So... how about death?

What are your thoughts on death?

One of my friends was upset about it because he thinks it is better to exist than to just disappear. I told him he should go for Islam because iirc the basic Muslim view on death is just a walk into the next room, "you'll be missed but we'll see you later!" sort of thing. He commented that no matter what lay beyond death whoever came to deliver the news would be hearing some harsh words :O

I believe it's just an end. No more pain no, more pleasure, and when it's time; it's time. I often go through the days and when a thought turns to death it's like "meh". Sometimes though, at three AM mainly, the idea turns scary. I like to think I could look death in the face, utter my last words (bollocks) and die peacefully but if it comes to the cruch I'll probably be dragged to oblivion kicking and screaming "Mother!"

Anyway this isn't religion, although you can include how it makes you look at the subject. This is your thoughts on the last act, the next step etc.

What a jolly thread.

The islam is not the only religion that has a concept of afterlife. I myself am no part of any religious group, but I do believe there is life after death.

I believe that once we die we go to the Summerland, a state of existence in which form is more susceptible to thought. I've come to this view through several books I've read on the subject, and in beliefs from all over the world many similarities can be found regarding the afterlife and the true purpose of our earthly lives.

In truth, death is something I will greatly look forward to in due time. But for now, I try not to think too much about these things as it tends to make you lose grip on daily life.

Terra-jin said:
but I do believe there is life after death.

It's called worms' food. These worms breed and feast on your decaying matter. And after the worms shit you out, plants grow on the worm poo. So yeah.

The thought of death honestly scares me because, being deist, I don't strongly believe in an afterlife and consequently the thought of oblivion frightens me. =^/

So here's to hoping I get to be an old, old man before I keel over.

only way to find out is to die.

go on. off you pop.

myk said:

It's called worms' food. These worms breed and feast on your decaying matter. And after the worms shit you out, plants grow on the worm poo. So yeah.

Have you heard the concept of a "soul" ?

A concept and nothing more.

Islam and Christianity have a fairly similar idea of what will happen after death. Islam is just a lot more elaborate in their descriptions of it though.

myk said:

It's called worms' food. These worms breed and feast on your decaying matter. And after the worms shit you out, plants grow on the worm poo. So yeah.

Actually worms do not eat you, your bodies own bacteria is what destroys your "earthly remains".

Initial Decay
Stage 1

Time Frame: 0-3 days after death

Although the body shortly after death appears fresh from the outside, the bacteria that before death were feeding on the contents of the intestine begin to digest the intestine itself. Eventually, they break out of the intestine and start digesting the surrounding internal organs. The body's own digestive enzymes (normally in the intestine) also spread through the body, contributing to decomposition.

On an even smaller scale, enzymes inside individual cells are released when the cell dies. These enzymes break down the cell and its connections with other cells.

12-24 Hours - The skin is the first to change color, from normal to light blue to an almost green discoloration. This color change usually occurs in the, lower quadrant first, being most noticeable in the area of the lower abdomen/pelvis/groin.

24-36 Hours - The discoloration becomes quite pronounced, and the skin takes on a marbled pattern. The blood is now reacting with hydrogen sulfide, which has been produced within the blood vessels. This produces a characteristic dark green (almost black) discoloration. As putrefaction advances, the blood seeps from the blood vessels, giving the body a general purplish-black color.

36-48 Hours - The face and trunk begin to swell noticeably, taking on the characteristic "bloated" appearance. The eyelids, lips, scrotum, and other sites where skin is loosely attached may become dramatically swollen and bloated. On palpation (feeling or manipulation) of these areas, crepitus (a feeling described as "rice crispies") is noticed.

60-72 Hours - Putrefaction has now spread to all areas of the body, including the fingers and toes. The entire body has now changed color, and facial features may become unrecognizable.

Insects feed on the gooey mess left behind.

I felt that I should atone for a comment that wasn't very helpful. My outlook is that no matter how grim a vision of the unknown you can have, you can do nothing to prove it. As such, even if it's a depressing thought, it's impossible to accept it as a certainty. I feel that the belief in God is misplaced, but I can't prove that God doesn't exist either, so I don't seek to "convert" people to my way of thinking.

As such, there's no use thinking too much about it since you can't be certain, one way or the other. Just focus on enjoying life. :)

I'm just a bit undecided on what happens afterwards. Being Buddhist, I believe in reincarnation, but am torn between seeing the concept as a figurative idea, or a figurative and literal idea. I don't see it as being just literal.

That probably makes no sense, so here's a better explanation. Moving from one section in life to another is sort of like being reborn. One interpretation of the Buddhist version of Hell is that it's all psychological; it's a mental hell. Dying in there and being reborn in a higher level of being could mean moving on past the problems in that stage of life. This is what I say is the figurative term, which I believe in regardless. But the literal idea, which is when you are reborn after you physically die, is something I'm a bit undecided on still. Currently, I'm leaning more towards the side where you are not reborn into another physical body. It just ends. (related article on this)

I'm Christian (Mormon, actually) and I've always believed in the idea of an afterlife. (background: for Mormons, after you die, you go to either spirit paradise or spirit prison, depending on how you lived. Niether place is exceptionally bad or good, and I've heard it postulated that the spirt world is pretty close to what Earth is like, just that you don't have a body. When the earth ends, judgement day comes, and you're sent to one of the three levels of heaven, or to hell. Simple version. If you didn't want to hear that, sorry, just background info)

I'm not really afraid of death itself, because of my beliefs. What I'm really afraid of is leaving this world with my life unfinished, and how I end up leaving. It's not death that scares me, but pain.

Personally, I can't imagine no life after death. If I try to think about everything just ending, I get a headache. If that was my belief, I'd be scared of death too.

Anyways, if this is more than you wanted to know, sorry, but I've rambled long enough now.

fodders said:

Insects feed on the gooey mess left behind.

not anymore, heh. By the time we die our bodies are so stuffed with chemicals and preserveatives that even the worms won't touch us.

takes years and years for a body to decay.

also, zombies!

Well, my usual philosophy is try anything once.

If I die and there's no afterlife, I won't know it. But if there is, I'd like to have my bases covered. Religion: the Afterline Insurance™.

If I die, someone will press space and resurrect me. The downside is that everything resets ;)

TheDarkArchon said:
If I die, someone will press space and resurrect me. The downside is that everything resets ;)

Since resetting everything would mean resetting you as well, that'd be eternal recurrence. Being the same, you'd act the same way.

DJ_Haruko said:

I'm just a bit undecided on what happens afterwards. Being Buddhist, I believe in reincarnation,...

Who want to come back as a can of milk? :)

I think it's only natural that people who camp in computer games should strictly be reincarnated as tent stakes. =^P

*ba-dum-tssh*

KwadDamyj said:

*ba-dum-tssh*

My, quite the rimshot abuser.

Terra-jin said:

The islam is not the only religion that has a concept of afterlife.B]

Yea but if you think of it as the next room it just seems better than; you wait in a state of nonexistance until a deity decides whether to resurrect you or not or it's a coin toss between Heaven and Hell or even we go through all this shit again. :p

I'm not islamic btw !

I believe in an afterlife. But that doesn't mean spend your whole life thinking about death/afterlife. Enjoy life, but strive to be a better person.

fodders said:

Who want to come back as a can of milk? :)

http://www.nestle.ca/NR/rdonlyres/EC848376-CCDD-4F2B-B7D3-6ED428AAE3DF/0/C_03_LT005219.jpg

Oh man, I love milk! But not condensed milk.

The belief in an afterlife is not harmful, but it saddens me the way that some/many people believe in an afterlife...
It does give some of these people hope, but they devote their lives to it... idling in this life in the hopes that the next one is better.
You should always go with what you believe in, but you should also question those beliefs from time to time.
sadly, I believe that most of the world's population believes what they are told and they don't question that.

Opulent said:

The belief in an afterlife is not harmful, but it saddens me the way that some/many people believe in an afterlife...

then again, you don't KNOW whether there is an afterlife or not. no one knows.

I kinda believe in an afterlife.

Here's what I think: When you die, your mind enters an infinite dream state. You can't wake up from it, therefore you stay in your little dream world forever. It sounds weird, but I can't really explain it, sorry. :(

The mind is made of energy. Energy, like mass, cannot be created or destroyed. The oblivion or nonexistence theory pretty much falls flat there. You definitely go somewhere, but the details are up to the individual to find out for himself.

I'd like to believe that your soul goes to "hell" before it goes to "heaven." That you have to be absolved of sim in "purgatory" (since the keyword there is "purge") and then you can go. I also would like to believe that you don't know you're dead 'til after you complete the "absolution".

I'd like to see the afterlife like Silent Hill. You die, but you don't know you're dead. And you wake up in random place, still thinking you're alive and don't find out you're dead 'til the end and then you can go to "heaven." Those who haven't figured it out yet still wander earth on an alternate plane and can sometimes interfere with our reality (hence "ghosts") and when it's revealed to you you're dead, you can go.

Of course that's just a fun little theory I cooked up, since Syliva Brown said ghosts are people who don't know they're dead and need it revealed to them. Mixing that theory with "What if afterlife was like Silent Hill?"

On the otherhand, on a more scientific scale, I'd like to think when you die, you're spirit is just energy. The energy that's in your body while alive is expelled and that can create the ghostly feelings of a supposed haunting and the random cold spots people talk about when they think some place is haunted. Plus, supposed ghost experts say ghosts eat up energy when they inhabit an area, so that's trying to put a more scientific spin on an otherwise fairytale-like situation.

But I don't actually believe all this stuff, it's just something I think would be cool to see on the otherside. Personally I hope there is a heaven and you get to feel everything you ever wanted to feel all the time.

I'm not sure what to think about death. I want to believe there might be something after, but there might not be. In either case, I'll cease to care, either because I'll have moved on or I won't have a brain to care and feel with.

Megalyth said:

The mind is made of energy. Energy, like mass, cannot be created or destroyed. The oblivion or nonexistence theory pretty much falls flat there. You definitely go somewhere

The energy contained in our bodies is used by the things that eventualy consume us.