetimes of life's end. Nobody gets out of here alive....

 

[Spade]

Spade - you've almost got to a point beyond the limit of my intelligence, so excuse me if you find my answer poorly worded. We already know that the human animal is far from perfect, so naturally I question the examples you cite. Your negative points are all derived from the weakness of the human animal. The purposes of the afterlife are to reward/punish and improve the human animal, so using his/her weaknesses to debunk the idea needs further consideration..............................if I'm making any sense at all. :lol::lol::lol:

What I am saying is, it is far better to live this life assuming there is no hereafter. We all would benefit!

 

[JLM]

what would you be sorry about?

At risk of putting words in someone else's mouth I think what he might mean is, he doesn't want to risk the situation where he doesn't believe in an after life and then be p*ssed off later on upon finding out there is.............................:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
(Correct me if I'm wrong Y.J.)

 

[Curiosity]

Um well I hope the beyond will have chocolate ice cream (sorry - was just thinking about lunch and it's only 930am!)

I love reading other peoples' thoughts and ideas - there is no right or wrong on this issue - only what we choose to believe and throughout our lives as we age (hopefully we will live long), we may change our current ideas to new ones.

I think "open mind" is the best on this one.... it's a who knows issue....

 

[JLM]

What I am saying is, it is far better to live this life assuming there is no hereafter. We all would benefit!

Hmmmmmmmm what about all the people who are being very careful to behave, thinking they will have to pay for misdeeds later? :smile:

 

[talloola]

What the honest person must do is answer the question, "Is a belief in an afterlife positive or negative?"

Certainly, the belief offers solace to the dying or relatives of the deceased.

However, the negatives are far too glaring.
* Too many armies engaged in futile combat are manned by those who believe if they die they will be rewarded in a "heaven." This is just as true in the West as it is in Islam. How many parents would encourage their sons or daughters to enlist if they believed this life were the only gift? Recruiters would have a much more difficult time!
* The belief that this world is a temporary staging ground for the hereafter is exploited by those who resist social or environmental action.
* Belief, as with the Xian End Timers or idiot Islamic suicide bombers,is definitely a force for evil.

if there was anything to the belief that there is an afterlife, we would 'by now' have lots of information to prove such a belief. The human being has come so far in knowledge, that proof and detailed information would have been discovered. No such knowledge is available, with exception of some books which are written by other believers and not anyone who has anything 'concrete' for us, but will excite those who want to
believe such stories.

I stay with my opinion that us humans who think they will come back are fearful and selfish and just
can't seem to 'let go', to give 'room' for new life on this earth, other than something that is still
connected to themselves.

 

[Spade]

Hmmmmmmmm what about all the people who are being very careful to behave, thinking they will have to pay for misdeeds later? :smile:

Being good for the hell of it? You mean behaviour modification through myth? Personally, I don't think that is a strong enough deterrent among the 17% of the population that buys into religion. Are those who are religious, on balance, the criminally inclined without it?

 

[talloola]

At risk of putting words in someone else's mouth I think what he might mean is, he doesn't want to risk the situation where he doesn't believe in an after life and then be p*ssed off later on upon finding out there is.............................:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
(Correct me if I'm wrong Y.J.)

so what, if he finds out after death that there is, that would include everyone, whether they believed
or not, or do they go into a different catagorie. lol lol

so I ask again, what is there to be sorry about.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Actually there is quite a bit of documented evidence of reincarnation.

Yes, but none of it survives careful inspection. Plenty of evidence but none of it being any good is pretty much the same as no evidence. And since you brought up that old fraud Edgar Cayce, check this out: Edgar Cayce - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com. The only thing special about Cayce is that a lot of people erroneously continue to think there's something special about him. I readily concede that nobody really knows what happens when you die, but there's no good evidence to suggest it's anything but the end of your life and personality, and you can see it in this thread. Everything about other possibilities is expressed in terms of what people wish or hope to believe is true, and without evidence it's nothing more than speculation and wishful thinking, except for YJ's weak restatement of Pascal's Wager.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Nobody really knows what happens when you die...but some interesting
speculation to be had here as long as you don't let it govern the life that
you currently live, if it works that way.

YouTube - Reincarnation, the amazing story of a scottish child, Part 1

 

[L Gilbert]

Iron is a square crystal, magnetite is an octohedron thanks to the oxygen bond.

What happens to regualr Fe when it meets up with O?

This stuff doesn't rust.

Whether it rusts or not is irrelevant. Surgical stainless steel has a wee tiny bit of iron in it but you won't see someone with a SS pin in their arm or leg getting many MRIs.
Like Anna said, anyone with a 4cm (10 mm is 1 cm) octahedral lump of magnetite in their head would be a little bit nutty.

here's the article from caltech that petros was quoting.

http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~jkirschvink/pdfs/PNASbrainMagnetite.pdf

So?
Read under the section called "Materials and Methods" and under the subsection "Magnetometry". Then read the first three parag4raphs under "Results". The numbers do not substantiate a 4cm lump of magnetite in brains, even in Alzheimer's patients.

Centipedes or are you just bitter about something?

Why would she be bitter about anything?

Bird brains have and utilize magnetite.

Ya think? Are birds reincarnated? Do they think they are?

Magnetics comes in handy for all sorts of things like writing and erasing mass amounts of data or finding your way to the bathroom in the dark when you've had a few.

Birds can 'see' the Earth's magnetic field - life - 30 April 2008 - New Scientist

Ya think?

So what's your point in bringing up magnetics in this thread? You'd like to know what happens to the magnetite and the iron after we die? The magnetic energy?
It dissipates.

It would be nice if somebody would.

emoticons and avatars sometimes don't load and will reappear sooner or later.

There are energy producing and information storing capable minerals which can never be chemically broken down (only reduced) that drive several brain and misc biological functions.

Nonsense. Any substance can be broken down, even diamonds. Energy doesn't seem to break down, it just dissipates. There's no such thing as perpetual motion, even in space.
So you are saying that our "minerals" carry on with our personalities, character, memories past the time when our bodies disintegrate? rofl

I could never figure why some folks obsess entire lifetimes of life's end. Nobody gets out of here alive....

That's about it in a nutshell.

What I am saying is, it is far better to live this life assuming there is no hereafter. We all would benefit!

Um, I don't think so. I think some people run roughshod over others simply because they think there'll be no retribution.

At risk of putting words in someone else's mouth I think what he might mean is, he doesn't want to risk the situation where he doesn't believe in an after life and then be p*ssed off later on upon finding out there is.............................:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
(Correct me if I'm wrong Y.J.)

If one is a good person, what difference would it make? Why would someone live for what they have without regard to a next life be angry at finding out there is a next life? (Assuming the nex life wouldn't be a downgrade of the previous one, that is)

 

[JLM]

so what, if he finds out after death that there is, that would include everyone, whether they believed
or not, or do they go into a different catagorie. lol lol

so I ask again, what is there to be sorry about.

That was just a little "tongue in cheek" talloola- thought you'd know by now when I'm joking. :lol: (Usually when I'm giving Y.J. a hard time.) (If he didn't have such a good sense of humour I wouldn't do it) :lol::lol::lol:

Yes, but none of it survives careful inspection. Plenty of evidence but none of it being any good is pretty much the same as no evidence. And since you brought up that old fraud Edgar Cayce, check this out: Edgar Cayce - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com. The only thing special about Cayce is that a lot of people erroneously continue to think there's something special about him. I readily concede that nobody really knows what happens when you die, but there's no good evidence to suggest it's anything but the end of your life and personality, and you can see it in this thread. Everything about other possibilities is expressed in terms of what people wish or hope to believe is true, and without evidence it's nothing more than speculation and wishful thinking, except for YJ's weak restatement of Pascal's Wager.

You know what Dex? I think you may be right. But taking the two extremes of your opinion and Curiosity's I find hers make more sense to me. (But what do I know) :lol::lol:

I could never figure why some folks obsess entire lifetimes of life's end. Nobody gets out of here alive....

You're absolutely right, but if you could get inside the heads of such bastards as Bernie Madoff or Conrad Black you might under why. :lol::lol::lol:

"Um, I don't think so. I think some people run roughshod over others simply because they think there'll be no retribution."

Yep. :lol:

 

[Spade]

Um, I don't think so. I think some people run roughshod over others simply because they think there'll be no retribution.

Ahhh, Churchill's fear of chaos if the people didn't have "religion."

BBC News - Churchill ordered UFO cover-up, National Archives show