That's it. Do you think there is life after death or not.
Seems to me that many people only behave as if it's all true (going to heaven, seeing our loved ones, etc,) or at least pretend they believe....as a courtesy to others. You don't know how to comfort a grieving widow or parent, so you mumble nonsense, hug them and try to move on.
No you go back to being what you were before you were born.... Dirt
Considering the basis of wanting to believe in life after death is the need of the ego to believe that it will never die, it is surprising that no one has ever been able to prove within a reasonable doubt that they have lived before and that persona is remembered by them in accurate detail. It seems highly unlikely in light of that fact.
No. If there is, does that mean the cycle continues until the person who wants to believe it decides they don't want it anymore?
Logically, that would mean that anyone whose life sucks should kill themselves and keep doing it until they finally get a life they like.
Another opiate of the masses issue.
Unless of course you believe as a woman once told me, that we decide before we're born how we want our life to be and some of us choose to suffer.
Which leads us to the typical answer these days, it's whatever you want the answer to be.
Karmic choice. Sure. That makes sense. Uh, huh! I heard a lot about that in India. It seems to help explain how many people can live in deep poverty there and still accept it.
I just scrolled to read all the responses, the answers are all fine but obvious. We are not a cross section of society are we?
In the sense of natural recycling and the living cells of my body becoming living cells of something else after consumption
yes.
In the sense of surviving personalities transmigrating or ascending
No, that is just wishful thinking and cowardice.
In order for us humans to not have to deal with the idea that once our body stops breathing and that is it forever, religions have given us a belief that there will be someone on the other side to meet us and have a place for us to "live" on forever. However, the reality is that no one know for sure until one's time is up. This is what keeps people believing what religions are telling us and hence religions will never go extinct no matter how much science continues to punch holes into all the fictitious stories they have told us over the centuries. Truth be told no one has ever really "died" and came back to life. Those that said they did were only temporarily in a suspended state for a short time and their mind was really dreaming. If there really was a life after death then I think all of us atheists would be front and center in a religion again.
No.
I actually prefer that there not be, since it was challenging enough to sort this life out. I look forward to oblivion.
Agree totally, immortality is an horrific idea.
Death by definition means no longer living, so no. (Though I agree in the abstract that life goes on because of you, I don't think that's the question.) Life goes on after you. Give it your best shot now! You will live on only in the memories and hearts of those you affected by your living.
No. By all logic, there can be no part of the body that lives on after death.
Exactly, personality is a function of the brain, saying it continues after death is like declaring that every time you turn off your TV set a part of it continues showing programs in some ethereal phase space.
Genetically, yes. My mother lives on in her children and their children. Naturally, yes, decomposition feeds new life.
In your mind and through oral tradition someone’s life continues. Supernaturally, spiritually, and as a physical individual- no, there is nothing. That’s why you make the most of the moments you spend with those you love and love you.
life is the chemical process, not the qualia we consider "self".
I do not believe, nor has there every been any evidence for, any kind of "soul" separate from the biochemical body, so there is nothing to "live" after that chemical process stops.