What happens to you when you die?

[downbeatplumb]

(If I am nothing more than some electrical-chemical computer program that runs within a biological meat bag, then as far as I can tell, it is possible for science to advance to the point where my brain could be perfectly replicated within a computer, where I would then 'exist'. If I think of it this way, then it would be entirely possible for the program 'rax.exe' to be deleted and cease to exist as easily and as certainly as a deletion of 'tities.jpg'. I guess if I think of it this way I can understand the 'nothingness' position. However, I guess I would still like to use my imagination to ponder what could happen after death.)
[/quote]

You rot and people who are close to you greave

[darkwolf176]

Agreed, when you die that's it. The only thing that will live on is in the memories of friends and family and when they are gone you'll be pretty much forgotten. Pretty depressing I know

[Atheist_named_Christian]

Agreed, when you die that's it. The only thing that will live on is in the memories of friends and family and when they are gone you'll be pretty much forgotten. Pretty depressing I know

It's partly depressing - but on the other hand think about what would happen if any of us would live on eternally (even in a new body). Maybe fun for a few hundred years but we would all become terribly conservative and inflexible and there would be no space for 'new' minds at some point. Maybe the importance of dying is not only to make space for fresh bodies (living ones) but also for new ideas, new minds.
From an egocentric view (that's what we all usually have, I guess) it is a bit depressing, though.

[Welsh cake]

Well, I guess I'm speaking more of something that you could call a soul, essence, spirit, mind, or maybe something else that is there but is undefined by man or maybe is defined, basically 'me', with disregard to my physical body. 'Paul the Human' said that "the mind is a product of the brain". Really? Are we certain of this?

Forget certainty, to the best of our knowledge we are physical, biological. To the best of our knowledge the mind is the product of the brain, as opposed to other organs, such as the anus. ^^

This notion that there's evidence that when we die, "that's it", is false, in my opinion.

In your opinion perhaps; only when evidence presents itself or is demonstrably proven to be real through repeatability that the human consciousness, our personal identity and memories, carries on after death, would the notion then be considered false. Currently, if we use Occam's razor it is the most plausible since it’s apparent that when we die, there is nothing to support our consciousnesses anymore.

There is no evidence either way and it might even be unmeasurable so there is no way to take a position. Now I understand if one doesn't believe in heaven or hell or other blatantly fantastical conjurings, but can you not even entertain the idea of a continuation of 'yourself' after death, somewhere, somehow?

An appeal to emotion is not going to get you very far I'm afraid. I refuse to entertain notions of an otherworldly realm I’ll live on in if there is insufficient evidence for it. As explained to you earlier our physical bodies don’t simply cease to exist, the organic matter provides nourishment for other organisms, the atoms themselves carry on existing a lot longer. Geez, if the circumstances are right your skeletal remains may even be fossilized to be admired by evolved prairie dogs millions of years from now.

I would say that the proposition that there is some sort of soul/spirit/thing that continues on to some other sort of existence, however improbable, is possible within the realm of possibilities, and that to claim with almost certainty that 'nothing happens'/'worm food, that's it', is as much of a claim to knowledge of this event as the religious claims.

There is no evidence of an afterlife... but to my knowledge, there's no evidence of a "blinking into nothingness" either...

Except these aren't equal claims even. You have a presupposition that somehow there has to be more to this life because it would 'suck' otherwise, but none of this is proven to be real. Extraordinary claims, such as an afterlife, require extraordinary evidence. Demanding irrefutable proof there's no afterlife is not only shifting the burden of proof its also attempting to argue for a negative.

[WingedFoe]

I would also add that "you" go through many deaths as you grow and develop. Look back to when you were a child; are you the same person now as you were then? Sure, some aspects will be the same due to genetics (for instance, I have always been reserved) but your beliefs, memories, and much of your personality will be drastically different. These things can also be changed through "unnatural" means, like a blow to the head. I saw a discovery channel special once on a man who, after suffering a head injury, lost all emotions. All emotions ! He became apathetic toward his wife and child and he ended up living alone, an unfeeling and uncaring hermit.

Head injuries can also result in psychopathic behavior, the loss of memories, and distortion of perception. If all that you are can be lost by damaging and/or removing physical parts of the brain, then those physical parts are aspects of you. you will cease to be eventually, whether it's through death or through your brain changing into something new.

[SleepingDemon]

Nothing. I believe I will just simply cease to exist. My brain will die, my consciousness dissolve, and I will drift back into the nonexistence I had before I was born.

[Loki_999]

Well, I guess I'm speaking more of something that you could call a soul, essence, spirit, mind, or maybe something else that is there but is undefined by man or maybe is defined, basically 'me', with disregard to my physical body.

<snip>

There is no evidence of an afterlife... but to my knowledge, there's no evidence of a "blinking into nothingness" either...

The problem is, that many people are scared of death, and want some sense of immortality. They want some belief that when they die, they will continue in some form.

I have achieved this. I have two children, they carry my genes. The biggest tragedy for me would not be my death, but the death of my children before they have a chance to have children and bring up children of their own.

When you seek for something to believe in then you should take into consideration probabilities. For example, I believe there is intelligent life on other planets.... why? Because even though per planet the chances are infinitesimally small, the number of planets in the universe is.... very big (to put it mildly). So, its something that I have a belief in, but a belief based on good probabilities.

In relation to souls, there is no evidence or anything at all that suggests such things exist. There is no need for souls in the order of the universe as we see it (this of course does not mean that we see everything that exists). So, it is natural to conclude, on the balance of things, that souls do not exist. We don't close the door entirely on the possibility... we have no idea what is really going on with some of the things at the quantum level but we are finding out slowly but surely.

Therefore when we say "nothing" in response to the question about what happens when we die, its because it is easier than writing a full page essay explaining in some detail like I have just done.

[darkwolf176]

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die, because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We, privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred."

-Richard Dawkins (Unweaving the Rainbow)

This blog post by the film critic Roger Ebert is beautiful:

Go gently into that good night

[Loki_999]

[quote='darkwolf176' pid='74028' dateline='1275943236']
"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die, because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We, privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred."

-Richard Dawkins (Unweaving the Rainbow)

LOL... from that point of view i just "killed" the potential of more than 500 million potential lives last night...

"Every sperm is sacred" - cue Monty Python music.

[J.R. Braden]

Why not stay more open minded and say "I have utterly no idea..."?

Because that would be a lie. I have a very good idea what will happens after I die. My mind won't exist and my body will rot. In fact, you can run a simple experiment to show the effects of death on people: Kill a man and ask him what he feels. You won't get a response because he will be dead. Death is the absence of life, so, by definition, the concept of life after death is logically incoherent: In the absence of life, there can be no life. How does that not make sense to most people?