sleepy jack

I don't believe there is any possible way any afterlife can exist. I think everyone here can agree that we experience the world without brain; which stops working when we die. So even if some subatomic matter (like your "soul") there will be no way to experience it because the thing that is "you (your brain)" is dead.

Before someone responds to this with the classic "ah! but you haven't died and there's no way to gather information from the dead so we can't know so it's useless to discuss it." I want to say unless you're going to live with Cartesian skepticism all your life then you have to accept that we have some intelligence and knowledge. This is my argument towards this and the basic summary of how I came to the above conclusion. I can understand thinking that way but it's never gotten anyone anywhere and when it comes to examining the big questions it can bring a measure of solace but I do think we've acquired a lot of knowledge beyond I think therefore I am. We know about the enormous size of our solar system all the way to the tiny building blocks of matter. We gained this knowledge through scientific examination. Science being ultimately the act of disproving something and accepting something as highly likely when all those avenues of disproof are exhausted. There are gaps in our knowledge but I believe that if they are to be filled it won't be with an old book but with science. I think in every bit of our life we apply logic. Most people (who are sane and alive and in good health) leave buildings by door because all evidence suggests that gravity will harm you if you exit via high window windows. I think logic can be applied to the spiritual realm (though most people choose not to for some reason even though they apply it to everything else) and when you do that I think the possibility of life after death no longer looks like a possibility; but an impossibility.

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sleepy jack

I have a major problem with grammatically constructing thoughts when I'm tired and can't sleep, sorry about all the run-on sentences.

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cardboard adolescent

I think scientific materialism is unable to account for subjectivity. Atoms, black holes, galaxies, even the brain are merely symbols which we have somehow been able to create out of nothing. As such, I don´t think I=my brain is a fair statement. I am able to create representations but as such I cannot be equivalent to them. I have the ability to create rules of logic and the trajectories of propositions to their conclusions, but I also have the ability to doubt the efficacy of language, even of the reality of my perceptions. What am I, the representations I generate or the force that generates them? To you I am the sum of my actions, and you assume that these actions are the results of thoughts or impulses I experience. But I am not their slave, I can rebel. I can refuse reason just as you refuse faith. I am able to transcend. I don´t necessarily think I´m going to Heaven after I die, but my essence may persist, even if only through others. To crudely paraphrase many great thinkers, nature does not know beginnings and ends, only progressive transformations. I can talk about this forever, I don´t have any firm beliefs one way or the other because this question is, like most interesting questions, beyond the limits of experience.

dac

As much as I want to dismiss any sort of afterlife because of logic and science, I can't bring myself to believe that this is it. That this whole life and civilization is just a coincidence. That we're just here because of some random glitch in the universe. There has to be more.

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Rubber

Souls have brains, duh. It makes perfect sense.

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jackhammer

We are EXACTLY here because of many random glitches. If many things did'nt happen to the planet then humans would almost certainly not be here. Simple as that

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anticipation

well, while i'll be fucking 100 virgins and sipping coors light with Allah, you guys will be contemplating where your atoms begin and someone else's end.

Akira

Though Allah forbids alcohol, I'm sure a weak American beer will be permitted.

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jackhammer

How will I be contemplating if I'm dead as a doornail....

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anticipation

magic, duh.