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Is It Possible There Is An Afterlife?

This whole afterlife concept is just as fuzzy as is the God concept - difficult to define much less describe in the absence of proof or actual physical manifestation. Then again, the afterlife, like God, is not supposed to be physical. So how do we prove it? Keep spinning those mental wheels, boys and girls! (You theists have no problem with this at all. May God bless you for it!) Don't worry - I'm sure I will be appropriately punished for my sacrilegious comments via AN AFTERLIFE FOREVER AFTER SPENT IN HELL!!

You are probably saying: "Yes, sinner, laugh - ha ha ha. Your day is coming sinner Snap and that day will be the DAY OF FINAL JUDGEMENT. Yes, Snap, I shall await your irreverent remarks then. Ha Ha. Actually, Snap, I pity you. Will you not admit to your foul play and your foul words regarding The Source of all that is good? There is still a chance, Snap. Repent now and you will at least get a chance to experience an afterlife in Heaven and forever see the Face of God!

Okay, theists, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you know if I ever change my perspective. One condition: Please don't call me a troll. Fair enough?
 
Oppressed said:
For example, if you have a race of immortal beings, why would they want to live a mortal life like ours?
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You could probably mold this into the basis of a decent science fiction story. Sort of like an inverse Matrix thing...
 
Snap said:
This whole afterlife concept is just as fuzzy as is the God concept - difficult to define much less describe in the absence of proof or actual physical manifestation. Then again, the afterlife, like God, is not supposed to be physical. So how do we prove it? Keep spinning those mental wheels, boys and girls! (You theists have no problem with this at all. May God bless you for it!) Don't worry - I'm sure I will be appropriately punished for my sacrilegious comments via AN AFTERLIFE FOREVER AFTER SPENT IN HELL!!

You are probably saying: "Yes, sinner, laugh - ha ha ha. Your day is coming sinner Snap and that day will be the DAY OF FINAL JUDGEMENT. Yes, Snap, I shall await your irreverent remarks then. Ha Ha. Actually, Snap, I pity you. Will you not admit to your foul play and your foul words regarding The Source of all that is good? There is still a chance, Snap. Repent now and you will at least get a chance to experience an afterlife in Heaven and forever see the Face of God!

Okay, theists, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you know if I ever change my perspective. One condition: Please don't call me a troll. Fair enough?
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Well if you are talking to me try the quote button.

I was just trying to show a different way to look at it.

No, one knows what it's like.
I hope it's the same but better and I am more worried about myself in a sense.
I'm sure we will all have jobs or something that we personally will have to take care of.
The main thing that I can gather is that we shouldn't worry if we accept Jesus.
In todays world that's hard to do.
I try not to worry the best I can about anything.
It's going to happen anyway to each of us. I know I'm on my way out.
We won't live long enough to see mortals conquer death and I believe that it will never happen.
Just because of the laws of the universe, even if we put our brains inside a machine.The machine will rot.
Even if you go to hell it might be a cleansing, baptizim by fire. And if so I could see how it would seem like forever.
Who knows.
 
Well, I think our existence being something like Matrix is more likely than it being something like what the Bible describes. By the way, I thought of the idea about the possibility of our living in a virtual reality long before Matrix. I got the idea from some science fiction story I read so long ago I can even remember the title or author now. I also think one of the shows like Outer Limits did a story based on virtual realities, but, again, it has been so long since I watched it I can’t remember.

I also think it is very unlikely that we are in a virtual reality.

But, the point is, assuming the conditions I state in post 51, what would be some of the logical implications we can talk about?

For one thing, there is the question of what Afterlife means. Well, clearly if you have some immortal soul, then Afterlife does not mean after the life of the immortal soul. It clearly means life continuing as the immortal soul after this physical life is over.

I would mean that death is not really death, because we continue on. No proof this is true but is sure sounds good.

If we assume it is true for the sake of philosophical discussion, there are many logical conclusions which can be drawn.

For example, if you are an immortal soul, at least immortal relative to our perspective, and you lived one mortal life for whatever the reason, would you live only one mortal life?
 
Oppressed: I'm not sure of how consciousness can be "aware" minus the presence of any physical apparatus or mechanism. Without the presence of "things," which are physical, you would experience nothing, I would assume. Super is a modifier to natural and, if it applies, it must somehow, by definition, be tied to the complete spectrum of the natural world. What can super possibly mean? I don't think it refers to a non-physical natural world because that would be at variance with being "super-natural." It's predicated upon the natural as its base.

Or can things exist in non-physical states? I'm sure many accept this as a given. Again, no proof nor description, but this unclear proposition is likely and easily accepted nonetheless.

I will speculate that consciousness in a non-physical state is asleep or lacking awareness. If there is nothing to be aware of, surely consciousness ceases. An awareness of things or events is surely the mechanism by which consciousness manifests.

I empathize with you, Oppressed. I'd like to think we were eternal. I don't believe it would be a blissful state, however, as promised by many religious beliefs. If it is, it is no doubt as mundane as this "life" is. It would be nice to be free of pain and worry and weakness. I respect your hope but cannot encourage it. Thanks for bearing with me on this and don't be discouraged from posting. Dialogue can help resolve some of these issues even if felt to be unpleasant at times.

Perhaps, we ought to re-frame the word, Oppressed, from the contradictory "after-life" word to "other-life," hmmmm?
 
Snap,

I am not saying this is true. I’m not trying at this point to explain how it could be possible.

Pretend we are talking about a fantasy plot and we are discussing some logical conclusions which can be reached if the premise of what I stated in post 119 of this thread. (I made a mistake in this number in post 124 of this thread, I looked at the wrong number).

But given the premise that we had something like an immortal soul (from our perspective) what are some of the implications? I’m not saying this is true, I am giving it as a premise to philosophically discuss the idea.

If we had what appeared to us as an immortal soul then we would have what would be an afterlife from our viewpoint. But from the viewpoint of the immortal soul it would just be a continuation of its life.

Have you ever debated or philosophized over a point of view you don’t believe in? It is a very good exercise for practicing debate or philosophizing.

Pretend you are an immortal soul existing with other immortal souls in some kind of society. For some reason you experience/live a mortal life.

If you have experience/live one mortal life, in the eternity of your immortal existence, would you not do it again?

If you were an immortal soul and you were going to experience/live one mortal life would you not experience/live many mortal lives?
 
Hello. I'm new to the forums !

I have been interested in the afterlife since I was a child. Prompted by this interest I have studied the ideas of the afterlife in the various cultures of the world. I DO believe in an afterlife, and the existence of a soul/spirt that exists inside every living thing. I am here convince you all of this afterlife.

With that said. I now welcome the comments!
 
Experience out of the Body

Snap said:
Oppressed: I'm not sure of how consciousness can be "aware" minus the presence of any physical apparatus or mechanism. Without the presence of "things," which are physical, you would experience nothing, I would assume.
This is absolutely correct in my understanding of the spirit/body relationship. The spirit NEEDS the body to EXPERIENCE life(the outside world of stimuli). Before birth and after death you do not experience in the sense that you experience now.
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A magical so-called soul does not truly explain anything, show a true reason for one, or we might as well talk about how many souls you can get on the head of a needle because a magical soul can be anything without some real proof.

Paul

:) :) :)
 
For a great discussion on the topic see The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast 7/18/2007 Podcast #104 Interview with Brian Trent, Author of Never Grow Old.

Anything is possible. Is there any reason to entertain the notion that we will have an afterlife? No. Nada. Zip.

We are our physical brains. Unless you make a solipsists argument or posit that we all live in the matrix then no. It's in the realm of impossible for all intents and purposes.

Your post is interesting if not redundant in so many ways but it fails to achieve your goal. It's possible that aliens put a tea pot in orbit around our sun but there is zero reason to think that it is so.
 
Snap said:
Oppressed: I'm not sure of how consciousness can be "aware" minus the presence of any physical apparatus or mechanism. Without the presence of "things," which are physical, you would experience nothing, I would assume.
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Your last quote needed a slash.
This is absolutely correct in my understanding of the spirit/body relationship. The spirit NEEDS the body to EXPERIENCE life(the outside world of stimuli). Before birth and after death you do not experience in the sense that you experience now.
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Experience out of the Body

If you can do this, you will be convinced.
 
thoth108 said:
I have experienced being outside of my body. I can describe it entirely.
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It's something you never forget.
There are accidental episodes and then there are the ones that you can bring on through meditation.
When you do it on purpose you realize what those accidental episodes were.
It gives you a whole new out look on the way things are.
I don’t need electrodes to tell me some one is looking at me from behind.
 
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Because the presence closely mimicked the patient’s body posture and position, Dr. Blanke concluded that the patient was experiencing an unusual perception of her own body, as a double. But for reasons that scientists have not been able to explain, he said, she did not recognize that it was her own body she was sensing.
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Dr.Blank and Dr. Bugger just can’t explane everything.

Paul says,
Dam science, the next thing you'll know is that they will be saying that the moon orbits my face but they can't tell me who's moon it is.
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( ! )
 
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