So 2 is not a scientific answer by any means. #2 is the hippy chick I banged last year at burning man who said I had a huge throbbing aura.
So, to be more precise, I believe the great nothingness awaits us all. However, I do find it oddly awesome that one day the sun will absorb the earth. Then the sun will shed its outer layers out into the universe where, given enough time, that matter/energy will hit something else. Possibly a planet that has chicks with three tits.
not necessarily. just because mainstream science has not (to my knowledge) quantitatively measured it yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There is plenty of circumstantial evidence that such things do exist. There are measurable physiological differences between people who would be said to have reached enlightenment vs joe schmoe. There are uncountable first hand accounts of people’s direct experience to their ‘true self’ that are more or less consistent. Mainstream science is starting to uncover things that also point to its existence – for example the fact that communication between the brain and the body is not a one-way street. The brain receives measurable signals that originate from the heart and other energy centers in the body.
i consider myself a skeptic and firmly rooted in reality. I was on here preaching the gospel of Ayn Rand for several years (by the way nothing in her philosophy is untrue per se, just incomplete). I used to think that anything beyond the rational mind was bullshit used by people to gain power over others (that is by and large how it is used unfortunately). But after learning how to meditate and quiet the rational mind, i started to have brief glimpses and a direct experience of a more complete “extra-rational” reality. I’m not saying i know what this is, but i will continue to explore it because it is something that is real and happiness depends on understanding and conforming to reality.
^ you ever do acid/mushrooms turd? Pretty wacky stuff but it gets you to the same ideas, after playing around enough with that stuff I see some people talking a lot like you are.
I always have taken those experience to be your mind trying to rationalize irrational data. its like putting code in a computer that causes it to malfunction and show weird stuff. Doesnt particularly mean anything aside from what you think it does, but I can see how others add meaning to them. Or maybe there is some weird stuff going on, who knows. Seems as though meditation has worked well for you and thats awesome, I have found it useful to help relax and unwind, but have other things I usually use for that anyway
i prefer scenario 1, which is to die and live immortal. continuity to me is important.
most likely scenario is 2. we die and we become nothing. this is the best way to justify bad behavior. YOLO.
i dont like scenario 3, dying to be reborn just to die again sounds inefficient. but i have heard the argument where they say that a short life span makes us more daring and appreciative of life, with a greater work ethic due to the limited time.
I do find it hilarious though that people use scenario 1 and 3 to motivate people to be good. i.e. be good and you go to heaven. or be bad and be a mosquito in your next life. i was just watching vikings yesterday, and they used ragnar to display this type of thought.
Agree these are basically the same thing, and reality as far as our limited science knows.
You cease to exist, and you are potential fertilizer for new biological life but retain no memory of past lives.
Perhaps this is the after life.
In any case, I don’t see why life after death is any more unlikely than life before death. The universe as it exists would seem pretty farfetched if you didn’t happen to already live in it.
If time is a dimension that we can comprehend only linearly then there is no such thing as free will is there? Our future is already determined and the path laid out or are there multiple threads connecting the future to the present? That means there must be infinite number of future timelines. If that is so and if we ever evolve to perceive time as well how will we comprehend all these time-lines?
Hey Monkey, why don’t you ask this Canadian…
(apparently he can school all us in quantum physics)
this is a pretty fascinating intersection between physics/neurobiology and consciousness. to me it’s amazing how spot-on wisdom originating from 1,000s of years ago has been in many respects. to be able to describe reality so well without even a notion of modern science is pretty amazing.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omYQrF0UXRg]
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^youd prob have more credibility if these videos were not 30 minutes long and narrated by a guy who sounds consitpated
Today is the feast day of St. Francis de Sales. He wrote an important quote I think about often.
“Life is short, but of everlasting value, for it contains the seed of eternity.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_de_Sales
As to the original question, after I die, I think I will make a swift trip to purgatory.
Valhalla or hacksaw.
This is fine. But, what is reality?
You completely left out service and kindness to others?
Kindness and service to others can be argued to be completely egocentric… so maybe he is not leaving that out.
It seems to me that the inexplicability of suffering and torment, especially for those that trust and follow God, from a specifically Christian standpoint, is the big question. Good, Christian (in this example) people all die or suffer horribly or both. Why? Often people say it is suffering as a test of faith, suffering as a conduit to spiritual fulfillment, or giving humans room to exist as free beings.
God observes, but does he actually care? It seems to me that, should God exist, it is likely he is so foreign in comparison with humanity that humans have no hope of perceiving his actions, much less his motives.
Suffering as a test of faith? Cancer in children? Genocide? What about that toddler that was forced to smoke meth and repeatedly raped by her moms boyfriend for the better part of a year before he brutally murdered her, all while the mother was complicit and watched?
Should God exist, I think he’s an asshole, and that doesn’t begin to describe it. If i’m the moron who doesn’t understand his master plan then I’ll gladly burn in hell especially if murderers and rapists are allowed to repent and go to heaven.
Yes, those are great questions. The world is an ugly place full of evil and evil acts.
I could spout verses from popes and the bible, but they would not resonate without faith. I can spout encyclicals and bible verses to try to explain if you wish, but I am no apologist. One verse that does come to mind quite frequently with me is that ‘when sin increases, grace abounds all the more’ (Romans 5:20). Finally, I firmly believe that God is Love. So getting to heaven just means that you recognize love. If you don’t call love God and don’t call love Jesus, I believe you still are encountering Him. So the one who is without faith, but practices love is much better in God’s eyes than the one who calls himself Christian and preaches constantly without good works. While I feel you will encounter the greatest amount of joy and love through faith, my deepest hope is for us to encounter love. Yes, there are horrible things and events in the world. We must not seek revenge, we must not hate, we must turn to one another and love. This is my calling in life. My calling is love.