Is it silly?

[turbofly3ddeath]

I feel silly even being concerned about this, but I'm so concerned about being reincarnated into an even worse situation that I'm in. I've never believed in reincarnation but now that I'm getting closer to death (I'm hoping my things for sale will provide me with the rest of money needed for n. Unless anyone wants to donate to this broke miserable girl) I feel like I might come back into life?

The whole afterlife thing is terrifying me.

 

[Escaper Boy]

If reincarnation is a deliberate choice instead of obligation, I think I would gladly give myself another chance in life, even knowing how unfair life on earth can be.

I feel like I made too many mistakes in this lifetime. I think I want to try again. It would be nice to have another fresh start. I just wish the new "me" would give life more effort and dedication compared to the old "me".

 

[Macc Lad]

I feel silly even being concerned about this, but I'm so concerned about being reincarnated into an even worse situation that I'm in. I've never believed in reincarnation but now that I'm getting closer to death (I'm hoping my things for sale will provide me with the rest of money needed for n. Unless anyone wants to donate to this broke miserable girl) I feel like I might come back into life?

The whole afterlife thing is terrifying me.

wow.....you're really messed up aren't you.....my heart goes out to you x

 

[Kirkscoobz]

I think what would be a nightmare is coming back a new person but with your previous memories and pain, it would be a manic cycle of events living it all again.

 

[Alan James]

Reincarnation came up with hindus living in heaps of garbage (literally) and dirt to justify the terrible situation of their lower castes.

 

[turbofly3ddeath]

Reincarnation came up with hindus living in heaps of garbage (literally) and dirt to justify the terrible situation of their lower castes.

Have you ever read those stories where kids have these memories of their past lives such as when they were killed, how etc

I think what would be a nightmare is coming back a new person but with your previous memories and pain, it would be a manic cycle of events living it all again.

It would be. I think what could make it worse is if your new person was even worse and then your memories making you feeling horrible about restarting

If reincarnation is a deliberate choice instead of obligation, I think I would gladly give myself another chance in life, even knowing how unfair life on earth can be.

I feel like I made too many mistakes in this lifetime. I think I want to try again. It would be nice to have another fresh start. I just wish the new "me" would give life more effort and dedication compared to the old "me".

I guess. Idk like what if you came back with Down syndrome. Or you were someone in a developing country. I guess you wouldn't know better but yeah.

wow.....you're really messed up aren't you.....my heart goes out to you x

More than you know. I guess I've been through a lot of fucked up things in life and now I'm so fucked up that I think I can fuck up even after I die

 

[Psilo]

I'm not religious, nor spiritual but I have to admit I think about it too. But for now I focus more on the dying, more than anything else.

There's nothing silly about, we as humans always think beyond our reach, it's in our gene, to find answers.

 

[Alan James]

Have you ever read those stories where kids have these memories of their past lives such as when they were killed, how etc

I read that one of the scientists explains this by the hypothesis that people have some kind of "genetic memory". I do not know if this is scientifically correct, it's just someone's hypothesis, but maybe they remember it because of the genetic memory.

 

[Johnnythefox]

At what point in evolution did the human species evolve this ability?
Did it exist before we crawled out of the swamp?
Did it exist when we were still indistinguishable from other apes?
Did it exist when we still lived in caves and hunted for food?

 

[EddieAllenPoe]

Reincarnation is indeed possible. But what reasons do you have to believe it is real? A story? There are plenty of stories in the world about what happens after death. Which ones do you believe? Some people claim to have died and met Jesus or see their dead grandmother. It's not that it's impossible it happened, but the stories often have conflicting "truths". It would be unreasonable to expect any body to know which story is really true. It also seems unreasonable to claim a person who is suffering that commits suicide would enter a worse hell. Why? What reason do you have to believe that's true? Who would enforce such a cruel law? God? I think the whole idea sounds absurd and unreasonable.

 

[Soul]

My fear is to ctb and find my situation is exactly the same except without a way to ctb since the b is already c'd.
Eddie, I think most anyone with an imagination worries about some kind of post mortem what ifs. I wish you courage and a good voyage.

 

[Johnnythefox]

At what point in evolution did the human species evolve this ability?
Did it exist before we crawled out of the swamp?
Did it exist when we were still indistinguishable from other apes?
Did it exist when we still lived in caves and hunted for food?

Strange how no one replies to this, posted the same question in a previous thread similar to this and still no one answers.
Maybe the answer is when a bunch of old guys wrote this book about this guy who lives in the sky and watches everything you do.
There's a great bit in it were a bush on fire talks to this old guy and tells him how we should live, yeah that must be the answer, before that people just died and that was it, then all of a sudden the guy in the sky decided we could go and live with him when we die.

 

[EddieAllenPoe]

Strange how no one replies to this, posted the same question in a previous thread similar to this and still no one answers.
Maybe the answer is when a bunch of old guys wrote this book about this guy who lives in the sky and watches everything you do.
There's a great bit in it were a bush on fire talks to this old guy and tells him how we should live, yeah that must be the answer, before that people just died and that was it, then all of a sudden the guy in the sky decided we could go and live with him when we die.

I just didn't know how to respond to it. I "got" what you were saying though. I grew up as a teenager in a fundamentalist Christian sect that pretty much denied evolution in support of creationism. Later on, I continued in my twenties and thirties to visit American churches where they didn't deny evolution. These tended to be more liberal. Some I've been to were very liberal (Unitarian Universalist).The only reason I mention my background... It seems to me that British atheists seem to speak a foreign language when they're expressing their attitudes about religion. I think you felt that since it was obvious that evolution was a fact that ALL of religion is suddenly a childish fairytale about spaghetti monsters. Science triumps. God died. Everyone can suddenly relax. I get it. It's pretty common to hear this from British people online. It seems to be a product of disillusionment with institutionalized religion. I just feel that there is still value to religion and spirituality and it isn't always so simple. I think the OP's concerns about reincarnation and hell were understandable.

 

[Jessica-]

I just didn't know how to respond to it. I "got" what you were saying though. I grew up as a teenager in a fundamentalist Christian sect that pretty much denied evolution in support of creationism. Later on, I continued in my twenties and thirties to visit American churches where they didn't deny evolution. These tended to be more liberal. Some I've been to were very liberal (Unitarian Universalist).The only reason I mention my background... It seems to me that British atheists seem to speak a foreign language when they're expressing their attitudes about religion. I think you felt that since it was obvious that evolution was a fact that ALL of religion is suddenly a childish fairytale about spaghetti monsters. Science triumps. God died. Everyone can suddenly relax. I get it. It's pretty common to hear this from British people online. It seems to be a product of disillusionment with institutionalized religion. I just feel that there is still value to religion and spirituality and it isn't always so simple. I think the OP's concerns about reincarnation and hell were understandable.

With respect, I think believing in an afterlife and being religious are 2 separate things. There are many atheists who believe in some form of afterlife. The bottom line is no-one knows, it has neither been proven or disproven. I think it is not helpful to outright rule it out, think about all the things we don't know in this world. We don't even know how our brains work.

 

[Alchemist]

If reincarnation is a deliberate choice instead of obligation, I think I would gladly give myself another chance in life, even knowing how unfair life on earth can be.

I feel like I made too many mistakes in this lifetime. I think I want to try again. It would be nice to have another fresh start. I just wish the new "me" would give life more effort and dedication compared to the old "me".

Who say that if reincarnation is real it would be on earth.

 

[Empty Smile]

As odd as this may sound, if I end up being reincarnated in this planet, and I am allowed to choose what year/decade I want to be in, I would choose to go back to the cowboy days.....

 

[stuckforawhile]

With respect, I think believing in an afterlife and being religious are 2 separate things. There are many atheists who believe in some form of afterlife. The bottom line is no-one knows, it has neither been proven or disproven. I think it is not helpful to outright rule it out, think about all the things we don't know in this world. We don't even know how our brains work.

The number of atheists who believe in some form of afterlife is zero. The atheists who do believe in some form of afterlife are people who don't know what "atheist" means, and mistakenly thought they were one.

It is true that no-one knows, and nothing has been proven or disproven. It is possible that there is one or several gods, and that they are neon pink inflatable animals. It is possible that there's an afterlife where you float on these inflatable animals in a cosmic lazy river. Literally anything anyone can think of is as plausible as everything else.

As for experiencing an afterlife in any kind of way with the consciousness you have now - being the same "you" after death - that has conclusively been observed to be impossible. Serious brain trauma can permanently alter a person's personality and subjective experience of the world. This shows that these are contingent on the physical brain and cannot exist after the death of the brain.

 

[Jessica-]

The number of atheists who believe in some form of afterlife is zero. The atheists who do believe in some form of afterlife are people who don't know what "atheist" means, and mistakenly thought they were one.

How did you come to that conclusion? You do understand that there is a difference of being spiritual and religious. Atheists simply mean people who don't believe in gods or other deities where being spiritual can be completely secular.

 

[housecat]

Perhaps you will, but it probably doesn't happen at all, and if it does, you'll probably have no recollection of this life, and your new life will probably be different in numerous ways. If it happens, it happens. It seems so unlikely that we'd be put in the same loop, but again, we wouldn't know if we were (assuming you have no recollection of a previous life). It seems futile to worry about it (that is not to say that it's wrong or silly to have thought about it). Oddly, although I have no recollection of past lives or really believe in it, I feel as though I have an old soul, and I think it's tired.

 

[EddieAllenPoe]

The atheists who do believe in some form of afterlife are people who don't know what "atheist" means, and mistakenly thought they were one.

Nope. Literally, all that "atheist" means is "a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods." You really need to brush up on etymology because this is obvious in the two roots that comprise the word. (a-,-theist).

Not believing in God has absolutely nothing to do with attitudes towards other metaphysical beliefs. That is actually not correct.

 

[Marawa]

My fear is to ctb and find my situation is exactly the same except without a way to ctb since the b is already c'd.
Eddie, I think most anyone with an imagination worries about some kind of post mortem what ifs. I wish you courage and a good voyage.

This. Exactly what I fear. Coming back as me with only the worse bastards I know in life & no way out. imagine eternity with a wretched ex husband...

 

[Alan James]

I tried to somehow imagine reincarnation from a scientific point of view

If we assume the probability that the human body is a technical device, like a drone or a robot, then in this case human being is hardware + software. Human consciousness in this case is a computer program, a set of 0 and 1. And then it is possible that the human brain does not store the human consciousness and memory but is only something of a receiver - it will take it from somewhere exactly as Wi-Fi for example, connecting to something like internet. Maybe there is somewhere exist some kind of network like the Internet (or AI) and the consciousness of individuals is part of it (what different religions have in mind when they say that we are all one and God is everywhere and within each of us), the human body simply and automatically connects to this network. Then, probably, our memory and all data are systematically and automatically backed up and synchronized with the server (for example during sleep - does something happen to human memory when he sleeps?) or with the "cloud" (maybe they are looking for God in the wrong "cloud"). In this case, the death of any body does not mean anything (this is like a car or washing machine breakdown) and all our memory and experience are securely stored in this network and easily can be loaded again and again into other bodies or somewhere else. In this case, suicide can be a waste of resources (if human bodies is just a technical devices it's like breaking very expensive equipment) and this is the main reason why suicide is not approved.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Humans are animals and are part of the animal kingdom, in their arrogance they believe they are above the laws of nature.
Is it only the human species who are afforded these special privileges? Only they who can go to a special place when they cease to exist?
The majority of animals share many physical traits, eyes, ears, a mouth and an arsehole, dog shit is indistinguishable from human shit.
All life shares a common ancestor and it's only humans imagination that allows for fantasy and anything else beyond science fact.
A cabbage has about 50% human DNA.

 

[Jessica-]

Humans are animals and are part of the animal kingdom, in their arrogance they believe they are above the laws of nature.
Is it only the human species who are afforded these special privileges? Only they who can go to a special place when they cease to exist?
The majority of animals share many physical traits, eyes, ears, a mouth and an arsehole, dog shit is indistinguishable from human shit.
All life shares a common ancestor and it's only humans imagination that allows for fantasy and anything else beyond science fact.
A cabbage has about 50% human DNA.

I think it's less to do with the arrogance of men but more to do with having an open mind. There are many things we don't understand about the universe and metaphysics. Are we so arrogant to rule out life after death?

 

[Bärchen]

I don't believe in life after death or reincarnation. the brain stops working, the heart stops pumping and you are dead. Its like a eternal deep sleep or the time before you was born. So something pretty good.

 

[intr0naut]

I think it would be arrogant to say there is a special place for us after this life. Btw, if we keep saying "life after death", shouldn't we stop calling death "death"?

 

[Jessica-]

I think it would be arrogant to say there is a special place for us after this life. Btw, if we keep saying "life after death", shouldn't we stop calling death "death"?

How so? Don't know about a " special place" but there is just so much we don't know. eg. only a few hundred years back, we still believe the sun orbits the earth. and Copernicus theory was only accepted in the 18th Century. How are you so sure that there is nothing after death.

I don't believe in life after death or reincarnation. the brain stops working, the heart stops pumping and you are dead. Its like a eternal deep sleep or the time before you was born. So something pretty good.

I really hope you are right. Total nothingness sounds like bliss.

 

[intr0naut]

Yes, i agree there a lot of things that we don't know about but i hope future generations will get to know more about how the universe is working.
I never said i am sure there is nothing after death, but in this moment i have no reason to believe there is.

 

[Jessica-]

Yes, i agree there a lot of things that we don't know about but i hope future generations will get to know more about how the universe is working.
I never said i am sure there is nothing after death, but in this moment i have no reason to believe there is.

Yup, we just have to wait and see.

 

[intr0naut]

Right, but some of us just don't have enought time left to wait so we'll have to accept that probably we'll never know. Or, we can believe whatever gives us comfort, i don't see any problem with that as long as it doesn't affect the lives of others.