What is the purpose of life after death ?

It's our Electro-Chemical Soul Seed seeking the Illumination of ALL KNOWING!!

Brett.

P.S. However long it takes....

hmm... the purpose of life after death? That's a difficult question considering the majority of people don't understand or couldn't explain the purpose of their current life. So, to explain the purpose of life after death... this may become and interesting thread.

Anyone care to respond to this... or give your perception of this?

I already have....

That's a deep question.

I'll tell you a story I heard once.

A few days after the 9/11 attacks there was a man who who was involved working to clean up down there. And he stated that he encountered something he described as 'someone who was lost', 'someone who couldn't find their way'. He describes this as a spirit that he encountered. And he further stated that he 'helped this spirit find it's way,' And that this gave him a profound pleasure.

I believe him and I believe that it is nature's best kept secret that living things smuggle a soul through their living existence.

And I further believe that if human beings could find a way to completely educate themselves, we wouldn't really die at all. We would 'fly'. For me that's the power that education has.

So I think the purpose of the after life is the same as the purpose of education itself. To dwell in a purity of beauty, power, love, knowledge and completeness.

Peace

--Pyth

the question you have posed is multi faceted but i attempt to answer one side by posing another question first.if a heaven truly did exist what would it bee like? if it were indeed eternal bliss what with no pain and no ill feelings toward any one would we conform to such a life? all our understanding would be contradicted ie you fall of a building you feel pain. a life such this with no pain would be like being in a dream nothing would be real nothing would be abrasive as this may cause pain and human instincts would be dampened greed gluttony ect. thus if such a plane of existence were there it would not be the selves that we know going to such a place in fact to truly enjoy such a place you would have to have no memory of your existence and be nothing like the human form we know. ps the purpose of such a life would be bliss nothing more nothing less if you already had eternal bliss for what reason would you do anything there would be no motive you would just exist to be happy.

I think that there are universals so that after death we may even view into pain and sufferings.


So aussie mark, what do you think?

aussie mark: There is life after death for the same reason there is life before life. "Evolution of spirit". A better question would be which life is the more significant, life here on earth, or life in other realms? I personal believe that all our spirits have lived in many forms, along the long and winding road of evoluting being.

I do not believe one can exist in a heaven like realm unless they are a purely emanating spirits. Only a spirit that lives for giving to others, can live in a realm (heaven) of bliss. As long as your spirit has cravings for this earthly existence, one must come back here, to hopefully evolve beyond an absorbing spirit, to an emanating spirit.

Those spirits that became absorbed in there own "pain/regret", end up in a hell realm. We all know the horror of regret, don't we?

I think you may be on to something, although I am not sure if there is life after death. What you say about living in bliss or in hell, well I think we are already living in bliss or hell, right now. I think it does have something to do with where your focus lies, but not totally.

I also think this life here and now has more signifigance than any future possible existence or realms. Or any past lives. It is fascinating to ponder the possibilities, which are endless.

...eternity is each minute that passes. - Narrator, Zorba the Greek

cmarie... I also think it's fascinating to ponder. I'm a strong believer in the possibility that our individual spirits have evolved from other levels of existence here on Earth. Existences like in the animal kingdom, plant kingdom, ect.. . I get this from studying the tribes of the world, past and present. I found that all most all tribes no matter where, or how isolated they were, believed their spirits lived in other kingdoms. I personally believe that my spirit has evolved to this point in existence, and will keep evolving into the future. Being a spiritualist, I feel its Logical to me since everything else seems to evolve.

Your post made me think of a show i saw on PBS called The Secret Life of Plants. These guys filmed plants over a period of days and then showed the film sped up(basically). And watching the plants like this, it seemed to me that they do have more going on then we give them credit for. They filmed a parasitic plant overtaking it's host, and watching it sped up like that, it looked kind of vicious. And premeditated. ha.

They also showed a seed hit the ground, and it sprouted sticks which acted as legs. Then it walked/waddled to an appropiate place and sprouted a stem shaped like a corkscrew and screwed itself into the ground.

After watching that, I thought that maybe plants do have consciousness, but at a very slow level compared to us. I don't know really, but it was fascinating to see.

BTW, I tried to read the book of the same title and did not care for it. I just liked the footage in the film, it started my love of botany.

cmarie....The eastern religions believe a lot in the spiritness of plants. Makes me wonder if ones own spirit must have gone through experiences like plant life, in order to evolve as an Aware being. Because I, believe in the evolution of all things, this sounds logical to me.

I think the purpose of life after death is to give people purpose in their current lifes. If you do this, this and this,(depending on religion) then you will go to heaven, but if not you will go to hell. Therefore the purpose in the afterlife would theoreticaly be to be eternally happy as a reward or eternaly tormented as punishment.:devilish:

So that the souls can keep amusing themselves and playing games with each other, and learning new games and things in the process. The nice thing about death, is that it lets the souls start anew, without any baggage. Sort of like beginning a new game of monopoly after messing up the current game. Sleep is the same as death, only we don't start anew. We are just taking a breather from the game. Sort of like a 7th inning stretch.

Rich

Considering your post is in the Philosophy of Religion Forum, I am assuming you are looking for an answer with religious tones. With this in mind, the answer will be influenced by the founding religion that draws the assumption that there is life after death. For example, "so that you can be eternally punished or eternally rewarded" or "so that your spiritual growth can continue" or "the soul is immortal to begin with and thus can not end" etc...

Do you have a preferred religion?

The first question defines the topic as a supposition. It could have any purpose you want it to have since it is a conclusion drawn from a rubbery assumption, no one will be able to counter argue any point. Are you highlighting the absurdity of asking questions based on an unfounded premise?

If I may here, just for a second . . .

I think it might be a bit of a completely purposeless exercise to attempt to communicate with a person who has not been active since October 22, 2007. . . maybe.

Inactive or not, its a good topic to discuss.

Immortality is an unfulfillable wish (I know, but I don't wish to argue this here) for mankind. It doesn't stop him from continuing to wish for it. It is shown simply in seemingly insignificant examples such as a father wishing for a son instead of a daughter to "pass on his name." This childlike refusal to acknowledge the end of life is also reflected in savage tribes' customs of serving food to the dead as if still alive. I think its just a development from the simple wish for immortality so commonly seen.

I always thought about the afterlife as existing outside time and space, being the whole universe, the history and the future, get all the answers. I think it's knowing and happiness, that's my romantic belief. I think a afterlife would have the same prupose as a desert after a nice dinner, a good way to end things.

I often try to imagine such a thing but all that happens is me laughing uncontrollably because of the absurdity of such an existence.

Think about it. So do you have a form in the after life? Do you look like your self but maybe perfect? So your hair is brushed perfectly and it is free of split ends. You can change the style at will? Do you have a perfect tan to go with it? Or maybe your thing is being as pale as possible? In either way maybe if you didn't like your appearance in this life you could take on a whole new one? You could be this eight armed winged dragon with four heads but each head has long blond hair.

So are you naked in the after life? Or do you wear some celestial garments that never have to be cleaned? They are always perfectly spotless? Maybe your garments have a Budweiser logo on it that will never fade, well unless you want it to have that worn in look that is.

Maybe you don't have a body at all. You are just this floating intelligence that takes up every single spot of space. Everyone is this giant overlapping brain in a sense. You just exist to say, "Oh wow, so that's why that happened". Or, "Oh, I get it now... well that makes sense." But all the things that you did in your life, are meaningless or trivial or insignificant now? Maybe they seem all petty and demeaning now that you are this intelligent brain that understands everything. But what do you do now? I mean, are you going to go play hide and go seek for the rest of eternity? You can't because where ever you go, you are already there hiding.

No matter which way I try to determine how things would be, it ends up being irrational and not logical. Okay so you say well that existence would be irrational and not logical. Any thing can happen. Well then I wouldn't be me in that existence. Everything that makes me now would no longer be me then. If I am not who I was then what is this new identity? It would be completely and absolutely foreign that you wouldn't be able to make heads or tails of it. It would be like being in a constant state of confusion of not knowing where or what or who or when or why or how or if, this is really happening or not.

So is the other dimension just like this one, except physics doesn't apply and it's pure magical? You don't need to eat or sleep. You can fly and zip around the universe like superman. Go have a non-eating picnic on some asteroid.

Sometimes I think that no one really goes any further than making the claim, "There is life after death". Well okay, if you are so convinced or feel that there is, can you fill me in on how such an existence would work? Because I would really, really, really... really like to find that out.

Speculating on an after life is a personal adventure related to your beliefs or the lack of them.You, i would say have none so your speculation stops at the point of credibility.The others here have already formed their opinion based on their belief.Their god obviously hangs out there and they have created heaven around his image.
I have no god, no image of heaven but i believe in a soul by personal experience.I cant tell you what lies beyond death,if i speculated it would become wilder and wilder.I have like you speculated and certain well formed views of this wonderland dont make sense but does that make it impossible? Understanding that time might not exist as we know it might be one explanation, constructing the ability to exist without form is that so hard to visualise?I am not flesh and blood to you, i exist only on your screen but i exist.The essence of man is more than his body surely?The final adventure may end in oblivion or it may open up into a wonderful explanation, either way we wont be disappointed.