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I just can't conjure up an image of what such a thing would be like because as others have stated there doesn't appear to be any means for our conscious minds to disconnect from our dying bodies and go wandering off to parts unknown. Every concept that I'm familiar with that does support an existence after death is based upon some essence of our mind which is usually in the form of a soul or some entity that is able to exist independently of a physical body.
I do have some thoughts about the slight possibility that this could be achieved artificially and what I mean by that is I have wondered if it would be possible when mankind is extremely advanced in technology to somehow download all of our mental abilities including consciousness into some sort of computer in which man made hardware and software could mimic the biological functions of the human brain. It sounds far fetched now but it might not be out of the realm of possibility in a few hundred years. I can understand why scientists would want to save a mind from someone like Stephen Hawking. This might sound crazy to some people but I don't believe there is any process in nature that allows us to survive death but I wouldn't rule out something that man himself might devise in the distant future.
I do have some thoughts about the slight possibility that this could be achieved artificially and what I mean by that is I have wondered if it would be possible when mankind is extremely advanced in technology to somehow download all of our mental abilities including consciousness into some sort of computer in which man made hardware and software could mimic the biological functions of the human brain. It sounds far fetched now but it might not be out of the realm of possibility in a few hundred years. I can understand why scientists would want to save a mind from someone like Stephen Hawking. This might sound crazy to some people but I don't believe there is any process in nature that allows us to survive death but I wouldn't rule out something that man himself might devise in the distant future.
I've thought about that too. If all our mental functions are truly just biological in nature, it should be possible to make them go on past their natural capability.
If so, in future years we may even create immortal "gods" out of ourselves. I wonder how the human mind as it is would deal with eternity?
I think I get what you are asking DM1. It seems none of the other posters do.
Although my sense of logic tells me otherwise I too hope there is something after death. I sort of hope I am wrong and there is some kind of heaven but not in the Jesusy sense.
I guess I envision sort of a Garden of Eden kind of deal. Plenty of flora and fauna, nice weather, no disease, misery, or violence. Everyone is pleasant to one another. There is no work or boredom. Everything is beautiful and time is irrelevant. Familiar with Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit? I guess I wish an afterlife to be like Rivendell.
Thanks J'aime....apparently only a few us really can have fun with our imaginations!
Thanks J'aime....apparently only a few us really can have fun with our imaginations!
I have a very vivid imagination, but it's just really difficult for me to conjure up a vision of an afterlife, at least without ripping off pre-existing visions of an afterlife. However, I have considered that maybe some of the reported "supernatural" occurrences throughout history did indeed happen, but the "supernatural" is simply something natural that we don't yet know about. Maybe ghosts are real but are some natural phenomenon about which we currently have no clue. After all, religion was used to explain natural occurrences in the past, who's to say it's not currently being used (spirits of the dead) to explain other natural things? Maybe there is an "afterlife" but it's not supernatural at all, but simply a phase of life we have never understood. It's mind-boggling to contemplate, but considering how much we've learned in the past 200 years, it's not unreasonable to think that even now we know incredibly little about our own existence.
This is not another "what is heaven like" thread. Suppose we are all totally wrong and there IS something going on after death, in your wildest immagination what exactly would you have it to be?
I do sort of hope there is something, just not what is portrayed in the bible or the koran! Ever seen the show Sliders? How cool would it be if upon death we "Slid" into a parallel existance?! Or maybe we exist on a spirit level in another dimension. Oh hell, maybe we start over with this exact same life!
I am quite fond of fiction and use my imagination quite often. I've had several running thoughts on what an afterlife could be. Let's see if I can articulate some of what I imagine:
There would be no physical body, you wouldn't deal with matter as our bodies currently do. Though you may have a physical projection(how you imagine yourself) you'd have no actual body, instead of matter you'd deal with space and time. You could be an observer manipulating time to witness the past or you could manipulate space to travel vast distances of the universe observing other worlds in distant galaxies.
"Heaven" would be like the home port or hub, a place to meet up with past family and friends and to make new friends. You could be a hobnob exploring their pasts with them or "sleep" for vast stretches of time experiencing blessed oblivion for eons or maybe even choose to take on a physical life again, but this time in some other galaxy as some other race or creature, or not.
Basically you've got all of eternity and the universe is your playground.
I think about this topic almost every day of my life, because it is something that I will someday face, and it will be the end of the line. In that case, I hope I can prepare myself for the reality of the moment. The more I think about the obscure possibilities of what happens when my life ends, the more of a blank I draw because it really is like staring at at wall with no windows and no doors. Not one person knows, and there is not one record that can tell you what is going to happen so it's like figuring out calculus without ever taking even the simplest math class. The more I think about a possible existence even after this form of conciousness ends, the more I just want my current life to go on forever. This gift is as good as it is ever going to get as far as I and we know it, I can't really imagine there being any form of existence more advanced or beautifully complex than what we have been given here(now), so my energy lies in discovering everything there is to know about this gift before it ends. And man do I wish everyday of my life that it will never end. It's like winning the biggest lottery ever over and over again. Only a certain amount of beings are experiencing living conciousness, how ****ing lucky are we to have been one of them? You could just be nothing, **** that.
I am quite fond of fiction and use my imagination quite often. I've had several running thoughts on what an afterlife could be. Let's see if I can articulate some of what I imagine:
There would be no physical body, you wouldn't deal with matter as our bodies currently do. Though you may have a physical projection(how you imagine yourself) you'd have no actual body, instead of matter you'd deal with space and time. You could be an observer manipulating time to witness the past or you could manipulate space to travel vast distances of the universe observing other worlds in distant galaxies.
"Heaven" would be like the home port or hub, a place to meet up with past family and friends and to make new friends. You could be a hobnob exploring their pasts with them or "sleep" for vast stretches of time experiencing blessed oblivion for eons or maybe even choose to take on a physical life again, but this time in some other galaxy as some other race or creature, or not.
Basically you've got all of eternity and the universe is your playground.
Yeah you've got the spirit of this thread...that is a good one too. I am also a fan of sci fi stuff. It's fun. The 'physical projection' part is pretty cool!
I am quite fond of fiction and use my imagination quite often. I've had several running thoughts on what an afterlife could be. Let's see if I can articulate some of what I imagine:
There would be no physical body, you wouldn't deal with matter as our bodies currently do. Though you may have a physical projection(how you imagine yourself) you'd have no actual body, instead of matter you'd deal with space and time. You could be an observer manipulating time to witness the past or you could manipulate space to travel vast distances of the universe observing other worlds in distant galaxies.
"Heaven" would be like the home port or hub, a place to meet up with past family and friends and to make new friends. You could be a hobnob exploring their pasts with them or "sleep" for vast stretches of time experiencing blessed oblivion for eons or maybe even choose to take on a physical life again, but this time in some other galaxy as some other race or creature, or not.
Basically you've got all of eternity and the universe is your playground.
Thanks J'aime....apparently only a few us really can have fun with our imaginations!
Past experience indicates I have a pretty broad imagination, when properly stimulated. However, since deconverting, it does not wander into the arena of afterlife beyond "download my brain into a computer before the body fails completely". And even then, what are you going to do? Surf the internet as an ad-bot? Yay. Where's the delete function? Oh wait, that won't work. Google cached me.
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