onewheeldave Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Death is a name given to the termination of a process - life. The question you're asking is, "Do you believe that life continues after it has stopped?" Death is the name given to the termination of the physical body/physical brain. 'Life after death" usually does not refer to the continuance of the physical body/brain- often it refers to the continuation of what, for want of a better term, might be called 'consciousness'. Viewed in those terms, the question is totally reasonable. No sane person would even bother wasting thought on such a question. Why are you sceptics so prone to insulting some of those who disagree with your opinions? It really does not help to educate others if you refer to them as not sane, or, as someone did earlier, call them 'mentally ill' (though he did have the good grace to apologise for it later). "Does consciousness continue after death?" is a question no living person knows the answer to- no one can know that till they actually die. Die properly that is, for various reasons experiences of being temporarily 'dead' and then being revived, are not definitive purely because they can be explained in several other ways. Patricia's got it right- The truth is, we just dont know. Nobody knows. That is the answer to your question. The answer still for me is : We do not know. Nobody does. We never will until we actually die ourselves, and then its either " Well here I am!! or NOTHING!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewheeldave Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Of course not' date=' I'm an adult[/b']. If you believe in a god, an afterlife or fairies in your garden then you are mentally ill. I'm sorry to be blunt but that's the way it is and in time, humanity will look back on you with pity. Maybe you should start acting like one then 'Mental illness' is an illness i.e. it adversely affects ones ability to engage properly with life, or with other people- just as any other illness brings negative consequences- it means you're not well. There's plenty of people who are religious, believe in life after death, or even fairies in the garden, whose lives are not adversely affected by those beliefs, indeed, it is likely that, for some, their lives are better or more enjoyed, because of their beliefs. Admittedly, they will be unable to experience the exhalted mental states associated with being 'a sceptic', but, 'so what'- I've met plenty of miserable, unhappy or depressed sceptics. Whatever sceptisism is good for, it most certainly does not seem to be a guarantee of happiness or inner peace. Of couse, people with the beliefs mentioned above are not guaranteed such things either, I'm just pointing out that many are happy, and/or possess inner peace. Personally, I'd say that applying the term 'mentally ill' to a believer who is happy, functioning well in life, and who has a deep sense of peace, is a misuse of the term. Whereas, if it were applied to the many rationalist sceptics who commit suicide each year as a result of clinical depression- well, the term might well fit a bit better, certainly from a medical perspective, it would be a more appropriate use of the term, don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janie48 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Personally, I'd say that applying the term 'mentally ill' to a believer who is happy, functioning well in life, and who has a deep sense of peace, is a misuse of the term. The terms mentally ill and delusional used to describe someone with a religious belief, seem to be spreading around from one thread to another lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*_ash_* Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Patricia's got it right- No she hasn't. (sorry P to disagree) The answer still for me is : We do not know. Nobody does. We never will until we actually die ourselves, and then its either " Well here I am!! or NOTHING!! If nothing is correct, then we will never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david22 Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 No,I don't believe in the life after death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perplexed Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 There is not a shred of credible evidence, after thousands of years of man kind, of life after death. It's a nice thought, that after you die you will be reunited with all the people you've loved, but I think that's all it is. A nice thought with some wishful thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regatta Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 I think it's ok for people to believe in what they want to believe in, but I'm against Frauds extorting money from them, ok some know it all is going to say it's up to the believers if they want to pay money to these frauds if if gives them comfort, but there should be a law stopping these Frauds taking money off the vunerable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewheeldave Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 No she hasn't. (sorry P to disagree) She just said that no-one can know whether they continue after death in some form, until they actually are dead. That seems undeniably true to me. (with the reservation that it can be argued that, if existence post-death is not the case, then of course, the dead person, having ceased to be, won't actually 'know it', as they won't exist). So, if, as you claim, patricia is wrong, that would mean it is possible to know whether dead people continue to exist, before they die. You really need to back that kind of claim up with some form of evidence. Good luck with that one If nothing is correct, then we will never know. She never said nothing was correct, she said- The answer still for me is : We do not know. Nobody does. We never will until we actually die ourselves, and then its either " Well here I am!! or NOTHING!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onewheeldave Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 There is not a shred of credible evidence, after thousands of years of man kind, of life after death. It's a nice thought, that after you die you will be reunited with all the people you've loved, but I think that's all it is. A nice thought with some wishful thinking. True. Neither is there a shred of credible evidence that life after death isn't the case. Of course, that very much depends on what is accepted as evidence. Most sceptics agree that, for example, various ghost sightings, or, experiences gained during a period of 'mini-death' where the person is resusitated, do not constitute evidence of life-after-death. With which, I agree actually, as such things can be explained by a variety of other hypotheses. However, that's true of any 'evidence' I've seen that life-after-death is not the case, as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regatta Posted September 13, 2012 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Do you also think, like me, that they should stop showing the national lottery on telly? That's also a form of fraud as it extracts, on a weekly basis, huge amounts of cash from vulnerable people who lack a basic understanding of probability odds, thus exploiting them. You could argue that they choose to watch it and give their money, but, then again, people choose to watch the medium programs as well, so that won't really cut it. you have a chance of winning the lottery but you have no chance of coming back from the dead or communicating with the dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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