What happens when you die?
The question sort of came up in a recent conversation with a pastor/university professor about a class she teaches. Different religions have different beliefs about the afterlife. Even different people within the same religion have differing thoughts about it. And of course there are those that don't believe anything happens - just the big dirt nap.
Having lived through differing Christian traditions - Catholic, Southern Baptist, and skeptical follower of Jesus - I do believe in an eternal afterlife, but am finding that Jesus taught more about how to live life in the present than about how to gain a particular life in the future. I guess (maybe) they are supposed to be connected. Frankly, I am a little disturbed by the fear of hell motivation or the gain of heaven lure to follow Jesus rather than the simple teaching of loving each other and loving life as we live it.
I find the philosophies of other religions to be pretty fascinating and observe that most share some pretty common beliefs and practices with each other. Many out date Christianity by thousands of years. Many focus on a supreme being or beings, while others look to the collective intellect of humankind as a sort of god or guiding principle.
What do you think?
Is our human experience like some sort of spiritual amusement park that some souls never experience, while others visit once and it is enough, and still others visit repeatedly?
Are there other planes in the universe that we can experience after this life?
Is there an eternal reward called heaven or an eternal punishment called hell?
Or are those inventions of men to control us in the present life?
Does what happens next (if anything) even matter?
I don't know.
But I do wonder about it from time to time.
What about you?
John
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In all honesty I don't think this question can be treated as a mere matter of opinion any more. We know far more about brain function now than we did, say, twenty years ago. It's very clear now that human consciousness, memories, and everything else that we call the "mind" and makes me "me", is a set of operations being performed by the brain, much as programs run on a computer. We know that when the part of the brain that is responsible for a particular mental ability is damaged badly enough, the victim simply loses that ability. So when the entire brain stops working at death, well, the conclusion is obvious.
ReplyDeleteThere's no realistic possibility that any of these mental functions can continue when the physical brain stops functioning. If you set a program running on a computer and then destroy the computer, the program doesn't go anywhere, it just stops. If you set a wheel spinning and then destroy the wheel, it would be absurd to claim that the rotational motion of the wheel can somehow continue to exist when the wheel itself no longer does. Any claim that human consciousness, memory, etc can continue to exist independently of the brain that generates them must be similarly dismissed.
I don't see how any traditional religious ideas on this topic could be considered at all relevant to discovering the truth. All those ideas originated long ago, in times of absolute ignorance about how anything worked. One might as well consult ancient Hindu or Norse mythology for insights into the orbit of Pluto or the design of nuclear reactors.
Or are those inventions of men to control us in the present life?
I think that's exactly it. Religions are like the scary projection of Oz the Great and Terrible in The Wizard of Oz, created by the man behind the curtain to frighten and manipulate the masses into obedience. Throughout world history there have been many, many men behind the curtain in various cultures, who hit on the same rather obvious scheme.
i hope for oblivion nothing more (or less)
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