What comes after Death?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Emperors Faithful**

As a sort of tag team to "The Meaning of Life" is the slightly morbid, but equally confronting question of what comes after death.

Is there a heaven and/or hell?
Are we reborn/reincarnated?
Do we return to the embrace of mother nature/god/whatever?
Are we merely food for the worms?

Personally I find the idea of being reborn, or reincarnated, quite beautiful. That would mean that those poor babies and animals and insects (too much sympathy?) that die at birth and get only a fleet chance (if that) at life, would not be in vain. As they would be reborn in another form. But this is just me.

Please think before you post. I look forward to your personal ideas/philosiphies.

**Sternguard_rock**

Gwar's going to destroy this thread...... he hasn't been on for agers.

**Emperors Faithful**

Gwar is dead.
We have slain the troll in the name of the EMPRAH!
...just kidding, but he hasn't been seen in a while. Mabye the amount of people agreeing with him overloaded his system or sumfink?
Anyway, why would Gwar destroy this thread?

**warpcrafter**

I believe in reincarnation, but I also believe in Karma. So if you were a monster in this life, you're probably going to be reborn as a cockroach, or an e-coli if you were especially bad. The question I have is this. At the end of WWII, the population of Earth was around 2 Billion. Now it's upwards of 6 and a half billion. That means there are about 4 billion newly or recently minted souls out there. That could explain why the world is so screwed up, because I believe that after you've worked off your bad Karma and get another chance to be reborn as a sentient being, you get some sort of subconscious prompting not to make the same mistake again, and it's up to you to listen to it. That means that there are a lot of people who haven't had that experience, so they are basically living their lives without any sort of a rudder, and others who are still working their way up from whatever bad things they did in a previous life. If we get past the next hundred years without blowing ourselves up, we might just start to see a serious improvement in the Human race, sort of like what Gene Rodenberry predicted. However, I can't be help be reminded of that infamous line from Dawn of the Dead. "When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth."

**Emperors Faithful**

hmm, but who/what dictates karma?

**smiling Assassin**

Oh for God's sake. This topic will go nowhere, with modest and realistic foresight.

Everyone has their own belief. I'm not scared of death, perhaps of dying, but it would be really swell to be reincarnated.

sA

**Deff Dread red Edition**

I think Gwar got ban,don't think he will destroy the thread.

Also agree with sA on this one everyone one has their own belief so we won't reach a conclusion.

I belive in God so I belive in Heaven.

**SilverMK2**

When you die, it is game over. At least as far as I am concerned.

Reincarnation or some other "life force exchange" might be nice, but I do not think that it happens.

I also believe that any heaven/hell is extremely unlikley.

I guess there might be some other "plane of existace" that you might move to, but again, I doubt it.

So, to recap: When you die, there is no respawning

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Emperors Faithful wrote:hmm, but who/what dictates karma?

Does anyone/thing have to dictate it? Who dictates gravity? Or any natural force? (and no, I don't believe or accept that it is "god" or some creator).

If "karma" is a force through the universe, then it is natural, like anything else and will be subject to its own laws, just as any other force is.

**Emperors Faithful**

@Deff dred and sA: This thread is not about reaching a conclusion. This about people posting thier ideas and beliefs on life and existence. Some debate is fine as far as it goes, but PLEEZ be nice.

@Silver: So there is a force who dictates who has been nuaghty and who has been nice? (OMG! Santa's back with avengence!)

But seriously, I do not see how dying is the end. Even then, as my body falls away into the earth and is absorbed into the minerals, I am not GONE, but am simply re-embraced by mother nature...perhaps? I doubt one would be concious of it though...

**Wrexasaur**

For me at least, I hope to achieve full decomposition, although most of my family have been cremated, so I might do that. (not a joke BTW)

I have no real thoughts about death, besides it's inherent void-like quality, that most would start off by contrasting with intense light. The closest I will ever be to understanding... nothing, is when I manage to create inspiring art-work, transcending so to speak.

As a general rule for myself there is no after-life beyond that which I experience in this life. Beyond this I do have faith in a higher power that we are all a part of, no more no less, no face no words, and so on until that star just falls into a piece or two.

I maintain the fact that I am agnostic with a pair of x-ray goggles to see these kind of things for myself.

**Emperors Faithful**

Personally, I would love to be cremated (when I die) and my ashes scattered off the cliffs of my home, out to the sea.

Despite my previous words, I frankly find the cold embrace of a coffin disturbing and even cluastrophobic. (Though it wouldn't matter if I'm dead). With my ashes spread to the wind, I would achieve some measure of...freedom.

Then again, there is what ancient tribe elders did. They walked into the wild, and most likely died in the sleep, or from the cold. But who would want to die alone?

**smiling Assassin**

I want my bones to be interred in the walls of a creepy Georgian Townhouse in London.

sA

**Emperors Faithful**

...can I ask why?

**Wrexasaur**

smiling Assassin wrote:I want my bones to be interred in the walls of a creepy Georgian Townhouse in London.

sA

I have thought of asking to be made into some form of art, mainly bones of course. I live it thus I stay, or some such eternal nonsense

.

Some think of this as savage, but I see beauty in such ceremonies. Perhaps I could cast a suit of armor that my bones could rest in while my spirit watches over an entrance of some kind. Very epic, I like it a lot, inspiring if you may.

**Emperors Faithful**

Definitely.
Actually, do you know what the aborigines around here used to do? (mabye they still do)
When one of thiers died, they would wrap them in a cloak and leave them sitting up against the trunk of one of those trees (forget the name.) And over time, this tree would grow AROUND them. Encasing them in it's trunk, and so the area became a forest AND a graveyard. Each tree housing the spirit of thier ansector. Epic, eh?

**Roze**

I don't know what to think...all i know is when i die i want my coins for the boat man, just incase

**Wrexasaur**

Emperors Faithful wrote:Definitely.
Actually, do you know what the aborigines around here used to do? (mabye they still do)
When one of thiers died, they would wrap them in a cloak and leave them sitting up against the trunk of one of those trees (forget the name.) And over time, this tree would grow AROUND them. Encasing them in it's trunk, and so the area became a forest AND a graveyard. Each tree housing the spirit of thier ansector. Epic, eh?

That sounds awesome, what a great idea! I would actually consider doing that as I hold a lot of respect for the forest.

Do you have any photos of this? I would like to see it, at some point I plan on checking out the southern burbs of the planet, and I will most definitely be looking for these amazing graveyards.

**Emperors Faithful**

@Roze: heh heh, how about a fifty in your back pocket? (I wonder if the dude has change...)

**SilverMK2**

Emperors Faithful wrote:@Silver: So there is a force who dictates who has been nuaghty and who has been nice? (OMG! Santa's back with avengence!)

Haha, no - though it is good to think there is a cosmic santa.

A force is just that, it obeys its own laws without thought or judgement. It is kind of like pushing and pulling. Both are exactly the same way of applying force to an object, but one is in a "positive" direction and the other is in a "negative" direction.

If you open a draw, you apply a force by pulling on it. You then apply an equal but oposite force to push it closed. At the end of the exchange, the draw is returned to its neutral position... it is as though you had never pushed or pulled the draw.

Now, if you pull the draw open, but do not push the draw shut with the same force as you used to pull it open, the draw will remain partially open, you have an inbalance in the draw, as it has not returned to its neutral position.

I can only imagine that if there is a "karma", it will be something like the above. You push it with good deeds and pull it with bad deeds, and depending on how far from its starting position you get it will determine how much of a pain your next life will be

Automatically Appended Next Post:
In regards to the "what I want done with my body", I would not mind having a Viking flame ship... send me off to sea in a boat that is on fire... my body burns away and my ashes drift off into the air and sea.

I don't particularly want to be dug up in a few years by the reincarnations of the cast of Time Team...

**Emperors Faithful**

@Silver: Kind of wierd that every "good and bad" deed works on a sort of meter.

About that Viking idea.
1) Have you recently slept with any mermaid-monster ladies?
2) Can you afford a boat?
3) Who's gonna set it on fire?
It is a beautiful image though. (The ceremony, not you being dead)

Mabye I would prefer Cremation because I have watched too many zombie/vampire flicks?

**Cheese Elemental**

I believe in God, and I believe in Heaven. If I'm wrong and there's no afterlife, then I won't be conscious to know about it.

**Emperors Faithful**

Honestly, nothing disturbs me more than oblivion. For everything I've done, for everything ANYONE or ANYTHING has done, to have no meaning at all? It disturbs me.

**SilverMK2**

Emperors Faithful wrote:@Silver: Kind of wierd that every "good and bad" deed works on a sort of meter.

About that Viking idea.
1) Have you recently slept with any mermaid-monster ladies?
2) Can you afford a boat?
3) Who's gonna set it on fire?
It is a beautiful image though. (The ceremony, not you being dead)

Mabye I would prefer Cremation because I have watched too many zombie/vampire flicks?

I don't believe in supernatural sentient forces (or gods, or daemons etc), so to me, any kind of Karma would have to be a natural force, like any other. It would have positive and negative ways of affecting it (woo, Karma is a vector!), with some neutral point about which you push or pull being "bad" and "good".

As for your other points: 1) No, my GF would not like it

, 2) Well, perhaps a small boat... you don't really need more than a row boat with some kindling

, 3) Whoever has some matches and/or wants to. Don't really mind as I am dead at that point.

If the above were not possible, I would go for cremation and scattering. Though as you suggest, it is also to guard against rising as a zombie as well as it being nicer than being left to rot in the ground.

**Cheese Elemental**

I'd like my body to be preserved like Lenin's, just for kicks. That way, if there's a zombie uprising, I can be revived and communicate with them to save the world. Zombies and humans will then proceed to live harmonious co-operative lives.

**whatwhat**

My only prediction is that whatever comes after death will be peacefull.

However I do not include reincarnation under that title. Reincarnation would be the worst possible outcome. You mean I have to go through all this bs just to do it all over again? feth that.

Besides if reincarnation were true we would surely remember it, or else it isnt really reincarnation as your old self is gone without a memory left. Its like the cloning solution to all the worlds health problems, sure my clone will be ok, but what about me?

**Khornholio**

If you've been awesome, you go to Valhalla. If you've been lame, you go to hel which is probably like going to Disneyland with a terrible hang over. - Seriously, I don't know, but I'll find out someday. We all will.

**somecallmeJack**

Control Denied comes after Death.

**Emperors Faithful**

@whatwhat: You really are obsessed with the word bs, aren't you?

As long as it's not oblivion. it's gonna be a heck of an adventure.

**whatwhat**

I could do with some oblivion right now. Some nice peacefull oblivion. Fairly sure theres no bs there.

**Emperors Faithful**

oh for gaks sake, at least there wouldn't be idiots whose only piece of vocabulary was bs in oblivion!