I'm questioning our existence on this Earth. (Please Read!)

limpport · Post by **limpport** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:42 am

I hope I'm not going crazy or anything, but I find myself thinking about this a lot. Please don't be scared by the length of this!!! So... here it goes:

Where do go when we die? We must go someplace after we die. It is wired deep into our brains that it is impossible to not be somewhere, or someone, or something. We could go to Heaven or Hell. We could come back to life as someone or something else, with almost no memory of our previous life. We could become ghosts, lingering to the physical world as non-physical beings, spiritual, beings. We tell ourselves it is utterly impossible to be nothing!

Just try to think about it. What would Nothing look like? What would it smell like? What would it feel like? I can tell you: Nothing! You canâ€™t see, smell, or feel nothing. You thought it would probably look black, but it wouldnâ€™t, would it? Black is black, not Nothing. It would be light, either, because light is light, too! Nothing would be nothing. But you donâ€™t know what nothing is. Youâ€™ve never seen it. You canâ€™t see it. You wonâ€™t see it.

Unless weâ€™ve already seen it. Could our lives be something weâ€™ve put ourselves into, to protect ourselves? When someone is badly injured, or told something shocking, they pass out or go into a comma. Itâ€™s natures safety mechanism. Are our lives just a safety mechanism? Have we seen Nothing, but because we canâ€™t even start to understand it, we put ourselves into this world, full of simpler, physical things. Is it we go through life finding out what nothing isnâ€™t? Everything we see we know is something, because we can see it, or feel it, or smell it. Do we die because weâ€™ve seen enough physical things, and go back to limbo to safely figure out what Nothing is? Or does dying just put us into a different world, or a different part of this world, to find out more of what Nothing isnâ€™t?

This could be where Heaven, Hell and Reincarnation come from. Heaven and Hell are different worlds from our Earthly own, or at least thatâ€™s what the Bible has told us. Reincarnation keeps us in our world, but we see it from a different point of view.

I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this!

scherzo · Post by **scherzo** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:25 am

limpport wrote:Just try to think about it. What would Nothing look like? What would it smell like? What would it feel like? I can tell you: Nothing!

Exactly. It's kind of hard to see, smell and feel without a working nervous system.

Why isn't it possible that there is nothing after we're dead? I'd like to think that there's some sort of "afterlife" but I don't let my wishes control my beliefs. Furthermore, my wishes and beliefs don't change what happens to be the truth.

I do believe one thing. I believe that there is a truth, the way things are, and it's very probable that my beliefs about that truth are incorrect. I never think that my beliefs must be. I can be hopeful though.

In regards to what it would be like to experience "nothing"...
You haven't always be able to feel, smell and see, right? These abilities were acquired and realized at some point during your very early development. Before that moment, for you, there was nothing. There was no You. Isn't it quite possible that we return to nothing?

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:38 am

You can't discuss this without relating to religion. There are two views to this, and only one of them could be expressed without crossing the "line." It's either a one sided topic, or no topic at all (as it would get deleted), and at least in my opinion, a one sided discussion is not much of discussion at all.
-"Hey I think this and this"
-"I agree"

Unidentified Assilant · Post by **Unidentified Assilant** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:48 am

Where do you go? You go six feet under

Post by **marshallh** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:02 am

I think almost every single person has thought that at least once. Yeah, this is pretty much asking for a religious discussion.
But rather than being a pansy I'll say, at least I believe that we are put here to live in a way that brings honor to God, and spread the gospel. For me at least, everything came together and I could make sense out of things.

If you can't get used to being accountable to someone better than you, get over it.

Radon199 · Post by **Radon199** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:02 am

As said, you just rot in the ground... physicly that is.

This is a very big question to be truthfull. I beleave in the theroy of evolution, that the earth was formed, carbon combined with other elements and life was formed from that ooze. But does that mean I don't beleave in things like ghosts or telepathy or reincarnation. No, we have just bairly scratched the surface of what our brain can do, I mean we only use around 10% of the sucker.

Could there be a god? Sure, maby theres a whole race of beings that have shed their earthly bodys and can now alter the world around them, and maby one of those beings is looking over us. (i've been watching too much Stargate SG-1)

Could ghosts be definaed by physics, sure, your brain has an electromagnetic signature that flutuates, we can take pictures of auras and see the magnetic signature of a limb hours after it has been amputated. Ghosts could be that electrical signature that hasn't disipated.

Could there be reincarnation, that once we die are signature movies on untill it finds an new body to inhabit? Sure, it's posible.

I mean we are still finding hundreds of new species and animals every year and our sicences is rather primative. All i'm trying to say is anything is posible.

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:05 am

marshallh wrote:I think almost every single person has thought that at least once. Yeah, this is pretty much asking for a religious discussion.
But rather than being a pansy I'll say, at least I believe that we are put here to live in a way that brings honor to God, and spread the gospel. For me at least, everything came together and I could make sense out of things.

If you can't get used to being accountable to someone better than you, get over it.

Right, the existence God really makes everything a lot simpler to understand. There's still always one question floating around in my mind, though. Where did God come from, and why does he exist? Well, that's more like two...
Wrapping my mind around an answer to that is probably as hard as for an athiest trying to figure out why he\she exists.

My thread lockifying senses are tingling.

Post by **marshallh** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:07 am

sniper_spike wrote:There's still always one question floating around in my mind, though. Where did God come from, and why does he exist? Well, that's more like two....

I don't know about you, but I don't want a God that I can understand. If his intellect is equal to mine..... We're all in a world of hurt

sniper_spike wrote:My thread lockifying senses are tingling.

I fully expect this to be locked the second a mod sees it.

Radon199 · Post by **Radon199** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:09 am

As I said above, maby god is a being that once was organic on another planet, and maby his race became so powerfull that they were able to shead there bodys and exist on another plane as beings of pure energy, and maby one of them decided that he would look over this world as help us to achive what he once did.....

but then again it's all just speculation

blackbox_dev · Post by **blackbox_dev** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:10 pm

Yes, this is quite an interesting topic. You were talking about seeing nothing, and what does nothing look like? Well, the thing is you don't see nothing. You also don't hear, smell or feel nothing. Because you don't do any of those things at all. It's just that when you die, you can't do anything because your dead. Your brain shuts down, and that's it. You don't experience nothing because you just can't.

This reminds me of one of those "if a tree falls in a forest" questions.
......................................................... _
My 3.6*0.5 cents

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:20 pm

sniper_spike wrote:You can't discuss this without relating to religion. There are two views to this, and only one of them could be expressed without crossing the "line." It's either a one sided topic, or no topic at all (as it would get deleted), and at least in my opinion, a one sided discussion is not much of discussion at all.
-"Hey I think this and this"
-"I agree"

Well, did one ever think of the fact that these views could coexist? Darkness can't exist without a source of light, just as science and creationism can't exist without each other. This "line" you speak of could be man's mental manifestation of what is right and wrong, black and white; truly, though, this is a VERY grey area.
I happen to agree with marshall on thisw one. I really don't want a logically understandable God. I just acknowledge His presence and realize that we owe this beautiful world and all life to Him.

Also, Limpport, do you happen to be a martial artist? I noticed the picture in your sig has someone (you

?) doing a front snap kick, with the toes in proper position. Very rare for a non-martial artist. Your philosophical mindset also represents that of a martial artist. I only ask because I do martial arts (check out my sig

)

CronoTriggerfan

Post by **Gamelver** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:23 pm

ok, now I now this thread is techincally against the rules, talking about religion, but can't we have an intelligent discussion, like the one going on now?

I'll go ahead and jump in on this, anyway. I personally DO believe in God, and that he (or her, doesn't really matter since he wouldn't have a gender) is active in our lives. Why would I believe this? First of all, there is a feeling rooted into everyone, at least at some time in our lives, that there is more to our physical life. Science cannot prove this, of course, but it is widely accepted that we are more than simple beings and that there is more than physical and biological life. We all, at one point, have perhaps felt a spiritual feeling and have noted that maybe there is truly some type of God/gods/spirits/etc....But in the end, that comes down to faith. If you believe there is a God, and he is active in our lives and guides us, then great, if you listen to the right messages, that's great. If you don't, then I might think you're wrong, but really the one thing I think is most important is at least being moral. I do think we can all believe that there is an objective moral truth, right? Some say it could've been made up, but why is it that when slavery was widely accepted, some knew it just wasn't right? If someone kills another human, and he/she believes it to be ok, it doesn't make it alright. If someone retorts by saying that maybe everyone ELSE is wrong, then how did these feelings of right/wrong ever come into place? We developed it, and that's the way it's meant to be. Whether or not you believe it was God that did this doesn't matter, because it'll always be true.

I say if you can't figure it out, just "hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied. Look at me: I design <s>fjords</s> [portables]. I got an award for <s>Norway</s> [my GCp]." Please tell me someone knows where I got THAT quote

...Here's a hint: answer to life: 42.

the question? um, maybe "What's 6x9?", but that was probably just a fluke

.

Kurt_ · Post by **Kurt_** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:24 pm

Well, in regards to what nothing looks like, it would be black. Not black as in marker black or anything, though.

Black is the absense of light. See Black Hole.

stuartjmoore · Post by **stuartjmoore** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:27 pm

Radon199 wrote:As said, you just rot in the ground... physicly that is.

Where does your computer go when you break it? does the OS float away to OS heaven? or does it jst stop working...

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 2:29 pm

I have another topic that I have been pondering. Is Hell the same for everyone, or specialized to be "Hell" for a specific person? For example, for an evil goth who fears all that is good, would Hell be a happy, rainbow-filled, happy bunny land? Probably not the best example, I know, but you get my point.

And Kurt's right about nothing

(at least scientifically)

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