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Religion/spirituality

After death

(202 Posts)
MissAdventure Tue 28-Aug-18 16:44:29

What do you believe happens after death?
Are we reincarnated?
Do we go to heaven or hell?
Is there nothing at all after this life is over?
smile
I'm very interested, lately, to ponder these things.

sodapop Tue 28-Aug-18 17:01:30

My sensible self says we die and that's the end for us. My heart believes there is a heaven where we are reunited with loved ones. I do believe we have souls which leave us at the point of death. I know I'm covering all options here but I do believe in God and his love.

MissAdventure Tue 28-Aug-18 17:07:03

I suppose God and his love would be able to cover all options, soda? smile

Billybob4491 Tue 28-Aug-18 17:22:55

I believe that when you die your soul is determined as to whether it reaches the next dimension, depending on how you have lived your life. I've booked my cloud MissAdventure! I never take this subject too seriously, life is to be lived and enjoyed every day.

Eglantine21 Tue 28-Aug-18 17:59:43

Science tells us that matter can neither be created nor destroyed. So all those atoms that made up someone we love are still out there somewhere, individually or together in some form. That’s a fact.

What I think is that whole universe is constantly in a state of change and what we call death is just a part of that natural process of change. When we say that someone we loved has died they have actually undergone change. As we all do when matter (which already exists in a different form) comes together to create us in the womb.

You could not explain to a baby in the womb what life will be like after birth. The baby has no language to understand what we would tell him, that will only come when he enters his new state and even if he did how could he comprehend a time when there would be endless space around him, myriad sounds that have meaning for him, colour and shape, heat and cold, texture and scent. All these are meaningless in the womb but what make a life beyond it.

If there is life after death it will be like that. Something we can’t even begin to understand or imagine in our present existence.

And maybe when we have undergone that change, things that are impossible and incomprehensible for us now will be a natural, simple part of our new existence.

Sorry I’ve gone on a bit.......

Blinko Tue 28-Aug-18 18:03:14

Lovely thought, Eglantine. After all, fish think there's only the sea.

Eglantine21 Tue 28-Aug-18 18:05:35

So they do!

A really good way of putting it?

MissAdventure Tue 28-Aug-18 18:06:00

That was beautifully descriptive, Eglantine
smile Thanks.

Grannyknot Tue 28-Aug-18 19:05:41

Good post Eglantine smile

Buffybee Tue 28-Aug-18 19:10:09

Couldn't have put it better Eglantine!smile

Melanieeastanglia Tue 28-Aug-18 19:45:49

My own view is that, when you die, there is nothing. However, I accept that this is my personal opinion and I may be wrong. One day I'll find out.

MissAdventure Tue 28-Aug-18 20:39:25

Yes, I'm inclined to think that way, except for this thing about matter.
I feel as if I may be coming around to accepting some kind of higher order could possibly exist. (But I think that its wishful thinking on my part)

ginny Tue 28-Aug-18 21:07:57

I think when you are dead , you are dead. However I believe that we live on in the hearts of those that love us and each of us will have touched other lives in many different ways and so some part of us goes on.

sodapop Tue 28-Aug-18 21:23:13

That is so true ginny

sukie Tue 28-Aug-18 21:25:27

Beautifully stated Eglantine. I've never thought of it in this manner but your description seems logical. I think that after death, it will be the same as before we were born.

Lazigirl Tue 28-Aug-18 21:32:52

I went through a very religious phase when younger, and I enjoyed the security and fellowship that came with it, but disillusionment set in, and much as I think it would be comforting to still believe that this one life is not all that there is, my logical self tells me that it is. Coming to terms with this has made me more determined to make the best of the life that I have, both for myself and others. I like Eglantine's thoughts on atoms, and also Ginny's, that we live on in the minds of others, and if we have children our genes continue, and so we goes on. It seems the natural order of things.

stella1949 Wed 29-Aug-18 00:11:16

I believe that life ceases and that our spirit goes back to where we were before we were born. And our body goes back to fertilise the new growth on earth.

BlueBelle Wed 29-Aug-18 00:59:48

Well as we have no knowledge of anything before birth I m not expecting to have any after death
As a young person I believed in what I d been taught about heaven, hell, reuniting etc without question but the older I get the less I think that happens I think when life ceases that is it I think hell is an invention to keep us doing the wrong thing and heaven and reuniting are comforts to keep us happy
Our spirit only lives on in our genes in my opinion I wish it was more When life hasn’t been wonderful usually through only the fault of circumstance it would be nice to think there was another chance

BlueBelle Wed 29-Aug-18 01:00:59

Keep us from doing the wrong thing Sorry

Blencathra Wed 29-Aug-18 05:12:00

I think that is a wonderful description Eglantine21 and fits in with what I have always thought. Having seen dead bodies they are very much a shell and the person is not there which makes you wonder where they are. I have once had an out of body experience and so realise they are separate. I certainly don't believe in a heaven in the tradition sense or being reunited in a human type way. If there is life after death it is outside of anything we can imagine.
Either it is the next great adventure or there won't be anything and it won't matter because we won't know!

Framilode Wed 29-Aug-18 05:23:39

I am not spiritual and did not believe there was anything after death until I had this experience.

I had lost my father a few years earlier and, though I had been through a lot of grief, was now on an even keel.

I had just arrived home and was sitting in my car getting my things together not thinking about anything more than the evening meal. I looked up and there was my father standing in front of the car smiling at me. He looked about in his mid fifties, and was dressed for work wearing an overcoat and carrying a briefcase. He was there for a few seconds and then just went.

Why would that happen? It was just so odd but reassuring. It made me think there must be another dimension after death.

absent Wed 29-Aug-18 05:37:45

Life is a biochemical accident and so is death. Those who have gone before – my parents, my aunts and uncles, some cousins, some friends – all had an impact on my life that continues long after their deaths, not just an impact on me, but on my daughter and, through my daughter and me, on my grandchildren.

My idea of "heaven" is that, when I am long gone and they are parents and grandparents themselves saying, "Oh, but my Granna could…", "My Granna taught me…", "I couldn't do that because my Granna would be so ashamed of me…", "You should have seen my Granna…" I loved my Granna so much", "My Granna loved me and was so kind…" and so on.

I am probably fooling myself. In any case, I shall never know.

Blinko Wed 29-Aug-18 06:42:19

So many lovely thoughts on here. Totally agree, BlueBelle, that concepts of Heaven and Hell have been promoted to keep the lower orders in check. The poorer ones current life, the more one would need to believe in a better life hereafter.

As Lenin (I think it was him) observed ' Religion is the opium of the masses'.

Lazigirl Wed 29-Aug-18 09:16:32

Close Blinko It was Karl Marx. smile

Blinko Wed 29-Aug-18 09:35:35

Cheers, Lazigirl grin