Afterlife: Is There Life After Death?

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  • SwimFan1981
    SwimFan1981 Posts: 1,430 Member
    .
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    "...So I glanced at Sanford's credentials and noticed he's NOT a human geneticist, but a plant geneticist..."


    Do you really think that a "plant geneticist" doesn't deal with the same fundamentals? The human genome shares 50% of its genes with the genome of a banana. Many scientists will study something outside of their narrow area of specialty. They often bring a great deal of fresh insight. For example, there is a cardiologist at the University of Colorado Medical Center, Richard J. Johnson, M.D. who has chosen to study Type II diabetes and renal disease. He has recently been given a grant by the National Institutes of Health to study an epidemic of renal failure among sugar cane workers in Central America.

    "...His argument for devolution is a good theory but not withstanding criticism. Carbon dating will refute how long he believes that Earth has been around. Heck even common sense would tell us that based on how the Earth is still shifting and moving, it's break up into continents took millions and million of years. Fresno and San Francisco are creeping closer together (verified) at a rate of about an inch a year. At this rate it's gonna take well over 12 million years for them to be beside each other.
    I'd have to see much more evidence proving his theory before believing in it..."

    First, carbon dating will not refute anything of the sort--it has many flaws. The main one being that it is based on many assumptions that may or may not be true http://voices.yahoo.com/have-scientists-discovered-flaws-carbon-dating-7009058.html:

    "While still unsure what is causing the change--the previously held scientific belief that the rate of decay is constant may not be true. This discovery certainly seems to challenge that theory. The implications can have far reaching affects not only in science and medicine, but also history and archeology among other things. One interesting impact of this discovery may be on an age old debate as to how old our earth is. If the rate of decay is no longer a constant, the age of earth may be subject to reevaluation based on past radiometric dating methods and this new discovery that decay may no longer be constant."

    In addition, cataclysmic forces can change things very quickly---gradualism is an assumption. There are a number of geophysicists who are "catastrophists". They believe that the earth was subject to many catastrophes in the past, with accompanying very rapid change.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    "...I'd have to see much more evidence PROVING his theory before believing in it..."

    There is NO such thing in science. Any real scientist will tell you that.
  • perfect_storm
    perfect_storm Posts: 326 Member
    I struggle with this every day and here is why. 4 years ago I was in a coma for 3 days with organs shutting down, I have no story of comfort or light I have a black space where my life should have been during those days...I know I was not dead but I was damn close. I want to think it is not over when we die that there is something more but after the empty feeling that experience left me.... I do not know.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    No one comes by faith in that way. Perhaps they could come to agnosticism that way (and there are many scientists who are agnostics--the "don't know and don't care" crowd). Real faith comes from accepting the truth and surrendering to it--wherever it leads. It is by a supernatural act of God. C.S. Lewis said that he was probably the most unhappy man on campus the night that he accepted Christ---so strong was his mind's resistance to the idea of faith.
    Faith comes from strong doctrines of religion. That's what faith is. Truth relies on accordance of FACT and REALITY. And testimonies aren't evidence. That's like someone saying Rasberry Keytones are why they lost weight.

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    You, who claim to have no faith, are going to define faith for me? Real, abiding faith, is NOT mental assent to a "doctrine of religion". As I have stated before, it is a supernatural event that happens by the will of the "Father of Lights." He convinces of truth by the Spirit of Truth. Since when has testimony ceased to be evidence? (Maybe you should try saying that in a court of law sometime and see what the judge says?"
  • rileamoyer
    rileamoyer Posts: 2,412 Member
    Yep-lived long enough and seen enough death to know.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    You, who claim to have no faith, are going to define faith for me? Real, abiding faith, is NOT mental assent to a "doctrine of religion". As I have stated before, it is a supernatural event that happens by the will of the "Father of Lights." He convinces of truth by the Spirit of Truth. Since when has testimony ceased to be evidence? (Maybe you should try saying that in a court of law sometime and see what the judge says?"

    You're really not helping your case there, as false/faulty testimony has put more innocents in prison than anything else; only to be released later once DNA evidence (something science provided for us) proved their innocence.
  • RILEYRED
    RILEYRED Posts: 647 Member
    There absolutely is life after death. I have experienced many things, and there were many things proven to be not of this world, oh, you betcha!!!!! and, that is my opinion, I speak for no one else, so please don't try to prove me wrong, not here to prove a thing, just answering a question. Have a great day..
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    You, who claim to have no faith, are going to define faith for me? Real, abiding faith, is NOT mental assent to a "doctrine of religion". As I have stated before, it is a supernatural event that happens by the will of the "Father of Lights." He convinces of truth by the Spirit of Truth. Since when has testimony ceased to be evidence? (Maybe you should try saying that in a court of law sometime and see what the judge says?"

    You're really not helping your case there, as false/faulty testimony has put more innocents in prison than anything else; only to be released later once DNA evidence (something science provided for us) proved their innocence.

    A death-bed testimony is considered to be very powerful, as a dying person is not presumed to lie--under the principle of "nemo moriturus praesumitur mentiri". All of the eye-witnesses went to their deaths bearing the testimony of the truth of Christ's resurrection. They could have easily escaped death by declaring it all a lie---they did not, gladly suffering death to the denial of what they knew to be the truth. What you said is quite irrelevant. We all know that some people lie.
  • goodomenminis
    goodomenminis Posts: 5 Member
    YES. I've seen too many "ghosts" NOT to believe this is the only experience out here. Heck i was pushed in the back by a spirit. i guess he didn't like me intruding on HIS afterlife. (and to tell you the truth, i don't blame him for doing it.) :noway:
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    A death-bed testimony is considered to be very powerful as a dying person is not presumed to lie under the principle of "nemo moriturus praesumitur mentiri". All of the eye-witnesses went to their deaths bearing the testimony of the truth of Christ's resurrection. They could have easily escaped death by declaring it all a lie---they did not, gladly suffering death to the denial of what they knew to be the truth. What you said is quite irrelevant.

    I think you missed my point. I said false/faulty on purpose. False is obvious: lying. Faulty is a bit of a different beast though. It has been shown time and again that people do not always see what they think they saw, though they may well and truly believe otherwise. This has been proven to apply to single individuals, small groups of people, and large collectives. This is something that has always made religion a bit suspect to me.

    To be a bit more blunt: one can be completely full of **** and not even realize it.
  • alexbusnello
    alexbusnello Posts: 1,010 Member
    I think so! And i hope I can choose how i'm going to look like in my next life haha That'd be awesome.
  • ladyrider55
    ladyrider55 Posts: 316 Member
    Absolutely I totally Believe there's Life after Death. Without God in your Life there is no Life....AMEN.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    A death-bed testimony is considered to be very powerful as a dying person is not presumed to lie under the principle of "nemo moriturus praesumitur mentiri". All of the eye-witnesses went to their deaths bearing the testimony of the truth of Christ's resurrection. They could have easily escaped death by declaring it all a lie---they did not, gladly suffering death to the denial of what they knew to be the truth. What you said is quite irrelevant.

    I think you missed my point. I said false/faulty on purpose. False is obvious: lying. Faulty is a bit of a different beast though. It has been shown time and again that people do not always see what they think they saw, though they may well and truly believe otherwise. This has been proven to apply to single individuals, small groups of people, and large collectives. This is something that has always made religion a bit suspect to me.
    .

    Do you really believe that the very close associates of Jesus (those who were to become the Apostles) who spent three years in close company with Him, were mistaken? Who or what was behind the conspiracy then? Matthew's gospel mentions (in 28:11-15) that there were Jews who were circulating a false story about the events of the Cross, noting that they were still telling the same story at the time of the writing of the gospel (and they still tell this story today). Individuals (and groups) will also go to great lengths in resisting a truth that they do not want to accept.
  • Don't worry; you will be recycled.
  • Stella_Leigh
    Stella_Leigh Posts: 189 Member
    They were NOT "handed down orally for a long time". The gospels were in circulation in rudimentary form in the churches immediately (they were spoken of in the Book of Acts) and the Epistles were circulated in the churches as soon as they were penned. You are quite wrong but you will no doubt believe what you want to believe.
    Yeah, adam and eve (another laughable story of how the Earth was populated) were writing on fig leaves to make sure that their story was passed down correctly to writers of the bible.:laugh:
    Thanks for the entertainment.

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    Have you never heard of "Mitochondrial Eve"? You really shouldn't laugh at things you do not understand. It was Moses who penned the first five books of the Bible and he likely related it as it was told to him. By the way, Biblical archeology is uncovering fascinating evidence that the Exodus actually took place. Here is a link to an article that tells of the more recent discoveries (just one is the discovery of a large number of coral encrusted chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea). http://www.triumphpro.com/exodus.pdf

    The best part of posts like this is the out and out disrespect that is ok because LOL is attached to the end. Everyone can agree to disagree that's great and fine but posts like this bring out the most self-righteous intelligentsia from both sides.

    This.

    Also, worrying about whatever may or may not be the case about the afterlife is no way to get through this one.
  • MaraDiaz
    MaraDiaz Posts: 4,604 Member
    I doubt it but I hope so because if there is I have some serious haunting to do!
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    "... This is something that has always made religion a bit suspect to me...."

    You SHOULD be suspicious of religion---especially where someone has something material to gain from promoting it (as did the founders of other religions in the times after the first century founding of the Judeo-Christian faith. I won't name them to avoid offending others but you probably know which ones I mean.) The writers of the New Testament had not a thing to gain in this world. They were thrown out of the synagogues (a very grave thing to have happened to a Jew, in first century Israel), mocked and reviled, beaten and left for dead...and ultimately martyred.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    "... This is something that has always made religion a bit suspect to me...."

    You SHOULD be suspicious of religion---especially where someone has something material to gain from promoting it (as did the founders of other religions in the times after the first century founding of the Judeo-Christian faith. I won't name them to avoid offending others but you probably know which ones I mean.) The writers of the New Testament had not a thing to gain in this world. They were thrown out of the synagogues (a very grave thing to have happened to a Jew, in first century Israel), mocked and reviled, beaten and left for dead...and ultimately martyred.

    I am not saying that they had a single thing to gain from it. I am saying that the power of suggestion is an incredibly powerful thing. How else does someone convince otherwise relatively sane individuals to martyr themselves in the name of an invisible deity? All faiths have a history of these, not just the three chief monotheisms (though they are by far the greatest offenders).

    I am sure you have seen, just as I have, this new wave homeopathy garbage that does appear to work wonders...until it's put into a well conducted double blind study, and the same results are achieved from placebo. Add to that line-up: faith healers, psychics, mediums, voodoo witchdoctors, etc. All of these things can have a profound impact on the people who believe in them, even though they have been proven to be utter bull****, time and again.

    We are not debating effect here, as there is no denying the effect that suggestion can have on people. What we are debating is whether or not something non-temporal exists, which requires something completely different than the scientific method: it requires rationality. For someone to claim that life persists after it has obviously ceased is no different than someone claiming to have seen a four sided triangle. I don't need to go to where they claimed to have seen this four sided triangle and perform tests to know that it does not exist, as it would simply be a square.
  • SanteMulberry
    SanteMulberry Posts: 3,202 Member
    "... This is something that has always made religion a bit suspect to me...."

    You SHOULD be suspicious of religion---especially where someone has something material to gain from promoting it (as did the founders of other religions in the times after the first century founding of the Judeo-Christian faith. I won't name them to avoid offending others but you probably know which ones I mean.) The writers of the New Testament had not a thing to gain in this world. They were thrown out of the synagogues (a very grave thing to have happened to a Jew, in first century Israel), mocked and reviled, beaten and left for dead...and ultimately martyred.

    I am not saying that they had a single thing to gain from it. I am saying that the power of suggestion is an incredibly powerful thing. How else does someone convince otherwise relatively sane individuals to martyr themselves in the name of an invisible deity? All faiths have a history of these, not just the three chief monotheisms (though they are by far the greatest offenders).

    I am sure you have seen, just as I have, this new wave homeopathy garbage that does appear to work wonders...until it's put into a well conducted double blind study, and the same results are achieved from placebo. Add to that line-up: faith healers, psychics, mediums, voodoo witchdoctors, etc. All of these things can have a profound impact on the people who believe in them, even though they have been proven to be utter bull****, time and again.

    We are not debating effect here, as there is no denying the effect that suggestion can have on people. What we are debating is whether or not something non-temporal exists, which requires something completely different than the scientific method: it requires rationality. For someone to claim that life persists after it has obviously ceased is no different than someone claiming to have seen a four sided triangle. I don't need to go to where they claimed to have seen this four sided triangle and perform tests to know that it does not exist, as it would simply be a square.

    Many people have, of course, died for a lie (the mass delusion of the Heaven's Gate cult?). But who would die for something that they knew to be a lie? And they absolutely would have known that it was a lie. And what of the case of the Apostle Paul? As a "good Jew," he actually spent some period of time persecuting the followers of Jesus--he thought them to be infidels and quite out of their minds. Until the Lord Himself appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Paul--then known as Saul--was actually on his way to Damascus with letters from the High Priest in Jerusalem, to detain Jewish followers of Jesus from the synagogues there "and bring them back in chains"). Clearly something quite extraordinary happened to cause him to turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

    There is a great deal in our universe that confounds us---but yet it can and does exist. To insist that the only things that can exist are limited to those we perceive with our five senses, is equivalent to a small child covering his/her eyes and insisting that he/she cannot be seen.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    Many people have, of course, died for a lie (the mass delusion of the Heaven's Gate cult?). But who would die for something that they knew to be a lie? And they absolutely would have known that it was a lie. And what of the case of the Apostle Paul? As a "good Jew," he actually spent some period of time persecuting the followers of Jesus--he thought them to be infidels and quite out of their minds. Until the Lord Himself appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Paul--then known as Saul--was actually on his way to Damascus with letters from the High Priest in Jerusalem, to detain Jewish followers of Jesus from the synagogues there "and bring them back in chains"). Clearly something quite extraordinary happened to cause him to turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction.

    You are assuming that they would have known it to be a lie, completely ignoring the possibility of the power of suggestion...right after acknowledging it with Heaven's Gate. Any clear thinking individual would assume the same thing about Jim Jones' cult in the jungle of Guyana...we saw how that turned out, too.
    There is a great deal in our universe that confounds us---but yet it can and does exist. To insist that the only things that can exist are limited to those we perceive with our five senses, is equivalent to a small child covering his/her eyes and insisting that he/she cannot be seen.

    To argue against this would not only be futile, but foolish. For example, X-rays and sub-atomic particles cannot be picked up with any of the five sense, but they have been shown to exist. Therein lies the problem. Even if the story of Christ were entirely true (a dubious claim at best), it still does not prove the existence of God, or an afterlife. It proves only that a small group of people (at that time) believed everything that was spoken by a small group of people, at one time or another. It is very much identical to the story of Mohammed, though of course Christians will claim that he was merely a pretender to Christ...which I find pretty amusing considering that Muslims do not renounce Christ, and in fact the Qu'ran recognizes him as a prophet of God, just not the messiah, but that's a topic for another time.
  • Shadowknight137
    Shadowknight137 Posts: 1,243 Member
    When I die, I'll let everyone know.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    Just because people are now learning to take better care of the health that they have, doesn't mean that the genome is not continuing to deteriorate. You only need to look at the large increase in infertility among young men to know that something is amiss. If male sperm counts continue to decline at the present rate, within a couple of generations (40 years or so) very few men will be able to father children. Whether the cause is environmental or genetic has yet to be studied. If it is environmental the fix will be difficult, if it is genetic, it will be impossible.
    What is proposed by Sanford is hypothesis at best. Some how this infertility isn't an issue in Asian countries.:laugh: In fact, they've limited how children you should have is a few.

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  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    Oh how entertaining it is to listen to people with zero faith tell others exactly what is and what isnt....it must be awesome being them!

    Just in case this was a misunderstood jab at me in any way: it is pretty awesome being me, but it has absolutely nothing to do with my lack of faith. I think it's more the nearly perfect wife, good paying job, even increasing lifts, and just general happiness that I have to look forward to on a daily basis. :)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    Do you really think that a "plant geneticist" doesn't deal with the same fundamentals? The human genome shares 50% of its genes with the genome of a banana. Many scientists will study something outside of their narrow area of specialty. They often bring a great deal of fresh insight. For example, there is a cardiologist at the University of Colorado Medical Center, Richard J. Johnson, M.D. who has chosen to study Type II diabetes and renal disease. He has recently been given a grant by the National Institutes of Health to study an epidemic of renal failure among sugar cane workers in Central America.
    Getting a grant (since the money needs to be spent or it won't be provided) doesn't ensure that information is going to be better than someone else who's an expert in that field. Lol, why would we consult experts if that were the case?
    First, carbon dating will not refute anything of the sort--it has many flaws. The main one being that it is based on many assumptions that may or may not be true http://voices.yahoo.com/have-scientists-discovered-flaws-carbon-dating-7009058.html:
    You're assuming through this article that it's not true. The article doesn't state it's not true. It's just questioning it based on a study done that MAY refute it. Nothing is conclusive here yet.

    You go on strawman tangents a lot.

    Back to topic. Have you ever met, seen or heard from anyone (supernatural being, soul, whatever you call it) after death? If not, then how are you sure that it exists?

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  • Erin_goBrahScience
    Erin_goBrahScience Posts: 1,215 Member
    this-thread-is-still-alive.jpg
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    "...I'd have to see much more evidence PROVING his theory before believing in it..."
    There is NO such thing in science. Any real scientist will tell you that.
    You're right. Scientific theory is unprovable. My bad.

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  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    no, was meant as a general statement for this and couple other divisive faithbased threads that hit the forums today for no other reason than to see how quickly it would get people worked up.

    Ahh, I see. Well, in all fairness, this one has been kicking around for quite a while now.

    To me, given the way much of this has been handled, it's actually been a pretty good exercise in debate. Granted, some people have gotten butthurt, but they left rather quickly. Honestly, I've been rather enjoying the intellectual 'hamstring stretch'.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    You, who claim to have no faith, are going to define faith for me? Real, abiding faith, is NOT mental assent to a "doctrine of religion". As I have stated before, it is a supernatural event that happens by the will of the "Father of Lights." He convinces of truth by the Spirit of Truth. Since when has testimony ceased to be evidence? (Maybe you should try saying that in a court of law sometime and see what the judge says?"
    Testimony can be disputed by fact. Why do you think people still get convicted when testimony is in there behalf? You hear ALL THE TIME "I know this person, there's NO WAY they could have done this", then there's DNA, crime evidence, eyewitnesses, camera proof that showed that person did it.

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  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,990 Member
    A death-bed testimony is considered to be very powerful, as a dying person is not presumed to lie--under the principle of "nemo moriturus praesumitur mentiri". All of the eye-witnesses went to their deaths bearing the testimony of the truth of Christ's resurrection. They could have easily escaped death by declaring it all a lie---they did not, gladly suffering death to the denial of what they knew to be the truth. What you said is quite irrelevant. We all know that some people lie.
    Or they could have lied to save their family from grief and discrimination.

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