Death.

[nick_s]

Death is a strange thing. We all know it's coming, but have no clue as to its arrival. I do not fear death, just the method by which I am to die. If I follow the family trend, it will be a cancer of some description.

 

I've got my own strange take on death, and it is that death is takes a form in which we can converse with, and ultimately challenge. Back in 2005 I was recovering from an operation, and I developed blood clots in my lungs, which statistically (according to the doctors I spoke to) kill over 82% of people with them, without warning. I was quite lucky in that I had a warning sign (crushing pains when breathing). Cut a long story short, I was admitted to hospital and was flatline for a brief period of time (I've been told it was a matter of seconds), but to me, I undertook about a half hour conversation with an entity. Said entity sent me back after the conversation.

 

I believe this entity was death taking the form of a deity, to whom I convinced it wasn't my time.

 

I lost my dad to cancer a while back, and he seemed to know that it was his time that night, based on the things he said to me. I'd had dreams since then in which he's visited me during times of struggle. Is it his spirit comforting me, or my inner conscience showing me what I want to see, I don't know, but I prefer the thought of the former.

 

So yeah, it is what it is, it hurts those who are still living, but I am curious to see what it is like on the other side given my brief interlude with it.

[Bender 4 Life]

I won't know it when I die, so why worry about it?

[Rosemarie]

For me, I am not so much afraid of dying. I am afraid that no one will remember me and that the things that I tried to do won't mean anything to anyone. I guess that is a legacy issue.

 

As to heaven and hell, I was taught as a Catholic that there is one. I'd like to think that I might go to heaven because I have tried my utmost to be a good person and treat others with the respect that I wish for. I don't have a lot, but I try to share with those who are in need.

 

If I have one fear about death, it is that it will hurt and that I will suffer a long time. Other than that, the actual being dead part I am not afraid of.

[milod]

Rosemarie...

 

That's where "karma" comes in regardless of one's "religion."

 

What you are now, have been and might yet be while here, and even as long as you're remembered, have reverberation in the lives of others, even those who never knew or even heard of you. Karma, for good or non-good.

 

m

[surfpup]

Dirt. Worms. Dead. Done.

 

All the more reason to live well.

[milod]

Surf...

 

I'm told that cremation is cheaper than burial under most U.S. states' laws.

 

m

[cookieman15061]

 

 

[J.R.M.30!]

I think the title of this thread should be "Lives Viewing Death from Different Distances".

[surfpup]

Surf...

 

I'm told that cremation is cheaper than burial under most U.S. states' laws.

 

m

 

No doubt. I told my family they can just bury me out back though that would surely break a ton of local laws. I'd be even happier to be tossed off the dock or over the side of a boat for the crabs, but they will cremate me I'm sure.

[MuddyDitch Zhuangzi]

When my earthly trials are over

cast my body out in the sea

Save all the undertaker bills

let the mermaids flirt with me.

 

Erik

[Rocky4]

Looks like Christianity isn't very popular here.......

[Riffster]

Looks like Christianity isn't very popular here.......

 

LOL, I noticed that too.

[Rabs]

I gotta post this.. The lyrics kinda sum it up I think :)

 

Lifes a piece of s**t when you look at it.. Lifes a laugh and deaths a joke its true.

 

[moparguy]

I think I believe in reincarnation, but don't think you will come back as a cow or something. Like the song Lightning Crashes sang by Live, talks about a old woman dying and a baby being born at the same time, it says, " the confusion that was hers, belongs now ,to the baby down the hall". I think your soul gets passed to another body. Maybe Im just crazy, who knows

[Izzy]

 

And if I'm wrong....no harm, no foul....

 

If an atheist is wrong....oh man...are THEY in trouble!

 

St Thomas Aquinas?

 

I come from Mexico where death is accepted and celebrated. We celebrate our loved ones by making an altar to them and remembering them and offering them food or drink or anything they loved in life. We go to our cemeteries and give love to the dead.

 

Where do we go when we die? I'm made of particles and run on energy. My thoughts are electroconducted cerebral trips....I'm not diluted enough to think I'm superior to a donut. I am matter. Matter and Energy never disappear, they change form. I am, I will always be.

 

I work in a hospital where we charge old OLD (90 years old and older) people money each time we resuscitate them...which can be 5 times in a row. Hospitals make good money off this. Granted, you don't come back the same and in the end you die a horrible tortured death most times, but someone skimmed a profit off your misery. People, forget your philosophical musings and make a contract with someone (legal) and/or make sure you tell the hospital if you want to be left alone in the hour of death or if you want to be chemically resuscitated. I've seen horrible things and I don't want so much as blood replaced. If I break a leg I'm going to the VETERINARIAN.

[daveinspain]

I do believe there is something else. What it is I don't know. Is it God, is it energy, does it have a name, who knows. I just can't believe that something so complex as our body just happened by accident. Just think of all the complex things going on inside us right this very minute to keep us alive. Blood filtration, waist removal, interpretation of sight and sound not to mention touch and thought processes. Then there's the nervous system, immune system, skeleton...etc Yeah this all just happened when no one was looking and amebas decided to grow some legs and walk... Something designed us... Was it God or some alien being, who knows? I don't care what you call it or what its name is but I'm glad he/it's there...

[charlie brown]

Well, whatever...we'll never know, by "living!" Only, when we finally "Cross over."

 

So, what's for dinner?!

 

CB

[Cougar]

We're here and then we're gone.

 

Well, for most of us, there's quite a bit in between! The fact that we're here at all is quite amazing. But we're just another animal species on this planet. A damn smart species that has figured out how to pass along what we've learned. But the only "immortality" is being remembered by others, which some achieve longer than others. God and heaven are just comforting human thoughts, concocted just for this topic: death. Pretty silly and wildly irrational if you really think about it. I'm an atheist. I study cosmology and play music. There's no question this Universe began 13.8 billion years ago, nearly 9 billion years before our Earth just began to form. Modern humans have existed for only about 200,000 years. Ain't no heaven out there. Ain't no Godly spirit inside us either. We're social creatures. We know how to get along with each other or we don't last long.

 

On a more lighthearted note....

 

"The important thing, I think, is not to be bitter. You know, if it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that He's evil. I think that the worst you can say about Him is that, basically, He's an underachiever." - Woody Allen

[Rabs]

There's no question this Universe began 13.8 billion years ago, nearly 9 billion years before our Earth just began to form. Modern humans have existed for only about 200,000 years.

Im sorry.. but no one can say for sure how long the earth or the universe has been around... We only have a best guess, and science has been proven wrong over its so called "fatcs" again and again.. Not that im against science quite the opposite.. But I have to laugh when someone says " I can say for certain what happened billions of years ago" PROVE IT!!! that's what I say :P :)

 

Its like when you watch programs about dinosaurs and they talk about them like they have all the facts.. they don't, its all just a big guess.. Like a species they thought was scaled and more recently found that it was actually feathered, next time it will have a half shell and wings lol :)

[zigzag]

Where do we go when we die? I'm made of particles and run on energy. My thoughts are electroconducted cerebral trips....I'm not diluted enough to think I'm superior to a donut. I am matter. Matter and Energy never disappear, they change form. I am, I will always be.

 

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

- Hamlet (1.5.166-7), Hamlet to Horatio

 

I'm kinda with you Izzy. I am torn between being a follower of Christ on the one hand and a Pantheist on the other. Then, there is another feeling that we are not only made of stardust, but also of stellar energy bundled into this corporeal form, and due to the evolution of this life form, given the ability to perceive and conceive. That energy, or soul, is separate from, but influenced by, the web or fabric of energies that flow throughout the universe. Karma is a manifestation of the existence of this individualized energy entity and its influence on the continuum. If this theory is true, then at death we cease to perceive/conceive, but our energy is released to flow and integrate into that fabric. Pure and eternal ecstasy!

 

But, I could be wrong.

[quapman]

I'm not diluted enough to think I'm superior to a donut.

 

Au contraire,,,

 

If you baked that donut then you are most certainly it's creator and ultimately it's god.

So that would indeed make you superior.

[Rabs]

Au contraire,,,

 

If you baked that donut then you are most certainly it's creator and ultimately it's god.

So that would indeed make you superior.

Does that mean all of our parents are gods?? (scary ) ;)

[quapman]

Does that mean all of our parents are gods?? (scary ) ;)

 

Nope,, that would bring up the whole "chicken and egg" debate,, and we don't wanna go there.

 

Our parents didn't create us, they bred us.

[Riptide]

With Lou Reed dying, it's got me thinking again. We mean nothing on this planet. We're here and then we're gone.

Some of us get remembered (Lou) and most don't. What's your view on death? Afraid? Accepting?

I was an undertaker for 8 years and I'm not religious, but I do believe something leaves the body. Soul? Perhaps. Death doesn't scare me. It's the living you have to worry about.

I do believe in reincarnation though. What do you think?

 

Well, I'll start off with saying that I'm a "Christian" however, it's not a religion at all, it's a relationship with God through Christ. Religions are about being a good person and being better then other people and that through those works you can attain something good... i.e. life, heaven etc, etc. But what I believe is that we're all sinners but you don't have to do works or be a "good" person... I think you just have to admit that you're a sinner and believe in Christ as your personal savior (that He came and bore the punishment for our sins so we can have life) and that through that you're saved from sin and death and will one day dwell with God in heaven when you die. Now we all know Christians are sinners just like everyone else, and have done some pretty horrible things at times, but we're just imperfect people and you can't judge God off of the people who claim to follow Him.

 

Now on to specifics, I believe that God created the earth with no intention of death ever happening but then sin entered through Adam (death being one effect it had). But, I believe that when Christ died and rose again, He defeated that death and I think that through Him we can go do heaven when we die. I think that when we die our soul leaves our body and either goes to heaven or Hell. I don't fear death because I'm confident that through Christ I'm going to heaven to be with God!

 

I think we do mean something on Earth, I think we're here for a reason. I think we are here to glorify God and build His kingdom... now I agree that one day we are just gone and everything we did just dies with us to a degree... but I think that if what we were doing here on Earth is for God and helping to build up His eternal kingdom then it isn't a waste... the only things I think that would be a waste would be all the things we did for ourselves and building our self up (which is just going to pass away when we die) and not for God.

 

That's my two cents

 

P.S. I'm not trying to start any sort of argument with anyone, and I certainly hope this didn't come off as arrogant... I don't think I'm a better person than any Atheist, Pantheist or anyone else :)

[quapman]

 

P.S. I'm not trying to start any sort of argument with anyone, and I certainly hope this didn't come off as arrogant... I don't think I'm a better person than any Atheist, Pantheist or anyone else :)

 

 

Not at all brother.

That's the beautiful part of it. We can all believe what ever we want.

You are entitled to your beliefs and you are entitled to express them.

 

While at the same time,, I am entitled to believe something completely different.