personal beliefs re: life after death...none since leaving JW.... You?

by oompa 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Exterminator

  I guess it would help to first know what is life. Our brains are wonderful machines, but no machine is alive, in the sense of being aware of anything. My brain cells are no more alive than the chips of my dump computer. The fact is that we simply have no clue as to what generates our conscious existence.

  So, if we don't know what life is, it's no wonder that the question of death is still keeping us busy.

  The survival of our conscious existence doesn't seem to make much sense. You would have to believe that, while some moderate brain damage might send you into coma, more extensive, irreparable, damage would awaken you to extra-bodily life. Strange.

  The Bible is quite confuse on the afterlife. Jesus himself mixes up a Jewish belief in a resurrection with references to the Greek belief in survival of the soul. The resulting credos are very lame (bodily/spiritual resurrection) or completely insane (hellfire in any form).

  Resurrection pure and simple remains a possibility. It all depends whether there is a God to do it. If he exists, I have no doubt he'd want to set a few things straight, and resurrection would be the way. I don't know if I should continue to believe in God. The fact that he hides himself is so weird. Yet, the very existence of life testifies in his favor. So, my bet is still that there might be some resurrection possible.
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  Exterminator

  Sorry, I meant, my dumb computer. Not that I don't think of dumping it, sometimes...
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  flipper

  OOMPA- I really don't believe in life after death, because I have never seen any of my good friends who have died, come back and let me know how it is on the other side- wherever that is ! However I'm willing to wait and keep an open mind on it , as my non-witness son believes in the spirit living on. I told him, " Well, I'll tell you what . After I die ,if there is something that lives on, I'll come back and let you know ! " He said, " You have to come back as something ! " I said, O.K. I'll come back as an owl. I've always liked owls, so if you see an unusually pesky owl some night after I die, it's me trying to let you know, everything is O.K. ! " Weird reasoning, but my son and I agreed to do that. We shall see ! Peace out, Mr. Flipper
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  Witness 007

  Yeah, I'm a blank page on that one...I hope to be re-incarnated as the next Brad Pitt and get some girl action....ill probably end up in Bangladesh and die poor at 30.....

  Seriously Ommpa your Atoms may float into space and start a new universe....WOW!
• 

  freeme

  @oompa

  i had/have the same problem like you. Since childhood i "KNEW" what happends on death, no questions necessary. At the age of 26 i suddenly regocnized that i never really worked this topic out for me. I feel like a 5 year old wondering what death is. I never learned to live with an "unknown" death.

  i thought nights about that topic trying to catch up with every "normal" human.

  i came to my personal conclusion: we'all know what death is. we'all were dead from all eternity until our birth. it didnt hurt. it was okay. not very exciting but ok. lol. i dont expect dieing and then seeing myself in another "under"world. Nor do i expect me being raised from the dead. I dont rule anything completely out.

  After all there might be god and maybe there will be "something", but my logical mind tells me that all this stuff is likely the invention of a monkey which finally realized that it wont live forever and searched for an idea to comfort itself.

  Since everything except "nothing" is pure speculation without any chance of evidence i expect nothing. its not the "wonderful hope" my mum always talks about but its more "truth" to me than everything else.

  I think the question "what happends after death?" is like the question "what is on the backside of the moon?" (BEFORE we checked it lol). In the moon case it was very likely there is nothing since we see the front of the moon, but since we had no chance to check there couldve been a whole alien population laughing about us on the backside. We couldnt know. And when someone said there is an alien population noone could proof him false. After all we checked it... and there actually IS nothing just like on the front of the moon. Do you see the alikeness to life? We know what happened BEFORE life (frontside of the moon), so we likely know whats after life (backside of the moon).

  thats my best guess :-)

  i may be wrong though. has someone a death "spaceprobe" to check?
• 

  DJK

  When the music's over, that's it IMO. Until then, I dance.
• 

  snowbird

  My personal belief is that ALL who have died will be resurrected - some at the beginning of the Thousand years - some at the end.

  This is not WT stuff, but research I've done on my own.

  I believe Jesus is coming to earth to rule over it for a thousand literal years; afterwards, when Satan and Death are destroyed, the Father is coming.

  These are the conclusions I've reached after reading Revelation carefully and prayerfully.

  Sylvia
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  Vernon Williams

  O,

  I believe when we die we go to The Land of the Dead. What is it? I do not know. What will we do? Don't know.

  It is acccepting the unknowns as a part of the Journey with the same cnfidence as accepting what I do know...which, by the way, is practically zip......

  It is a cool Journey,

  I keep you in prayer in my night time prayers,

  Take care, bro,

  V
• 

  tinker

  I live by this creed: I've never had a bad time'

  Live in the moment, learn something in every experience. Find humor no matter how morbid the subject.

  What happens after we die? It will be an experience that's for sure. Maybe nothing but that's something.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  Oompa, while I lean toward atheism, which makes me lean toward nonexistence after death, I
  leave the (small) possibility that there is something else after life in the framework of my lifecourse.

  Here's what I figure. JW's are wrong- no doubt. The vast majority of Christians and non-Christians
  teach that God is love, God is forgiving, God is kind, God is within us all, etc. etc.
  SO- If I lead a moral life, if I try to do good and not hurt others, God will not destroy me or punish me
  for eternity. He would understand that I was led to a mind-control cult that wouldn't allow me to
  trust organized religion ever again. He would understand that I had to go on my own spiritual journey
  and develop my own standards of morality. He would forgive me for not finding "the truth" from a
  monk on the top of a mountain, or from a priest in a church, or from the Bible, or from some pamphlet
  left in a waiting room. He would give me the same afterlife that the faithful who found the correct path
  were rewarded with.

  Watch this great clip from Southpark. It explains the afterlife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur_xV9ztFvg&feature=related