Many people do not live their lives fully and well, at least not by their own values and standards. They are lazy, unambitious, unhelpful, there are a million adjectives beginning with un- that somebody somewhere is guilty of. Of course they may not realize all of this consciously. But somewhere deep down inside they understand that they haven't made the most of this life. So they're hoping for another chance. The attraction of Christianity (and perhaps Islam although I'm not as familiar with it) is that it's easy to believe that God will forgive you for absolutely any wrongs you've done, so long as you are truly repentant when you die. Therefore everyone believes they will go to Heaven. The last poll I saw reported that roughly 3/4 of Americans believe in Heaven, but only about 1/4 believe in Hell! Obviously, Hell doesn't need to exist if absolutely everybody qualifies for Heaven. Why waste the energy to keep it hot? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think Bender said it best: "Afterlife? Pfft. If I thought I had to go through a whole 'nother life, I'd kill myself right now"
************* M*W: I actually look forward to becoming worm food. (I know it's a bacteria, but we won't get into that right now).
Once I was swimming in the ocean and suddenly my body was being impacted in different spots. I immediately realized that a school of small fish was passing thru my location. In less than a minute I realized that a shark or two might be chasing them and was briefly quite scared. Then I thought we are all going to die some time in some way. This way will be painful but quick and at least with zero expense. In the greater POV, a very useful death as food for the hungry shark. So I relaxed a little and swam smoothly and strongly on and soon the the school of fish was gone.
As a keen scuba diver who has dived in lots of tropical locations, plus a few colder, I love sharks. Sadly, the little beggars are cowards, and won't come close enough for me to get a good photo. Your chances of achieving an end to life in the cause of feeding a shark are minute to zero, even in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy. Personally, I want to die at age 90, shot by a jealous husband.
1. Yes. 2. I think we pass to 'the other side', can communicate with the living and reincarnate later. I believe this because I have had a number of experiences that support this idea, because my mind never seems to shut up and (admittedly) because it helps me to sleep at night. I never feared death until it came to my house (before which I believed this to be the case anyway) and now I kinda need this more than ever. If it turns out to be a delusion, at least it will have helped me to get on with my life. 3. I am a UU and a new age person and really I think I'm more spiritual than religious.
I dont understand. We cant prove that life after death exists or does not exist since it does not take place in this physical plain (as we percieve it via senses) so data from the scientific approach is immaterial. If life after death does exist, which Im sure does otherwise existance and the complexity of life is a purposeless and random organization. But if it does, we dont have the adequate language presently to describe something unobservable the process is like describing the color blue to a blind person. Ironically the people who believe life after death does not exist probably end up reincarnating to a plant or lower-frequency thinking animal due to there wills field of energy.
I always rather liked Socrates words on death. He had been condemned to die by poisoning, and just before taking the poison, made these comments : "those of use who think that death is an evil are in error . . . . Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things:--either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. . . . Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is a journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? . . . What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again. . . . Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; " http://www.wsu.edu/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/phaedo.html Personally, I believe in Socrates first option, which is not to be feared. Death is like a long sleep without dreams. No pain or discomfort. Nothing bad or harmful. Just long rest.
If there is life after death, what's the point in death? dualist concepts we know nothing about... ex. death creates life in many cases....maybe instead of thinking linear, we can think it as a circle
What Socrates doesn't tell you is that you judge you own life for all the possible mistakes you may have made. What regrets rest beneath your soul not only for poor judgement, but from simple thrills in life like adventure. You rest your thoughts on your deepest hopes and dreams that went unrealized in your time. It could be said that those with the biggest desire and aspirations in life have an advantage in death. Still as Socrates said it is nothing to fear, you will regain cognition in some expanse of time. Still If an evil man places his mind at rest on his deeds, he will have less evil in his dreams.
Whether organic life is completely an act of fiery stellar furnaces, or of backstage purpose, there is a propensity to spread it throughout the continuum. All possible organically contrived acts and analysis must likewise be towards this urge. Therefore, all analysis of an afterlife, whether false or valid, must be, in some fashion, a benefit to this focus. Take care of life. Advance life. Spread life out. Be caring adults. Make caring adults. Life demands this. Death demands this.
Death is only a demmand for those who demmand it. If you wish to believe you are reincarnated after death and can pick which time, place, or person, to be. Who is to stop you from doing it. Once more what is to stop you from killing yourself right now? Its not hard, people die every day. Would it be an easier and less fearful life if the first thing we told children about death was that they would inevitably end up choosing their next life? Of corse It would be a lie, we have no choice in life other than what we choose to define our existence by.
Some questions for the 13 voters who believe in re-incarnation, based on the enormous changes (mainly increase long term) in the number of living humans in say the last 10,000 years. (1) Were most of the souls of people now living with only zero, one or two prior lives? (2) I think the global population in 1900 (or some year like that) was less than half what it is today. Were there now incarnated souls recently made for these new bodies of the current population, Or have their souls been in "cold storage" waiting for a new baby? (3) What happens to souls when the world's population actually decreases as it did during the black plague? Are they stuck / stored somewhere without bodies to occupy? (4) How long, on average, before a recently dead person's soul gets into a new baby's body? (5) If the recently dead person has led a "good life" by some religion's standards is his soul going into a new born baby who is predestined to be at least as "good" and will certainly prosper? (6) When there is a "shortage of new babies," does the soul go into a dog etc. until a new born baby is available? (7) Can a new baby be born without a soul? Note by "soul" I mean what ever you think is "re-incarnated." I ask these questions as I can not imagine how the details of re-incarnation could be self consistent.
There is so much energy in the universe who is to say you would reincarnate back to this human physique and/or dimension of time.
Who is to count the lives if your soul does not belong to one mind or one body. If you had lived many many lives relearning most of what you already knew would the new ideas or the old ideas be the freshest on your mind. If your best in life were to become the worst in another and in a third it gave you a chance to teach your gift, would you know when the opportunity rises? If you give a gift that shows true understanding of your talent, does part of your soul carry forth with it. I believe it does for oh so many reasons. Well most of their composition is seeping deeper and deeper into the ground, or if their ashes have been burned further and further around the Earth. The only given exchange of a soul the likes of which you are looking for is when the first spark of live enters a mothers womb. Which it is less of an exchange and more of a duplication, but who is to say that the food your mother eats durring this time has not already had many lives of its own. Why do you think some people turn into vegtables later in their lives? You are what your mother ate.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I suppose you would have a poor market for food in those years, you can't drag diseased bodies over your crops and your land to make for better nutrition. If the King Must Die he might as well prepare them a meal or last supper. However long it takes a person to fully decay, become a carrot and be fed to a baby... Duh.. People define their life by what good they can do today not what good they may or may not have done in the past. If I wish to believe that durring the night in my dreams I revisit a past life, you could say I was reborn every morning. We would not know the difference if in the end of our days we were to revisit our dreams to hear the story within this story untold. There are no gaurauntees of prosperity, nor do I think prosperity has anything to do with religious standards. If your baby is eaten by the dog, Yes the dog won what soul connection is taken from all the people who hear of the tragedy. They aren't born with a definitive moist ripe personality, though technically this is not a soul there are further ways of encouraging soulless actions. People are bred and learn what the society they are born into designates. If they are gifted, may they give their gift into the people of the current age. Your soul is a river "current" of thoughts brought by all great minds of the past through recorded history.
probably more in the region of hundreds of millions ... mind you its a bit provincial to entertain notions of reincarnation exclusively within the parameters of the human form or even the earth planet. ditto above due to the numerous factors its a bit of an open ended q, but I guess the average stands at something like a few months goodness (or alternatively, "badness") by its nature pivots on free will so the extent of such pre-destination is limited - for instance due to piety in a previous life a person may be afforded with many luxuries in life, however its the nature of being afforded luxuries that one can become impious or degraded by them, hence its not uncharacteristic for mundane piety to give rise to impiety and viceversa (and as a further point, the constant vacillation of the living entity between material extremes is seen as the plight of the soul that cannot recognize service to god as the actual path of salvation) a persons karma determines the qualities and quantities of life forms, not the other way around. Birth death old age and disease are not things that a living entity has sway over (however under the illusion of the ego being the doer, they may think otherwise ) sure it will be born dead life is the symptom of the soul
