Kinda morbidly curious (survey)

Eek- casting your opinions out onto the choppy waters of the Internet is a risky thing; you never know where they might end up. Having said that, I'll give this a go. Sorry for the long-winded nature of the post- my nerdly muscles have grown soft and flabby lately, and are due for a workout.

1.When you die, that's it; you're gone. You were alive, but now you're dead, you have no consciousness or awareness or anything.

Fairly neutral on this one- it seems sad, but if you have no consciousness then I guess you can't feel sadness either. However, I can't really warm up to this one; see #3.

2.Same as the first, but you never objectively existed; once nobody remembers you, you will never have existed.

Ack, this one just isn't technically true in my mind, so I can't accept it (again, see #3). (Now, balefire is an entirely different story...)

3.When you die, you become one with the universe.

Now, this is the closest to my own beliefs, combined with a bit of #7 and some other stuff. After all, it's technically true in a way- since matter can't be created or destroyed, it would just keep going, wouldn't it? When you're all done with your body, you become nourishment for the grass, which is eaten by cows, and so on. The cycle of life- hell, I got the FMA avatar anyway, I might as well say "one is all, and all is one." Anyway, the point to this ramble- who's to say our soul isn't the same way? If all matter is just stabilized energy, then maybe in that subatomic seething pool of energy that composes us is where our soul resides. And if our soul is a form of energy, then it couldn't be destroyed either- it has to go somewhere. I don't confess to knowing where, but that's part of the fun, eh? (Sorry for rambling.)

4.There are two afterlifes, Heaven and Hell. Good people go to Heaven and receive eternal happiness, while bad people go to Hell and receive eternal torment.

This one doesn't sit well with me. Who's defining "good" and "bad"? I personally believe that if there were one "correct" religion, the Great Cosmic Thingy would have started dropping hints some time ago. I do believe in an overarching consciousness that I refer to as God; I also believe that He/She/It/They/Us? prefers the variety. Sorry, slight stray off topic- I believe that negative karmic actions will net you negative karmic feedback- if not in this life, then in the next. I just don't believe it's this cut and dry.

5.Everybody goes to Heaven when they die.

I can groove with this, especially since there are so many concepts of "Heaven" in so many cultures. Perhaps it's like in The Lovely Bones, and everyone's Heaven is custom-made? That would also settle a lot of religious differences, I think- you could have Fluffy Cloud Heaven, or do like George R.R. Martin wants and go to Middle-Earth instead. This seems like a natural result of #3, actually- perhaps you could even choose to live a new life, leading to #7.

6.Everybody goes to Limbo when they die. It's... OK there. It's kinda meh.

Neutral on this one- sounds like a boring #5, or a halfhearted #7. I can't wrap my head around eternal boredom, so I'm hoping this one's not true.

7.Reincarnation is real, and is the result of a soul which desires to be reborn. Most people are reincarnated, and our karma determines what our next life will be. To escape from the cycle of life, death and rebirth, one must rid oneself of desire.

I guess I already covered this a bit in #3 and #5, but I can believe this wholeheartedly- this is another theme that has popped up in cultures for millenia, and it makes sense in my personal belief system. If the soul can't be destroyed, perhaps it could choose to inhabit another body and make another go at it? I can groove with the karma thing to, but I'll admit that that bit on 'desire' has me stumped. All desire, or just the desire to live/be reborn, or what? I'm probably overthinking it- I dunno.

8.The soul is not truly immortal and can be permanently destroyed under some circumstances.

Doesn't jive with me- there will always be something. As I've mentioned before, I believe souls are a form of energy and therefore indestructible. If quantom mechanics proceed to prove me wrong, then I will be at peace with that- but they'll have to scientifically prove the existence of a soul first, so I think I'm safe for now.

9.It is possible for a person to be completely erased from time, so that they never lived at all.

Eek! Again, I can't believe this (aforementioned balefire notwithstanding.) As far as I can see, every life that gets thrown into the world is like a pebble making ripples in a pond; those ripples don't stop at the edge of the pond, but keep going from atom to atom out to the very edges of reality. There is far too much stuff in the universe for a life to stop making ripples.

10.Immortality is attainable in this world; it is possible to live forever.

Tempting at first, but deep down I'm a Who Wants to Live Forever? kind of person. First of all, if everyone can't have it, then I don't want it- every parent's worst fear is burying their child, and I don't even want to think about that. Also, I just keep thinking about how much heartache it brings the Doctor, seeing all those lives coming and going.  ^*

Now, if everyone had immortality, maybe it'd be a little better. Mind you, we had better start colonizing outer space in that case, because Earth would end up strained to its breaking point. Plus, I am honestly curious to see what greets us in the afterlife (not that I'm in a rush to get there or anything, mind you!)- there would always be that loss; with immortality, we would never know.

So anyway, my two cents. Again, sorry for the novella-length post; since I more or less function as my own priest, I'm always eager to jump into any sort of metaphysical discussion (unless projectiles are involved, eek). Hopefully I'll at least amuse somebody

1. When you die, that's it; you're gone. You were alive, but now you're dead, you have no consciousness or awareness or anything. I don't really LIKE this one, but when I'm truly honest with myself it's probably the one that's most likely to be true.

2. Same as the first, but you never objectively existed; once nobody remembers you, you will never have existed. Floofy quasi-philosophical "tree falls in the woods" nonsense. I mean that in the nicest possible way of course. Of course you existed. Thousands of years from now archaeologists might dig up the remains of your ipad. They'll still never know who you were, though.

3. When you die, you become one with the universe. This one sounds kind of appealing to me but also creeps me out in a way. I'm not sure I want to be one with the universe >>

4. There are two afterlifes, Heaven and Hell. Good people go to Heaven and receive eternal happiness, while bad people go to Hell and receive eternal torment. Ick, I hope not.

5. Everybody goes to Heaven when they die. Sounds kinda boring.

6. Everybody goes to Limbo when they die. It's... OK there. It's kinda meh. Sounds REALLY boring.

7. Reincarnation is real, and is the result of a soul which desires to be reborn. Most people are reincarnated, and our karma determines what our next life will be. To escape from the cycle of life, death and rebirth, one must rid oneself of desire. This is the one I hope for the most, although it's probably not true. Only thing is, I don't really want to rid myself of desire. I like desire. It's what makes life fun. But then that just means I'll get to be reincarnated a bunch of times. Fine with me. But I'm a bit skeptical when it comes to religion so depressingly I think it's probably not true.

8. The soul is not truly immortal and can be permanently destroyed under some circumstances. I think that if there is such a thing as the soul, it would be very difficult to permanently destroy.

9. It is possible for a person to be completely erased from time, so that they never lived at all. I very highly doubt that unless someone invents time travel.

10. Immortality is attainable in this world; it is possible to live forever. With improvements in medical technology it may become possible to one day extend the human lifespan indefinitely, although we'll still probably be vulnerable to things like being hit by a bus.

I am unsure about death. I don't think there is an afterlife as such, but if there was one it a place to hang out with your friends after they have passed on.

Its not likely, and more than possible that all that happens is we go into the ground and decay. But there is still something peaceful about that, no matter how bad or good you have been, no matter ho shit or awesome your life was... well Death makes you equal.

The thought of reincarnation always makes me weary. No matter how much I enjoy life, the thought of having to go through it AGAIN just makes me tired. Besides, I'm already in the middle of being a teenager, no way am I going back to zero once I'm out of that!

But yeah, my attitude is that I don't know what's gonna happen, and neither does anyone else in this world. Being dead is as foreign a thought to me as the thought of being old... or being a mother... or simply being done with my education. So I'll just take it as it comes, and see what happens.

7. Tends to invoke a lot of Fridge Logic on my part. Since the world population hasn't exactly been on the decline in the last hundred thousand years or so, where do new souls come from — or do we measure souls in biomass instead of numbers? What exactly happens to souls that are free from the cycle? Does reincarnation only restrict itself to earth? What happens when the earth's no longer able to sustain life? What happens when heat death of the universe rolls along, and no place is able to sustain life as we know it? Or does reincarnation subscribe to the Big Crunch model instead?...

Well, we have rendered a lot of species extinct over the years.

As for the doomsday scenario I read...something (don't remember) where reincarnating souls do so voluntarily because they're just really bored being souls all the time. It did subscribe to Big Crunch though.

3

1) The most likely outcome, when one considers everything one can know about the human condition as the facts state. I am neutral about this idea. I follow the thought processes of Epicurus mostly. I was non-existant for 13,7 billion years since the universe began and had no problems with. I'll have no problems being non-existent for 10 billion years more. As he said: "Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not."

2) I should care why? Cogito Ergo Sum. I KNOW I existed, I will know it as long as I exist. I cannot care about people knowing or not knowing me when I am dead, by this scenario. I see no problem.

3) What does this even mean? Am I suddenly linked into this "hive mind", do I become one with a pantheistic version of the universe, as a single consciousness? This is so vague that I cannot comment on this. In a certain manner of thinking I am ALREADY one with the universe. In am as much a part of it as any other piece of matter in it.

4) An inherently unjust system. I would hate either outcome as my afterlife.

5) What is this heaven like? Is it still possible to terminate ones existence? Spending an eternity in ANY form of being seems like utter torture and most of all, inherently absurd and boring, especially if there is nothing to achieve or to strive for anymore.

6) Same answer as with heaven. Essentially those two are the same thing for me. As absurd.

7) The karma system is fucked up and unjust. However this would be my preferred outcome. I'd love to experience life from different perspectives.

8) What does this tell me? That I have a soul, but that can die too. So what? For all I know, nr 1 is true, so this changes nothing other than adding and extra element to that equation.

9)Same answer as nr 2. Essentially the same scenario for me.

10)I'd attempt to attain it if I still had the option of terminating my life when I so wish. Being forced into existing forever would be torture.