As much as I would like to believe that some portion of my essence goes on after I pass beyond the veil, I have not come across anything that convinces me that we do anything other than just cease to exist.
What do you think happens when we die?
by cognac 58 Replies latest jw friends
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rawe
Hi Cognac,
What do you think happens when we die?
Let me give an "Amelia Bedelia" answer: What happens? That depends on many factors. If we die of natural causes then likely some form of funeral arrangement will be made, and our body will be buried or cremated. If we were murdered then likely the police will investigate, an autopsy will be performed, etc.
Of course, I'm sure you mean, what will happen to us as an individual -- is there any possibility of escaping the fate of non-existence? Alas, I think the Amelia Bedelia answer is revealing the truth. When someone close to us dies we experience loss, because in reality the living breathing cognitive person is no longer with us. There is a great scene in the movie Simon Burch where Joe talks about his mother's (played by Ashley Judd) death and how he hung on to the list linger bits of her -- the smell on some of her clothes if I recall correctly.
Beyond that, I don't think we can know. But if death is really non-existence, which is my belief, then all the more reason to enjoy the day!
Cheers,
-Randy
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fresh prince of ohio
To believe that we continue to exist in some form after the cessation of our biological and molecular functions is to postulate that there is something to existence other than biological and molecular functions. I dunno, maybe there is, but I doubt it. But death is, and always will be, the great and frightening unknown. It sure scares the crap out of me. And I was SO SURE that I had escaped its inevitability when I joined up with the Johos too, so big bummer there.
I think being an ex-JW makes you a little EXTRA aware of your mortality.
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FlyingHighNow
We continue - but I do not know more than that.
As for proof - very difficult. I have read several books on NDEs and at the very least it is thought provoking.One of the books was written by scientists who approached the subject from the scientific perspective - and they successfully debunked a number of the NDEs mentioned.
But in the end, all of the scientists were of the opinion that "something" survives death - even though they were not religious and perhaps had a pre-conceived idea on the subject.Read Closer to the Light by Melvin Morse MD.
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steve2
Evidently the light-infused experiences people experience when they have close calls, if not near death experiences, are the result of increasingly well-understood neurological factors, kind of similar to the natural opiates infused into the body during long-distance running. Does the opiate experience mean the individual is in touch with some kind of actual spiritual, mystical wonder? Likely not. As Richard Dawkins says, people bow down before gaps in their knowledge, attributing those gaps to "god", "the universe" or someone or something spiritual. However, once these gaps are explained, people are less inclined to "see" the hand of whatever god, guru or whoever has inspired them.
The other side is, to paraphrase the centuries old latin saying, the world wants to be deceived. There is among we humans an enticing vulnerability to believing all will be okay not just now but forever. And if it's not okay now, to hold tightly to a view that it will be when the Great Day arrives. That's why my maternal JW grandparents never invested in a house, but rented until they died. They knew they'd have a lovely house in the new system of things. Ahhhh! How nice!
It can seem heartlessly cruel to rob people of this need - but as most of us were - and some still are - in some important way linked to the JW argumentative-mentality, we full know how routine it can be to rob non-witnesses of their cherished beliefs, declaring them irredeemably false. Of course, the other side is that the fatal throttling of beliefs can work in more than one direction. Where's my comforter when I need it?
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theron ware
It'll be just like it was before you were conceived. Remember what that was like? I find the symmetry comforting.
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FlyingHighNow
Read Closer to the Light by Melvin Morse MD. There are many cases where people die clinically and come back to tell doctors things they saw during their clinical deaths, that they could not have known without watching. Dr. Morse does address the neurological theories in his books.
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clarity
Well, if there is any sort of creator ...perhaps we will continue
as Scotsman said.
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If we slowly evolved to the beings we are today, death may be
like the state we were in before becoming alive, as Theron implies!
"It'll be just like it was before you were conceived. Remember what that was like"
It is nice to have an opinion and a choice of of how it could be.
clarity
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Monsieur
people who saw 'the light' obviously weren't dead yet...so that rules that out.
Is there a doggy or kitty heaven/elsewhere?
what about a vegetable/plant heaven/elsewhere/dimension where they go to after they have been harvested and baked into bread?
living things are ALL made up the same- living cells, that die.
why would it be any different for another form of living organisms, humans?
remember this, you will ALWAYS FIND PROOF if something is REAL, even of invisible wind and electric currents.
so far, there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO proof of an afterlife.
stop for a moment to wonder why...
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DATA-DOG
If Quantum mechanics has the whole " popping the Qwiff ( Quantum wave function) " theory correct, then maybe our continued existence is dependent on our " making " it a reality. Wouldn't that be a mind-blower!?!? You continue to exist because you choose to make it happen. Believing is always a requirement when it comes to the spiritual realm. Maybe if you don't belive it, then you can't make it happen on the quantum level?
Just like the Matrix...