Would you prefer an afterlife, nothingness, or reincarnation after death?

If you meditate deep enough (whatever that means), you could see your past lives. It is something that can be tried and results seen on earth (no afterlife required). The historical buddha could see 550 of his past lives through meditation.

 

Makes no difference what I think, either after life exist or it doesn't. As long as I do not do things I would regret like murder, rape etc, I do not fear after life, but I am not going to live my life worried about it all the time.

 

Harvard Neurosurgeon Confirms The Afterlife Exists

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/harvard-neurosurgeon-confirms-the-afterlife-exists/

This is exactly what I felt like when I tried cocaine.

 

I'm late to this thread, but why would anyone want anything other than going to heaven/post-life utopia? If conceptions of heaven as perfect are true, why would you want anything else?

 

I would enjoy slipping into a parallel universe upon death. One with an Earth that's idyllic and inhabited with humanity, a humanity that is far advanced from where we are today, but beings I would recognize. A humanity that would welcome me with open arms and make me young again using science, vastly extending my life span. A civilization that has learned to live together in peace and freedom, while retaining our diversity. We would have colonies throughout our solar system, and will have solved faster than light space travel, with colonies on inhabitable planets circling stars in our neighborhood. If my loved ones, those both alive and dead, were also there, treated as well as I am being treated, that would be damned near perfect.

A new journey. One that isn't in your poll, so I won't be voting in it. Kudos for making it a public poll.

 

Whatever that is, I hope there's internet so I can continue to read clutchfans.

 

Maybe those voted against are suspecting there are strings attached.

Or maybe the acknowledgement of an afterlife alters the reality of meaningfulness of the here and now.

It could just be the opinion that after awhile, death and rest is a natural part of the cycle.

 

"heaven" might also be too loaded a term with too many perceived meanings attached to it. For example, I recall learning in my early childhood that heaven is where you have God and Jesus as kings, then you have angles and then the rest of us... it's a monarchy! There was even a gatekeeper.

 

Yeah

Even among Christians...Catholics don't believe God is an Old Bearded White Guy in the sky anymore.

Or maybe heaven is a state of mind on earth..

 

FB, you claim to be a Christian so you should KNOW that the soul is eternal. You do know that don't you????

 

Boredom

And what do you imagine that soul to be? Your consciousness and memories?

 

As a lifelong Astros fan, I got to go with reincarnation

Might be the only way to eventually see them win the World Series

I mean if I keep getting reincarnated, it's got to happen one of these centuries :grin:

 

KYLE
Yeah, but now we think maybe heaven
isn't a place you can get to, maybe
heaven is just an idea. A frame of mind
or, or something gay like that. Maybe
heaven... is this moment, right now.


GENERAL
So, you're saying we should bomb this
moment, right now. Right! Johnson!


JOHNSON
Sir!

RANDY
No, no. We shouldn't bomb anybody. These
boys are right. The only heaven we can
hope for is one here on earth, now.
We should stop waiting to get into heaven
and start trying to... create it.

 

There is a Buddhist story about a monk and a warrior.

The warrior asked the monk what was heaven and what was hell.

The monk said "That is a stupid question that only an idiot would ask."

The warrior became wrathful and drew his sword to strike the monk down.

The monk lifted his hand and said "This is Hell."

The warrior paused when he heard that.

The monk then smiled and said, "This is Heaven."

 

I would prefer that there was actually some sort of afterlife.

Can't understand why anyone would not. Unless they feared the afterlife.

 

A general rule for life is that if someone promises you exactly what you want if your just take what they are telling you on faith, they probably are running some kind of con. Be wary of people promising you exactly what you want.

This is my concern - if I were to make up some BS to tell you exactly what you wanted to hear, that story would be a whole lot like Christian heaven.

Not saying it can't be true, just that their is some serious overlap there with what wishful thinking would result in.

Another interesting thing is that while people think that getting everything they ever wanted would be awesome, it actually turns out to be incredibly destructive to most people. When people win the lottery or whatever and quit working and just sit around with nothing to push towards, it seems to turn a lot of people to intense depression. As an organism you are built to fight towards goals. You NEED that struggle in order to not sink into depression and emptiness.

So the classical vision of heaven as total fulfillment and contentment may seem awesome from the outside, but would probably actually turn kind of empty and hellish after a while. And you're already dead, so it isn't like you can kill yourself. So I think any genuine heaven would be quite a bit different from what people imagine - it would require some sort of struggle to keep you active - unless somehow your ego was altered by the death process in some way that made it more satisfied to float around and strum a harp for the rest of time.

 

It's the paradox of happiness and meaningfulness. People think happiness is an instant characteristic like feeling comfortable, having instant gratification or satisfaction. Lasting happiness is a reflection of past deeds and surmounted challenges.

 

Give the choice, reincarnation.