DasMurmeltier
New
Hopefully this thread is correctly placed here. It got its connections to science, but its propably more like a spiritual thing, so, well.
Btw, i know that there are a few threads out there regarding that topic, but i never found a single thread regarding the topic "afterlife" in general. There are NDE-Threads out there, there are discussion-threads for it in the proponent-vs-sceptics-section - but that isnt exactly what i had in mind there.
I asked Don DeGracia in the Dr. Patricia Chruchland - Thread for his opinion on the "afterlife". Afterlife means for me personally not just that im living on as a human being; it basically includes for me personally any kind of existence after the death of our physical bodies where we have some sort of self-awareness and a basic ability to think about us (what is implied by the self-awareness anyways, but whatever). I will use the word afterlife for it all though; its just shorter. Its also interesting to talk about what happens to our self's when it comes to death.
Im also inviting everyone else out there to participate here. Im interested in any opinion on this subject. If it is based on "evidence" (i got a hard time calling something real evidence these days because nothing seems to be totally certain), thats great too.
To make that thing more complete here: This very question is the reason im on skeptiko . Im still a young human being. Already had my share of fear of death before though. I lived with some sort of panic attacks because of that for a few years until i decided to confront myself with that stuff. You cant get rid of fears that destroy your everyday-life if you dont tackle them, right? And thats pretty much how i got to this point. If i would have to explain my fear of it, well - its basically just that i cant imagine myself to be nothing at some point. I love life way too much for that. That sounds pretty selfish and it propably is, but sometimes you gotta have a selfish reason to do things.Therefore i started studying death and stuff related to it.
So, my personal take on this is basically that i do believe in some form of existence after death. I doubt that it is something like the catholic church is telling us (you know, a afterlife with a physical body). If there is a existence after death it isnt physical as we know it today. But after denying that, i got a hard time figuring out how an "afterlife" could be possible. I come from a very materialistic background(therefore i know of loads of neuroscientific and physical stuff that contradicts any notion of the afterlife if you interpret in in a materialistic way). As much as im interested in stuff like e.g. NDE's, im not considering it as much of a proof since there is a chance that this stuff could be created by the brain (allthough the question there would be then: Why would the brain do that? But thats a different topic). Therefore im mostly interested in scientific data that could be used to explain an afterlife. If there is a afterlife you can propably connect it to the current research from neuroscience and quantum physics(and evolutionary biology and all that other stuff out there), right? Im having a hard time to find those connections though.
What i also imagine to be possible right there is that its the wrong kind of way to try to connect current science with the afterlife. I would be totally on the wrong track there. Im not much a person of spirituality (i never had a spiritual event; or lets say, i never noticed one). But it could be that exactly this is needed to get anywhere on that topic (and well, NDE's could totally play a role in that then).
But, enough babbling. Im looking forward to your opinions on the topic.
Btw, i know that there are a few threads out there regarding that topic, but i never found a single thread regarding the topic "afterlife" in general. There are NDE-Threads out there, there are discussion-threads for it in the proponent-vs-sceptics-section - but that isnt exactly what i had in mind there.
I asked Don DeGracia in the Dr. Patricia Chruchland - Thread for his opinion on the "afterlife". Afterlife means for me personally not just that im living on as a human being; it basically includes for me personally any kind of existence after the death of our physical bodies where we have some sort of self-awareness and a basic ability to think about us (what is implied by the self-awareness anyways, but whatever). I will use the word afterlife for it all though; its just shorter. Its also interesting to talk about what happens to our self's when it comes to death.
Im also inviting everyone else out there to participate here. Im interested in any opinion on this subject. If it is based on "evidence" (i got a hard time calling something real evidence these days because nothing seems to be totally certain), thats great too.
To make that thing more complete here: This very question is the reason im on skeptiko . Im still a young human being. Already had my share of fear of death before though. I lived with some sort of panic attacks because of that for a few years until i decided to confront myself with that stuff. You cant get rid of fears that destroy your everyday-life if you dont tackle them, right? And thats pretty much how i got to this point. If i would have to explain my fear of it, well - its basically just that i cant imagine myself to be nothing at some point. I love life way too much for that. That sounds pretty selfish and it propably is, but sometimes you gotta have a selfish reason to do things.Therefore i started studying death and stuff related to it.
So, my personal take on this is basically that i do believe in some form of existence after death. I doubt that it is something like the catholic church is telling us (you know, a afterlife with a physical body). If there is a existence after death it isnt physical as we know it today. But after denying that, i got a hard time figuring out how an "afterlife" could be possible. I come from a very materialistic background(therefore i know of loads of neuroscientific and physical stuff that contradicts any notion of the afterlife if you interpret in in a materialistic way). As much as im interested in stuff like e.g. NDE's, im not considering it as much of a proof since there is a chance that this stuff could be created by the brain (allthough the question there would be then: Why would the brain do that? But thats a different topic). Therefore im mostly interested in scientific data that could be used to explain an afterlife. If there is a afterlife you can propably connect it to the current research from neuroscience and quantum physics(and evolutionary biology and all that other stuff out there), right? Im having a hard time to find those connections though.
What i also imagine to be possible right there is that its the wrong kind of way to try to connect current science with the afterlife. I would be totally on the wrong track there. Im not much a person of spirituality (i never had a spiritual event; or lets say, i never noticed one). But it could be that exactly this is needed to get anywhere on that topic (and well, NDE's could totally play a role in that then).
But, enough babbling. Im looking forward to your opinions on the topic.