death

If death is the end, you'll never know whether or not death is the end.

My genetic code will not survive after I die

If death is the end, you'll never know whether or not death is the end.

agrote wrote:

My genetic code will not survive after I die

Oh yes it does. DNA has been found from a body dated 30,000 + years old in a Neanderthal. This proves that your genetic makeup does survive after death.

Bella Dea wrote:

agrote wrote:

My genetic code will not survive after I die

Oh yes it does. DNA has been found from a body dated 30,000 + years old in a Neanderthal. This proves that your genetic makeup does survive after death.

Okay, yes, you're right. I suppsoe your body does survive then, in a sense. You got me, Bella dear.

I still believe that your self cannot survive, though - I think consciousness ends as soon as your brain is unable to produce it.

I guess so. Oh well, I suppose this thread will die now.

agrote wrote:

My genetic code will not survive after I die

Oh yes it does. DNA has been found from a body dated 30,000 + years old in a Neanderthal. This proves that your genetic makeup does survive after death.

Bella Dea wrote:

agrote wrote:

My genetic code will not survive after I die

Oh yes it does. DNA has been found from a body dated 30,000 + years old in a Neanderthal. This proves that your genetic makeup does survive after death.

That is fine if we are buried in a glacier and then found later :-) Most of us will either be buried in the ground to decay, or cremated so that only ashes remain.

Brandon9000 wrote:

In order for me to believe something, particularly something as significant as life after death, I require some evidence that it is so. I am not going to accept a theory of the structure of the universe, which this is, without evidence that it is correct. I need more than just a few anecdotes that someone almost died and thought they were approaching a bright light. Does anyone have any hard evidence, or carefully documented evidence of an afterlife?

The body certainly seems to function as a machine. Medicine treats illnesses in terms of physical cause and effect in the body. Although not all things about the body are understood, its functioning appears to be knowable. Thoughts appear to reside in the electrical and chemical activity of the brain. It would be reasonable in the absence of evidence to the contrary to suppose the body is what it appears to be - a machine - and that if the brain stops working, the thoughts stop flowing. Evidence of an afterlife, anyone?

I hesitate to even put this forward - because you seem to be so stuck on the concrete - what you can touch, see, feel and have proven to you. But my body did stop working, and I was still aware. No bright lights or tunnels or long dead relatives leading me home, or anything like that - but though my heart had stopped - due to an allergic reaction to anesthesia - I later repeated entire blocks of conversation and described events accurately to people who were in the room with me. I'm just telling you what happened to me - I don't expect it to change what you think or believe for yourself. But I do think that instead of being so dismissive of other people's experiences you might at least leave room for the possibility that things might happen differently for other people than they happen for you. An open mind is a wonderful thing. My husband is a doctor - a man of science - not a religious or spiritual bone in his body - but he believes me when I tell him that this happened to me - and he doesn't make light of it or dismiss it. In fact he finds it extremely interesting (and yes, he's informed me about the possibility of a drug and/or natural chemical reaction at the moment of death - which I also fully entertain may have been the cause, because when I say I don't know - I really mean it - I don't know. But what I do know is in those moments I felt cared for - like I never have before or since in my life. I don't know by who or by what - but I loved the feeling and for the past eighteen years since that happened to me - I no longer have had any dread or fear of death. It was one of the most wonderful experiences I've ever had - (and I've had a pretty great life, in general).

Sorry - you're right Brandon. I don't have any evidence, but that's never what I was suggesting I was putting forth. I've said six or seven times that I don't know either way. I was just telling a story about something that happened to me that made me feel a certain way that may have been an indication (to me and me only) that I may have experienced a moment of awareness after my heart had stopped beating. But as Agrote pointed out - my brain had not stopped functioning so it probably meant nothing at all, and is invalid in most peoples' eyes. I fully recognize that fact, but I reserve the right to assign it importance in my life experience. Is that okay?

Again, I don't know what it means or that it means anything at all. I apologize for any assumptions about you that I may have implied that I was making. I'm just not used to communicating with people who take everything I say so extremely literally and want proof and explanation for each and every word I put forth. Nothing I say should be taken as gospel. I'm beginning to understand that for some of you this is sport of some kind, but for me, it was just interesting to think about and I enjoyed relating my experience to a fourteen year old who was wondering about some of life's more mysterious questions. I am not in the habit of offending others or hurting peoples' feelings in any way, and if I did so to you, I am truly sorry for any offense.