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| Is the thought of a lack of an "Afterlife"...; ...scary & depressing? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 28 2005, 01:42 PM (359 Views) | |
| who | Sep 28 2005, 01:42 PM Post #1 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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This is in reference to the related topic. |
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| ImpulseEngine | Sep 28 2005, 02:13 PM Post #2 |
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Admiral
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I chose other because it's not scary (it's just nothing so there isn't anything to be scared about), but it is somewhat depressing to think that, once one dies, one could just cease to exist forever. |
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| Swidden | Sep 28 2005, 06:33 PM Post #3 |
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Adm. Gadfly-at-large; Provisional wRench-fly at large
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I don't find the prospect scary or depressing, I do consider it a possibility. Although, I continue to believe that there is more to us than this corporeal existence. I know what my faith tells me, but I also know it is lacking in precise details. Essentially, I'll find out when I get there. Something I am not planning on doing for as long as I can possibly avoid it... |
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| DEFIANT | Sep 28 2005, 08:10 PM Post #4 |
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Commodore
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Me too |
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| psyfi | Sep 28 2005, 08:38 PM Post #5 |
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psyfi
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I've just seen too much proof of an afterlife to seriously consider that there is not one. However, in the days when I thought there might not be one, it sometimes scared me. At other times, I was glad---these were usually times when I was upset and depressed and just wanted out of life all together. I really didn't have one stable, uniform feeling toward the idea. |
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| Franko | Sep 28 2005, 11:06 PM Post #6 |
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Shower Moderator
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I'm not sure that "wanting an afterlife" is necessarily the primary motive for believing in God, or a religious/metaphysical setup that supports such a process. Many agnostic and non-religious people I know still tend to believe that there is some kind of existence after this one, even in the context of reincarnation. I'm one of those who believe that the Universe exists as information, and therefore all things are retrievable. At the very least, I believe that our thoughts and actions actually mean something in the full context of cosmic existence. I also believe that if there is an existence after this one, it is so foreign to our physical way of thinking that it is likely difficult to understand. I've been amused sometimes when I've informed some of my religious friends that there won't be any sex in heaven. I think more in terms of "transformation" rather than "continuity". It's possible that we may not even remember our existence on earth; or that it may at that point be irrelevant. This is an interesting subject, so I'd like to hear more. |
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| captain_proton_au | Sep 29 2005, 04:33 AM Post #7 |
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A Robot in Disguise
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Highjack my thread why dont ya |
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| Dr. Noah | Sep 29 2005, 07:45 AM Post #8 |
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Sistertrek's Asian Correspondant
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I would have to say no, as if you cease to exist, you won't be aware of your non-existence. However, as stated in a related thread, Buddhism teaches us that from non-existence comes existence which is also actually a quantum theory called the genesis particle. |
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| psyfi | Sep 29 2005, 08:24 AM Post #9 |
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psyfi
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Edgar Cayce indicated that there were "levels" in the afterlife and that we went to whichever one was right for our continued learning. As you have alluded to, some of these levels were vastly different than what we think of as reality on Planet Earth but others were extremely earth-like. I was once praying and I asked God about these levels and this is the thought or metaphor that came to me. I saw a vertical white light in my mind's eye with a long row of people standing there to enter it. It was "elevator like." Each person would get into this light and when they did, they would start to feel this sense of Love. It was a sense of being Loved wholly and totally and without conditions of any kind. There was no notion of sin or condemnation. The light was pure Love and as the person began to feel this Love and let it fill them, they would rise upward. The Love was healing. It was cognitively corrective. It was emotionally corrective. It was everything that everybody needed. However, as people rose, each, at different points, would start to feel unworthy of the Love. Mistakes, errors, sins that they made would occur to them. They were still allowed to stay in the light and ride it up, up. If they chose, they could ride it all the way up, straight into the "arms of God." But as these errors and mistakes and sins occurred to them, most would continue to feel unworthy and the more they focused on their unworthiness instead of solely on the light and the Love, their upward flight slowed. If they kept doing this, they soon stopped altogether. When they stopped they found themselves at the level they needed to be and stepped out of the light. In other words, we go to the level with as much Love as we are willing to tolerate. |
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| who | Sep 29 2005, 08:46 AM Post #10 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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CP, please consider this an extension of your thread. Your thread was based on the initial statement: "When dealing with the religously inclined in real life, a common response about the possiblity of any lack of afterlife I get is : "that thought is too depressing / scary"". I had doubts about the validity of this "common response" on which the thread was based. So this extension of your thread was started with a poll which questioned members' thought on this. This thread was based on your thread so how about considering it "our" thread? I did not start it to divide us. |
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| captain_proton_au | Sep 29 2005, 08:57 AM Post #11 |
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Orrrr *Gush |
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| who | Sep 29 2005, 09:07 AM Post #12 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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psyfi, I like this comment. I have been trying to resolve this and your comments helped me bring my past and current thoughts into alignment. I have read the thought that people invented the thought of God because of the thought of non-existence. In previous times my thoughts about an afterlife varied. When I was an atheist I was sad that everything I was would end in nothing. It is nicely expressed in the movie "Blade Runner" by the words of the last "artificial human" as he was dying. When I was an agnostic, the thought of an afterlife sometimes frightened me if I was going to spend eternity in hell. The thought of a lack of an afterlife was actually a relief. Since then I have had glimpses of a world more real than this one on multiple occasions. I have been aware of the presence of God within and without that was more real than the world of my senses. I have been in mind to Mind contact with God. There is little doubt now in the existence of an afterlife. Exactly what form that will take is uncertain. This uncertainty does cause fear as I think most uncertainty does. |
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| psyfi | Sep 29 2005, 09:15 AM Post #13 |
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psyfi
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| captain_proton_au | Sep 29 2005, 10:19 AM Post #14 |
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This is the whole reason i started "the other" thread. I lable myself an athiest, but I dont understand any sadness or depression that yes this is it. If we know that this is it, it makes this life that little bit more precious. An afterlife is perhaps a nice thought, but to me just seems like wishful thinking. If I was to tend to any religous or philosophical thoughts about what is after, I'd go for reincarnation theories, which make a little more sense as all the cells in our bodies where once part of plants, animals all the way back to the center of stars. But that also requires a bellief that a consciuos part of you lives on, again a nice thought but not likely. |
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| who | Sep 29 2005, 01:01 PM Post #15 |
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Have light saber. Will travel.
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CP, I need to clarify my remark. I was not always sad. It just seemed like such as waste and made life seem meaningless for me at times. The reason I changed my thinking from being an atheist to an agnostic was a logical one. The part of my world which seemed closest to me such as awareness, thought, emotions, and perceptions were out of the realm of science. I had some spiritual experiences that were also out of the realm of science. I realized that science could not explain what was most fundamental to me and there was much I did not understand. It therefore became untenable for me to hold a belief I could not prove. During my agnostic phase my spiritual beliefs were mainly Eastern/Buddhism/Hindu. It was not until I had the experience of God that I returned to belief in God but in a much different form than my childhood belief based on what I was taught. The book "A Course in Miracles", that I find so important, is said to be a a combination of Christianity, Buddhism, and psychology. One of the two original "scribes" was Jewish. The second editor and many of the people involved with it are also Jewish. |
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1:50 PM Jul 11