Death, religion, etc. etc.

[Sam]

I think reincarnation is the coolest.. only because I don't understand 'heaven'. It' probably because I've read The Stranger too many times.

Heaven would be a betetr option as long as I could customize it how I like it. >_> In other words, there would have to be no higher power, no God.

Otherwise, yeah, I choose reincarnation. I want t be a cat of some sort. Maybe a lion.

[snorkel]

I can't really choose because option 1 would be like living inside Glenn Beck's brain for eternity, option 2 I would never want to live another life here, option 3 involves nothing.

[rdl]

heaven is eternal happiness and you never get bored. also you can have whatever you want so basically if you were like "what if i went back to earth and tried to be a little more successful" then you probably could.

what's not to like? i always thought atheists would want to believe in heaven because it's like an infinite orgasm

[Oh]

heaven is eternal happiness and you never get bored. also you can have whatever you want so basically if you were like "what if i went back to earth and tried to be a little more successful" then you probably could.

what's not to like? i always thought atheists would want to believe in heaven because it's like an infinite orgasm

Yeah man, it's not like you know, they try to make something sound good and like make you listen to them and support them with like money. And like man, it's not like it's to the benefit of religion that we don't know what happens after we die, so like it's better to tell people things they want to hear so like they think they're happy.
man 

[rdl]

i just read my holy book though, i hardly ever listen to those supposed religious scholars. most of them are crooks anyway.

To be honest I'd rather just go poof into nothingness when I die rather than go be judged and then go to heaven or hell. Because if you just stop existing forever, at least you know that's going to happen and you can become ok with that. But if you have to live on for eternity, then, what is eternity? Is it fun? Do I want to be alive forever? I wanna die right now, why would I want to exist til the nonexistent end of time?

[YPrrrr]

I don't see why, if you can choose as you can in this scenerio, you would turn down eternal happiness. Must be a rebel without a cause.

[Sam]

I don't see why, if you can choose as you can in this scenerio, you would turn down eternal happiness. Must be a rebel without a cause.

I don't understand 'heaven'.

Is heaven exactly how I want it to be?

[YPrrrr]

Is heaven exactly how I want it to be?

If you're guaranteed to be happy, does it matter?

[Skylark]

reincarnation would be really fantastic if you could remember your past lives.

[Socks]

reincarnation would be really fantastic if you could remember your past lives.

reincarnation is fantastic. we cannot remember our past lives, but we can understand them

[Ch�shū]

I...don't know.

In a way, I would like option one.  Living in eternal bliss.  But what exactly is "eternal happiness" in the first place?  I mean, I'm an atheist so it's not like I believe in it.  To me it's a fictional concept.  Emotions are simply chemicals in our brain that change form depending on the exterior stimuli in our environment.  At it's core, it's an adaption to our way of survival.  I've always wondered though...what would heaven be like?  Would it be like being high all the time?  Not a care in the world, no work to do, you get joy out of just sitting on a couch and looking at the patterns of lines that run across the fabric.  I don't know, it really confuses me honestly....

Reincarnation has also been something that's always puzzled me.  In a way, we all reincarnate.  Our matter doesn't simply vanish as we pass away, it becomes a part of another piece of the puzzle.  It's our mind, our living consciousness that dies.  But if you don't remember your past lives when you reincarnate, then how can you even claim that the consciousness that attaches itself to your new body is really the same consciousness of your last life?  It wouldn't be.  If you have no preexisting memories, and your past experiences have no factor in how you live your new life, then it wouldn't be you per say.  I personally think that reincarnation is the most elegant and mystifying of all modern religions though.  Especially when tied into the Hindu faith.  Mostly because, in a way...it correlates with the way the universe really works; except instead of talking about the reincarnation of souls and people, you're talking about atoms and matter.  Idk, what I'm saying probably sounds like bullshit because I'm not explaining it right, but it's really something to think about  

And as far as the third option of non-existence goes, I think I may go with that.  When chaos is emptied from the void, you're given...peace.  Pure cosmos and order.  Nothingness....

[Travis]

I...don't know.

In a way, I would like option one.  Living in eternal bliss.  But what exactly is "eternal happiness" in the first place?  I mean, I'm an atheist so it's not like I believe in it.  To me it's a fictional concept.  Emotions are simply chemicals in our brain that change form depending on the exterior stimuli in our environment.  At it's core, it's an adaption to our way of survival.  I've always wondered though...what would heaven be like?  Would it be like being high all the time?  Not a care in the world, no work to do, you get joy out of just sitting on a couch and looking at the patterns of lines that run across the fabric.  I don't know, it really confuses me honestly....

Reincarnation has also been something that's always puzzled me.  In a way, we all reincarnate.  Our matter doesn't simply vanish as we pass away, it becomes a part of another piece of the puzzle.  It's our mind, our living consciousness that dies.  But if you don't remember your past lives when you reincarnate, then how can you even claim that the consciousness that attaches itself to your new body is really the same consciousness of your last life?  It wouldn't be.  If you have no preexisting memories, and your past experiences have no factor in how you live your new life, then it wouldn't be you per say.  I personally think that reincarnation is the most elegant and mystifying of all modern religions though.  Especially when tied into the Hindu faith.  Mostly because, in a way...it correlates with the way the universe really works; except instead of talking about the reincarnation of souls and people, you're talking about atoms and matter.  Idk, what I'm saying probably sounds like bullshit because I'm not explaining it right, but it's really something to think about  

And as far as the third option of non-existence goes, I think I may go with that.  When chaos is emptied from the void, you're given...peace.  Pure cosmos and order.  Nothingness....

i think you've written more words overall than i've written overall and you have 46 posts

[Ch�shū]

 

Well it's a complicated issue and I had a lot of thoughts on the matter that I wanted to share : (

[Socks]

Well it's a complicated issue and I had a lot of thoughts on the matter that I wanted to share : (

it is not complicated, i can prove it with one fatal blow

[Sam]

If you're guaranteed to be happy, does it matter?

ugh. There is so much wrong with the concept of heaven that I don't even know where to start.

for one, what makes one person happy obviously won't make everyone happy. So if everyone is promised eternal happiness in heaven, they must not all be experiencing the same heaven. So yes, it does matter. For instance, I don't want to live in any heaven where there's going to be a higher power. I do not like being ruled over.

second, in order to make this ideal happiness, we'd have to be set in a world that's made perfectly for each individual. But if there were in such a world.. that means we'd have BIG issues with who wants certain people to be in their world and certain people not in their world, and how some people's 'perfects' go against others'.

So then we come to the conclusion that in heaven one can't remember their past life. Everyone they met and everything they learned on Earth is forfeited and replaced with this ultimate happiness. In fact, none of the 'people' in heaven would be allowed to possess personalities because, aside from the fact that much of us is derived from our experiences, we wouldn't be able to have clashing personalities in heaven.

Which means in heaven we're all a bunch of meaningless, lifeless, lonely, happy blobs. Wow.

Screw it, I'd rather be a fucking cow and live life all over again. I don't care how shitty it is, at least it's interestng.