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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Enigmax

This is ironic...I have been thinking a lot about mortality and afterlife and hadn't sleep for a while then did last night..Irony..definition..synchronicity
I think there is no afterlife and that haunted me at first but I am beggining to accept the fact man.
I think we live to connect and die when it happens...I hope what I just typed is true I meant to put and die when it happens like when death just happens..but I also believe that maybe everything in life can't be a random set of events. Or maybe there are so many variables that the same kind show up a lot. Leading you to perceive them as linked in some way.
How can you ever be sure what you perceive is true? Or sense for that matter...
I am an intellectual stoner and I exist btw

The Unfan

Prove it.

Enigmax

I can't maybe none of that is true. Don't you love how life is...lol
Edit: well I exist because in your mind you are thinking of this poster and his posts which are me imho. That is the only way I can prove it.

Enigmax

I like the way you think, or the fact that you do...some sorry bastards out there don't
Like these guys....

THINK about it. (That was for the poster that is going to mention that statement or think about that statement except you)

Freebase Dali

(sidebar)
I can prove my existence easily.
Know why?
Because it's mine.
I prove it to myself every day.
Know the best part about it?

My existence is not dependent on you.

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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.

sleepy jack

But if you can't experience your essence's persistence then is it really life? What is your essence anyway? I consider myself defined by my thoughts and all my actions are usually presupposed by some thought. So if my brain dies and I stop thinking then I stop acting and ultimately experiencing any form of life as I know it. I don't believe that just because some subatomic matter continues that I will necessarily continue as I am now. I have never in my life heard someone define God or Soul or a soul in any way that can be really sensibility discussed.

I understand that the world exists to me only as a manifestation of my senses and for all I know I'm some alien experiment and this is all fake but I may as well operate in the reality I'm dealing with. And in doing that I've concluded that there can't really been an after life unless my brain somehow takes on a ghostly form, which I don't believe could happen. I think if you choose to operate and think within these rules than you'll find we know way more than you're giving credit for. As I stated there's rules of logic that everyone follows in every realm of life except the spiritual realm and when you apply it there the existence of an after life looks highly unlikely.

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cardboard adolescent

In that case, I´ll attempt to define the soul and God. The soul is that which is common to all of us, can also be thought of as ´the will,´ it lies beneath our thoughts and is not defined by them. Rather, our personality is defined by our thoughts and actions, but these are simply the result of our soul interacting mechanically with every other soul. However, it only seems like there are a multitude of souls from our position, since we are entrenched in reality. Really there is only one soul, which reflects itself infinitely to interact with itself and avoid boredom. This is what is commonly refered to as God, so the only difference between us and God is that we are trapped in reality and hence have a limited perspective. The `random´ interaction of molecules or atoms is the will communicating with itself. Interpersonal interactions are the same. So are the movements of celestial bodies. When you die, you step outside your body and realize yourself as every soul simultaneously, which makes everything feel very very very pointless so you can either step into another body or into the void.

I only half-believe this, because it´s a somewhat comforting idea, but I think it´s pretty hard to disprove.