NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there an afterlife? I'm not talking about heaven or hell and all that.

Is there something or will you just disappear and become nothing?

Terry Pratchett proposed the idea that the afterlife will be whatever you believed it would be when you were alive... seems to me the most plausible idea yet.

Although, personally, I don't believe that there is an afterlife. People die. They're gone. Life goes on. Or else it doesn't.

Whether there is an afterlife is a definite maybe.

Terry Pratchett proposed the idea that the afterlife will be whatever you believed it would be when you were alive... seems to me the most plausible idea yet.

Although, personally, I don't believe that there is an afterlife. People die. They're gone. Life goes on. Or else it doesn't.
So if I picture that I'm reborn after death... I'll be reborn?

So if I picture that I'm reborn after death... I'll be reborn?

Apparently. But why would you want that?

Apparently. But why would you want that?
Because I don't want to let go of the material world I guess...

I believe in reincarnation, or perhaps a sort of "knowledge orgasm" where all of a sudden you know everything and after that there's no point in anything... you exist, but you don't think because you already know everything so why bother. And you feel peace, but are hardly even conscious, y'know? I don't know. I wrote a poem about it, here, I'll post it:

Falling
Swooping down through the chilly ominous air at the end of the world
An abyss opening beneath me black and green with allure
Every second the sublime becomes greater filling me with a madness
Desperately urging on gravity, in an instant the bottom looms

I am struck! enveloped by cosmos!
Blinding light of every color rushes through me like a hurricane
My hair flies back, my feet lifted from the ground
My body gyrates in a backbend, my being overcome, overwhelmed
Ultimate knowledge! disintegrating my mortal body, my human mind
I as I know myself am dissolved

Followed by...
Eternal serenity
I know everything
I think nothing
I feel peace

Falling
Swooping down through the chilly ominous air at the end of the world
An abyss opening beneath me black and green with allure
Every second the sublime becomes greater filling me with a madness
Desperately urging on gravity, in an instant the bottom looms

I am struck! enveloped by cosmos!
Blinding light of every color rushes through me like a hurricane
My hair flies back, my feet lifted from the ground
My body gyrates in a backbend, my being overcome, overwhelmed
Ultimate knowledge! disintegrating my mortal body, my human mind
I as I know myself am dissolved

Followed by...
Eternal serenity
I know everything
I think nothing
I feel peace
That was beautiful... Just beautiful.

eternal peace would be extremely boring

eternal peace would be extremely boring
Which is why I want rebirth.

Which is why I want rebirth.

I prefer eternal nonexistance to the horror of another life...

Well, you say something, your karma may say something else...:p

Well, you say something, your karma may say something else...:p

my karma says " you will have great misfortune"

maybe that was my fortune cookie

Is there an afterlife? I'm not talking about heaven or hell and all that.

Is there something or will you just disappear and become nothing?There's only one way to find out, and no one's bothered to come back and tell us. So if there's an afterlife it must be pretty great ;)

There's only one way to find out, and no one's bothered to come back and tell us. So if there's an afterlife it must be pretty great ;)

Either that or have pretty steep walls...

Damn this thread, I now have the idea that an afterlife may just be a big box.

Either that or have pretty steep walls...

Damn this thread, I now have the idea that an afterlife may just be a big box.

or maybe its a ball, that is fully enclosed, so there is no way out unless they rip through the sides

Damn this thread, I now have the idea that an afterlife may just be a big box.
The Farnsworth Parabox (episode 69), perhaps?

I prefer eternal nonexistance to the horror of another life...
Even in knowing that it's not horrible for everyone?

No. You're worm-food. End of story.

Even in knowing that it's not horrible for everyone?

It's just my own preference. You can be reborn all you want ;)

It's just my own preference. You can be reborn all you want ;)
No, I meant that surely there can be hope that the next life will be better?

Reborn probably wouldn't be bad, but you’re probably going to live in poverty in Africa or Asia, or some crazy animal that couldn't do anything. I'm a scientist and religious and the things I've seen, heard and experience have all told me there something more to this world then it seems, and yes I do think our conscience goes somewhere when we died.

I have a theory (probably a crack pot theory but a theory not the less). You know how we live in 3 dimensions, what if there was a fourth dimension, you don't move up, down, left or right, forward or backwards but sort of near and far. The farther you are away from a object this way the more unstable and transparent it seems. What if our conscience can move like this and heaven is just a step near or hell is just a step far. And ghosts are just passed on consciences that are "near" our dimension. I can explain it in words quite well but it really hard to see since we could only see in 3 dimensions. Think of the Simpson’s episode where homer becomes 3D, they never had width in there, and to imagine it would be hard.

Just a thought

Terry Pratchett proposed the idea that the afterlife will be whatever you believed it would be when you were alive... seems to me the most plausible idea yet.


I pretty much agree with Pratchett there.