Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The answer to your question can only be answered by you and your beliefs. No one can tell you for sure what happens outside of the known fact that your physical body is dead and decaying.
And then the "answer" that one gives themselves aboiut "what happens to us after we die" is not really an 'answer" in the true sense of the word but rather a notion that they choose to superimpose on their normal thinking and to label it as "the answer", though they don't really know in an epistemological sense what the truth is about this matter. Nor does anyone else know (or at least not in any way that is provable and that everyone can unequivocally agree upon as being definitively true), though there are certainly those who convince themselves otherwise and forever try to convince the rest of us otherwise.
You become a part of the food chain, assuming you aren't cremated. Bacteria will snack on your blood cells, epidermis, and various other cells, followed by bugs. Then birds will eat the bugs, which will then be eaten by another creature such as a cat. Even corpses serve a purpose. I don't believe we have any knowledge of anything after death because in order for us to have knowledge of anything, we have to have a functioning brain, and the brain ceases to function after death. But I will echo the sentiments of others that I can't be 100% sure of this.
Last edited by Scooby Snacks; 01-14-2016 at 06:31 AM..
The only reason I speak as if I know, is because I know there is a God, and because enough people give similar testimonies of having died and come back, with similar experiences on the other side.
One thing I can say for certain is that you will lose your place in line at the BMV. Aside from that, not much can be said with high confidence. Nevertheless, I will take a moment to outline a few key points that I believe with fairly high confidence
At this point, nothing in science or philosophy completely rules out the idea that your consciousness, or some aspects of your "sense of existence" couldn't continue in some way or other. On the other hand, I would be highly skeptical of anyone who says that either science or philosophy "proves" some sort of afterlife.
Personally: I love both science and philosophy, but I will almost always favor scientific evidence over philosophical theories whenever science has something clear to say on a topic. If science clearly ruled-out any reasonable chance of consciousness surviving bodily death, I would embrace that view, but (despite the assertions of some folks who claim to be science-minded), science simply does not strongly favor one view over another. The problem is that we simply do not have a scientific theory of consciousness. Without a theory, we have nothing to test, and without something to test, science cannot be used to favor one view over another. We are left with our own intuitions, and lots of anecdotes. Personally, I find some of the anecdotes to be intriguing, but I've seen nothing so convincing that I would say, with much confidence that "I believe" afterlife anecdotes.
I do, however, think that some powerful philosophical arguments favor the possibility of consciousness beyond bodily death. These are philosophical arguments, not scientific arguments, but they do draw on scientific theories to make their case. There is too much to explain here, but I will do a bit of "name dropping" for those who are interested in investigating the details. Greg Rosenberg has an intriguing argument (I'd say a very powerful argument) that he calls the "Theory of Natural Individuals." He points out that science, as such, does not offer any deep insights into the nature of causation. We depend on the concept in every scientific theory, but we don't "really know' what causation is. We just accept that events of type X follow events of type Y more or less predictably "for a reason," and we develop theories that help us to improve our predictive abilities, but "causation" as such, remains a mystery. Rosenberg develops a philosophical theory of causation in which the "intrinsic carriers" of causation are qualia. (I'm not going to explain terms here. Just google stuff, if you have to.) I think Rosenberg is right about this. Rosenberg himself, so far as I know, does not say anything about the consciousness surviving death, but I think his theory, when combined with some other plausible ideas (e.g., Daniel Kolak's theory of one self in his book "I Am You", Lee Smolin's theory of "Cosmological Natural Selection", Max Tegmark's theories of various types of multiverses, Andrie's theory of "eternal inflations", etc.) leaves the door wide open for some sort of "afterlife" - although probably not anything even remotely similar to any traditional concepts of "heaven" or "hell".
Bottom line (as far as I'm concerned): If/when at any point, for any reason (even by "pure accident"), some key functional aspects of my physical brain (or whatever physical mechanism stores memories) are "recreated" somewhere or somewhen in our universe, or in the infinite multiverse, then "I" will be there just as fully and just as "really" as "I" will (hopefully) wake up tomorrow morning. To put it another way: In whatever sense I am comforted by the idea that "I" will wake up tomorrow, then in that exact same sense, "I" will wake up everywhere and everywhen a brain that, for whatever reason, "has my memories" wakes up anywhere/anywhen in the multiverse. This is a weird concept of "afterlife" that involves a potentially infinite number of "afterlives" of various sorts, but I think that an awful lot of logic and evidence points to it being true. If you do not find this concept of an afterlife "comforting" because you do not believe that it will "really be" you who wakes up in some other part of the multiverse, then you are comforted by an illusion when you think that you will be the one who wakes up in your bed tomorrow.
Last edited by Gaylenwoof; 01-14-2016 at 08:50 AM..
The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out. They eat you away inside and out.
When your brain dies all of your memories, thoughts, feelings, and consciousness dies with it. To believe that there could be a consciousness without the mechanics of something like a brain to process thought to me is nothing more then magical thinking. Just like I believed we had a ghost of a chance to believe that we could win the power ball lottery last night. It was a fun dream, but just that, a dream.
I'm perfectly fine with there being just this life and nothing more. I actually prefer it this way. I do not want to be anywhere forever. Think of how tedious that would be.
I was born/raised (Baptised & Confirmed) Roman-Catholic and the foundation of my faith (belief in Yeshua) remains secure, but over the past decade or so, I have found my heart and mind seeking answers to much 'bigger' questions; questions which I was taught NEVER to ask: Who & Where is 'God' ? If we were created in 'thier' image (as it is clearly stated in 'Book of Genesis')...then who are 'they' and WHY did they create us ? Were they 'bored' ? Are they a race of 'Leonardo DaVinci's' who travel hither and yon just 'breathing into existance' various lifeforms simply 'because they can' ? ? ? I am no closer to an answer, but certain concepts presented in various movies I have watched lately have definitely caught my interest, one in particular from a Spielberg film 'A.i' (Artificial Intelligence) threw a bunch of very cerebral ideas up for grabs...I did some searching and came up with a quote from the movie which (for whatever reason) tends to hang over my head, and I just cannot shake it.
This particular quote comes from a pivotal-part in the movie towards the very end, where an android-child (designed by mankind 2000 yrs prior to an ice-age which kills-off ALL of mankind) is recovered & reactivated by extra-terrestrial 'visitors', who wish to learn more about the (now extinct) race of humans who created it.
There is a discussion between one of the Alien-beings, and the android about the possibility of 'resurrecting' the body of a particular human whom the android-child came to know (and love) prior to the demise of the human-race.
This following is an excerpt of that discussion; perhaps the OP will find something useful, to extract from it:
[the Specialist Mecha talks to David about the end of the human race, but how he will be able to see Monica one final time] Specialist (evolved mecha): David, I often felt a sort of envy of human beings... of that thing they call 'spirit.' Human beings have created a million explanations of the meaning of life... in art, in poetry, and mathematical formulas. Certainly, human beings must be the key to the meaning of existence. But human beings no longer existed. So, we began a project... that would make it possible to recreate the living body of a person long dead... from the DNA in a fragment of bone or mummified skin. We also wondered, would it be possible... to retrieve a memory trace in resonance with a recreated body? And you know what we found? We found the very fabric of space-time itself appeared to store information... about every event which had ever occured in the past. But the experiment was a failure, for those who were resurrected only lived through a single day of renewed life. When the resurectees fell asleep on the night of their first new day they died again. As soon as they became unconcious, their very existence faded away into darkness. So you see, David. The equations have shown that once an individual space-time part had been used, it could not be reused. If we bring your mother back now it will only be for one day, and then you will never be able to see her again. David: Maybe - Maybe she will be special. Maybe she will stay. Specialist (evolved mecha): I thought this would be hard for you to understand. You were created to be so young. David: Maybe the one day will be like that one day inside the amphibicopter. Maybe it will last forever. Specialist (evolved mecha): David, you are the enduring memory of the human race. The most lasting proof of their genius. We only want for your happiness. David, you've had so little of that. David: If you want for my happiness, then you know what you have to do. Specialist (evolved mecha): Listen. Can you hear that? The new morning has come. Go to her, David. She's just waking up this instant.
[birds chirp to the morning sunrise]
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
