What comes after death?

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Infinity

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What do you all think?

I personally believe that there is a God. There has to be, if there wasn't, where would everything that exists come from? Since I believe in God, I believe that there is life after death. I don't believe that anybody goes to hell for eternity (not even Hitler); because to go to hell for eternity, you would have to commit an infinite amount of sins and that is impossible. I believe that after death, we all go to purgatory for however long we need to according to how many sins we commited. So Hitler would be in purgatory much longer then Gandhi, for instance. After purgatory we all go to heaven. And I think heaven is where infinite happiness is. I think there has to be life after death. If there wasn't, then what would be the point of life? Life is a struggle, there has to be ultimate happiness at the end. And I think that death is not the end, it is just the beginning.

Give your thoughts.

P.S. What does everyone think about animals? As far as animals go, I would like to believe that they go to heaven as well. But then does that mean ALL animals? Even amoeba?
 
I would agree with you, except that I also believe that there is an afterlife. Meaning that your soul can transcend into a new body and you're born all over again. I'm a strong believer in that; I've even gotten into heated debates over it before.

There are so many questions that we'll never know the answer to.
 
Good question. Christianity probably borrowed the concept of "hell" from Zoroastrianism, but we made one major tweak: Zoroastrians believe that, in the end, everyone, including those in hell, will go to Heaven. When the Earth is destroyed, those in hell are purified by fire, those permanently frozen in stone in purgatory ("hamistigan") are reanimated, and the good souls on Earth feel nothing but a pleasant warmth.

Anyway, it's worth noting that the Apostle's Creed notes that Jesus descends into hell and raises the souls in hell into Heaven. That was the role of the "saoshyant" ("Savior") in Zoroastrianism. Conventional Christian scholars, of course, are quick to dismiss any connection to a non-Christian religion.

Melon
 
Yeah, hinduism and scientology both believe in your soul changing from body to body.

But there is one thing about this that don't sit right with me. If our souls just keep changing from body to body, then what is the point? You know what I mean? Like where is the end, paradise? That's why I believe in something more after death.
 
I'm guessing there's nothing after death, but it's impossible to know really. And I'm fine with that, I'm more interested in life anyway.
 
I'm forced to believe in an afterlife. There has to be an ultimate form of Justice in the universe, otherwise it's just us...the scariest thought imaginable.
 
All those carbs I never got a chance to eat in this lifetime...
 
wasn't purgatory made up by the catholic church? I don't think it's actually mention in the bible, correct me if I'm wrong please...
 
I tend to believe in heaven and hell. I believe in life we're all connected to something bigger, so I don't understand how we wouldn't be after we die.
 
I like to think there is a God....but we are recycled as different beings depending on how we acted in this life. I think it goes along with deja vu....I think when you get that feeling its somethign from a past life.

Funny cause Mr. Dis gets a cold shiver everytime we pass through a busy intersection....maybe in a past life he died at one:shrug:

I totally believe the same for animals. I actually have begun to think that dogs are angels comming to check on us...thats why they don't live so long. I have always wondered that....:coocoo: I know...I'm insane:wink:
 
Dismantled said:
Funny cause Mr. Dis gets a cold shiver everytime we pass through a busy intersection....maybe in a past life he died at one:shrug:
Click to expand...

I have a completely irrational fear of gas masks (stop laughing, now!) -- whenever I see news footage of soldiers wearing them I just feel really nervous and uncomfortable. Anyway, my mum has a theory that in a past life I lived in a war zone and that's why I'm freaked out by them.
 
FizzingWhizzbees said:


I have a completely irrational fear of gas masks (stop laughing, now!) -- whenever I see news footage of soldiers wearing them I just feel really nervous and uncomfortable. Anyway, my mum has a theory that in a past life I lived in a war zone and that's why I'm freaked out by them.
Click to expand...

yes that is what I am talking about:up: :up: I think that is true. Or maybe you were a solider that died in war:shrug: or in a concentration camp or something.
 
Mofo said:
wasn't purgatory made up by the catholic church? I don't think it's actually mention in the bible, correct me if I'm wrong please...
Click to expand...

It's actually borrowed from Zoroastrianism, although the official line is that it came from a line in the apocryphal "Maccabees" Biblical book that's in the Catholic canon. However, it's a text from the Sadduccees, and the best they ever believed in was "Sheol," so that's not even logical that they would have invented "Purgatory."

Melon
 
melon said:


It's actually borrowed from Zoroastrianism, although the official line is that it came from a line in the apocryphal "Maccabees" Biblical book that's in the Catholic canon. However, it's a text from the Sadduccees, and the best they ever believed in was "Sheol," so that's not even logical that they would have invented "Purgatory."

Melon
Click to expand...

care to explain a bit more? what do you mean it's not even logical?

by the way I find your replies regarding religious topics quite interesting you're quite informed
 
Mofo said:
care to explain a bit more? what do you mean it's not even logical?
Click to expand...

It's often assumed that "Judaism" is all uniform and unchanging through history, but it's quite a different story.

Following Cyrus the Great's decision to allow Jews to return to their homeland around 550 B.C., Judaism was effectively divided in two, due to Cyrus' habit of "subverting" religions to ensure loyalty, rather than forced conversion to Zoroastrianism, the dominant religion of the empire.

The divisions became more pronounced after Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire, when the two main factions of Judaism organized into the Sadducees and the Pharisees. The Sadducees are thought to have been the majority of Jews at the time, and it is believed they reflected original, pre-Zoroastrian influenced Judaism. On the other end was the Pharisees (their name is thought to be derived from "Parsi" or "Persian"), who were a powerful minority that were the result of Cyrus' purposeful infusion of Zoroastrian beliefs into Judaism. From Zoroastrianism, it is thought that Judaism took on their beliefs on everything from angels to, most importantly, the idea of the Messiah. Even the idea of "God" was completely transformed from the Semitic tribal god, Yahweh, to the qualities of main god, Ahura Mazda. The names weren't changed obviously, but that's why, in the Old Testament, we go from a rather angry warrior "God" to a loving "God" by the end.

The Sadducees, on the other hand, resisted what they thought was a bastardization of their religion, and were most militant about their outrage over being conquered by these foreign empires. They did not believe in heaven, hell, purgatory, angels, or even the idea of a Messiah. Their concept of the afterlife was almost exactly like the Greek concept of Hades, where you kind of wandered aimlessly neither happy nor sad and all your knowledge was forever lost, since that was part of your body and not your soul. That line in Maccabees loosely interpreted as being "purgatory" by Catholicism is very likely a reference to Sheol.

Things came to a head in A.D. 70 and the Sadducees openly revolted in Jerusalem. However, the Romans were way too powerful. They burned Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and killed an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Jews, while enslaving the remainder throughout the empire, in keeping with Roman conquest tradition. The Sadducees were officially annihilated, while the Pharisees survived.

Mainstream "Judaism" today is now completely based on the Pharisees' theology. The Christian Old Testament canon, likewise, is based on the Pharisees' canon. Elements of the Talmud and Kabbalah, meanwhile, claim to have many elements of original Jewish theology.

by the way I find your replies regarding religious topics quite interesting you're quite informed
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Thanks. I find religion to be quite interesting from a scholarly POV.

Melon
 
There are too many acts, appearances and phenomena that cannot seem to be explained (regardless of what scientologists and Tom Cruise say). Therefore, there must be an afterlife.

And, plus, I still think that the mere belief in it prevents people from doing even worse things than what some do today.
 
U2@NYC said:
There are too many acts, appearances and phenomena that cannot seem to be explained (regardless of what scientologists and Tom Cruise say). Therefore, there must be an afterlife.
Click to expand...

How do you make that connection?

I could understand if unexplained acts reinforced your belief in the supernatural, but how does unexplained phenomena = some kind of life after death? I don't see how you make that connection there.
 
I sadly feel that there is nothing after death. Your brain is dead, your body is dead so how can you go on to another life and think, breathe, eat..? It would be totally different, because your original brain is dead. You would no longer be you, or have any of your thoughts or feelings. It's just black, empty ... gone. How would you ever know if you were re-incarnated? I do like to believe there is a heaven and I'd love to be there, rather than a black empty hole.
 
I would like to believe in the soul changing body thing, but if that were true, then you as a person today could actually be a soul from the past.

Does anybody believe they are a soul from the past?

I would like to come back as a yellow laborador retriever puppy, or maybe a scientist.
 
melon said:


It's actually borrowed from Zoroastrianism,
Click to expand...

We can see similarities between many religious beliefs. But to box Judeo-Christian belief as a subset of Zoroastrianism is not a widely held belief.
 
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