Now that humans know what the earth is and its basic place in the universe, I wonder what effect this has on souls who fly up and look down on it after they die.

Before we discovered the earth isn't flat, I bet they panicked and flew right back down again, only to be reincarnated as a bug or a plant. Now maybe they go off into the universe, exploring other stars and galaxies.

It's also possible that nothing much happens when you die. I'd rather not dwell on that though, because it's a little unpleasant.

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My view is in direct contrast to your own; I don't believe in souls, angels or demons, and I'd rather believe that nothing happens to us after we die than the alternatively proposed suggestion.

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The reality of life is we go back to that place we were before we were born.

Remember what it was like those years before you came into existence?
That's what it's like after you die.

Nothingness

Enjoy your existence. It's a nice break from the eternity of oblivion on either side of it.

Our component atoms are recycled back into the universal mix, eventually to become starstuff again and again and again, don't you just love it?

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It gives one the feeling of immortality...in a non-organic, non self aware kind of way.

Nice to know our atoms will carry on until the end of the universe, whether it be in a Big Crunch or a cold, lonely and dispersed expanse of space.

Doesn't matter...I'll probably be dead before the end of time and won't notice.

My view is in direct contrast to your own; I don't believe in souls, angels or demons, and I'd rather believe that nothing happens to us after we die than the alternatively proposed suggestion.

You better would, because they believe in you.

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With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.

Lennon sang a song about it once.......

Imagine......

Ozz......my future on this plane is uncertain......
My future on the next one has been promised.

And I believe in that.

And yet it only took one sad person on this planet to kill the man. How sad his dreams were stilled.
But as you see.......his thoughts were not.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

My view is in direct contrast to your own; I don't believe in souls, angels or demons, and I'd rather believe that nothing happens to us after we die than the alternatively proposed suggestion.

You better would, because they believe in you.

Gotta love that argument: the mere beings that don't exist "believe" in me. Can you provide incontrovertible evidence to support that statement?

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Being made of star stuff says that my atoms are immortal. I will be recycled. And just maybe a little bit of me will be too.

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[/quote]

Old James

Remember what it was like those years before you came into existence?
That's what it's like after you die.

My hope for immortality resides beneath the Planck scale.

I hope that the physics I know and see here, which do not suggest any sort of "soul", are by chance entangled with whatever crap hasn't been discovered yet and is perhaps not feasible to discover.

Not necessarily "unknowable", but too expensive in resources to study, at least for now.

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Reincarnation, for me, is seeing things around me.

Example for me would be that my beloved childhood pet dog passed some 25 years ago. She was my constant companion...slept with me, I fed her. I could walk her without a leash around my neighborhood. I was devastated when she passed.

When we got our first pup as a married couple-we were at the breeders and Izzy crawled out of the puppy pile (eyes still closed), found me and proceeded to fall asleep on my leg as I sat on their rug. Same thing happened when we got my childhood pup. There was just a very comfortable sense of renewal as Izzy again is my pup..same behaviors, etc.

I believe I'll show up again somewhere...who knows where or in what form but I'll be back

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I've thought about the whole recycling of atoms thing, and it occurred to me that it's highly unlikely that I'll be reincarnated through this process. Returning to the Earth could eventually have the iron in my body in an asteroid somewhere, the carbon dispersed as a gas in space, and the other various compounds broken down into elements which end up in another star. The material which makes up my body will be somewhere, but not in the form of life.

I agree wholeheartedly with ozz and Robert. Who was it, Twain that said something like, "I do not fear death in view of the fact that I was dead for billions and billions of years before I was born and haven't suffered the slightest inconvenience because of it."

I have no fear of death...it's the transition that might hurt like hell.

I have no fear of death...it's the transition that might hurt like hell.

LOL that's so true.

I used to be afraid and upset by it. I just came to accept it and realize that I'm not going to have to go through anything that nobody else does. There's also comfort in knowing that the I'm part of the universe, and things change, but no matter what happens, I'll remain a part of the universe as I always have.