Of course its just as likely that you see a bunch of Jihadists lounging around with 72 virgins that bear a remarkable resemblance to Jessica Alba and Lindsey Lohan. Objectively I'm not seeing anything that would rule that out. I guess we'll all find out sooner or later.
If I may add your body is composed of atoms and as you live you are constantly losing atoms and gaining atoms. These atoms preexisted you and after you die will preexist you. What defines you physically as an independent being is the pattern which your body maintains. Once your body ceases metabolic function that pattern breaks down and eventually your body returns to disparate atoms that in turn end up in possibly other bodies or all sorts of things. A wave is composed of water but has distinctiveness because its a distinct pattern so we can distinguish from the body of water it comes from. When the wave can no longer maintain its pattern it returns to the rest of the body of water. So physically speaking we're composed of matter not much different from everything else around us and when we die we return to constituent matter. The illusion is the perception that our we are distinct entities when we really are composed of the same matter as everything else. From dust to dust. Ashes to ashes.
After death is justice. Please explain to me why everyone favors injustice over justice??? Justice- The principle of moral rightness; receiving what one deserves. b. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness. 3a. The upholding of what is just, due reward in accordance with standards, or law. b. Law The administration and procedure of law. 4. Conformity to truth, fact. Humans choose right or wrong all the time. Someone steals your car. Someone steals your wife. Someone steals your life. Someone betrays you. Someone abuses you. Lynchings. Intolerance, prejudice, rape, someone cheats you. These are all moral choices- meaning could have done the right thing, chose to do the wrong thing. How horrible the world becomes when there is no justice. Injustices are the saga of all human misery. ALL. We could all choose to do the right thing and there would be no human misery but we don't. Every choice we make should be judged as praiseworthy or blameworthy, right or wrong. The father who repeatedly rapes his 8 year old daughter should be held accountable. The person who steals your car owes you. That is justice. Why leave out justice? I will tell you what there is after death- Justice A world without justice self destructs (the proof is all around you- open your eyes). Why are we fighting environmental, political, social wrongs? Because inside each of us is justice. Why are we debating anything? - Justice. Everyone gets what they deserve to get- justice- reward or punishment This life and the next. Now if you do not believe there is justice after death you have risked your own soul on your wager. You have become the greatest gambler the world has ever seen. Would you trade your eyesight for $50,000? Would you give your legs and hands up to become a amputee for $100,000? What price would you place on your soul? If your god is unjust impeach him, he his no better than any of us.
I don't know who says they favor injustice? There might be justice, but it might not be the kind that people are used to. Justice might come God granting total conciousness. If the father who repeatedly rapes his 8 year old daughter is all of a sudden gifted with total and complete understanding of the pain it caused her, his guilt would provide him such misery that no other punishment would be needed. That could be the kind of justice some get. Furthermore the knowledge that despite that God is so loving that he is forgiven and in a higher existence might be even more crushing to his soul. I think from all of that he will receive understanding at last, and something(no idea what) positive, will happen.
Good points. Actually though justice has more to do with receiving what is rightly deserved. (you cannot mix justice and injustice) For example if you are caught jaywalking justice would not send you to the electrice chair. If you are caught raping a little girl justice would not give you a lecture on rape. That is not right nor just. The punishment must be deserving of the crime or it becomes injustice. The work of justice is to determine what is deserved. Should a man be lynched just because of the color of his skin. No. That is injustice. I think you have the right concept- the kind of justice The kind of justice that is right is equitible, without partiality, and deserving. A maybe kind of justice would lead to injustice. That is why if you were a judge you should carefully apply the law and not be bribed, partial, abusive or lenient. Just do the right thing. The difference between justice and mercy are very important. There can be no mercy where there is no justice.
I do not know what happens to you after you die. I can only assume that it is not a party. If the afterlife were a party, one of my 6 friends who have died during my lifetime would have come back and invited me to it, 'cuz I did some serious partying with all 6 of them. "Duuuude! You should see the dope they have up here! It's the shizzznit!"
But you are assuming that souls exist. That is nothing more than a religious belief. It is not a fact, and I say it isn't true.
Receiving total conciousness and understanding isn't a lecture, that is deeper and more profound than any punishment which is only a judicial substitute since we can't impart the hurt doen onto anothers concience. A person with total awareness and understanding of what they have done and how it affects others will in essence receive a far worse punishment than anything imposed on them by somebody or something else. Furthermore I disagree that there can be no mercy without justice. Forgiveness is done where this is guilt and does not involve punishment. Forgiveness is at the heart of Christianity. But let us talk about one aspect of some folks Christianity that bothers me, and that is that all non-Christians would burn in hell, while all Christians are forgiven and live in heaven. By those standards Ghandi goes to hell, and Hitler goes to heaven. That is not justice by any standard I can imagine. Sorry for that sidebar. Anyway total conciencousness would give the exact amount of punishment appropriate to the crime, and it would be imposed on the committer of the crime by himself, and his newfound understanding, it would be exact, immediate, and in proportion to everything else. It is a perfect justice, the kind a divine God would use.
I read the following scripture this morning, and instantly thought of this thread: Philippians 3:10-14 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
No you are assuming it is a religious belief. Can you prove it is not fact. Could you list the facts that demanded you to make this conclusion. Do you believe this by faith? Or do you have indisputable proof? MR. MEOWGI- I respect your beliefs but I cannot stretch so far as to say they are absolute truth. Just the beliefs of a man. You may know something no one else knows but we need help seeing the proof, unless you want us also to believe you by blind faith. Is there a man who has died and come back to talk about it? Have you some proof that you do know what is real after death? I have a three fold test to see if you really believe there is no soul.
Uh, it is a religious belief because there are other religions that deny the idea of a soul. The burden on proof is on the one making the claim, not the one disputing it. What is evident is that nothing exists independently and nothing is permanent. Nothing is immortal. Just look around. Why would a soul be any different?
There is no water in my office right now...I can't see any water right now...therefore, water doesn't exist. I don't follow that logic. A soul MIGHT be different because God made it so. It is within the realm of possibilities.
Great thread so far. But just a side note. Some people might consider a soul as being a "life force." We all have some sort of life force or energy that we release when we die. Now I have sort of a theory about that as to how some people believe in reincarnation or deja vu. Once someone dies they release this life force or energy to the cosmos. And when someone is born they capture some of that energy. Thus capturing parts of others energy or life force. But what do I know? Why should I speak? Since I know nothing...
You are claiming a soul exists independently of the body and mind, and the rest of the universe? If so, we would not know of it and this conversation would not be possible. If it is part our our mind, and our mind is part of the cosmos, then a soul is part of the cosmos. If it is part of the cosmos, it is not immortal. It would be a dependant, temporary phenomenon like everything else.
I'm claiming that God may have made human souls unique. He MAY have. I'm claiming there MAY be a God who created the universe. I'm claiming both of those as possibilities. And i'm thinking if the universe was created by God...then he probably has the ability to also create souls...and to make them however he wishes.
Again..it's a possibility. I suppose if you subscribed to it, it would be characterized as a religious belief. But any concept of who we are, where we came from, where we might be going, what is creation, etc. etc. can be characterized the very same way.
