Yes, I understand that you believe this. But why should I believe it? What empirical evidence is actually out there? That’s why I was curious about the EEG research.
I don’t have any more about the EEG research than what I’ve already written.
There is no empirical evidence. Apart from Duncan MacDougall’s entirely discredited ‘21 grams’ experiment. There is my theoretical evidence. There are only accounts of near death experiences, there are no accounts of death experiences unless you believe in Lazurus. Death is a difficult one to study. Scientists generally have agreed upon the ‘when you’re dead you’re dead’ belief. Although there is no evidence to be certain of this.
Why should you believe it? I don’t know. I’ve presented my theories you’re free to accept them or reject them.
One thing is for sure, pretty much. We will all die sooner or later. If there is life after death we’ll find out. If there isn’t anything then there isn’t much to worry about
I definitely don’t believe in God/ Gods. I am an atheist/ antitheist. There’s no need to start believing in whitebearded all powerful men flying around in thrones in the sky or giant four armed pink elephants just because you believe in reincarnation. I’m an atheist reincarnationist.
As for abiogenesis, that’s another area. There are different theories.
I see death as a moment of great change. It is as much a beginning as it is an end.
If the soul exists, we’ll probably never find evidence for it using our five senses.
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If God wanted us to know he exists, he would’ve revealed himself by now.
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If he does exist, clearly the bastard is hiding from us.
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If he’s hiding from us, we’ll never find him.
l t—are you trying to prove something???
Maybe in the future we’ll be able to detect the soul. Maybe the soul consists of Higgs Boson particles that will be detected by the large hadron collider.
‘God’ is a separate concept from the soul. We can be sure there is no God. The existence of the soul is a very different question.
If that comforts some folks, so be it. It doesn’t comfort me. At all. Anymore than does Pascal’s wager or Kierkegaard’s leap of faith. When this body of mine ceases to function, all that I love and cherish is gone forever. At least from my point of view. Why? Because [obviously] I won’t ever again have one. And that terrifies me now. Only the extent to which my life becomes mired in pain is that fear abated.
As for Heidegger’s dasein, I took from it the understanding that things such as death can only be experienced by each of us one by one. And while there may be enough overlap to share narratives we can never truly grasp either living or dying as another does.
If there is no empirical evidence, I do, admittedly, lose interest rather quickly. Theoretical constructs often revolve basically around words defining and defending other words. In my view, they rely entirely too much on a priori rather than a posteriori elements of analysis.
Your reaction seems to reflect how I construe the workings of psychological defense mechanisms. Death is fearful so people construct worlds of words that, to a greater or a lesser extent, obviate it. That is pretty much how I react to [psychological] devices like Pascal’s wager and to Kierkegaard’s leap of faith as well.
I wish I could do it myself.
I see marriage or college [or global economic crisis or war] as moments of great change. But in most instances of these you experience the change as a before, during and after. With death the after part is problematic to say the least.
I believe in reincarnation. That means after death you get a new body. Your soul goes into a newly created zygote which grows into your new body.
Again: Believing it is one thing, being able to convince others to believe it in turn something altogether different. In my opinion [and that’s all it is…all it can be] you believe this because it comforts and consoles you emotionally and psychologically to believe it. I wish I could believe it too.
What counts for me with respect to death however is the abundant empirical evidence that mind and brain are interchangable. And when the body ceases to exist so does the mind/brain. We put the dead body in a box [most of the time] and, given enough time, it disintegrates into dust.
On the other hand, there is virtually no hard evidence to convince me we have a soul, are reincarnated and then live on after we die.
But: If any one reading this has any substantive evidence, please, by all means, come forth with it. I am not one of those atheists who sniffs at those who refuse to just accept oblivion. But I have to have something more tangible than the tautologies inherent in all “theoretical proofs”.
But that’s just me.
It’s always the heart that is the last thing to go, not the brain. People can be kept alive when their brains are clinically dead. The brain can be gone, but the life is still there. Only when the heart stops does the life go. But where does the life go to?
Life is a concept, not a physical thing.
Life is a characteristic of many material objects. I believe life is also a distinct physical thing that is inviolable. Death is when the bond between life and the physical object it animated is broken . The material object decomposes, but the life continues. It exists as a purely energetic form until it finds a new material object to bond with.
So you believe, with no foundation.
Here is the foundation.
Yes people’s reports of Near death experiences are not a foundation or any more evidence of it meaning life occurs after death as opposed to evidence that some people can experience the same type of phenomenae as a dream while close to death.
People don’t experience the same type of NDE phenomena as a dream while close to death. Read the part where I stated that people describe NDEs as being far more intense than dreams and even more intense than waking life.
It’s not just peoples’ reports of NDEs that form my evidence. It’s the entire message. Why don’t you read it and respond to what I’ve actually written instead of writing down whatever pops up in your mind. It isn’t very difficult to understand.
Dreams can often be far more intense than waking life, I’ve experienced them. I think it isn’t a sound basis after all, they haven’t died. I would think consciously or subconsciously our mind can realize we are dying and result in more intense dream like experiences.