Is there a name for this?

Existence precedes essence...

Child of the Light: I STILL hate your avatar by the way. *grin*

What you are essentially saying is that a person's spirit follows the path that is in keeping with their beliefs. Would that be a fair assessment? So in the case of those who don't have any beliefs...their spirit would be mortal as well as their body, so it would die when they do...for those who are uncertain, perhaps they are in a spiritual limbo...a sort of purgatory perhaps.

But who is to say what happens. We cannot know for certain.

Of course we can't know for sure, but this idea hit me like a sack a potatoes out of nowhere. I would say that maybe the ones with no beliefs are reincarnated so that they can find one...But that bothers me, because it would take a higher power to do this, unless of course the soul is the higher power. But I have a problem with there being 6 billion higher powers. GRRR! I wish I could figure this out!


And I love the my new avatar...

If you are right, your soul must have previously believed in reincarnation for you to be experiencing the illusion of this life. And it must likewise have believed before your previous life, and so on. So where did these alleged souls come from in the first place?

Whether they are reincarnated or in heaven or in limbo, what makes you think that we have eternal souls at all?

This little theory isn't my core belief, it is just an idea I have been kicking around. I didn't even think about this:





What makes me think we have souls? I don't know...

I have read of this and many other speculations on what might occur when we die. This is what I have taken from it:

You will experience an afterlife which basically adjusts to your belief system .. some will experience it for a time and then move on to other experiences some will remain in that experience. It is linked to the strength of your beliefs. Many that have no real expectation will be given an infinite number of choices of what they will experience with the guidance of others that came before us such as our loved ones.



The soul is a higher power in that all things in life and in the afterlife are part of God or "the one" or the essence of all things. Some think that we come to human physical life to "be" as when we are on the otherside and part of all that is we have no experience of "being" as we already "are" I like the sound of this and what it might represent although I don't pretend to know or even be able to wrap my mind all around it :wink: But it does give a REASON for us to actually have physical existence.

I think that if God is all that is then anything is possible and that if we are all actually connected and all essential parts that make up the whole then we can all experience every experience that we wish. If we wish to come back then we can. If we wish to go to other physical existences, we can. I like to think that there is really no limits.

Of course words like experiences and God etc are just ways that I can try to illustrate my thoughts, however inadequate those words might be, they are all we really have.

For me its the exercise of speculation and exploring these things that is the most fun. I try not to close my mind to any possibility or point of view.

My best friend in 6th grade came up with the same idea. She also uses the expression "sack of potatoes," but in reference to speedos.

I think your new icon is better too.

There is no evidence of a soul after bodily death, but it seems strange to have no conciousness when that is the basis of our (human) functioning. I believe in death after death. I'm pretty sure my minerals will be recycled into useful things and that I am made out minerals of things that used to have names. Unfortunately, if your theory were true, I wouldn't be partying with the angels or numberous willing virgins. There would just be the end, not blackness, just nothing and I wouldn't be aware of it because there would be no me. (But there would still be life after I am gone - I find that comforting.)

What do you find comforting about that?

I think it's actually a fairly depressing thought to believe we all turn into dust after we're gone and nothing else happens.

And... ...that's 'cause the soul leaves the body after death! So where would the evidence be?

I just don't buy into the idea that thoughts and emotions are the result of chemical and electrical processes of the body and nothing more.

Whenever I start thinking about this stuff, I just remember that billions of years had gone by before I was born where I simply didn't exist.

I know its a rough concept to look to, but maybe we just blink out of existence, just as we blinked in.

(Don't get me wrong, I'd rather go to heaven to drink, party and dance with all the people I love forever, but really, any idea we have of what happens when we pass is really just an idea when it comes down to brass tacks...)

does this mean i have go through another life?!?

again!

i give up.......................

truth
Child of the Night, be careful. Someone may decide to nail you to a cross. It's dangerous to start new religions.

As long as I go down in history as being perfect.

I find life itself comforting. I will have faith in my offspring that I have taught them how to successfully navigate the world and make it a better place. I will be permenantly retired, with other people working the job of life. I love seeing things grow - and that wouldn't happen if nothing died.

Well, there's no evidence of the soul during life either. If it leaves the body after/during death it is undetectable to us. For all we know we could have 15 souls a second, migrating through our bodies. And how could we tell if someone "lost" his soul (other than being a bad musician :wink: .)

Re: truth


A lot of "messiah's" happened before Jesus and they were martyred, crucified, beheadded, etc. One even liberated a whole country (who was even acknowledged as the messiah by several prominent Jewish leaders)! ( I forget the name) One claimed he could part a river like Moses parted the red sea (but gave up when put to the test.) Poor guys, their followers never formed a new religion that caught on.