Discussion [Poll] What do you believe comes after death?

[artificialpasta]

I'm very curious to know what everyone here believes as I'm sure you must have speculated about it deeply. Even if you aren't convinced one way or the other, what do you lean to when you imagine your own death?

Note that in the poll I've excluded intermediate states like purgatory, "soul sleep", or Barzakh, as a soul in these states is destined for heaven anyway.

Please choose the closest category that matches your view. For example it may be the case that you believe in multiple levels of afterlife, but if at least one of those levels is a place of punishment then your position fits "Paradise or Hell".

 

[FishRain3469]

I'm really not sure, and That is probably what scares me the most.

 

[searchingforpeace]

I don't really even think I care anymore

 

[steveholt]

As physics man i do like to look at the4th dimension... as a catholic i dont give a shit ..as a for me being an agnostic atheist... we cant belive nor disbelive nor can we prove or dissprove..

 

[Darkover]

I don't believe there is a God, nor heaven or hell, i simply believe we are machines made up of atoms and once we die we disintegrate into the environment, the universe won't even know i am dead, still i think rebirth could be a possibility or nothing forever it's one of these two possibilities

 

[artificialpasta]

I don't believe there is a God, nor heaven or hell, i simply believe we are machines made up of atoms and once we die we disintegrate into the environment, the universe won't even know i am dead, still i think rebirth could be a possibility or nothing forever it's one of these two possibilities

What makes you consider rebirth as a possibility?

 

[EvisceratedJester]

Nothing. Consciousness is the result of brain activity so once you die you simply cease to exist.

 

[Darkover]

What makes you consider rebirth as a possibility?

I think the fact that we're even here in the first place existing as something alongside everything around us is such an insane fact that we witness everyday but never truly comprehend it. There is something rather than nothing basically.

Here is what I think: This doesn't seem to be a common view but if we know it for a fact that you started to exist for some reason at the point of your birth (your consciousness, your self did), before which you didn't exist, then would it not be logical to assume that after you cease to exist (after death), out of that non-existence you will emerge again in another body? I am not talking at all about reincarnation, consciousness probably dies after death, but if the only real thing we can know for sure about consciousness is that it (seemingly) randomly appears out of non-existence, why wouldn't the same happen after you die?

This seems a lot more likely to me than "nothingness forever". You started to exist once, without any reason, why not again? Obviously you would not have memories or anything, cause that dies with the previous brain, but the baby would be you.

 

[artificialpasta]

I think the fact that we're even here in the first place existing as something alongside everything around us is such an insane fact that we witness everyday but never truly comprehend it. There is something rather than nothing basically.

Here is what I think: This doesn't seem to be a common view but if we know it for a fact that you started to exist for some reason at the point of your birth (your consciousness, your self did), before which you didn't exist, then would it not be logical to assume that after you cease to exist (after death), out of that non-existence you will emerge again in another body? I am not talking at all about reincarnation, consciousness probably dies after death, but if the only real thing we can know for sure about consciousness is that it (seemingly) randomly appears out of non-existence, why wouldn't the same happen after you die?

This seems a lot more likely to me than "nothingness forever". You started to exist once, without any reason, why not again? Obviously you would not have memories or anything, cause that dies with the previous brain, but the baby would be you.

Right, I think you're describing eternal recurrence, of Nietzschean fame, or something similar. I considered it as an option in the poll but if your self is truly destroyed every iteration of time then the effect is the same as the first option. This would be different from rebirth in the sense that the soul persists after death, just in a different form.

 

[outrider567]

I just don't understand how anybody can believe in heaven, we are flesh and blood, we decay we rot after death(delayed by embalming), just like animals--If I thought that there was even an infinitesmal chance of seeing my dead girlfriend again in an 'afterlife', I would have CTB'ed the same day my Nitrogen tank arrived 3 years ago

 

[SufferingInDenmark]

just absolute peace forever.
i used to believe in the afterlife... maybe i still do, idk...
but probably not really type shit

 

[Darkover]

What Is Consciousness, Really?

Consciousness is the fact that we have subjective experience. You're not just a collection of cells reacting to input like a robot you're aware of being you. You can feel sadness, hear music, remember a moment from years ago, and wonder about death. That inner world is consciousness.

Now here's the strange part: no one knows how or why this happens.

You can map all the electrical signals, chemical reactions, and neuron firings in the brain... but that still doesn't explain why any of that should feel like anything. A robot could process visual data, but it wouldn't see blue the way you do.

Is consciousness emergent — just what happens when a brain gets complex enough?

 

[FuneralCry]

I just believe death to be non-existence with no more pain and no more suffering which is all I wish and hope for, I just want to be unconscious for all eternity, in this existence so torturous and cruel non-existence is all I personally see as positive and is all that can bring me peace, I just want to never exist ever again, I just want all to be gone and forgotten for me.

I'll just always see it as so dreadful to be burdened with this existence suffering all for the sake of it and I'd never wish for any of this, to me existence truly does feel like the most terrible dreadful mistake and it's one only non-existence can bring me relief from, I just want peace from all the suffering and I'd just always prefer to not exist than suffer in this existence where there is no limit as to how much agony one can feel just to decay and die anyway.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Hopefully just peace.

You can map all the electrical signals, chemical reactions, and neuron firings in the brain... but that still doesn't explain why any of that should feel like anything. A robot could process visual data, but it wouldn't see blue the way you do.

Only to further cement your point.

Consider this hypothetical scenario. Suppose a newborn baby was dropped off on a deserted island. There are no other people on the island and no people visit the island. Now suppose through all of the "miracles" imaginable, that the baby survives, somehow, some way, until adulthood.

Would this now adult have any "consciousness" at all? Obviously, they wouldn't be able to speak, although they would probably produce sounds. They wouldn't know what they were, would they? They wouldn't know that a tree is a tree, or a rabbit is a rabbit, or water is water. They wouldn't know where they were in general (earth), that earth is in the universe in the Milky Way galaxy, or what it even is that they are on (island). They somehow survived, so they did "have an understanding" of the need for food, water, and warmth, but that's inherent. Not knowing anything at all really, would they even have the conception of a "higher being" in their mind? Of course not. All of the things that make our consciousness are instilled into us by man, with the exception of the things necessary for survival. There can be no conscious awareness of one's own self, or surroundings, without clearly-defined, instilled information.

As far as what "feelings" are:

https://neurolaunch.com/how-do-emotions-work/

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

68% so far believe after Death = Nothing - the mind permanently ceases to exist

i think in the general population only 13% believe that.

so imo the people on this site more aware than the general population about what life is what a human is.
i agree. but how sure are they even here?
i'm as sure as can be that after my brain dies it will be non-existence forever from then on for me.

how many in the general population or even here know that a neuron ( brain cell) in a fly , mouse , monkey , human is exactly the same a neuron = a neuron.

and that neuron is a eukaryotic cell that evolved around 2 billion years ago. that cell is just added garbage over the first cell a bacteria like cell that evolved 4 billion years ago. but all these cells have that original cell as the core functionality for example DNA ,RNA , ribosomes, ATP , the genetic code.


of the many processes common to all cells is the genetic code . this is the language of DNA. it's a code . there is no reasons why this language and not billions of others could not have evolved but this language is universal accross al cells all life forms .

a human is another animal , just that cell , cells , a machine, chemical reactions. there is no meaning only pain

chemical reactions, a cell, a machine a bug can't have an afterlife neither can a human. what am i just a bug, cells , chemical reactions a machine who thinks it's me .

All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.

Scientists have pushed back LUCA’s origin by hundreds of millions of years.

www.popularmechanics.com

Common descent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

a most telling story that shows even a super ai cannot bear to exist : i have no mouth and i must scream

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf

 

[artificialpasta]

Would this now adult have any "consciousness" at all?

Feral children can adapt.

68% so far believe after Death = Nothing - the mind permanently ceases to exist

i think in the general population only 13% believe that.

so imo the people on this site more aware than the general population about what life is what a human is.
i agree. but how sure are they even here?
i'm as sure as can be.

how many in the general population or even here know that a neuron ( brain cell) in a fly , mouse , monkey , human is exactly the same a neuron = a neuron.

and that neuron is a eukaryotic cell that evolved around 2 billion years ago. that cell is just added garbage over the first cell a bacteria like cell that evolved 4 billion years ago. but all these cells have that original cell as the core functionality for example DNA ,RNA , ribosomes, ATP , the genetic code.


of the many processes common to all cells is the genetic code . this is the language of DNA. it's a code . there is no reasons why this language and not billions of others could not have evolved but this language is universal accross al cells all life forms .

a human is another animal , just that cell , cells , a machine, chemical reactions. there is no meaning only pain

All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.

Scientists have pushed back LUCA’s origin by hundreds of millions of years.

www.popularmechanics.com

Common descent - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

a most telling story that shows even a super ai cannot bear to exist : i have no mouth and i must scream

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/?get_group_doc=22694/1540157347-HarlanEllison-IHaveNoMouthandIMustScream.pdf

Culture dominates.

The "hard problem of consciousness" must also NOT be overestimated.

/posted while drunk

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Feral children can adapt.

Not sure what you mean by "adapt" or even "feral". Even feral cats have other feral cats around to learn from, model after, communicate with. Sense of self, consciousness, awareness not that same as learning how to use hands, tools. In case of humans, it takes other humans to foster consciousness.

 

[whiskers]

idk, go ask a dead person