I hope to be reincarnated or something and experience a new and different life...I'm an atheist. I know I'll just cease to exist - just as I did exist before birth.
I have a somewhat inchoate belief in my continued existence, which is just a belief . . . nothing I can "prove" and certainly nothing I would attempt to argue with anyone else. I could cite multiple reasons for my belief, some very, very personal, but I'll simply cite the conservation of matter and energy and leave it at that.I'm an atheist. I know I'll just cease to exist - just as I did exist before birth.
Edit: just to clarify, I'm an atheist-agnostic. I refuse to declare something doesn't exist that can't be disproven.
After seeing plenty of people go through dementia, or see Alzheimer's effects, and read about facinating things about people with various brain injuries; I'm convinced we retain nothing we experienced in life. All information we gathered in life dies once our brain dies. That's it. However, if there is some other type of existence after death, then it's something we cannot explain with our current tools of perception (human perception like sight within the "visible" spectrum, our ears tuned to certain frequencies, our nose receiving molecules and brain interpreting them based off of millions of years of evolution).
Since our human tools are unavailable, if there is such an existence, it'll be completely different. All memories are just gone. It might be just a whole other type of existence. Who knows...
No one has, to be fair.I don't really know. I've never met anyone who's made the trip...
You know this forum needs any activity we can. Where's the spirit, bud.What a thought-provoking and fresh topic, OP. Can't say I've EVER seen this discussed on here.
I'm pretty confident that once you die, you're gone, and honestly that really scares me. Even just reading this thread gives me anxiety.
There's probably no such things as spirits :^PYou know this forum needs any activity we can. Where's the spirit, bud.
Yeah, to be fair though I knew what I was getting into reading this. Typically talking about it isn't the issue, it's when I start to imagine it. If this makes anyone else uncomfortable, I'm truly sorry, maybe stop reading, but just thinking about when I'm dead all my thoughts, feelings, and being are gone is really scary. My life is truly all I have, and the thought of that being gone and my consciousnesses disappearing is frightening. I hope that by talking about it more I'll come to terms, but for now it's really a tender topic.yea thats why its barely talked about or mentioned.
That's very interesting. What you just described is what I'd consider factual. Is that all Buddhist teachings?I was born Catholic, but I'm now a Buddhist. I do thank God every morning after I meditate, but that's about it.
My opinion is we all have these biological impulses that fire off in our head, as we react to our environment. And, all of this is combined with social conditioning. Your thoughts that you're so attached too are just random thoughts that other people (teachers, parents, society) put in there. So, we are just a bunch of biological impulses that react to the environment, add in social conditioning, and our thoughts. World won't even miss us when we're gone. Those thoughts that you have, those big goals. They don't really matter. Why? Because you'll be dead. My guess is when we die we won't even feel it. It won't even be darkness because darkness is a feeling. You won't feel anything.
Now, is there a God? I doubt it.
Yeah, to be fair though I knew what I was getting into reading this. Typically talking about it isn't the issue, it's when I start to imagine it. If this makes anyone else uncomfortable, I'm truly sorry, maybe stop reading, but just thinking about when I'm dead all my thoughts, feelings, and being are gone is really scary. My life is truly all I have, and the thought of that being gone and my consciousnesses disappearing is frightening. I hope that by talking about it more I'll come to terms, but for now it's really a tender topic.
That's very interesting. What you just described is what I'd consider factual. Is that all Buddhist teachings?