Would you like for there to be a soul? Would you like for there to be an after life? Would you like for there to be a God or gods?
Would I like for there to be unicorns; i.e., would I be happier if there were unicorns? Our constant demands that reality conform to our desires and be anything other than 'just this, just as it is', is the source of much of our needless suffering. That said, it does seem somewhat regrettable that there aren't any Yakshini...
If you watch waves crash ashore, they appear to have been destroyed. However, if you look deeply into the nature of waves, you will see that their true nature is water. When a wave crashes ashore, it's outer form dissipates, but the water isn't hurt at all; it simply returns from whence it came, and from which it never truly left.
No to all 3. Read the Bible. "God" is a prick. The Bible is the worst horror story ever written by man.
I don't know; I've never died. However, it seems to me that if the whole conservation of energy thing is correct; "energy cannot be created or destroyed", that would apply to the creative life force of the universe. If my simple-minded application of the theory holds, that energy we call "life" came from somewhere, and goes to somewhere else when it leaves our body; it isn't destroyed. Perhaps it returns from whence it came. I doubt that such life force energy would include ego identities or personalities, like ghosts out of a Dickens novel (would make it kinda hard to recycle), so I doubt that it could be described as an individualistic "soul" as most folks seem to imagine. We call rivers by their names, but once they pour into the sea, their names no longer apply; the water's just water; no separation.
I imagine when I die the energy you're talking about (no longer a "life force") will be released in the process of decay and feed numerous other life forms, most of them invisible without a microscope. Is that a form of immortality?The energy may not be destroyed, but it takes a different form. (actually I plan to be cremated, releasing energy by combustion.)
Yes, Yes, and it depends if there could be an actually GOOD GOD, and also IT can't be omnipresent... I need my fucking alone time.
A British lecturer comes to Northern Ireland to talk about railroads. At the end of his talk, an old man gets up and asks, “Pardon me, sir, but are you a Catholic or a Protestant?” Startled by the digression, the lecturer says, “Actually, I’m an atheist.” The old man looks puzzled, so the lecturer proceeds to explain the meaning of the word “atheism.” At last the old man nods. “I think I understand,” he says. “But tell me, is it the Catholic or the Protestant God that you don’t believe in?”
You're such a killjoy. I'd like a Santa to bring me presents at Christmas, and a tooth fairy to put money under my pillow at night.
what is not known is not known. not only can each thing that has been imagined could be, but more to the point, the billions times more diversity that has never been imagined could be too, and if anything is more likely then everything that has been, simply for being that much more of it. i do believe there's more then what we see is what we get, just that its so much more likely to be nothing like what anyone has ever come up with. i love that it is this way. that there is strangeness. it isn't bad that people try to guess what there is, what's bad is when people can't imagine anything else is possible then what someone else has guessed, especially if they did so a long time ago. i like the fx. you don't see them that often in real life though. what i don't like is the polarization around what people want to think, what their ego's refuse to accept their non knowing. serial mortality, with a good dose of r and r between mortal lives on random worlds, fully realizing tough, its not up to us, but then we don't even know that, that it isn't.
didn't see the op before the above. these are interesting questions. what else would soul be but awareness? identified not by anything related to physical form, but by preferences, priorities and perspectives. i'm ok with gods and goddess either way. up to them, not me, whether they exist or not. billions of them if there want to be. and yes, i would very much like for this life to not be all we get. an eternal 'after life' is only one among billions of alternative possibilities. no point in gold streets and mansions if you never get tired, cold or hungry. an endless forested mountain, with no building codes and not having to hang out with anybody would make me happier. but why would one life need to be any more eternal then another? nor need to be any end to a random succession of them? yah, unicorns are cool too. along with kisuni and wah, and the billions of diverse life forms people can imagine and worlds can evolve. happy are the bunyips.
