Does anyone truly believe there is an after-life?

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[Post New]01/13/2015 16:26
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:To each according to his faith (or something to that effect). I have a gut feeling each person will get the afterlife (or lack of thereof) he or she expects.


Maybe the brain can be trained to experience or expect a certain "dream" or afterlife as it is shutting down. Maybe the faithful will dream of God(s), and the secular dream of life flashing before them or something similar.

Would everyone be okay with a finite afterlife, where your brain is free to create what it wants to see, until physical death is complete?

Uh, the definition of death is that your brain stops working so don't know how you figure this one.
[Post New]01/13/2015 16:30
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:To each according to his faith (or something to that effect). I have a gut feeling each person will get the afterlife (or lack of thereof) he or she expects.


Maybe the brain can be trained to experience or expect a certain "dream" or afterlife as it is shutting down. Maybe the faithful will dream of God(s), and the secular dream of life flashing before them or something similar.

Would everyone be okay with a finite afterlife, where your brain is free to create what it wants to see, until physical death is complete?

Uh, the definition of death is that your brain stops working so don't know how you figure this one.


Yeah, but a lot might happen, cognitively, in those few seconds as the brain shuts down. Death isn't instantaneous every time.
[Post New]01/13/2015 18:35
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Anonymous
a lot of people who say they believe in an afterlife, really try to hang on to this life as if it's the only one.
[Post New]01/13/2015 19:54
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Muslima
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I believe there is an after life. How unfair would this world be if all ended here?

What's it like being Muslim? Well, it's hard to find a decent halal pizza place and occasionally there is a hashtag calling for your genocide...
[Post New]01/14/2015 05:33
quote
Anonymous
Muslima wrote:I believe there is an after life. How unfair would this world be if all ended here?


What does the quran say about an afterlife?
[Post New]01/14/2015 05:41
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:^^ God is love. Love is meaning.


I'm the agnostic poster. The problem is that "love" is just as difficult to define as god. It's a pretty difficult thing to pinpoint, and a lot of what we call love or how we try to define it can be explained by biology.

So that answer really isn't an answer. It's replacing one difficult to define term and existentially questionable entity with another.


And yet , love exists.


and can be explained by hormones



NP. You're not thinking love. You're thinking sexual attraction.


no, I'm not . . .

The hormone oxytocin is related to familial bonding in animals and is tied to love and friendship in humans. Species that have more of it tend to develop stronger bonds.

Oxytocin is considered a key hormone for monogamy in the animal kingdom. One study of humans found that just sniffing a little oxytocin made people more trusting of others.

Now scientists find that mothers with high levels of oxytocin during pregnancy bond better with their babies.

http://www.livescience.com/1955-love-hormone-improves-mother-child-bond.html


Furthermore, there was a study that said the same part of the brain that helped mothers bond with their babies was also activated when these women were shown pictures of their pets.

A new study, using fMRI imaging, scanned the brains of mothers who looked at images of their dogs and their own children. They found the same areas of the brain, including reward centers, were activated with both.

http://www.today.com/health/your-moms-brain-babies-dogs-science-shows-love-2D80192080
[Post New]01/14/2015 05:41
quote
Anonymous
I believe in an afterlife. Catholic here. I'm interested in learning what other faiths believe.
[Post New]01/14/2015 05:46
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:^^ God is love. Love is meaning.


I'm the agnostic poster. The problem is that "love" is just as difficult to define as god. It's a pretty difficult thing to pinpoint, and a lot of what we call love or how we try to define it can be explained by biology.

So that answer really isn't an answer. It's replacing one difficult to define term and existentially questionable entity with another.


And yet , love exists.


and can be explained by hormones



NP. You're not thinking love. You're thinking sexual attraction.


no, I'm not . . .

The hormone oxytocin is related to familial bonding in animals and is tied to love and friendship in humans. Species that have more of it tend to develop stronger bonds.

Oxytocin is considered a key hormone for monogamy in the animal kingdom. One study of humans found that just sniffing a little oxytocin made people more trusting of others.

Now scientists find that mothers with high levels of oxytocin during pregnancy bond better with their babies.

http://www.livescience.com/1955-love-hormone-improves-mother-child-bond.html


Furthermore, there was a study that said the same part of the brain that helped mothers bond with their babies was also activated when these women were shown pictures of their pets.

A new study, using fMRI imaging, scanned the brains of mothers who looked at images of their dogs and their own children. They found the same areas of the brain, including reward centers, were activated with both.

http://www.today.com/health/your-moms-brain-babies-dogs-science-shows-love-2D80192080


Catholic poster again. I think the love described in the Gospels of the New Testament is different. It is choosing to love even when you don't feel love. It is loving your enemies, prisoners, the poor, outcasts. It is loving all of these people because God is love, God's love shines on everyone, and God commands us to love. Not because we feel like it. It's easy to love those who love you back and who bring you warm feelings. It's hard to love those who don't love you and who would even bring you harm.
[Post New]01/14/2015 06:00
quote
Anonymous
Beautifully put Catholic poster.^^^^^^

I am Lutheran and believe in an afterlife.
[Post New]01/14/2015 09:48
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:^^ God is love. Love is meaning.


I'm the agnostic poster. The problem is that "love" is just as difficult to define as god. It's a pretty difficult thing to pinpoint, and a lot of what we call love or how we try to define it can be explained by biology.

So that answer really isn't an answer. It's replacing one difficult to define term and existentially questionable entity with another.


And yet , love exists.


and can be explained by hormones



NP. You're not thinking love. You're thinking sexual attraction.


no, I'm not . . .

The hormone oxytocin is related to familial bonding in animals and is tied to love and friendship in humans. Species that have more of it tend to develop stronger bonds.

Oxytocin is considered a key hormone for monogamy in the animal kingdom. One study of humans found that just sniffing a little oxytocin made people more trusting of others.

Now scientists find that mothers with high levels of oxytocin during pregnancy bond better with their babies.

http://www.livescience.com/1955-love-hormone-improves-mother-child-bond.html


Furthermore, there was a study that said the same part of the brain that helped mothers bond with their babies was also activated when these women were shown pictures of their pets.

A new study, using fMRI imaging, scanned the brains of mothers who looked at images of their dogs and their own children. They found the same areas of the brain, including reward centers, were activated with both.

http://www.today.com/health/your-moms-brain-babies-dogs-science-shows-love-2D80192080


Catholic poster again. I think the love described in the Gospels of the New Testament is different. It is choosing to love even when you don't feel love. It is loving your enemies, prisoners, the poor, outcasts. It is loving all of these people because God is love, God's love shines on everyone, and God commands us to love. Not because we feel like it. It's easy to love those who love you back and who bring you warm feelings. It's hard to love those who don't love you and who would even bring you harm.


Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love? While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well. Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently
[Post New]01/14/2015 10:32
quote
Muslima
Member

Offline
Anonymous wrote:
Muslima wrote:I believe there is an after life. How unfair would this world be if all ended here?


What does the quran say about an afterlife?


Man's life is divided into 3 parts: a brief stay in this world, life in the grave and an eternal life in the next. We believe that there will be a day of Judgement where everyone will be judged according to their deeds. Whoever does an atom's weight of good will see it and whoever does an atom's weight of evil will see it. In the Hereafter, every person will be shown all of his or her deeds, down to the smallest ones. But God will overlook and forgive many of people's evils in the world, except unbelief and the association of partners with Him, He will also forgive some evils of His believing servants in the Hereafter. When Allah completed the creation, He wrote in His Book which is with Him on His Throne, 'My Mercy overpowers My Anger". We are told that God divided Mercy into one hundred parts and He kept its ninety-nine parts with Him and sent down its one part on the earth, and because of that, its one single part, His creations are Merciful to each other , so that even the mare lifts up its hoofs away from its baby animal, lest it should trample on it ( the ninety-nine reserved for the Day of Resurrection.)

The reality of Paradise is something which people will never be able to comprehend until they actually enter it and see it with their own eyes. However, God has shown us glimpses of it in the Quran so we will have a general view of how it looks like. He has described it as a place essentially different to the life of this world, both in the very nature and purpose of life, as well as the types of delights which people will enjoy therein. The Quran tells people about Paradise, which God offers to them, describes its great blessings, and proclaims its beauties to everyone. It informs people that Paradise is one of two ways of life prepared for them in the afterworld, and that every good thing will be theirs in Paradise to a degree that surpasses our present ability to imagine. It also shows that Paradise is a place where all blessings have been created perfectly and where people will be offered everything their souls and hearts will desire, and that people will be far removed from want and need, anxiety or sadness, sorrow and regret. Every kind of beauty and blessing exists in Paradise and will be revealed with a perfection never seen or known before. God has prepared such blessings there as a gift to those who will inhabit the Paradise.


Imams al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "If anyone testifies that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah Alone Who has no partners, and that Muhammad is his slave and His Apostle, and that Jesus is Allah's slave and His Apostle and His word which He bestowed on Mary and a spirit created by Him, and that Paradise is true, and Hell is true, Allah will admit him into Paradise through any of its eight gates he likes"

The most significant description of heaven is as a beautiful garden, filled with greenery and flowing water. In fact the Arabic word, jannah, means "garden." “It will be said to the people of Jannah(paradise). ‘Oh people of Jannah, eternity for you and no death!’ To the people of the Fire (It will be said), “Oh people of the fire, eternity for you and no death!’”

Here are a few verses of Quran relating to the description of paradise :

"(Here is) a Parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised: in it are rivers of water incorruptible; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine, a joy to those who drink; and rivers of honey pure and clear. In it there are for them all kinds of fruits; and Grace from their Lord...." 47:15.
"[They will sit] on gold-encrusted thrones of happiness, reclining upon them, facing one another in [love]. Immortal youths will wait upon them with goblets, and ewers, and cups filled with water from unsullied springs by which their minds will not be clouded and which will not make them drunk; and with fruit of any kind that they choose, and with flesh of any fowl that they may desire." 56:15-21:

“And [accompanying them will be their] companions pure, most beautiful of eye, like unto pearls hidden in their shells. [This will be] a reward for what they did [during life]. No empty talk will they hear there, nor any call to sin, but only the tiding of inner soundness and peace." 56:22-26:

As for Hell:

Islam teaches that Hell is a real place prepared by God for those who do not believe in Him, rebel against His laws, and reject His messengers. Hell is an actual place, not a mere state of mind or a spiritual entity. The horrors, pain, anguish, and punishment are all real, but different in nature than their earthly counterparts. Hell is the ultimate humiliation and loss, and nothing is worse than it:

Mighty and stern angels stand over Hell who never disobey God. They do precisely as ordered. God says:

"O you who believe, save yourselves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is men and stones over which are (appointed) angels, stern and severe, who flinch not (from executing) the commands they receive from God, but do (precisely what) they are commanded." (Quran 66:6)

They are nineteen keepers of Hell as God says:

"Soon I will cast him into Hell Fire. And what will explain to you what is Hellfire? Nothing does it allow to endure, and nothing does it leave alone! Darkening and changing the color of man! Over it are nineteen (angels as keepers of Hell)." (Quran 74:26-30)

Hell has various levels of heat and punishment, each is reserved according to the extent of their disbelief and sins of those being punished. God says:

"Surely, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depths (grade) of the Fire." (Quran 4:145)

The lower the level of Hell, the greater is the intensity of heat. Since the hypocrites will suffer the worst punishment, so will they be in the lowest part of Hell.

God refers to the levels of Hell in the Quran:

"For all will be (ranked) by degrees according to what they did." (Quran 6:132)

"Is one who seeks the good pleasure of God then like the one who draws on himself the wrath of God? His abode is Hell – and worst, indeed, is that destination! They are in varying grades with God, and God is All-Seer of what they do." (Quran 3:162-163)
"And those who disbelieved will be driven to Hell in groups until, when they reach it, its gates are opened and its keepers will say, ‘Did there not come to you messengers from yourselves, reciting to you the verses of your Lord and warning you of the meeting of this Day of yours?’ They will say, ‘Yes, but the word (meaning the decree) of punishment has come into effect upon the disbelievers.’" (Quran 39:71)

They will be told after admission:

"Enter the gates of Hell to abide eternally therein, and wretched is the residence of the arrogant." (Quran 39:72)

The gates will be shut and there will be no hope of escape as God says:

"But those who reject Our signs, they are the companions of the left hand. On them will be Fire vaulted over (meaning the gates will be locked)." (Quran 90:19-20)

Furthermore, God says in the Quran:

"Woe to every scorner and mocker, who collects wealth and (continuously) counts it. He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal. No! He will surely be thrown into the Crusher. And what can make you know what is the Crushers? It is the fire of God, (eternally) fueled, Which mounts directed at the hearts. Indeed, it (Hellfire) will be closed down upon them in extended columns." (Quran 104:1-9)



There are many , many other verses and narrations that talk about Heaven , Hell and the afterlife in the Qur'an and the Sunnah with very detailed descriptions.
[Post New]01/14/2015 10:36
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love? While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well. Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently


The love we are "commanded" to is love as a verb, not as a feeling. You must behave lovingly regardless of how you feel. If you act lovingly, perhaps you may come to feel more love toward that person but maybe not. Doesn't matter. You still need to love in your actions. You are right that, sadly, many religions instruct followers to kill those not like them, but, at least for Christians that instruction is 100% counter to the teachings of Jesus who said the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor, and indicated in parables that EVERYONE is your neighbor. (I'm not familiar with the primary writings of other religions so I can't comment on how it fits in those instances)
[Post New]01/14/2015 10:47
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love? While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well. Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently


The love we are "commanded" to is love as a verb, not as a feeling. You must behave lovingly regardless of how you feel. If you act lovingly, perhaps you may come to feel more love toward that person but maybe not. Doesn't matter. You still need to love in your actions. You are right that, sadly, many religions instruct followers to kill those not like them, but, at least for Christians that instruction is 100% counter to the teachings of Jesus who said the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor, and indicated in parables that EVERYONE is your neighbor. (I'm not familiar with the primary writings of other religions so I can't comment on how it fits in those instances)


Christians were sent to distant lands kill people of another religion during the Crusades. They also went to war with different Christian sects after the Catholic church split.
[Post New]01/14/2015 10:53
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love? While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well. Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently


The love we are "commanded" to is love as a verb, not as a feeling. You must behave lovingly regardless of how you feel. If you act lovingly, perhaps you may come to feel more love toward that person but maybe not. Doesn't matter. You still need to love in your actions. You are right that, sadly, many religions instruct followers to kill those not like them, but, at least for Christians that instruction is 100% counter to the teachings of Jesus who said the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor, and indicated in parables that EVERYONE is your neighbor. (I'm not familiar with the primary writings of other religions so I can't comment on how it fits in those instances)


Christians were sent to distant lands kill people of another religion during the Crusades. They also went to war with different Christian sects after the Catholic church split.


But does that mean Christianity has no value in today's world? I don't think that's the correct conclusion.
[Post New]01/14/2015 10:54
quote
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Yes, God "commands" love, but is it possible for the human brain to respond to a command to do something as personal as to love? While it's a nice idea -- and one put forth by many religions (do unto others....) it's not one that religion in general has lived up to very well. Instead, religions, including Christianity and Judaism, often command its followers to kill people who believe differently


The love we are "commanded" to is love as a verb, not as a feeling. You must behave lovingly regardless of how you feel. If you act lovingly, perhaps you may come to feel more love toward that person but maybe not. Doesn't matter. You still need to love in your actions. You are right that, sadly, many religions instruct followers to kill those not like them, but, at least for Christians that instruction is 100% counter to the teachings of Jesus who said the two most important commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor, and indicated in parables that EVERYONE is your neighbor. (I'm not familiar with the primary writings of other religions so I can't comment on how it fits in those instances)


I agree. It's a different kind of love.
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