IF Death is the opposite of Birth???... what is the opposite of???

Question

. . . LIFE . . .???. . .

Seems that in our reality, there is NO opposite. . .

which, when removed from 'religious dogma',
allows that, EVEN an atheist
can be permitted belief in ETERNAL LIFE. . .?

Thank you - to those of you in this community who really DO think - and communicate - on some cogent level!!! Wish you were 'here' everyday, and inputing/sharing your valuables, as you're doing today!!!

OK, Dr C - I believe your perception of my actions was premature! I did not 'thank and disappear' - I just stepped back - to allow those who require lots of room to gyrate, just that . . . lots of room. Thanx!!! for adding your thawts and energies. . .and the email.

Answer 1

Hummmm......something I never considered, here I ignorantly thought death was the opposite of life, but you are probably correct in your analysis. Thanks for the input, I enjoy new perspectives.

Answer 2

Opposite Of Death

Answer 3

Getting at being by way of analogy is a sloppy method. 1st, there is an "opposite" to life. You only assume it is not death, that one term cannot have any ambiguity, and so is fixed in opposition to the one specified, but not to the other. That's a quite crazy supposition. 2nd, Eternal life is not in dichotomy to life. That is just more of the same, i.e. there is no opposition in your postulation. 3rd, this analogy business does not have any convincing hold on a rational person. The negative of birth is not death, but non-birth. That's a logical error. You have to do much more work to substantiate this putative opposition. 4th, there need not be a natural opposite to every phenomenon. This is in conjunction with the 3rd view above. The opposite of a particular chair is a non-chair.. there does not exist something such that it is a clear demonstration of the opposite essential valence of chairness. My hand or the computer monitor are just as opposite from the chair as anything else that is not a chair.

Answer 4

Death is not the opposite of Birth. Birth is the beginning of Life, and Death is the end of Life.

Life has an opposite - it is not Death, but Non-existence.

Answer 5

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Birth and Death are each transitional moments in life (beginning and end), so it is very logical to consider death to be the opposite of birth. Whereas, life is a condition and does not compare with the moment of birth or of death. Death - the last moment of life - is not life's opposite at all. I must agree with you there, Gravefinder. The argument that life is the opposite of "no life" is not a definition or a description - it just doesn't compute. Some even mention that the opposite of life is "no existence", which is absurd. A dead body still exists. I kissed the forehead of my son's dead body. His physical form still existed after life left him (dust to dust as they say). A defining characteristic of life is "capability of self-replication". A partial definition of life is having the capacity for self-replication, so that the opposite of that partial definition becomes the lack of ability to self-replicate. However, that self-replication requires energy, so there exists an energy of life. From a chemist's point of view, there is a bonding energy as the chemicals of life replicate. Let me posit that there is more than a purely chemical bonding energy. Perhaps there is an actual spiritual energy that permeates all of life, not simply confined within the organism that happens at the moment to be in that time between birth and death - the epoch called "life". It seems that we do not understand what truly and concisely defines life. Most answering seem to be thinking ONLY in terms of human life, or at least intelligent life. Maybe that's why our planet is so abused? What hubris we humans have! Is human life different from life in an oak tree, or in a penguin? To define the opposite of life, one must first comprehend the true definition of life. It seems such an understanding - at least in consensus - is not available. So, I have no answer to what might be the opposite of life, and doubt that anyone else here has presented the answer. What an awesome question you have asked, Gravefinder!

Answer 6

Life.. the ending part or the beginning part? What about the parallel part? As in time? A different dimension? In a parallel universe? What if it is all in a circle?

What if the eternal is the circle with no beginning and no ending? The infinite into the birth and rebirth that Christians does not believe in? And yet we always comes back as ourselves... reenacting our lifestory over and over again in a different time frame at a parallel universe?

What if when we traveled faster than sound of speed or when we gained that milliseconds ahead in a flight... we have crossed over the parallel universe without consciously knowing it???

What if in Buddhism, to get out of the eternal cycle to have the ultimate peace is the Nirvana we need to attain?

What if it all is a hoax and all man-made processed thoughts that really does not matters because it all ends with u???

Tell me when you are God!

Answer 7

The opposite of life is lack of life.

Or death.

Death is, essentially, both a state of being AND an event.

That is why it's both the opposite of birth AND life.

Because you can DIE (verb) and be DEAD (state of being).

*edit* in response to Patrik Mondolfi:
I don't believe it's non-existance. Because if you were to say that, then something that is lifeless, or dead, is not really existent? It's not true. It does exist, it just lacks life.

Answer 8

When you begin to consider opposites, we end up in a presumably black and white world with unnoticed shades of grey. Let me provide an example. Ketchup is not the opposite of mustard. Salt is not the opposite of pepper. Death is not the opposite of birth. The opposite of ketchup is no ketchup, that of salt is no salt, and that of death is no death, and the same for those that you declare to be their opposites.

In any event, Death and birth are processes. Therefore, the effects they have on something may be opposites, but in and of themselves they have no relation. Birth is the inception of life, and death the cessation of life.

With that in mind, the opposite of life is no life. This is in fact indisputable if we consider the basic concept of an opposite: something that exactly opposes the other. Anything that exists, i.e. toilet paper, has only one opposite, and that is, i.e. no toilet paper.

Eternal life, therefore, rejects the concept of opposites, as it does not accept "no life" as the opposite of "life". Considering that, your entire theory fails then and there, as you cannot explain a theory by using opposites if that very same theory rejects opposites. This is common sense which can only be revealed through the process I have been explaining.

In any case, anyone can believe in eternal life; all that requires is the rejection of opposites existing.

Let us look at this religiously.

G-d has no opposite. Christians might point to Satan; but, in fact, G-d is omnipotent, omniscient, etc. and could destroy Satan in one stroke, according to the Bible itself. If that is so, the explanation for Satan's supposed existence is that G-d feels that human faith must eliminate evil, as a matter of principle. This is a Christian example, and I relate it to you simply because Chrsitainity seems to be the major religion amongst Yahoo! users. Obviously, other religions have similar examples.

But to stick to this example: G-d is all powerful and all knowing. G-d is everywhere and in everything. Man can never be greater than G-d, or have more than G-d. And G-d has no opposite. Therefore, why should any human, or anything created by a human, or any concept thought of by a human, have an opposite? This is a fundamental topic discussed in the Jewish Torah, the Christian Old Testament, if you please.

As for atheism; I have already expressed that anyone can believe in eternal life. It is all a matter of rejecting the fact that everything has or must have an opposite. This can be achieved through religion, philosophy, and even science.

I hope this helps, and wish you all the best.

I look forward to any other questions you may have!

Answer 9

The opposite of death is life. The opposite of birth is unborn. Jesus loves you.

Answer 10

Are you looking at it on a linguistic or a metaphysical level. The opposite of Death is "undeath". Words have multiple shades of meanings that can get mixed - think of the the ways dark or black could be , chromatic, racial, spiritual...
even the same term when used by different people - George Bush: the meaning changes depending on who uses it - republican, democrat or Barbara Bush

Answer 11

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RE:
IF Death is the opposite of Birth???... what is the opposite of???
. . . LIFE . . .???. . .

Seems that in our reality, there is NO opposite. . .

which, when removed from 'religious dogma',
allows that, EVEN an atheist
can be permitted belief in ETERNAL LIFE. . .?