I do. My afterlife will greet me regardless of my mortal actions. I believe that in this afterlife I will be a sort of creator where I can imagine anything and it will come into existence. My own universal playground. I will be able to visit the universes of loved ones as well, and see what they may have created. What kind of afterlife do you believe in?
Two choices, heaven or hell. Those who believe in Christ and who follow Him as Lord of their life will spend eternity in His presence. Those who do not, will spend eternity banned from His presence. I could elaborate, but that's the basics.
There was a beautiful poem once shared at the poetry contest about the reincarnation of rain. Basically the notion was that life renews again after death. The cycle as follows; birth-life-death-rebirth-life-death-rebirth-life-death-rebirth.. and so on. You can possibly see this notion in poetry when writing about seasons: spring-summer-autumn-winter-spring-summer-autumn-winter. Proposes a similar cycle. As does: sunrise-afternoon-evening-sunset-night.. then sunrise again. A cycle indicating that perhaps there’s rebirth could be a natural possibility.
There are theories that back this up. I read somewhere (I wish I had the article) that infinite rebirth can be a real possibility. Basically, the universe is expanding. At some point, the reverse will start happening. It will start to collapse back to that extremely condense blob of matter it was before the Big Bang. Then at some point, it will explode again, and the universe will be reformed. This cycle will continue forever because energy can't be destroyed. It just changes forms. So there's sufficient potential for this. All of us won't be reborn at each "reset" because the necessary events are unlikely to align. But if this happens forever and ever, then at some point, all of us here will be reborn. I like to think that its true. I also like to think that this timeline isn't the only possibility for us to exist. Maybe we can lead other lives in a different timeline, maybe not. Maybe existence is so complex that we can only exist in this reality. It would be really sad for all of this to be "over" one day, either way.
The simple answer is we don't know. There's no way we can say for sure one way or the other. As humans in the universe, we are limited to what we can experience with our senses. Our senses evolved to detect certain physical realities, but that's not to say that that is all there is. There could be "something" out there beyond the capabilities of our senses. But, I am not going to live my life with that as my goal. We have to live each day, today, to last an eternity. Years ago, I read a great answer to the question "What is life?" - I believe it was Lynn Margulis (if memory serves). In part, she described life as a series of waves, going into the earth and then rising again out of it, in successive generations. The cycle of life is real, skimming the earth, then again rising, over and over again. I like this image. And then of course reproduction is the continuance of our DNA. DNA lives on.
I dont believe in heaven or hell. I believe we make our own heaven and hell in our LIVING. And thats what we believe we go to when we die. For example, someone who has had a shittly life would hope they go somewhere peaceful when they die. Or someone plagued by guilt and regrets would make up a horrible place for them to go to. Thats just because i find it hard to believe that one entity dictates where you go after you die. I believe pieces of people linger after they die. Call them ghosts. Call them spirits. Call them hotspots. Call them memories. Idk. I also believe in reincarnation. Im not married to one idea or the other. But these thoughts are big parts of my writing. Or rather, things that i explore in my writing. Death, dying, afterlife.
Heaven according to the Bible. I can't look at the world without knowing that it was created. And I can't think of a created world in which the creator never contacted us. I see it as a beautiful, peaceful place - like earth without it's pain, evil or corruption. And I believe in the Jesus-as-the-door, narrow is the way access.
I believe the idea of an afterlife serves basically two purposes. First, it's a comforting salve because as human beings we carry the heavy burden of knowledge of our own mortality, that no animal before us knew. A belief in life after death solves (salves) that problem psychologically and reduces the stress caused by it. And second, before we understood psychology in the modern sense (beginning with Freud) and what the unconscious really is, we would see glimpses of it now and then and know that we were seeing something very real and very powerful. It was another world, where gods and supernatural beings dwell, and somehow we knew it was just as real as the physical world we live in, but very different. Ephemeral, and yet it controls and enwraps this physical sphere we dwell in, fills and animates it. We've given that world many names throughout history—Mount Olympus, Valhalla, the land of the ancestors, the home of shades and spirits, the Underworld, Nirvana, Plato's world of perfect forms, and on and on. And the beings that dwell in that magical realm—the archetypes or the deep human drives—we call gods, spirits, devils and angels. So the afterlife—the other world—is absolutely real and vastly powerful. It was spoken about in religious books in poetic terms, and yet the things said about it are true—our deepest and most profound truths, just not in a purely literal or physical sense. But that doesn't make them any less true.
I just want to pop back in this thread and say, I appreciate this thread SO MUCH! Everyone just stating their opinion/views without arguing with others on their views. We can get along even if we believe different things, and we can learn from each other without having to push anything on anyone. Selah. Peace!
Sadly that's unlikely, because observations suggest that the universe will expand forever. Personally, I think that not being alive because I've died will most likely be similar to not being alive because I hadn't been born. Without a brain to think or experience things, there was nothing.
There are in fact three theories regarding the expansion of the universe. 1. that the universe will expand forever and never stop expanding 2. that one day eventually the universe will stop expending and remain stationary. 3. that one day eventually the universe will stop expanding and begin shrinking again until it becomes that little blob of matter it was before Big Bang. Though the universe is still expanding @ps102 is not entirely wrong to contemplate the third possibility. The entire process is, of course, a very long time and I doubt anyone will be around long enough to see it happen.
It has recently been discovered that the expansion of the universe is actually accelerating. Of course, things may change, but it seems unlikely.
As we create AI beings, I feel that we were created. There are too many complicated things going in life, from the evolution of the eye to the innate programing of birds. To me, it is like my Cocker Spaniel watching me program a part for my CNC mill. I'm sure she says—I'll just have to trust that you know what the hell you're doing—and she walks away.
I haven't got the faintest idea what happens after death. Embracing the possibilities that comfort me seems more sensible than spending my life dreading eternal damnation because I slipped up somewhere.
Afterlife was/is important to warriors. I remember when Russia was in Afganistan, the Muscovites, not believing in an afterlife, would jump out of a functioning tank and run for their lives when the jihadists, who couldn't wait to die, charged them. That being said, I do believe there is some form of resurrection.
"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell." -- Oscar Wilde I think the same can be said for our afterlife, tbh
It's weird to think that the universe will keep expanding forever. Where's the potential for that? Is there enough energy? I'm not a scientist though, so maybe that's a dumb question. Still, if the universe does expand forever, then aren't the formations of new planets feasible? If we are talking about the principle of infinity, and the universe expands to infinity, then there will be another planet earth completely identical to this one. The question is, will the people there be us? Or just people that look like us? What is consciousness anyway? Why am I me, and why are you not me? That sounds really dumb but think about it. What's the distinction of consciousness? If a person dies, is it possible to re-synthesize their consciousness? If so, then rebirth with infinite expansion is also plausible. Maybe. Again, I'm not a scientist. I don't actually know what I'm talking about.
According to the theory of the universe expanding forever, that will lead to "cold death" - expanding, everything drifting apart, cooling down, until it is unable to support any life at all. The opposite of "cold death" is the "big crunch" - the universe contracting in on itself once a density threshold is met ... crunching down into a single point. Well, there are a lot of different opinions about that. I tend to favour the scientific explanation that our consciousness is a function of the biological activity of our brains, which in turn grows in response to both nature (DNA) and nurture (environmental stimuli). I don't believe so. I don't think consciousness can be separated from the its physical, organic structure.
Dark energy drives the expansion of the universe (a sort of anti-gravitation) but it's a good question because no one knows what it is exactly. For me, if the universe had a start, then it can't be infinite. Either way, entropy increases, the stars will die, matter will fall into blackholes that eventually evaporate into low-energy radiation and then 'cold death' - where time is irrelevant. But other 'Earths' with exact copies of yourself are a necessary result of the multiverse interpretation of quantum mechanics.
I had an experience many years ago that proved to me there is "some sort of afterlife". It's the only rational explanation for what I've experienced. It troubles me still today.
TBH, none of our superstitions have been properly scientifically proven. Perhaps one day someone will come up with a theory proven by science re: what happens afterwards. Then we’ll all know for sure and we can still agree to disagree. But I always thought of it as something like the sea. Each wave returning on the shore but every wave is different. Waves coming in light and sound. Waves are repetitive. The existence of ourselves and planet thrives on the light and heat of the sun. No sun means no planets, no people, no animals, no insects, no creation. Light is fundamental here. Also time is considered to be linear but what if it’s not?
The question with these three theories currently is mass, specifically dark matter in current thinking. Option one says there isn't enough mass to halt expansion, and observations show this is the case. Options two and three say there is some quantity of matter we can't currently detect, dark matter, that is sufficient to halt the expansion. Like the question of the after life, it is a question we can't answer, beyond theories.
Couple of things - first, we need to differentiate between how theory is defined in common usage and in science. A scientific theory is not a hunch but a conclusion based on the best available empirical evidence. Secondly, the question "Is there an afterlife?" and "What will happen to the universe?" are not the same type of question at all. There is no physical evidence available to answer the first question, but there is for the second question.
