Do you beleive in an afterlife and that we go on to be somthing greater?

Answer 1

Death, by definition, is the cessation of life.

Suppose you're at the beach and you make a nice big fancy sandcastle, complete with moat and turrets and so on. Later, the tide comes in and washes it all away - the sand gets spread around the beach and all trace of your sandcastle disappears.

Where did it go? Well, clearly the castle didn't 'go' anywhere as such - it was a temporary arrangement of grains of sand that went to make up something recognisable to us, and when the sea washed it away, it simply ceased to exist. Another day, someone else might come along and make another castle using some of the same sand that went into your castle, but the one you made is gone and can never exist again.

This is how it is with human beings - we are recognisable to ourselves and others as living organisms, but fundamentally we are temporary constructions of atoms and molecules and will one day simply cease to exist. Just as the sandcastle consists solely of the sand from which it is made, so human beings consist solely of the atoms and molecules of which we are made. When we die, our bodies will be returned to the environment to be incorporated into new living organisms, or to fall as rain, or to make the bedrock of a million years from now. We are ephemeral creatures, a brief pattern of order and complexity imposed on the raw material of the natural world.

Some people argue that there is something called a soul, which is independent of, and can survive the death of, the physical body. What could this 'soul' 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 2

There is no such thing as an afterlife, because once a person is born there life never ceases to exist even when death occurs because the only thing that happens at death is the spirit which is the person leaves the body. The spirit does not die. Some will spend eternity with God, their Father and some will spend eternity with their father, the devil.
Those who are born again are the children of God and those who are not are the children of the devil.

Answer 3

I do somewhat. I do believe that my family who've passed look down on us and give us strength. I believe that one day, I'll be up there, wherever there is, doing the same for my kids, grandkids, etc. I don't know about the details. Honestly, I think it would be hard for anyone to pass on, and then realize you can watch family and all that. It's a hard process, and I'm sure I'll be a little scared when it does happen. But I look forward to seeing my nonny and others that have passed. I hope this answers your question, but I don't think about this subject all that much.

Answer 4

When you say afterlife... I do believe there is life after death. You either go to heaven, or hell, or you are inbetween. When I say inbetween, i mean that you can't go to either or until a message is received that you have to send. I believe Heaven is real and you will go there if you are worthy in God's eyes to do so. And I believe in angels and spirits. I don't know about mean or evil ghost per say. Never experienced evil ghost. Only good or harmless ones.

Answer 5

i believe that our life's will repeat indefinitely.

i base this on my assumption that the universe is a closed system as such assuming time is infinate all movement of all matter that lead to our creation will eventually repeat itself forming us all over again. of course we would have no memory of our previous lives.

if someone proved that the universe is not a closed system then this would destroy my idea completely, unless string theory (which i no very little about) is true and then new energy could be created elsewhere leading to he same set of events that will lead to our lives all over again, as for our lives our self i don't believe we have any control over what goes on and as we are just the movement of electrons around the neurological pathways that our our brain so our lives would be identicle

Answer 6

I do. I call it spiritual evolution. There are 3 heavens. The first is where our emotional astral body will go to. It will live a life there as bad or good as the karma created here. Then, when it dies, the intellectual astral body will take over and proceed to the second heaven. There, it cannot avoid knowing God and, when it dies the causal body will take over and join the Lord in the third and final heaven. It' just what I think.

Answer 7

personally, I care most about the present and do something and help out while I am in full conscious and ability to do something. whether there is an afterlife or whether we are going to be something better, if we accomplish something great now, it makes you feel wonderful.
That's my personal opinion

Answer 8

I never did until my grandfather died and I begged him to show me a sign that there is a heaven because I desperately needed to know he was safe and still going on in the spirit world and he gave me a sign and I felt so much more at ease. both my grandparents lived upstairs from my parents and when I visit I go upstairs to see the shower curtain swaying back and forth and mind you the windows are closed and to smell the perfume my grandmother wore and to hear my grandfather whistling it may be freaky to some family members but it makes feel so much better that they are both still with us.

Answer 9

NO not greater, But whatever you have done now will be fixed in the next life. So if you were a murder then you might become a pig. And that is not greater than a murder. Or is it?

Answer 10

ABSOLUTELY!!!! I am not an overly religious person, but I believe in heaven and hell and reincarnation. I was always super confused about this issue, and silly as it may sound, watching a movie helped me make up my mind. What Dreams May Come....
check it out