Personally I don't believe in an immaterial afterlife (soul getting lifted to some place, etc), but I do believe that there is a state the mind goes into as they die. Only in this state does the brain use 100% of it's capabilities. This state is like a dream, apart from the fact that the time difference in between state/alive is roughly 10^(3^3)/1.
The first thing that happens when you enter the state (which is at a point you aren't dead yet), you will re-experience the entire course of your life ("my life flashed before my eyes"). At the point where your state-self meets up with your actual-self on the timeline, you are able to turn back. After this point, you are "dead", and your brain is predicting the course of the future. Of course, you brain can't see into the future, so it will create a local off-shot timeline, inside your head. This is the afterlife.
Here you will live what seems to be a million times the length of your life. All this happens within a single second.
The human brain is a marvelous thing.
(DISCLAIMER: This post is wild speculation)
Actually you may be in luck to hear what I have to say. Before you die, your brain releases massive amounts of dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. It's in your Pineal Gland, and it is believes that in moments where you're brain is like "lolwtf" then it will release DMT. DMT is what's released when you dream, so there are theories that before you die massive amounts of DMT are released, AKA you can have an incredible psychedelic experience before you die, AKA people saying that they see god or heaven before they die. So let's say I was slowly dieing from old age, probably before I died I'd have the best psychedelic experience known to man. You'd probably pretend that you are seeing heaven, or you are pretending to meet God in the gates of Heaven. And when you die, your psychedelic experience ends.
Look up DMT, it's an amazing thing. People actually smoke DMT from plants to have that near death psychedelic experience.
I honestly don't get aethists.
They prefer this being the only life they get.
They'd rather not live in luxorious paradise with the creator of the world.
The basis of atheism is not the choice not to hang with god up in heaven, but a lack of belief in any god(s).
I'm an atheist in search of a god. I keep an open mind to anyone the tries to tell me about their faith. Why? I want to believe, but cannot. I am an empiricist not by choice, but by nature. Failure to find the capacity to ignore the lurking suspicions born of logic and reason makes true faith impossible to me. Because I'm an empiricist however, I not only acknowledge that existence of a god cannot be proven, but also that such a thing cannot be disproven, either. I don't think there's a god, but I don't know for sure. As such, I hope that one day some deity reaches out to me and disproves that my belief that there is no god. Until then, through no choice of my own, I cannot believe.
I hope that is a bit more enlightening in regards to the mindsets of some atheists, particularly the school of "Weak Atheism".
Quote from Alcatraz »
I wouldn't trust what cathlik or any of those other sub denominations say. Baptist Christian, was the original Christian religion that Jesus himself approved of. I wouldn't trust a religion that says its okay to rape children. :sleep.gif:
LAWL. While Catholicism (debatebly) wasn't the original Christian church, it sure as hell is the oldest out of the branches of Christianity still observed today, and is the origin of every other denomination of the faith. The Baptist denomination was, like almost all modern Christian denominations, a product of the Protestant Reformation[with the exception of Eastern Orthodoxy, which was the result of the Great Schism]. And nowhere does Catholic doctrine condone child molestation. Attributing a faith with the flawed characteristics of its followers is a fallacy. Associating child molestation with the Catholic church due to the actions of a handful of priests makes as much sense as associating Baptism with white supremacy because of the KKK, which claims to be a Baptist organization.
Quote from cardgame »
I'm sure someone said something about near death experiences and the light at the end of the tunnel, but I can't seem to find their post to quote them. Whatever.
The light of the end of the tunnel is typically the product of the psychological occurrence known as "confabulation". People expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, even if they do not, their conviction in believing that that is what they should see will cause the brain to create a false memory to accommodate this belief.
I honestly don't get aethists.
They prefer this being the only life they get.
They'd rather not live in luxorious paradise with the creator of the world.
Regarding light at the end of the tunnel, IIRC your eyes can take oxygen directly from the atmosphere instead of needing your lungs and your heart, so it may be that the only part of your body functioning properly is your eyes. Blind people often hear better, so perhaps since only your sense of sight is working, everything becomes very bright.
Just a theory.
The auditory senses of the blind are conditioned over time to compensate for the loss of sight. If you lose a mode of perception, your other senses don't immediately strengthen to compensate. You must learn how to better utilize them, resulting in increased sensitivity.
Actually you may be in luck to hear what I have to say. Before you die, your brain releases massive amounts of dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. It's in your Pineal Gland, and it is believes that in moments where you're brain is like "lolwtf" then it will release DMT. DMT is what's released when you dream, so there are theories that before you die massive amounts of DMT are released, AKA you can have an incredible psychedelic experience before you die, AKA people saying that they see god or heaven before they die. So let's say I was slowly dieing from old age, probably before I died I'd have the best psychedelic experience known to man. You'd probably pretend that you are seeing heaven, or you are pretending to meet God in the gates of Heaven. And when you die, your psychedelic experience ends.
Look up DMT, it's an amazing thing. People actually smoke DMT from plants to have that near death psychedelic experience.
I'm an atheist in search of a god. I keep an open mind to anyone the tries to tell me about their faith. Why? I want to believe, but cannot. I am an empiricist not by choice, but by nature. Failure to find the capacity to ignore the lurking suspicions born of logic and reason makes true faith impossible to me. Because I'm an empiricist however, I not only acknowledge that existence of a god cannot be proven, but also that such a thing cannot be disproven, either. I don't think there's a god, but I don't know for sure. As such, I hope that one day some deity reaches out to me and disproves that my belief that there is no god. Until then, through no choice of my own, I cannot believe.
I hope that is a bit more enlightening in regards to the mindsets of some atheists, particularly the school of "Weak Atheism".
LAWL. While Catholicism (debatebly) wasn't the original Christian church, it sure as hell is the oldest out of the branches of Christianity still observed today, and is the origin of every other denomination of the faith. The Baptist denomination was, like almost all modern Christian denominations, a product of the Protestant Reformation[with the exception of Eastern Orthodoxy, which was the result of the Great Schism]. And nowhere does Catholic doctrine condone child molestation. Attributing a faith with the flawed characteristics of its followers is a fallacy. Associating child molestation with the Catholic church due to the actions of a handful of priests makes as much sense as associating Baptism with white supremacy because of the KKK, which claims to be a Baptist organization.
The light of the end of the tunnel is typically the product of the psychological occurrence known as "confabulation". People expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, even if they do not, their conviction in believing that that is what they should see will cause the brain to create a false memory to accommodate this belief.
The auditory senses of the blind are conditioned over time to compensate for the loss of sight. If you lose a mode of perception, your other senses don't immediately strengthen to compensate. You must learn how to better utilize them, resulting in increased sensitivity.