Theres gotta be something beyond this life

To quote one of my favorite movies: "What you got ain't nothin' new. This country's hard on people. You can't stop what's coming, it ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity."

Whatever does or doesn't happen you won't know one way or another

Here's another way of looking at it. What happens after we die is the same thing that happened before we were born

Yes, there is more to this life than what we experience. The interesting thing is it’s not beyond this life, it’s here now. We just don’t experience it. It doesn’t start after this world as we know it, we just are able to perceive it after death. But don’t rush it. You’ll have forever to figure it out later. For now just explore the miracle of being in this realm at the exact same time as 7.5 Billion other people. This realm that lasts 1/1000th of a blink of an eye compared to the expanse of time. Don’t worry or rush what is next - you’ll be there before you know it.

And “Freedom” is the most over used word. It’s not human nature to want to be 100% free. 100% Freedom includes a lot of work and bullshit most people don’t want to deal with. Freedom to source your own electricity. Freedom to figure out how to dispose of all your waste. And 100% freedom definitely doesn’t include the Internet, or reliable clean water. We are social animals and living in a society you relinquish a lot of your freedom to survive, to get along, to actually enjoy a less stressful life. All those life conveniences we’ve signed up for chip away at 100% Freedom - then again, who wants that?

But when you consider the rest of the world, within all of these constricts, waivers and social agreements, Western Civilization for the most part is the FREE-ist of all. We get to enjoy a larger portion of the good aspects of Freedom - which includes selfishly lamenting that we don’t have more.

What’s it all about Alfre?

Life sucks and then you die.

And then death sucks.

There are Human Rights, and then there are privileges. The problem is most people have constructed their entire life around these privileges and begin to feel like they are human rights. They aren’t. So it’s not very mature to want 100% unbridled access to these privileges and expect that you can use them however you want. Part of your agreement of participation IS being told what to do and how you can do it, and certain decisions about your life being made for you. If that’s not cool with you - you do have the human right to choose the 100% freedom above.

I think about life and I think about death, and neither one particularly appeals to me

R5, not to sound completely morbid, but no one has any proof that Death isn’t the best thing to happen to you in Life.

^Debbie Downer’s maudlin twin sister who they keep locked in a crate in the basement

Pms R8 - I ww’d you first

It all comes down to frothy manloads

R11 is Andrew Sullivan. Lol

[quote] "What’s it all about Alfre?

[quote] —Viola

R4 🤣

deep thoughts with OP

There’s nothing, OP.

The next world is going to be indescribably glorious

Your atoms and energy will survive but not you.

The soul is eternal, the flesh decays to dust

OP suffering a bout of Xmas melancholy.

Just put Christ back in Christmas. You'll find renewal. (wink-wink, wink-wink)

How many people have lived and died since man existed? There can't be an after life existence for all of those souls, can there?

When the body dies, it is the consciousness which is absorbed back into the spiritual realm. Nearly all near death experiencers insist that we're eternal beings attending earth university. The spiritual realm is perfect, and therefore cannot provide the eternal soul with the learning experiences attains through life on earth. YouTube has plenty of personal accounts.

Gay man shares his ND experience.

Can I drop out of Earth University please?

Yeah fuck this life especially the last few years. There’s no point unless you’re the 0.00001% whose lives haven’t been impacted at all.

Give it up, already. There's dirt. That's your afterlife.

R22 " YouTube has plenty of personal accounts"

They also have plenty of "psychics" - doesn't make it true.

Billionaire Kerry Packer had a near death experience and said it was all terror and flames

R27 I hope that’s where most of them go. They had it good at the expense of others.

Don’t count on it. Make now matter.

Sadly there’s nothing after this

R6 = Ayn Rand's ghost

Sadly for alot of us there is.

Yes, OP- I rigged it all up like a giant domino game. You have no personal autonomy, you're just my muppet.

Those who say there is just nothing after you die are every bit as as bad as ultra religious nutbars who claim there are harps, angels, St. Peter, and naps on clouds.

People can talk about near death experiences but the reality is absolutely no one alive knows what happens after you die. If there is some form of alternate consciousness, you'll become aware of it after you kick it on earth. Or if there truly is nothingness, you won't be around to be aware of THAT, so it won't matter anyway. Anyone who claims to know anything different is just being arrogant or grasping at hope.

I'm old and reclusive and I think of this world as a charnel house but am still able to appreciate its beauty and majesty.

This is going to sound like a bromide and dismissively kooky but I genuinely believe we are here to learn to love ourselves. By love I mean care and respect, gentle guidance and introspection, establishing boundaries and humanitarian principles and remaining intact and self-protective when they are violated. Believing you are worthy even though you know you have terrible thoughts and uncharitable feelings.

Self-loathing is easy and gives rise to egoism. People who love themselves care about the least among us.

I'm not a follower of the sky god religions btw, and I'm not recruiting cult members lol.

Maybe all your dreams come true.

I like your take, r35.

We don't know so I'm indifferent to the topic.

Since NONE of us knows what's "on the other side" you better fucking live every day as if it's your last.

This is all there is or ever will be.

Make the best of it.

There are many dimensions. I am sure you ascend to another dimension.

Death is just nature's way of telling you to slow down.

We know 100% factually that things exist that we can't see - radio waves, cellular waves, wind, certain colors even. So who is to say that there aren't thousands if not millions of other things we don't know that exist that we can't see? Think of your body as a prism and the energy inside can only experience the things the prism is set up to receive. Once that energy is released from that prism no one knows what it experiences or what worlds open up to it. One thing we do know is that energy is neither created nor destroyed, so it does continue on in some shape or form - whether the experience is singular or absorbed into a larger source. But it isn't just extinguished. And since Like attracts Like, I would imagine that energies with similar structures, similar imprinted experiences in this world are attracted to each other outside of the body.

I think when you die you're dead, and that's it. This one life is all we get.

[quote]We know 100% factually that things exist that we can't see - radio waves, cellular waves, wind, certain colors even.

Not to mention the elusive good republican.

Atheism is a soul killer. Makes life meaningless

Belief in any sky god makes life a comedy.

R46 funny, I think the exact opposite: As an atheist, I don’t seek comfort in talking snakes and mythical beings — this life isn’t a dress rehearsal for something better.

This is all we have. Try to make the most of it. Redefine “success” as something personal that has zero to do with job title, status or possessions.

Just my take.

u just gotta believe

R47, I think it makes life a tragedy. The world has been fucked up from the word go, and God could intervene but chooses not to.

R46, no, atheism makes you appreciate life for what it is, instead of wasting your life hoping for a better one after you die.

R46 Believing in more than just what you see is not just about an afterlife. Atheism embraces the idea there there is a nothingness after death. But a belief that there is more to what we see, including existence after death can lead to a fuller life, a fuller existence during the life you have here in this body.

[quote]atheism makes you appreciate life for what it is

Yet atheism limits the idea of what life actually is to what we can see and experience. There maybe several things that we cannot see or physically experience that affect our day to day lives. I don't personally believe in dieties or gods of any sort. But I do believe there are natural forces, cosmic energies at play. I agree with atheists in their belief that there is no god controlling our lives. But I disagree that life is just what we see. Our biological bodies live and die but human beings are more than just the physical. And that something more doesn't just start at death, it is here now and will always be in some form.

[quote] Here's another way of looking at it. What happens after we die is the same thing that happened before we were born

You think you’re saying something new or revelatory (“here’s another way of looking at it”) but you’re really not.

Here is another way for YOU to look at it. Maybe “being born” wasn’t the beginning of anything.

Why does there have to be?

"Billionaire Kerry Packer had a near-death experience and said it was all terror and flames".

The keyword here, "billionaire"

If there is no afterlife , I would sin constantly

Nope

Nope, as a person with an advanced degree in physics I can tell you, this is it. this is it, this is life the one you get, so go and have a ball.

Life is a cycle. You live, you die, You come back again and then die again. No one is in control except you. You choose what you will go thru in life, who you will be, who the people are that surround you in life. All of it is to learn. The things you choose to go thru is so that you can learn from them. To what end purpose, I do not know.

We really have no idea. Which is either the most disturbing or most free-ing aspect of life. We have just made up a purpose and construct over thousands of years - but really have no idea. It can be nihilistic - or a reason to make something up, knowing it’s totally made up but believing it anyway.

only some people have no idea. some of us know.

R58, please use your advanced degree in physics to explain what triggered the Big Bang. Or in what form the universe existed before the Big Bang. Or how gravity actually works. Or exactly how the earliest forms of life sprung into being.

You don’t know shit.

[quote]How many people have lived and died since man existed? There can't be an after life existence for all of those souls, can there?

Plenty of deep outer space to an extent we can't comprehend to contain all those souls, should they be seeking afterlife dwelling arrangements.

[quote]Billionaire Kerry Packer had a near death experience and said it was all terror and flames

Sounds promising. Maybe it's indeed easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.