Life After Death?

[Leon03]

Do you believe there is life after death? What do you imagine this to be like if you believe it?
Are you inspired by the ideas of any religion or do you have your own perceptions?

[TheBassoonist]

No, I don't think there is anything after death. I think that the idea of an afterlife was created by religion in order to lessen the fear of death.

[Desuetude]

My family is Hindu therefore I was brought up to believe in reincarnation and therefore a cycle of lives after death. However growing up I've found myself becoming an atheist and therefore my views are blunt - you live, you die, that's it. In other words 'yolo'.

[Jess]

I do not believe in life after death. Once you die, you die.

[Atonement]

I don't think it's unreasonable to say there is life after death. This gets into a very heavy philosophic justification which is just too much for me to type right now. However, I am not convinced it exists, but rather I can't deny it's existence.

[Gigablue]

There is no evidence to support the idea, and it isn't even remotely plausible. While I can't say that there definitely isn't life. After death, I find the idea rather absurd. In my opinion, after death, you simply cease to exist. It is exactly like it was before you were born.

[StoppingTime]

It's kind of hard to come up with an actual answer for this, or any somewhat philosophical debate. Mostly because there is no way we can know the answer for ourselves, so there's no proof either way (according to most people). So I never really understood arguments for/against the existence of God, religion, or any of that.

/minirant

[Leon03]

Thank you for your replies and for refraining from starting a philosophic debate.
This question came up for me as I got to know that my history teacher was diagnosed terminal cancer and this children's approach of heaven and paradise does not suit me at all anymore.
So I don't believe in a life after death eiter. Nevertheless I would love to be evidenced differently once time has come for me.
Still I am wondering that there were no religiously based replies yet.

[Apollo.]

I am of the mindset that you get one shot at life and that's all, I think the reason you have not had many religious replies supporting reincarnation is that the majority of religious people on VT are Christian and.not of a faith that supports the after life theory.

[xAlfredo]

I do believe in life after death, being a Christian.
To my understanding, we are put on Earth for a short time until we die, where we will then be with the rest of our family up and live eternally in the kingdom of Heaven with the Lord.
So many people are converting to atheism, it's funny.
However, there is no yes or no answer to this. No one has proof whether it is true or not. You just have to believe.

[CharlieFinley]

I am of the mindset that you get one shot at life and that's all, I think the reason you have not had many religious replies supporting reincarnation is that the majority of religious people on VT are Christian and.not of a faith that supports the after life theory.
I think you're confusing "life after life" (i.e. reincarnation) with "the Afterlife" (what Christians believe in).
I do believe in life after death, being a Christian.
To my understanding, we are put on Earth for a short time until we die, where we will then be with the rest of our family up and live eternally in the kingdom of Heaven with the Lord.
So many people are converting to atheism, it's funny.
However, there is no yes or no answer to this. No one has proof whether it is true or not. You just have to believe.
I would disagree with you on that point. While God, being desirous of creating a people with free will, will not provide coercive proof of His existence, He has repeatedly left us with evidence of His existence.