questions about afterlife

I am very confused about afterlife.

What happens to your brain when you die,( besides rot)

WHat part of you accends to heaven or worse

IF chemicals are emotions in your brain how could you

be happy in heaven or insane in hell.

I think the common conception is your soul would be what would "go to the afterlife"
All depends on what you consider a soul.
Many arguments have been floating around for years as to what a soul is
www.cogsci.princeton.edu...

classics.mit.edu...

Brian Lumley's "Necroscope" ? In it, he talks about when you die, your spirit continues to do what you did in life...

For example, mathmaticians would still solve unknown equations, teachers would still teach (to the dead), etcetera. It is a rather interesting notion, one that I hope exists if reincarnation is a bust.

Think about this....

1. Would Heaven really be that great if you couldn't sin? Seriously, what would you do for fun in Heaven? What's so great about it? What if you suck at the harp? Do para and quadrapledgics have to play one? Or do they get the use of their appendages back? Do retards get smarter? Do they then get angry at god for making them retards?

2. Whats the big deal with Hell? You're already dead. Pain is the result of nerve activity...with a soul, no nerves, so no pain. Who really then cares if you want to swim in a lake of fire? What's the big contest? Both God and Satan compete for souls....so what's the door prize?

Originally posted by bushfriend
I am very confused about afterlife.

What happens to your brain when you die,( besides rot)

WHat part of you accends to heaven or worse

IF chemicals are emotions in your brain how could you

be happy in heaven or insane in hell.

Disclaimer
You should spend more time concentrating on your current Life, as it is more important and practical right now. Only reason I say that is because many people get stuck on trying to answer questions of "Death" or in your case "Afterlife" and end up wasting their whole life doing it.

Now to comment on your question
Obviously niether I nor anyone else can answer the questions you're asking completely or with total reliability. At one point or another there will be some lack of proof or something that will once again leave you "confused" or questioning the exact same question once again. Only at that point, hopefully, you'll have narrowed in on exactly what you want to know and cleared away some of the original confusing concepts.

In fact, what you are really talking about are just that, "Concepts".
Concepts: 1. A general idea derived or inferred from specific instances or occurrences.
2. Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion.
Call it "Afterlife" "Death" "The Next Round" or whatever, it is still the same question, "What is beyond this life, or this current reality in which you are now living?" You may want to think for a second on the fact that something beyond life or reality as it is now, might not be possible to answer or comprehend at this point, which is also what makes it beyond this point. It might also be anything you think it will be, and at the time of change you basically create whatever comes next simply because it was empty of existence until you showed up.

Fortunatly though, the moment will come when you no longer question what is beyond life, the price however is life. Wouldn't it be ironic if all those in the "afterlife/death" phase spent all their time questioning "What is Life or Beyond Death?". Even more ironic would be if the reason they questioned "What is Life/Beyond Death?" is because durring their Life they spent it Questioning about "Death" and forgot to Really Live? How about the question of "What came before this life or this Reality? The "Beforelife" so to speak. Just something to think about!!

If something is "Afterlife" then it must be completely different than Life or else it would just be a "change" of Life. So if it's completely different than life, such "concepts" as emotions or brain chemicals or happiness would also have to be completely different as well, making it pointless & impossible to comprehend such things anyway. On the other hand if the "Afterlife" is really only a "change" of life, well then the answer will be found and understood by Living Life to the fullest, which brings us right back to where we are NOW and without the need to question anymore since "Afterlife" is really just a change to some degree of this Life.

I realize this is probably not exactly the response you expected, as it's not much of an answer, and may have even resulted in you asking more questions. But what did you really expect? If I told you the answer you would need proof to verify that my answer was The True Answer. Undeniable proof would eventually only be found by you experiencing it first hand. I know that I personally have no desire to "Prove" anything to that degree, and I assume you agree, or would agree once we were about to cross that bridge anyway. So with that in mind, I hope you enjoyed my response, even if I didn't solve your enigma.

[Edited on 5-1-2004 by mOjOm]

Originally posted by Gazrok
Both God and Satan compete for souls....

I think Satan collects souls to feed himself, to get a taste of humanity. Since angels (and thusly demons) are without a soul, Satan wants a soul to be better than the other angels.

God needs souls for power. Just with shamanism... the more people who believe in something, the more likely it'll be. So with that, God needs power, He needs people to believe in Him if He wants to exist. The more souls that come to Him, the greater His chances are (and a greater source of power, too).

Why would either of them need to build their power base? One would say for the End Times, when both armies fight each other, but I think there is something more to it than that...

I am a firm believer in the Raknarok scenerio. I feel that the dieties we call God and Satan are younger gods, equal in power, and that they are both "allies" in a sense... and that they over threw older, more powerful gods. Eventually, those will come back, and our two need a power base if they expect to have a chance.

Both God and Satan compete for souls....

I am a firm believer in the Raknarok scenerio. I feel that the dieties we call God and Satan are younger gods, equal in power, and that they are both "allies" in a sense... and that they over threw older, more powerful gods. Eventually, those will come back, and our two need a power base if they expect to have a chance.

Wow I wrote a short story once, where two entities battled for the fate of humankind I used Yaveh and Lucifer as the 2 entities, who started out as like you say allies but then disagreed on how things were to be done.
Never thought I would see another person have similar thoughts about this.

Yep! And even though they are allies, it is a shaky thing they have. Oh, I was going to say something, gimme a moment to remember...

The only way I can say this, and have it make sense, is that Satan is more militaristic than God... Satan (he) has a darker, more violent nature, more suited for a "ground" campaign.

God (she), on the other hand, is lofty... an observer, who will not act directly. She is more suited in intelligence.

But, those are my (or so I thought) ideas. Eventually, we will be used as cannon fodder, no matter what "side" we end up in; after all, we'll be fighting for the same goal.

But I'd still like to think the Necroscope series is a good possibility.

Originally posted by soothsayer
Brian Lumley's "Necroscope" ? In it, he talks about when you die, your spirit continues to do what you did in life...

For example, mathmaticians would still solve unknown equations, teachers would still teach (to the dead), etcetera. It is a rather interesting notion, one that I hope exists if reincarnation is a bust.

Wow, that would be a huge bummer if you hated what you do...

EDIT:
And what would garbage men do? Is there waste to be dispensed with?

[Edited on 1-5-2004 by junglejake]

Originally posted by soothsayer
But, those are my (or so I thought) ideas. Eventually, we will be used as cannon fodder, no matter what "side" we end up in; after all, we'll be fighting for the same goal.
But I'd still like to think the Necroscope series is a good possibility.

Well you know what they say, There are no original ideas, only variations on a theme.
I always wanted to try and publish that story, but was always afraid of rejection from editors. Maybe I should send it in anyway and see what happens.
Have a funny day

I believe everyone has their own personal heaven and hell. One person's idea of heaven could be hell, and vice versa. If heaven's nothing but a bunch of clouds, I'd be bored within the first fifteen minutes, I think a lot of people would agree. There's people out there that actually want to go to hell, what if they go there and it's just as they thought it would be? No real eternal punishment there, it would be like heaven for them. I know my theory has a few loopholes, but I doubt it's far off.