What is your conception of the afterlife?

A big zero. Nada. Lights out. Game over. Goodbye. Goodnight. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Dead. Deader than dead. For the rest of eternity. Gone. Bye bye.

I have no belief at all in an afterlife. I personally wouldn’t want one, I don’t like the thought of somehow living forever, I’m accepting of death that it’s the end of the road and I’m fine with that.

@colliedog, @HumourMe, I’m precisely the same way. I couldn’t imagine the boredom of living forever as some sort of gooey spiritual being.

Definitely not gooey. Yuck.

I was raised to believe that you went to hell if you were naughty and got a mansion if you were good. However I don’t believe that today. I’m not sure what happens but I have no reason to believe it’s unpleasant. If anything, it’s probably nice.
If I could pick, I can’t decide between reincarnation or a ‘heaven’ type thing. Reincarnation seems more sensible but exhausting. The idea of heaven makes no sense to me, I think it would get old. (This is one of the reasons religion makes no sense to me.)

I believe that there is nothing after we die. 10 years before birth is the same as 10 years after death.

I don’t believe there is an afterlife, unless you consider the afterlife as a feast for the worms or for the flames.

My “conception” of it is derived from me believing that its illustration in any culture or time period is as close to a physical manifestation that one may perceive of man’s need for guidance, security and peace in a world where these things are never guaranteed.
And we all know it, even if it’s subconscious, otherwise we wouldn’t conjure such concepts to live with.
I base that on every people of the world since the dawn of man’s history having so many different kindsa spiritual beliefs, deities and crap but them all meaning the same things, ultimately.

However such concepts are instinctive, and while I believe that peeps like Darwin and Maslow were right, I derive what I may perceive as logical from the matter from seeing and experiencing things in my life which completely and totally defy the ideas of after life, spiritual beliefs and hope that many use in every day life.

It’s also quite instinctive however, and we probably all do it, some way or another.

I’m now straying away from the subject, but essentially, in my mind the idea of an afterlife is a natural part of man’s need to emotionally survive in the face of adversity. Were it not for such things, we’d still huddle in caves and make drawings on the walls with our poop.

This may also be observed through the fact that ideas and beliefs on the afterlife often evolve, from simple promised lands and damnation, to the transition of these concepts towards altered states of existence and emotional damnation rather than fire and brimestone…

I’m still working on the beforelife. Please don’t rush me here.

@Symbeline HAha! I’m so glad you’re here!

@Clair, I was also raised to believe in Hell, and my sunday school classes as a child had me convinced that Heaven is a big suburban McMansion where all us good little Christians would eternally play football in the sight of our pasty blonde buddy Jesus thanks to this song.

I drifted into agnosticism with age, and I tend to agree with you about the afterlife.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard McMansion! Omg! I love new Flutherites.
I was too. I guess my mom should have discouraged me to be a psychology major. Now I propose my theories to her and she cries, “Where did I go wrong?!” Fucking disturbing.

@LeopardGecko, I don’t remember what it was like before I was born, so why should I know what it’s like when I die, it’s not like my electrical impulses in my brain will still be going or anything. Thank you.

@Symbeline, excellent analysis, but I’ve always had trouble understanding why mankind has a need for a hell. I suppose we all are a bunch of sadists on the inside, huh?

@CyanoticWasp, I’m in no hurry either :^)

sounds traumatic @Clair, and thanks again for the warm welcome!

I’ll let you know when I finally get there. Should I just call you or send you an email?

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard
In my opinion, an opposite version of something so idealistic helps to make it more “believable”. It makes you work for it in your life, so we avoid, in this way, thinking it’s bs.
Idle hands are the Devil’s…something or other, as they say.
Kinda like going to work.

you can rap on my table three times, @SirGoofy, and make an old woman spit up cheesecloth for me

I believe I will undergo a magnificient transformation from flesh and spirit to worm shit. It comforts me, however, to believe that everyone else will roast in hell.

Sounds fun, @ratboy.

More broadly than just the afterlife, we’re energy that coalesces and disperses. A lava lamp comes to mind. I think we are all (connected to) a universal consciousness or creative force. Also it is, in a way, whatever we imagine it to be.

The conventional conceptions of reward and punishment vis a vis heaven and hell are, I believe, instruments of social control (as will be the climate change narrative).

We’re already there. Life is abundance. We are connected. We just have to be open to it instead of surrendering our divinity (if you will) to a dogma.

I was raised Catholic, recovered, and have read broadly across conspiracy lit and this POV is what has shaken out.

I’ve been in different stages in life where first I believed it was possible to live forever, on earth or in heaven. Then I became agnostic and believed in nothingness. But one theory is as good as another, there is even one that says each will receive exactly what he believes in.

I’ve embraced some teachings of Buddhism and find it hard to believe that the Universe really just made us with consciousness for just one short life. I think there must be a bigger plan.

@kevbo, so you follow a sort of “conservation of mass spiritualism.” I like it. Thank you.

@Master, that’s always been my struggle. How do we have this unique consciousness that seems so different and so much more self-aware than the other critters, and there is nothing big out there? I guess that is where my logic fails and I’m left with the choice to take a leap of faith, or keep saying “who knows?”

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I think to assert with complete confidence one point or another is foolish. In the last hundred years we’ve seen how quickly our views can change as we make new discoveries. Besides, there is something within that all humans who ever existed could not explain, something which goes beyond the physical and just because we don’t understand it (yet) doesn’t mean it couldn’t be true.

i dont think i can answer this question untill i myself die and surely i wont be able to answer this question then…if i were to die and go..i’d want to go to my loved ones ofcourse :)

I believe the afterlife is a story, with many versions. Most of them are entertaining, the rest are amusing.

When you die, you cease to exist. I have no idea why people don’t like and/or cannot get their head around this simple fact.

Agreed, @Master, that’s why I’m agnostic :^)

Good point, @cold_cut.

Perhaps most people are secretly terrified of what ceasing to exist entails, and they cannot live without the idea that maybe there is something else, @FireMadeFlesh?

I don’t really have a “concept” of the afterlife. I never really had any strong beliefs one way or the other as I tend not to be absolutist about things for which there is no definitive proof or evidence one way or the other. All I can say is that certain experiences I had after each of my parents died, experiences that I cannot explain or really even describe, you kind of had to be there, have made me have to at least consider the possibility that something of us lives on after death. All I can really say, after having had these experiences is that “I think they’re out there somewhere.” I don’t know where, I don’t know how, I don’t know why, I don’t know what form a “person” takes on or exists in after death, or even if they do for sure, but, well, as I said I think “they’re out there somewhere.” Or maybe not, who knows, not me, not for sure.

Thank you for sharing, @lillycoyote. I know many people who have had similar experiences.

Also remember most of us believe what our society says we must believe.

For certain economic models it is better to develop a philosophy where we believe life is short, meaningless, and we must seek pleasure spending money at all times.

Where as we could live in another society where the majority seeks development of the soul instead of material possessions and we could easily be believers that this lifetime is only the beginning of a continuum of existences. In which case material possessions would stop appearing very worthy of one’s time on Earth.

I don’t personally believe in an afterlife. Although I am bringing a change of underwear, just in case.

@AstroChuck I’m bringing a change of underwear, a toothbrush and paste, my cell phone and wall charger a good, long, book, one of those one’s I’ve been meaning to read forever, a pair of sturdy, waterproof boots and a penny whistle, just in case. I never could travel light.

That we’re reincarnated until reaching Englightenment ;)

Thanks @QuackIsWhack :)

Extra breeches could be prudent, @AstroChuck

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard – “I don’t remember what it was like before I was born, so why should I know what it’s like when I die, it’s not like my electrical impulses in my brain will still be going or anything”

That’s exactly what I’m getting at. As I do not believe there is an afterlife. My anticipated “feeling” of afterlife is what it “felt” like before you were alive…..which is nothing. You are not aware before life and you are not aware after it, only during.

That’s more or less how I feel, @LeopardGecko

My afterlife is ashes.

Poetic, @absalom, thank you.

I believe that I’ll stick around. I’ll die, and I’ll go into the ground. I’ll decompose, and I suppose bits of me will probably be eaten by bugs and small animals. Bits of me will become bits of them, and bits of them will become bits of other stuff, etc etc.

So in the end, I might be part of a tree, I might be in the air, I might be in a cat. Who knows? Everything that makes up me will still be here, just arranged in a different fashion. Pretty cool, huh?

@randomness, yep, we all are assimilated with everything else upon death. Except our consciousness, as far as any of us can tell.

Maybe it’s just because it’s the most comfortable option that I can think of other than Heaven, but I can’t fool myself into believing that but I like to believe that we’re reincarnated.

Perhaps it comes from my Native American roots… I’ve always had an interest in totems and spirit guides as well.

Thank you @stemnyjones, I’m particularly interested in your cultural heritage and it’s role in your beliefs. What tribe(s)?

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Honestly, I’d have to ask someone myself. I know my dad’s grandfather was 100% pureblood Native American, but I’m not close to my dad’s side of the family. I’ve always been interested, though, because I can get a share in the casino funds, so I’ll find out and let you know ;D

My intellect says nothingness but my heart yearns to be reunited with the only person I will ever love.

I think many of us have that same feeling in our hearts whether we admit to it or not, @stranger_in_a_strange_land

I don’t really believe there is anything there. It would be nice if there was though.

I like to believe that I will come back as a wiser, kinder person. Or someone’s Best In Show dog.

Who knows, but I try to be what I consider a good person, just in case!

@kevbo I love the idea of being part of a cosmic lava lamp!!
If there is any kind of afterlife, I hope to be reunited w/non-human loved ones as well as the human ones.

thanks @all