Afterlife breiefing, essay??? sumary? comparison/ my ideas. debating

[emilycrutcher 0]

We all have our differents perspectives and general ideas on life and death, the afterlife and immortality. But which of these are actually the reality?

Can we ever tell until we have done them? Is it really possible to predict whether we will go to heaven or hell. Or whether our souls will haunt the earth forever. Is there such thing as a ghost? Lets take a look.

 

We have many different religeons among us, and all divided into different denominations. But which of us is correct? Or is everything just one big swirling mass of everthing - or just nonsense? Lets take a look at Christianity - we're looking 2000 odd years ago here. Jesus and all. It was frowned upon - big time. Jewish reliion too. Only Romans were allowed to have their religion. Let's take a look at those who really stood up for their religion... they were burned or crucified. Not a nice output. See - ther has always been debate and rivalry between religions - even between the denominations. I know this from personal experience.

 

Now, christians all believe that you can believe you can go to Hell or Heaven - and some beieve to Limbo which is basically in the middle and being eternally 'forgotten' or 'stuck'. I would guess most of you reading this want to go to heaven. Well that means you've got to be good and respectful. Not judging.

 

Some other religions, believe that your spirit never dies but stays on earth, and some believe that you have to journey to the underworld to find haedies - to be punished with everlasting tasks or to be taken to a place of peace and tranquility to live out your immortality.

 

But can any of us really tell who is right or wrong? I believe and agree with christians - being one myself. But I used to be entranced by buddhist religion when I was younger - and still am quite fascinated by their ways. I have tried enlightenment at the age of 7. Unluckily or luckily? It didn't work. That was when I was mixed about beliefs though.

 

So, so we can truly debate - please fil out the poll!

 

Emily

 

(please note I can only mainly focus on christianity as I am anglican - COE denomination in christianity. I don't have as much knowledge of other things so please feel free to add!!)

 

Wow I didn't realise how much I wrote!

 

Notice from electriic_ink:

Please don't post - use the edit feature instead

Edited March 15, 2008 by emilycrutcher (see edit history)

[Archangel_Baw 0]

apparently the consensus is Spiritual immortality. I find this a comforting thought:) It goes to show that regardless of who follows what religion, we are all of the belief that our souls always have and always will exist:)

[Saint_Michael 3]

I believed it at first but after many years of thinking about it, and reading lots of stuff I believe once you are dead your dead. No don't take that the wrong way that everyone is wrong, but right now with what I deal with that is what I believe in. Of course if the four horseman of the apocolypse and Jesus do show up in front of me, well I ask my ticket for hell then . Of course I know people need something to believe in just because we don't have to think about how mortal we are and if we believe that we will be in a better place when our time on this planet is over. Then so be it, but with the way religions have been doing this fear of God and damnation and your going to hell is truly the curse of all religions I highly doubt any spiritual being told these men that is how we should live. However, give me a time machine and I go and prove what needs to be proved and most likely the odds are that the stories in any Holy scripture are completely false. Of course most of the stories you read in any of the holy books are based on times we are no longer living in and it is very tricky to compare these stories to when they were first written to now.

[GrinningKittie 0]

I never got the whole Heaven/Hell bit. It just made no sense to me ( and filled me with anxiety really LOL!).I'm not knocking anyone who does believe in the concept of going somewhere good, neutral, or bad when the physical body gives up the ghost ( no pun intended).Reincarnation is the closest I could say in what I believe as it does make sense if you believe in the principle that energy can be created but not destroyed, and everything is some form of energy.So if we see souls as a form of energy that can not be destroyed ( transmuted, transformed, stored, or recycled but not destroyed) then where are they all ending up and wouldn't there be some sort of build up?The way today's standards are going "bad " souls would be inhabiting a very large area I would think ( on some level or another).I read the book The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield ( good book no matter what your personal preference in spirituality is as long as you take it as it is.....just a story in a book) and there was a lot of things that canna be proven ( nor were presented in a manner to be addressed as proof or to be debated against) but on some level made a lot of sense to me.While I do na believe that I am some reincarnate of cleopatra or anyone special, I believe that we choose our lives and goals before we get to live them and that this life is that physical manifestation of our wants and needs. Do we always get what we want? No. But that is where the free will comes into play. I'm rambling a bit ( tiiiiiired) so here is a comparison example NOT to be taken literally.It's like knowing you want to learn how to make chocolate chip cookies. You are given a book title and recipe from it to memorize. Think of that as your pre-physical existence. When you are born ( physical life begins) you are born into parents and an environment in which options will arise for you to make that batch, HOWEVER you may only remember the book title and not the recipe. So your life is more or less learning from your experiences until you discover said page in book that has the recipe.And if you don't ever learn that recipe? Well you could try that route again or choose another cookie recipe ( though I think most agree that you have to keep trying for that recipe before you get to pick another one).Each learning experience helps to make us or break us. We are never alone though. Some people refer to spirit guides, others say guardian angels. The book I read goes into Soul Groups and Soul Kin. People who are a part of the same energy mass as we ( as individuals) are before we incarnate physically. Some of these people show up in our lives as friends, relatives, neighbors in a wide variety of ages. Others do not incarnate at the same time as we do, however they have the same goals ( chocolate chip cookies in this case lol) and so support us and try to guide us on a non- physical level.Anywhoozles check the book out if you are interested in this type of point of view. If you are not interested that is okay too. I was just tossing in my two guatalajaran centavos.

[Minjoo 0]

I personally think of heaven as an afterlife. I mean I'm christian, so thats what I believe. But you guys are right, people have different opinions, so I guess we just have to respect that.

[hasaki 0]

Heres my take on the afterlife.Question: If there are so many diverse religions, where is it exactly that people go? It is hard to determine where people go after their death. If one is not the same religion as you, it is taught that they go to hell, well now now, that must mean that hell has many more people than in heaven. Now here is what I think, after death, one goes to where one mind wants it to, think of how large the universe is, how many dimensions there are that haven not yet been explored. It is vast space that our soul gets caught in and we ourselves make it out to be what we want it to be. This is also where the difference between heaven and hell come in. Every human knows in the back of their mind if they should go to heaven or hell, one with a guilty conscious will go to hell. It is much like a dream, you dream about all of the things that are stuck in your subconscious mind that you would not think about during the day.The Question of life after death will linger on for eternity never being solved because when one does, there is no point in making your life pure if you know where it is exactly that you go.

[Bakamono 0]

I believe in heaven and hell.

[KansukeKojima 0]

I believe in a Heaven and a Hell. But I choose spiritual immortality. Why? Because, of the third part to the heaven and hell choice 'limbo'. So spiritual immortality lines up with what I believe, because your soul will exist from when your born until forever... regardless of whether its heaven or hell. There is no limbo... when you die you go somewhere... not no where... Where you go depends on whether or not you've accepted the grace of God.