What Happens After Death
- Thread starter Into Darkness
- Start date
I believe the elements that i am made up of will disperse themselves back into the planet and that will be the end of me and my consciousness, but who know's what the odds are for those very same elements to come together once again in the very same structure they are in at present, in say another 5 billion years time.
One day we will all be having this conversation in the great gig in the sky.
Or not. That's, you know, kinda the point of this thread...
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Amaris
Guest
I've always been fascinated with astronomy and cosmology. And to quote one of the scientists from How the Universe Works (or Through the Wormhole): "We are all stardust," born of supernovae that created the spark of life. So ashes to ashes, stardust to stardust ...
The interesting thing about life is that it is the only thing in the universe that actively fights entropy. A cup that fell from a table and shattered into hundred pieces is not going to return to its state at the top of the table. Everything in the universe wants balance, but life doesn't. It keeps regenerating and by that, it keeps an unstable, unbalanced state. Death is when an organism loses that battle. But then other organisms come and use the remains of the dead to support their own fight.
It was Sagan who famously said “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
And this is, I guess, why I don't personally understand religion. And I am speaking in very broad terms here -- I know what follows does not apply to all religions or all believers: I can understand how religion is likely to have evolved, but I don't understand the drive to believe. Isn't the natural world enough? Isn't it beautiful, bizarre, curious, and profound enough on its own? Why must we cling to a supernatural, when there is so much wonder yet to be understood. To me, our habit of "projecting our own nature onto nature," to quote Sagan once more, seems trivializing, and it is the height of arrogance to imagine that it was all created just for us.
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Amaris
Guest
Fear of what comes after. The fear of death can be a powerful motivator to believe that there is something beyond this life, that no, you don't have to end. That is the basis for many religions. The trappings were added later.
I guess I sort of get that. I mean, I really wish there were an afterlife. But I wish I had great legs and a billion dollars too.
As for religion, I would wonder if it wasn't based in control before fear. I don't suppose we'll ever know...evolutionary psychology is a somewhat wooly science.
As for religion, I would wonder if it wasn't based in control before fear. I don't suppose we'll ever know...evolutionary psychology is a somewhat wooly science.
If I had a Euro for every time I heard this, followed by some not-entirely accurate statement about space science, I'll be... well, not really a billionaire, but a comfortably wealthy man.
It's how the brain works. Religion is a form of superstition, and superstition is the result of pattern recognition and the fact that the brain does not get the whole picture. A lightning strikes just when you did something wrong. And suddenly there is the thought that someone watched you and caused that lighting strike. Because the brain badly WANTS to make sense of it. And the simplest explanation is that "someone did it".
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Amaris
Guest
I, too, wish for these things.
Indeed it is. All I can base my ideas on is what I experience for myself, and how I felt when I was deeply religious. I don't like the prospect of death; it does frighten me. Sometimes, a religion makes me want to give it more credence than I should, and I have to remind myself that wishful thinking does not equal reality, and that the likelihood of that religion being an accurate representation of what lies post death is extraordinarily small.
J. You do have great legs.
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Amaris
Guest
I had a near-death experience when I was 3. It's my earliest memory.
I fell off a high, un railed porch and smashed my head open on a rock. Yay early-80s Tennessee building codes.
Anywho, I was knocked out. Woke up two days later. But I remember my mother running to me from next door (was at grandparents' neighbors) and hovering above my body.
Now, do I believe in something after this Earthly realm? No. I believe in things I can see and all those Ghosthunter shows on SyFy are uttershit. I'd be nice if I get to spend eternity with my Nanny and Papa and even my dear old cat Maggie, but that ain't happening. The most logical answer is that my brain was just going APESHIT after I got koncked. And it interpret what my tiny, terrified 3 year old brain wanted...which was my mom.
What will happen after I die? Well, a few minutes after my body gives out, my brain will be starved for oxygen and start to shut down. In this hallucinatory state all my endorphins are going to get released because...why not? It's going to make me very happy so I will again see all my loved ones and a bright light and I assume a thousand breasts.
Several hours after my last neuron fires off, I hit room temperature and the build up of carbon dioxide in my blood causes the acidity to make my cells burst. This is the beginning of the end for my corpse, as I've now started to rot. My wishes are to be cremated and spread over something majestic, but if I have just died in a field somewhere, my body is going to start digesting itself after the first 24-72 hours.
After a few days of that delightful image all those billions of bacteria that helped me digest food have turned against me. They've been eating me and expelling gas that has bloated what's left of me.
From there out it gets even worse. My hair, nails, and teeth will begin to fall out. After about two week of being living-impared, my skin would be able to just be pulled off...because I am simply meat.
That's of the dog hasn't gotten to me first.
I fell off a high, un railed porch and smashed my head open on a rock. Yay early-80s Tennessee building codes.
Anywho, I was knocked out. Woke up two days later. But I remember my mother running to me from next door (was at grandparents' neighbors) and hovering above my body.
Now, do I believe in something after this Earthly realm? No. I believe in things I can see and all those Ghosthunter shows on SyFy are uttershit. I'd be nice if I get to spend eternity with my Nanny and Papa and even my dear old cat Maggie, but that ain't happening. The most logical answer is that my brain was just going APESHIT after I got koncked. And it interpret what my tiny, terrified 3 year old brain wanted...which was my mom.
What will happen after I die? Well, a few minutes after my body gives out, my brain will be starved for oxygen and start to shut down. In this hallucinatory state all my endorphins are going to get released because...why not? It's going to make me very happy so I will again see all my loved ones and a bright light and I assume a thousand breasts.
Several hours after my last neuron fires off, I hit room temperature and the build up of carbon dioxide in my blood causes the acidity to make my cells burst. This is the beginning of the end for my corpse, as I've now started to rot. My wishes are to be cremated and spread over something majestic, but if I have just died in a field somewhere, my body is going to start digesting itself after the first 24-72 hours.
After a few days of that delightful image all those billions of bacteria that helped me digest food have turned against me. They've been eating me and expelling gas that has bloated what's left of me.
From there out it gets even worse. My hair, nails, and teeth will begin to fall out. After about two week of being living-impared, my skin would be able to just be pulled off...because I am simply meat.
That's of the dog hasn't gotten to me first.
Yes, I know that. It's all pareidolia. I'm sure I've mentioned an annoying amount of times that the quirks of imperfect perception (which include religion, superstition, and fallacious reasoning) are pretty much my favorite area of study.
I've had an out of body experience during an acid trip. I floated away and felt no connection to my body. At one point, my body disappeared completely and I could barely describe myself as a being, I was an empty room.
Also at another point I wasn't sure if I were physically upstairs or downstairs. But my spirit was staring at the TV while Anchorman turned from live-action to a sort of cartoon.
The point is that the brain goes crazy from the slightest thing and we can find ourselves floating around and going to Heaven or looking up as the room dissolved into the Tardis interior.
Stay off drugs kids.
Also at another point I wasn't sure if I were physically upstairs or downstairs. But my spirit was staring at the TV while Anchorman turned from live-action to a sort of cartoon.
The point is that the brain goes crazy from the slightest thing and we can find ourselves floating around and going to Heaven or looking up as the room dissolved into the Tardis interior.
Stay off drugs kids.
I've had an out of body experience during an acid trip. I floated away and felt no connection to my body. At one point, my body disappeared completely and I could barely describe myself as a being, I was an empty room.
Also at another point I wasn't sure if I were physically upstairs or downstairs. But my spirit was staring at the TV while Anchorman turned from live-action to a sort of cartoon.
The point is that the brain goes crazy from the slightest thing and we can find ourselves floating around and going to Heaven or looking up as the room dissolved into the Tardis interior.
Stay off drugs kids.
Also at another point I wasn't sure if I were physically upstairs or downstairs. But my spirit was staring at the TV while Anchorman turned from live-action to a sort of cartoon.
The point is that the brain goes crazy from the slightest thing and we can find ourselves floating around and going to Heaven or looking up as the room dissolved into the Tardis interior.
Stay off drugs kids.
If I had a Euro for every time I heard this, followed by some not-entirely accurate statement about space science, I'll be... well, not really a billionaire, but a comfortably wealthy man.
Please do enlighten me. I don't quite recall what Professor Kaku said on the science show, so I was paraphrasing.
