What happens to your spirt / mind when you die? Are you reincarnated? Do you go into another dimension? Or maybe you are born again in a different time? What are everyone's thoughts?
2
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42 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Nothing happens. You're dead. That's it. You cease to be.
I don't understand why so many people have such a problem with that.
You were nothing before you were born. You had no consciousness.
What's so difficult about accepting the finiteness of life?
KKGator
Level 9
Sep 15, 2018
7
@evestrat Exactly! I found his mention of you to be extremely suspect, and nothing more than "name-dropping" in an attempt to gain credibility. If there were actual "proof" of ANY of this bullshit afterlife stuff, it would be on numerous other platforms, other than just the internet. It would also be far more than simply anecdotal.
Nothingness. Once the electrical activity in the brain stops, "we" stop.
jwd45244
Level 7
Sep 15, 2018
6
@tshaaj I can write anything on a book, People can tell any history they want.
People can lie, people can interpret stuff in the wrong way.
If there is no controlled experiment, reproducible and peer reviewed is not science and cannot be claimed as scientific facts.
AND if it cannot be claimed as scientific facts is a matter of belief, and as agnostic I refuse to belief in something just for the sake of belief.
- yes they can, it sels adds, the scientific answer don't
- anyone can make a website, sensacionalism mais more money that science
- doesn't matter how big they are in science, the only works that matter from scientific POV are per reviewed articles, so if they are writing books, giving interviews, making events, websites, doesn't matter, doesn't matter their past or future works, no text out of per reviewed articles matter.
All books, texts, interviews, events etc, are only valid in science if based on per reviewed articles.
Deal with it, anything else than this can - be lying
2)non reproducible so not sure about what happened or how was interpreted - can contain methodological failure
- can contain biasses, or effects analogous to placebus.
And if they can prove that any supernatural stuff exists, just submit the works to the many challenges like Randy's that pays 1 million for this evidence.
These fantasies are part of the new age pseudo religions that are popular amongst the middle class "spiritual" set, derived from eastern religions and alike, offering heaven-like alternatives, based on coming back as something else, or progressing to a new plane, or dimension or universe. They all have one thing in common: like religions there is not a scrap of evidence for any of them. They mainly serve to line the pockets of gurus and similar wankers who peddle their books and cults, and cheer up the gullible who are foolish enough to take them seriously.
David1955
Level 8
Sep 15, 2018
5
I think it's pretty simple. When you die, all consciousness ceases. These ideas of reincarnation, heaven and an afterlife of some sort are created out of people's very natural fear of death. People really get very uncomfortable dealing with the idea that their legacy or their memory may not live on. Ergo, we make the most out of the one life we have. Just an opinion.
Scarecrow
Level 5
Sep 15, 2018
4
What definition or part of the word "die" are you having trouble with?
Anonbene
Level 8
Sep 15, 2018
5
As a heart attack. It's a simple question. Do you know what "die" means?
No, but apparently you do you used the word in your post as an absolute. If you want to edit your post and repost it with a more succinct word then do so. Otherwise, don't think you're going to get away with changing horses in midstream here. Get your stuff together before you come here. Unless you want anyone here to think that dying isn't dying because that would make you sound sort of insane.
I don’t know, and neither do you. There’s insufficient evidence to support any afterlife claim.
FreethoughtKaty
Level 7
Sep 15, 2018
4
We'll become part of the grass. The antelope eats the grass. The circle of life. From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be. It's too bad we can't replace burnt out stars
Kayterade5348
Level 5
Sep 15, 2018
4
I think from the earth we come and to the earth we return. This is our life. Our only life. And we need to make it the best one we can because it is short. Leave it with no regrets.
Ubergooroo
Level 5
Sep 15, 2018
5
I don't think there is such a thing as a spirit outside of our consciousness. Our relatively high intelligence makes us (mostly) sentient beings, which is from whence we derived the idea of a spirit.
I suspect that when we die, it will be much the same as it was during the 13+ billion years before our birth. We won't be aware, and we will not care.
Piratefish
Level 7
Sep 16, 2018
3
no one knows for sure and anyone who says they know is operating on some kind of faith -- their own, if they believe what they're saying, or yours, if you believe what they're saying.
now some stuff we DO know. we know you don't turn into a unicorn and gallop away, for example.
we have good reason to believe that the electrical activity that forms what we call the mind stops when you're dead, so it's unlikely there is anything like a mind once that stops. reincarnation seems unlikely. different dimensions... well, that sounds nice but have we got ANY indication that this is even possible? it's just someone's fanciful idea. what is it, anyway, that would go there, whatever "there" is? our bodies? we can SEE those are gone. our minds? the electricity is cut off. so... what? are we talking souls here? i, for one, don't believe in souls. i see no more evidence of souls than i do of gods.
so now you have my ideas and my reasoning behind them, but since i'm not dead yet, i don't really know. my belief, based on the above, is that once i am dead, there won't be a "me" to know.
g
genessa
Level 8
Sep 15, 2018
3
But to believe in something that you cannot describe is just plain idiocy.
@GlyndonD not everyone is articulate. not being able to describe something could redound to the thing's nonexistence, or it could redound to the person's inability to describe things. i can't explain why mercury is the way mercury is, and i just listened to an hour-long show about mercury. i am not generally inarticulate, but i just can't absorb all that at once. i got the general idea, i understood what i heard as i heard it, but if you ask me to tell you all about mercury, i can just say it's dark, it probably has only one tectonic plate and not several like earth does, and all the stuff we already all know about it, like it's small and the first planet from the sun. well, that's not all there is to know and that's not a very impressive description, though it's twice as good as i could have managed before i heard the show. the problem with believing in various weird ideas about what might happen after we die isn't our inability to describe them. it's that they tend to be completely fanciful and based on our universal wish not to have our lives just stop, even though that is the only thing we know actually happens. lots of people can describe heaven beautifully, and that place doesn't even exist!
g
@GlyndonD, i don't think it's true that people who believe in disembodied spirits can't describe anything about them. some can and some can't. and think of unicorns: we can all describe them, and some can draw or paint them, and they STILL don't exist. meanwhile, i can't describe a photon, and photons exist! describe love? no two people can describe it alike, and many can't describe it at all! i know it when i feel it, though, and sometimes when i see it in others. i don't think description is the problem, or the issue, at all.
g
@genessa, nobody can describe the essence of a disembodied spirit -- what it's made of. I'm therefore rejecting the fantasy as being a credible thing of the universe. To give credibility to one's fantasy as being real is not something I'll put any effort toward. Why should I, if the creator of the fantasy can't seem to do it.
Interesting how much effort you'll put forth. Have you given any thought as to why you do this?
@GlyndonD i do not understand your question. you seem to be asking why i put forth effort to prove there are disembodied spirits, when i do no such thing. i think i have made it clear that there is no such thing as a disembodied spirit. i think i have made it clear that my reason for not believing in disembodied spirits has nothing to do with whether or not anyone can describe them (which, even though they do NOT exist, plenty of people -- and their descriptions don't necessarily agree, mostly because they're describing something that doesn't exist, but they can still describe them!) people describe their hallucinations and THOSE aren't real either. so... which part of my continuing explanation has led you to believe that i believe in disembodied spirits? how many times do i have to say i do NOT for you to GET it? can you please reread everything i have written? because you clearly have not understood one word, if you think that i believe in disembodied spirits. gah. we're arguing about nothing.
g
@genessa, it is your defense of fantasy and belief over that of reason and real experience that I'm objecting to. The fact that I should have some kind of respect for a person's belief in some arbitrary, undefined, unsubstantiated, inconsistent "object" is most distressing. This is an attack on reason and knowledge. Reread your writings to realize that this is what you're promoting.
@GlyndonD let me see if i can put this VERY simply.
stuff you can't see may or may not be real. not being able to see it doesn't prove it one way or the other.
stuff you can't describe may or may not be real. one person's being unable to describe something doesn't make it unreal. one person's ability to describe it also doesn't make it real. it has nothing whatsoever to do with the ability or inability of people to describe. there are other criteria. describability is not one of them. i can describe a unicorn. that doesn't make it real. there are no unicorns even though i can describe them. there are bacteria, even though i can neither see nor describe them.
i have said multiple times i don't believe in unicorns or ghosts or gods or souls or spirits or any other crap like that. how many times do i have to say it?
why do you accuse me of defending superstitions and the like when i have REPEATEDLY said that they are nonsense? do you read only every other word of mine?
g
@genessa, you seem to dismiss my opinion that one should not give any credibility to the existence of something that a person has not been able to even minimally describe. Such fantasy objects should not be given equal status as things that have been described and defined through evidence and reason.
@GlyndonD you are right. i am dismissing that idea. if they are fantasy objects there are other bases on which to deny credibility. if they are not fantasy objects, someone's ability to describe them is irrelevant. i am also dismissing your assertion that i am defending fantasies. i'm not. i am also dismissing your assertion that description has a damned thing to do with any of it. there are other criteria. we're going around in circles. you're not understanding anything i say and all you're doing is making false accusations. under the circumstances, i am not sure why i should continue to try to explain myself to you. i am sure most people reading this understand what i am saying. i am sorry that you do not.
g
@genessa, you shouldn't try to continue explaining yourself, because I fully understand what you're trying to say. I simply don't agree with you, and there's nothing I can say that will convince you that I'm justified in my disagreement.
So, I'll end with saying, "I believe you're wrong. I can't describe why you're wrong, but please accept my statement as being just as valid as a reasoned, valid argument against want you're saying."
And unicorns are real.
@GlyndonD well i don't accept it, on the basis that you clearly do NOT understand what i am saying. i say this based on your assertions that i have said certain things that not only have i not said but the opposite of what i've said. so you think i need not explain myself anymore. good for you. i think i shouldn't bother, but for different reasons.
g
There is no evidence of a spirit outside of the sum of the neurological activity that takes place in our brains. When we die, that activity ceases. The atoms that make up our bodies return to abiotic reservoirs where they may remain indefinitely until other organisms, typically autotrophs (plants, algae, and cyanobacteria) use them as raw materials for building their own tissues. These may be consumed by a series of different heterotrophic organisms (first herbivores, then omnivores, carnivores, detritivores, and decomposers) at different levels of the food web. It is possible that atoms from our body could occupy any or all of these levels simultaneously. Of course this recycling of atoms has been going on since life first evolved on Earth some 3.5 to 4 billion years ago. Many of the atoms in our bodies have already been through countless food webs. It is certain the atoms making up our bodies were recently bits of corn plants and beef cows and such. Before that those same atoms may once have made up the bodies of pine trees, termites, hedgehogs, bears, bison, eagles, worms, and theropod dinosaurs. What we call "our" atoms are really only on very temporary loan to us. Like leaves of grass we spring up, have our day in the sun, and then disintegrate. You only get one shot at this thing called you. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Flyingsaucesir
Level 8
Sep 16, 2018
2
@tshaaj
Not 100%. More like 99.9999%
I struggled a lot to find answers to the following questions when I was flirting with Buddhism. At some point I realised that their answers to the following questions were based on faith alone (what the Buddha said) and decided to not practice it anymore.
Similar concepts are of course not exclusive to Buddhism but other eastern religions too
tsallinia
Level 6
Sep 15, 2018
3
Current evidence, as incomplete as it is, heavily favors the rotting scenario. As for the mind/consciousness part, based on what evidence is available, it appears that ceases on brain death.
Can anyone say one way or the other? No, because it is something unknowable, but by extension of all we do know being applied to the problem it is probably safe to say the 'you' in the mix probably is gone. Your physical elements will be recycled into the environment, but the things that went on in the brain that made a human being a person, its sentience, is gone.
evidentialist
Level 8
Sep 15, 2018
2
No one really knows. As the only way to truly know is to die and stay dead. And we know that when you die, you can’t tell the living what’s going on 
Personally, I think it’s the main reason that religion is still so popular. Fear of what’s behind the curtain when we die. I want to think that there is some sort of reward at the end for people that were typically good people. And there’s a punishment at the end for baby rapist and those kinds of d-bags.
But that’s just what brings me the most comfort. If it’s true, no one knows. But we’ll all get to see sooner or later.
Leo716
Level 6
Sep 16, 2018
2
42
Let me know when you have real evidence of an answer to this question. Just don't make up a "could be" answer. That would be fiction.
Personally, I don't care. I'm sure I will or won't cope with whatever happens.
micktoz
Level 5
Sep 16, 2018
2
Are you any any chance a Tralfalmagorian, or have you been hanging out with Tralfalmagorians?
@Flyingsaucesir Hahahaha. Though I am a legal resident alien in the US, I am not a Tralfamadorian.
At an earlier age, I read some of Kurt Vonnegut's books.
I am more Douglas Adams kind of guy.
@micktoz
I only ask because it was they who said that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42. ?
@tshaaj
Heaven, Hell, Xanadu, Valhalla, Nirvana, Zion, Hades, Utopia, Arcadia, Shangri-la, Tartarus....it's many names for the same fiction.
@tshaaj
Likewise bra.
The same place my mind-body was before I was born.
Non-existent.
There is no fear that I did not exist before my finite memories.
Why should I fear that I will not exist after I die?
I do not.
BufftonBeotch
Level 8
Sep 16, 2018
2
I don't believe in reincarnation or any afterlife... I think it's important to use this limited time we have to do the greatest good we can and when we do die.. hopefully we will be remembered ..but we won't know anyway. Humans are so complicated. Cats don't don't give a shit. If there were a next life.. I would hope to be a cat.
Dandewine
Level 7
Sep 15, 2018
2
There is no basis for a disembodied "spirit". Nobody has ever said what such a thing would consist of, except for vague descriptions such as "energy" (which is a state, not a thing). I guess this also means that there is no basis for a god (a super disembodied spirit). And without a god to create the rules of reincarnation, where would these "rules" that govern how, when, and where a spirit gets reincarnated into have come from? So, you see, to have disembodied spirits, you have to have a god. To believe in reincarnation or heavens or hells, you have to believe there was a god to have created the "physics" of spirits.
There are no gods, and there are no disembodied spirits, and there are no lives after deaths.
But there is consciousness, created by the brain. But alas, when your brain dies, your consciousness dies right along with it. Your time is done.
That's reality -- deal with it.
GlyndonD
Level 7
Sep 15, 2018
0
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