Why can't science answer the question what happens when we die?

Answer 1

"science" is only as good as our comprehension.

think about it...someone from 500 years ago wouldn't comprehend the internet--they're exactly the same as us today but for their lack of understanding. as people progress, we understand more...more than what "we" knew 500 years ago, more than what we knew yesterday...and we'll know more tomorrow than what we know today. so, currently we don't understand what happens--if anything happens--after death. but just because we don't know now doesn't mean we won't ever know.

there are stranger things in the universe than we can imagine.

(whoah, i just realized your avatar is janeway!)

Answer 2

Because that is physically impossible to prove what would happen...unless they conducted several experiments where they could use some kind of visual imagery to monitor what the people see (not currently available) kill them then bring them back...or use people on death row...but science cannot tell us what happens because once out bodies die there's no connection to the mind, because the mind dies...now some people believe we have souls, if we did then it would or may be possible to cross over, as they call it, to the other side or become a new person in a different time...future only...not past its not possible...but science cannot explain or prove this because the connection with the body is lost when the 'soul' leaves the body...if we really have one...but they can't prove that either...they can't even tell us how our own brains work yet and how our bodies work...and we're supposed to be a smart race....??
neways hope it helped somehow

Answer 3

Actually science can but the thing is that most of the general populace doesn't want to study such things, most people are so far removed from the reality of it all and death is so sanitized in modern day culture. How many people do you know who have died at home with their loved ones? Most folks end up in hospitals or nursing homes, it's sad.

Anyways, death being a topic that has always interested me and one that has all to often a little too close to home, I'll attempt to answer your question about what happens when we die. Let me paint you a picture.

You are alive because of the huge complexity of your brain. Billions of millions of interconnections - its impossible to describe to anyone who hasn't studied neurones before. It's like the weight of all the sea, tipped into a funnel at the top of your head. All that power conspires to organize itself, any part of it is normally accessible within microseconds.

Memories and words are your biggest asset. You should always strive to make sure that your memories of your own actions are good ones, there should be no other aim in life but this.

I am twenty one years old, and everyday I lose a few thousand brain cells. Not a large percent, a mere fraction. But there is one small problem with brain cells, as with all neurones: *They will never grow back, they will never be replaced.*

Your brain is rotting away, day by day. Everyday some of that sea leeks out; evaporates, simply goes and nothing will bring it back. No amount of begging or money will stop it; nothing you can do will halt the demise of your nervous system. Everyday is counting backwards to zero, everything will fade to black.

The first thing you'll notice when you start to die is that there is no more air, and your muscles are screaming for oxygen. Your brain, lacking in blood oxygen but not in stored energy feels strange, woozy, euphoric: This is psychedelia - and this is when most people experience the "traveling through tunnel with light at the end" experience. This is when people have the so-called NDE.

Then your blood begins to clot. Your brain uses up the last of the emergency supply of oxygen. Cells throughout your body begin to die. Your brain cells are burning, dendrites are curling up. Maybe your sight goes first. Sometimes its the body from the neck down, sometimes it's your memory. Things are starting to give, communications are going down, your left doesn't know what the right is doing. Your "inner voice" has died, your brain is a mush of ruptured cells. Some cells are still firing off, some cells are connected. Cell by cell you die, your consciousness becomes more are more confused until it doesn't know it's confused.

But like a broken road system, sewage and rubble strewn across New York; the roads all seem blocked. Slowly these last connections are broken as the carbon dioxide escapes, releasing reduced acids and fat over where your brain used to function. Lovely, isn't it? You don't die unhappy; it's impossible. The most strong willed of people will not put up a fight. It's like fainting, there comes a point when you know it's going to happen but there's nothing you can do.

Answer 4

Some people think that there is a non-physical component to a human being that can survive the death of our physical body, usually called a 'soul'. What could this be?

If it's postulated that consciousness, or awareness, or sense of self resides in the soul, it's difficult to see how this can be reconciled with the complete oblivion which accompanies general anaesthesia. How could a straightforward chemical, injected into the bloodstream, anaesthetise a soul so that it effectively ceases to exist during this time? If consciousness, in the form of a soul, were some kind of supernatural faculty, it would seem implausible that it could be completely disabled by a chemical.

How about some of the other things which we regard as essential parts of what makes a person what they are? How about love, compassion, reason, empathy, memory, conscious thought, character, 'spirituality' and so on? Well, there is really no plausible doubt that all these things are properties of the physical brain - We can alter all of these properties very simply with alcohol or other drugs, and observe how they change in people who have suffered significant brain damage. Previously placid people become uncontrollably violent, intelligent people become imbeciles, and so on. Stimulate the brain artificially, and the subject reports corresponding mental activity, e.g. 'religious experiences'. We can see from brain research that all these things - thought, emotion, sensation, character traits and so on - are correlated with activity in the brain, and some things can be identified with specific areas of the brain.

So, if all these faculties and characteristics of what we regard as the 'person' reside in the physical brain, as seems to be undeniably the case, and they all cease when the person dies, then what is left to be attributed to a 'soul'? As far as I can ascertain: Nothing. If there is no part of us that can continue after death, then there is no 'afterlife'... and if there is no afterlife, then most of religion is null and void.

Answer 5

The function of science is based on the operation of the mind, and so the mind is the foundation, which means it is also the boundary of science. Beyond the functioning of mind/brain, science cannot function.

From my perspective, Consciousness is the source of mind, and the discovery of this must necessarily lead to the end of objective science, since all scientific principles will be found to be subjectively created in Consciousness rather than objectively discovered.

Answer 6

Science has been searching for a definitive answer as to what happens when one dies for centuries. In order for scientists to be able to tell the world what happens when one dies, they must have irrefutable evidence. To my knowledge, there are no dead people who have returned to verify what happened to them.

There are Biblical accounts of those who were "risen" from the dead; but, unfortunately, those "risen" did not leave any information about their experiences while "dead". If Jesus gave his disciples, family, or friends any "inside information" as to where he had been for the three days after cruxification, or what had "happened" to him after his death, no one has found his recorded words.

No doubt, there are scientists around the world who are searching for the answer to your question; but, until someone "returns" from being dead, I doubt science will find an answer.

Science cannot answer why Paris Hilton was born into the Hilton family and I wasn't.

Answer 7

http://www.victorzammit.com/articles/nde&sixthsense.html

quote:
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For his latest research, 60 patients at Southampton General Hospital's coronary care unit were interviewed after heart attacks had left them temporarily brain-dead. Seven reported near-death experiences - defined by characteristic features such as a feeling of leaving your body, going through a tunnel and entering an area of "love, bliss and consciousness".

"The significance of this is that after a cardiac arrest you lose consciousness within eight seconds; within 11 seconds the brain's rhythms become flat, and within 18 seconds there is no possibility of the brain creating a model of the world - so the brain is down," said Dr Fenwick.

"Yet whenever we asked people when their near-death experiences occurred, they said it was during unconsciousness. If that's true, their experience was occurring when there was no blood flowing through the brain - and consciousness would appear to exist outside the brain."

It could be argued that their experiences occurred in the few seconds between brain functions being restored and the return of consciousness. But recent research on a patient in the United States, where traces of electrical activity in the brain were closely monitored, suggested this was not the case.

"That study and other evidence points to the mind and brain not being identical, and it seems that the mind may operate in part outside the brain as a sort of field which works in the same way as a TV receiver receives programmes through the airwaves," said Dr Fenwick.

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Answer 8

Don't make me laugh, science can see that your bones decay and in a thousand years, there's no trace of your existence..... or of the 100 billion people who have ever walked the earth....

Answer 9

No scientist have been able to die and return from death to make a report of his/her findings.

Answer 10

I would like to have something to look foward too. Science gives a grim ending.