Biting the Dust (spam light)

[dragon wench]

So what do you think happens when the Grim Reaper comes knocking?
Is that it? "Lights Out."

Or, do you think the spirit continues to exist in some form. Some people very seriously believe in reincarnation, others believe in ghosts, others believe in an actual afterlife.

I'm never sure on this question. Most of the time, my thinking is that when the story ends you simply turn up your toes and fertilise the plantlife. But, a person's spirit does live on in terms of their influence when they were alive, in the work they did, and in their childen.

When I am in my more metaphysical moods, I believe that since matter and energy cannot be created or destoyed that the person's body and energy are reabsorbed by the universe... And sometimes this matter and energy become part of a new life.. ...reincarnation in a very abstract sense


I think subjects like this have been bashed about before, but hey.. I have been housebound for two days with a sick child, so I'm inflicting my cabin fever on SYM

[jopperm2]

I definitely think there is more to it then just the end, but I'm not sure what it is specifically.. Although I like your point about the laws of conservation of energy and matter. I hadn't thought of it that way. I do not think there is a conscious after-life where you retain your personality. I tend to agree that the soul joins some larger body such as deity or nirvana.

Edit: I prefer full-calorie spam.

[Dottie]

I think most of you know my answer; Since no ghosts or afterlife have been observed I assume they do not exist. I think the mind is a reflection of the human body and brain, and since those are no longer working when you are dead the mind will not exist then.

[C Elegans]

I am convinced I will be worm's food when I'm dead, and there's nothing wrong with that, I like worms What makes our tiny little metaphysically meaningsless life feel so fantasic, so meaningful and valuable, is that it gives us a very limited amount of time where we exist. The limit in time and space is part of being human, and like the author Thomas Mann said, nothing that exists in eternity can ever be really exciting and touching.

[Xandax]

I to belive that we simply cease to exists and decompose (if burried) when we die.
I'd like to belive in some sort of afterlife or Nirvanna or what not, but I can't get my mind around to it. It is a comforting thought that our "life" isn't so limited and all the hardship one can encounter, actually has some higher purpose.... however, I just can't (logical) belive it with the current level of knowlegde we hold today.

Similar I don't belive in ghosts and such, because with the immens number of people that have died, there would have had to be at least a significant number of credible sources indicating the existance of ghotst.

[fable]

I have no idea. I have read accounts of individuals who appear to have knowledge of earlier lives at a very early point in their latest one; but if reincarnation is a fact, who says its a fact for all, and not just for a few? And who says one would always reincarnate to a future life--that temporality only works one way? Conventional notions of reincarnation come across to me as filled with assumptions, all of them based on opinion.

Other options? General discorporation into higher and lower selves was speculated on by Plato and his contemporaries, with the idea voiced in some circles that the higher self, whatever that may be, survives, subsuming the lower. It's possible.

As for heaven and hell, those are fairytales. And particularly nasty ones, IMO.

[frogus23]

I agree with Dot, CE & Xan, although of course I have no evidence at all to back up my belief - it is an unwarranted conviction, but one that I cannot shake.

However, what with A.J. Ayer (the arch atheist of 20th century philosophy) reconsidering his theistic views after a 'near-death experience' I retain an open mind...

BTW - Does anybody know the name of a freaky parapsychological Near Death exploration group that I recall reading about, dedicated to attempting to simulate death (by taking massive doses of ketamine, oxygen deprvation etc?)

[VonDondu]

I believe that time is a dimension just like the three major spatial dimensions. Our individual consciousness perceives a past, a present, and a future, but I don't believe there's an "absolute present". Seen four-dimensionally, our lives as a whole are like portraits embedded in the universe; the boundaries do not extend beyond our births or deaths. In no way does this diminish the value of our souls. However, I do not rule out the possibility that our lives cast "shadows" across the rest of time. Since I believe that time dictates one-way causation, I think those "shadows" might extend into the future but not into the past. I think that might explain the presence of ghosts. I don't believe in reincarnation, Heaven, or Hell.

[Vicsun]

Originally Posted by VonDondu

I believe that time is a dimension just like the three major spatial dimensions. Our individual consciousness perceives a past, a present, and a future, but I don't believe there's an "absolute present". Seen four-dimensionally, our lives as a whole are like portraits embedded in the universe; the boundaries do not extend beyond our births or deaths. In no way does this diminish the value of our souls. However, I do not rule out the possibility that our lives cast "shadows" across the rest of time. Since I believe that time dictates one-way causation, I think those "shadows" might extend into the future but not into the past. I think that might explain the presence of ghosts. I don't believe in reincarnation, Heaven, or Hell.

I have thought along the same lines before. Assuming time is a dimension, to a four dimensional being our lives would appear like a painting on a wall, or a shadow. Every movement we perform would be imprinted. The closest allegory I can think of is a picture taken with a camera at a really slow speed.
Of course, this theory kicks the self-importance of humanity in the nuts. Again. As if being a small speck in a gigantic universe isn't enough, our universe is a small speck in a sea of dimensions.

edit: A book was once written by a mathematician detailing the life of a circle in a two dimensional universe, and how a sphere later came to dominated said universe. I can't recall the name, and I really wish I could...

[Chanak]

I hold to the notion that we as human beings are creators, occupiers, and consumers. The portion of that concept that applies here is the occupier. I believe that we occupy a body - the ghost in the machine, perhaps - but this body is a house after a manner of speaking. The original occupant is the self. Circumstantial occupants dwell along with the self in this house, and often are unwelcome houseguests - parasitic mooches. These would be acquired behaviors, habits, and perhaps even illnesses: things that have an impact upon the self.

The subconscious mind is, in my view, the closest link to this admittedly vague and fluid concept of self. I believe it is the interface and the gateway between the brain, which is the control center and the master bedroom of the house, and the self. The subconscious is strange because it seems to exist outside of time, oblivious to the past and to the here and now.

With all of that said, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans as to what happens to the self after death. The body never truly dies - it is simply reassimilated. The same applies to the self, I think. I don't believe it is the end of existence for the owner of the house that falls apart - rather, to quote Monty Python: now it is time for something completely different. What that might be, I have no clue. Reincarnation? I am inclined to think that is the most plausible possibility, though I don't necessarily share the hindu or new-age concepts regarding that. Perhaps, when we die, our self is shuffled through various wavelengths of an infinite spectrum, and incorporates elsewhere.

[Shai Hulud]

While growing up I believed more in when your dead thats it, game over. Now, I tend to lean more toward the belief of reincarnation or some form of rebirthing life.

[VonDondu]

Originally Posted by Vicsun

A book was once written by a mathematician detailing the life of a circle in a two dimensional universe, and how a sphere later came to dominated said universe. I can't recall the name, and I really wish I could...

You're probably thinking of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott. There's also an interesting "sequel" by another author called Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe by Dionys Burger, as well as books by other people who were inspired by those fantasies.

[Macleod1701]

Id most like to think i'd be reincarnated, not cause I beleive in it, i just like the idea of coming back as a pampered cat that gets to sleep and eat all day!