How can there be life after death?

[Riven]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain. We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

 

[Lambano]

My thoughts? Even if our consciousness dies and is gone, God KNOWS us. Completely. Totally. He can perfectly recreate our consciousness in a pneumatikos body. That is the significance of Resurrection.

Piece o' cake for a God who can whip up a universe from scratch and finish 14% ahead of schedule. (The narrative doesn't say if He stayed within budget. There may things even God can't do.)

 

[ProverbsInPink]

Everything is made of atomic,atoms,energy that move constantly and to a rhythm.
Energy cannot be destroyed,only re-formed.

Death, doesn't mean living is over. It means we're into the next adventure.

 

[Riven]

Everything is made of atomic,atoms,energy that move constantly and to a rhythm.
Energy cannot be destroyed,only re-formed.

Death, doesn't mean living is over. It means we're into the next adventure.

How are you able to process anything around you without a brain?

 

[Deborah_]

But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

How do you know?

 

[ProverbsInPink]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain.

We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

What was that like?

 

[Matthias]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain. We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

Bodily resurrection.

Exhibit A: Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, Son of the living God.

 

[Lambano]

My thoughts? Even if our consciousness dies and is gone, God KNOWS us. Completely. Totally. He can perfectly recreate our consciousness in a pneumatikos body. That is the significance of Resurrection.

Piece o' cake for a God who can whip up a universe from scratch and finish 14% ahead of schedule. (The narrative doesn't say if He stayed within budget. There may things even God can't do.)

BTW @Riven, I used the Greek word "pneumatikos" which means "spirit-driven". This comes from Paul's discussion about how the dead are raised in 1 Corinthians 15, which I invite you to take a look at for yourself.

 

[marks]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

There was something very interesting I learned when I was serving in an Alzheimer's care unit. There were a significant number of people I met who showed this to me.

Many of these people didn't know who they were, where they were, or why they were there. But when it came to the Bible, they knew. We'd sing the hymns of the faith, I'd share Scriptures with them, their eyes came alive, their minds became clear, and I could see, they knew Jesus, and the Life He gave to them transcended their biological life, it was not tied to the state of their brain.

You mentioned the vast amounts of power necessary, what if that power exists, and this is what happens? That God is able to maintain our consciousness in another receptical? A celestial body, for after this terrestrial body is gone? This is what the Bible teaches.

Much love!

 

[Traveler]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain. We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

You have spent too much time in collage. Think of the brain as the CPU that looks after all the automated functions that keep the body operations working. It also provides an interface between the soul and its natural body that is able to function in this natural world. God made it clear that it is our soul that we want to save, not our bodies. We are to look forward to a new immortal body at the resurrection. In effect think of this current world as Gods soul plantation. The only way to produce a quality soul is the long way around with life experience to develop it.

 

[lforrest]

I would point to cases where people's minds have been ravaged by disease and just before the end they experience a period of lucidity. It points to the mind being governed by more than just the brain. Logically, there should be no turnaround unless the dying of the brain frees up our spirit to take command of the mind or something else miraculous has happened.

 

[Riven]

You have spent too much time in collage.

I never went to college.

You mentioned the vast amounts of power necessary, what if that power exists, and this is what happens? That God is able to maintain our consciousness in another receptical? A celestial body, for after this terrestrial body is gone? This is what the Bible teaches.

Much love!

It's not impossible. However, you have to ask yourself what's more likely. This or that conciuousness is generated by the brain. I would argue the latter is more likely. It's the option that requires the smallest amount of hoops to jump through to make it work.

If we go with that, then we have to ask how does conciuousness continue to exist when the brain dies?

 

[quietthinker]

How can there be life after death?​

Religious fundamentalism has several virgins.....ahhh, versions!

 

[Aunty Jane]

It's not impossible. However, you have to ask yourself what's more likely. This or that conciuousness is generated by the brain. I would argue the latter is more likely. It's the option that requires the smallest amount of hoops to jump through to make it work.

If we go with that, then we have to ask how does conciuousness continue to exist when the brain dies?

Consciousness has to be generated by the brain...otherwise anaesthesia would be impossible.

People who suffer with dementia have a brain disorder that leads to their memories being affected. They lose consciousness of themselves, their loved ones and short term memory.....but long term memory seems to be still tucked away in there somewhere.....

Strangely, I observed at a nursing home where one of my family members was living, they had “happy hour” every Friday afternoon, where the dementia patients were led in by staff, barely able to speak or to acknowledge where or who they were.
But old time music was part of that weekly event. As soon as the music of their youth was played, the transformation in these patients was nothing short of a miracle! They stared singing and some even got up to dance as they used to do in their youth...memories long buried by the disease process, were somehow retrieved and relived. But as soon as the music stopped, these ones retreated back into themselves....lost and broken again. It was a joyous thing to watch them wake up and become someone that they used to be, but sad to see them go back into that hollow shell.

Consciousness is a miracle....something that no one can really explain....but it’s something that all creation possesses in some way or another....it is the programming within each one that moves them to reach out to a mate and reproduce themselves to continue the cycle of life.

Humans, who alone are made in God’s image, are the only ones who do that consciously. The animal kingdom do so by instinct......another miracle of nature. Programmed wisdom in action.

There is no such thing as an “immortal soul” that lives on after death...the Bible never mentions such a thing....but what it does speak about is resurrection......a return to life under God’s Kingdom, which is yet future for the majority of mankind. (John 5:28-29)

Death in the Bible is the opposite of life....not a continuation of it.
Who turned that lie into the truth held by the majority of people in the world today? It was the devil who told that first lie...”you surely will not die”....when God had told Adam that they “surely would”. Now he has the whole world believing this lie....

Once you study the difference between the “soul” and the “spirit”, you will never make the mistake of conflating these two words again.

 

[Riven]

Consciousness has to be generated by the brain...otherwise anaesthesia would be impossible.

People who suffer with dementia have a brain disorder that leads to their memories being affected. They lose consciousness of themselves, their loved ones and short term memory.....but long term memory seems to be still tucked away in there somewhere.....

Strangely, I observed at a nursing home where one of my family members was living, they had “happy hour” every Friday afternoon, where the dementia patients were led in by staff, barely able to speak or to acknowledge where or who they were.
But old time music was part of that weekly event. As soon as the music of their youth was played, the transformation in these patients was nothing short of a miracle! They stared singing and some even got up to dance as they used to do in their youth...memories long buried by the disease process, were somehow retrieved and relived. But as soon as the music stopped, these ones retreated back into themselves....lost and broken again. It was a joyous thing to watch them wake up and become someone that they used to be, but sad to see them go back into that hollow shell.

Consciousness is a miracle....something that no one can really explain....but it’s something that all creation possesses in some way or another....it is the programming within each one that moves them to reach out to a mate and reproduce themselves to continue the cycle of life.

Humans, who alone are made in God’s image, are the only ones who do that consciously. The animal kingdom do so by instinct......another miracle of nature. Programmed wisdom in action.

There is no such thing as an “immortal soul” that lives on after death...the Bible never mentions such a thing....but what it does speak about is resurrection......a return to life under God’s Kingdom, which is yet future for the majority of mankind. (John 5:28-29)

Death in the Bible is the opposite of life....not a continuation of it.
Who turned that lie into the truth held by the majority of people in the world today? It was the devil who told that first lie...”you surely will not die”....when God had told Adam that they “surely would”. Now he has the whole world believing this lie....

Once you study the difference between the “soul” and the “spirit”, you will never make the mistake of conflating these two words again.

Then why do so many Christians believe in an immortal soul that immediately goes to heaven or hell upon physical death?

 

[quietthinker]

Then why do so many Christians believe in an immortal soul that immediately goes to heaven or hell upon physical death?

They are under the anaesthetic, delusion.

 

[Aunty Jane]

Then why do so many Christians believe in an immortal soul that immediately goes to heaven or hell upon physical death?

It’s the first lie that satan told the woman.....”you surely will not die”...so when the humans did die, he inferred that death wasn’t what they thought......that there’s a spirit part of us that leaves the body at death to go on existing, consciously, somewhere else. The Bible never says that this is true. The Bible speaks about the “soul” as a living, breathing creature...this word never means a disembodied spirit.

When God said that the humans would die...he meant it. Satan was the one who lied.

 

[2bme]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain. We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are this: You will not be able to get an answer for your question about life after death which will satisfy you. We simply don't know if when or but. We just don't. However, people believe they can answer that question. Although you'd have to be satisfied with that belief also.

 

[Lambano]

Then why do so many Christians believe in an immortal soul that immediately goes to heaven or hell upon physical death?

This is a question that I had to face when my precocious grandson asked (with a seven-year-old's complete lack of pretense) at his great-grandmother's funeral, "Do people in Heaven wear clothes?" I noticed that at Christian funerals, while the laity always talked about the soul of the deceased "going to Heaven to be with the Lord", the scriptures read at said events invariably talk about Resurrection:

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, red-letter edition)

I soon ran across N.T. Wright's book, Surprised By Hope (the title being a riff on C.S. Lewis's Surprised By Joy; I recommend both books). Wright makes the case that the Christian's ultimate hope as presented in our sacred writings going back to Jesus Himself is RESURRECTION, not living forever in some disembodied state. Yes, we have cultural traditions about the immortality of the soul, but that's not the framework we see Jesus presenting in the gospels, nor was it Paul's ultimate goal, which was:

...that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

And this is why my answers in this thread have focused on resurrection and the power of God.

 

[TazzJazz]

How is such a thing possible? In order for the soul to leave the body upon death, it must break the laws of the universe. It is a supernatural event. But supernatural events do not happen in this universe precisely because they would break the laws of physics, and that's not possible.

My view is, once the brain dies, the person creases to exist because we are our brains. A great example of this is people who have suffered an extensive brain injury. They often experience significant changes in their personality because of the physical changes to their brains.

We still don't understand consciousness, it's true. It's possible that conciuousness is something that happens outside our brains and its interpreted in real time by the brain. However, I think that's unlikely given that it would require an insane amount of compute power from an outside source, and that the brain acting as a receiver would require an immense amount of power from the brain itself to interpret and render 3D reality in real time.

Therefore I conclude that it is very likely that there is nothing beyond the physical death of the brain. We return to the state we were in before we were born.

Thoughts?

Yes, the dead are dead; they are "aware of \ know nothing." -- Ecclesiastes 9:5; see Psalm 146:3,4.
I find it interesting, though, the way you arrived at that conclusion, that it would "break the laws of physics."

You've used science to enable you to find Biblical truth! Fascinating!
I doubt such a method will always work, but it has in this instance!