http://tinyurl.com/7gzo9 http://tinyurl.com/8de6y

As you can see, I have uploaded scans of a pamphlet that I received today.

It makes me ponder on the afterlife.

How many people are going to heaven? 144,000?

Or does everyone go to heaven, except for the really, really wicked few? (Mormons)

Or does everyone cease to exist, except for the believers (Jehovah's Witness)?

Nigga please, Heaven is for losers. I'm going to Valhalla.

EDIT: That came off as too Half Baked, what I was trying to get across is that there's multiple forms of a so-called "afterlife", can all of them be correct?

I think we will feel the same way we felt before we were born.



[This message has been edited by Paradise Lost (edited 08-20-2005).]

quote:Originally posted by Paradise Lost:

Nigga please, Heaven is for losers. I'm going to Valhalla.

EDIT: That came off as too Half Baked, what I was trying to get across is that there's multiple forms of a so-called "afterlife", can all of them be correct?

I think we will feel the same way we felt before we were born.



That's what people keep saying.

Death feels like before birth.

How do you know that death feels like before birth? You are just taking a wild guess, since you have never experienced death or even heard accounts of people who has died and thus cannot make an educated guess.

quote:Originally posted by heidegger:

You are just taking a wild guess, since you have never experienced death or even heard accounts of people who has died and thus cannot make an educated guess.

Show me the evidence that says our brain lives on. If you can't show me why to believe it then there's no reason for me to.

EDIT: On second thought I guess it would be pretty comforting knowing that this isn't all for nothing.

[This message has been edited by Paradise Lost (edited 08-20-2005).]

quote:Originally posted by Paradise Lost:

EDIT: On second thought I guess it would be pretty comforting knowing that this isn't all for nothing.

How so?

If there were a grand scheme in the works, and your "soul" was pre-destined from the very beginning of time (along with every other human lifeform that ever existed)to meet this grand finale of a "rebirth" into an afterlife ... that would seem very depressing to me, and make this here&now life seem wholly insignificant.

It seems like people would fare better if they treated the life they live now as if it were the only shot they had at existing, and clean themselves of the idea that the consciousness they know today will be somehow transported to another dimension of time and space that didn't rely on the biological and physical laws of our Universe.

Someone nailed it up there ^. The Afterlife can only be compared to before birth. You just cease to exist. That's it.

quote:Originally posted by AngryFemme:

Someone nailed it up there ^. The Afterlife can only be compared to before birth. You just cease to exist. That's it.

That was me.

Anyways I was just screwing around and share a lot of the same beliefs you do in your post.

I died once. It was just blankness, I had no thoughts, everything ceased to exist, including me. The one reassuring thing I can say, is that you'll be too dead to realize your dead. It was as if I missed a section of time. Were no more than a place for organized chemistry to take place, and when the reactions quit, we no longer exist, only the energy that allowed us to materialise goes on. I don't care about dieing now, because it's nothing, quite literally.

Eternity is a very long time. It actually scares me to think that this tiny chunk of time is all that I have. It also makes me feel really sorry for those who had early deaths.

quote:Originally posted by BaKeD_gOoDs:

I died once. It was just blankness, I had no thoughts, everything ceased to exist, including me.

Your experience cannot be defined as death due to the simple fact that you "lived to tell about it". Some part of you retained a conscious recollection of the event. Ergo, you couldn't have been dead, in the literal sense.

The common near-death-experience phenomena makes those who experience it believe that their mind is somehow functioning without the brain and the body. NDE's can even be produced on purpose.

Karl Jansen (1997) has written extensively about the NMDA-receptor hypothesis and ketamine. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that can produce NDE-like experiences in some people, although they are not identical: http://tinyurl.com/99zlh

NDE's are really popular with the drug cultures.

I always do think .. if there's really

nothing when you die .. what's the fucking point..

Okay then. Suppose there is an afterlife, and death isn't the end-all. Can you define the point of life then? Wouldn't life now seem even LESS significant, compared to that? Even MORE pointless?

You don't need either/or to suggest that there is a point to life.

Why, there doesn't even have to be a point to life at all! We're considering that there has to be a reason, some sort of intentionality driven by some invisible force that embodies the very ESSENCE of why we exist at all.

It's just not necessary, unless you plan on fucking off the existence you are in now preparing for something that has never been proven and that may or may not transpire when you die.

I think it is necessary to believe in something, I don't think anyone in the world

truly truly believes that when you die NOTHING is there , if that's the case you can murder/suicide right now.

quote:Originally posted by Aseren:

I think it is necessary to believe in something, I don't think anyone in the world

truly truly believes that when you die NOTHING is there , if that's the case you can murder/suicide right now.

Wrong, I truly believe that there is nothing, but I see beauty in the world. Why must I kill myself?

quote:Originally posted by Paradise Lost:

Wrong, I truly believe that there is nothing, but I see beauty in the world. Why must I kill myself?

I said you can.

We'll basically what's the point, if you

die all is forgotten and it was in vein.

quote:Originally posted by Aseren:

We'll basically what's the point, if you

die all is forgotten and it was in vein.

By your standards, but by others, and mine, if I help to better humanity any way then I will die peacefully and happy.

quote:Originally posted by heidegger:



How many people are going to heaven? 144,000?



You know, I've always wondered why so many people are Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, if they believe only 144,000 people are going to go to heaven, why do 6 million people belong to that church? If I understand it correctly, 144,000 will have "immortal life" and go to heaven, and all other Witnesses will be stuck on "Paradise Earth" and have "everlasting life".

[This message has been edited by Social Junker (edited 08-21-2005).]

quote:Originally posted by Paradise Lost:

By your standards, but by others, and mine, if I help to better humanity any way then I will die peacefully and happy.

No, you won't die peacefully and happy you will just die and instantly loose memory of your good deeds.

Pretty depressing stuff..

[This message has been edited by Aseren (edited 08-21-2005).]

quote:Originally posted by Aseren:

No, you won't die peacefully and happy you will just die and instantly loose memory of your good deeds.

Pretty depressing stuff..



*cracks knuckles* Looks like I've got to start arguing semantics and pragmatics now...

In that context and the connotation I used it in, the word die was to represent dieing, or in the process of dieing. So, yes, I will die peacefully.

Now what you're getting at is that I used die in lieu of dead. Which isn't true.

When I die, I believe there is nothing afterwards. Remembering my good or bad deeds isn't even an option to consider, because my brain is dead and cannot produce a consciousness that 'remembers'.

Does this mean that everything I live for is in vain? Absolutely not. If I relied on an Afterlife as the bane of my existence, then it would seem pointless and in vain because I am giving up one reality to fulfill another reality that I will never be able to consciously experience.

I belive there is something more. What about miracles? God does exist, read the bible. It's a scary thought to think about....

[This message has been edited by thugalbino (edited 08-21-2005).]

quote:Originally posted by Social Junker:

You know, I've always wondered why so many people are Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, if they believe only 144,000 people are going to go to heaven, why do 6 million people belong to that church? If I understand it correctly, 144,000 will have "immortal life" and go to heaven, and all other Witnesses will be stuck on "Paradise Earth" and have "everlasting life".





Who says it's 144,000? Jehovah's Witnesses? Please show link to prove your claim.

quote:Originally posted by heidegger:



Who says it's 144,000? Jehovah's Witnesses?

Yep, they're the ones.

144k of 6+ - billion homo sapiens sapiens, get to go to heaven.

Not to mention the ?lucky? + - billions of people that have lived and died without having the ?honor? of meeting a Jehova's "witness".

Meh.

quote:Originally posted by Paradise Lost:

*cracks knuckles* Looks like I've got to start arguing semantics and pragmatics now...

In that context and the connotation I used it in, the word die was to represent dieing, or in the process of dieing. So, yes, I will die peacefully.

Now what you're getting at is that I used die in lieu of dead. Which isn't true.



Ok my bad.