When I was young, my mom said that we turn into animals when we die. Now, I'm not sure if she was saying it that way to sugar-coat it so I wouldn't get scared, but what do you guys think?
I must say I disagree. I'm pretty sure that I won't turn into an animal when I die, and I don't think anyone else will either. I agree with CaptnAmazing, but I believe a little more specifically. :) (I won't bore you with the details, as some people might find my beliefs offensive.)
It ties into your religious beliefs, I suppose. Most believe in some form of afterlife, whether it be in the form of a "paradise" or being reincarnated (as either a human or another animal). Personally though, I don't believe you're anything after you die but bones in the ground. If we're speaking from a sentimental/emotional/mental aspect, I do think you live on through memories and your legacy, but to me, death is nothing.
I don't really know. It is life's mystery we will never solve. But I do wonder what will become of me after this life.
I agree with Misty, I don't believe in the afterlife . . . I honestly wish I did because it causes me a lot of troubles but . . . anyway, I don't believe in reincarnation . . . though i'm not prejudice against other's religions or beliefs . . . I think if I could, I would like to come back as a fish because I can't swim ^_^
I believe in heaven, not too sure about reincarnation. I mean, the idea is cool, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not the biggest religious person, but I don't know. There are some religions that believe in reincarnation, others only believe in things like heaven, and yet even others believe in both. I suppose it's really what you want to believe
I am going to sound amazingly negative here... But I dont belive in anything after we die. One life,when its over,its over. Thats not to say I dont want to belive in "life after death"...its just,I cant. If I could,well then I would probebly feel a lot better,but meh. I am used to not feeling "better".
I wish I believed in a "Life after Death"... I think that once you're gone - You're gone. I sometimes try to convince myself that reincarnation can happen - Because this usually runs through my mind: "This can't be it, can it?" But, I believe that this is all the time we get.
In a sense yes we turn into animals. Not like some magical metamorphisis or anything like reincarnation, but chemically we do. When we die, our bodies are left behind, their decaying form is taken in by the earth, which in turns uses the matter and energy we have given it to grow plants and trees, from those plants and trees, animals feed off the plants, another animal feeds off the animal who has eaten the plant thereby you are effectively essimilated into the animal's biological system. So yes we can become an animal, but only become a part of one that is already alive and eats our old energy and matter that is left behind. In turn we eat these animals, thereby becoming part of the human system again, and when a human dies the cycle starts all over again. I myself believe in giving my body back to nature, ideally my organs and such would be harvested for those in need and my body left to be fed on by animals. In essence I become one with land again, as part of a tree or the grass or the animals that roam it. A sky burial has always been to me quite a respectable funeral, I become part of the birads and fly over the world below andgive what I have left to the world that bore me. As for reincarnation, I believe we live on in more obscure but direct ways even when our body passes this mortal coil.
To play devil's advocate a bit, cremation conflicts with this, does it not? Unless your ashes do the same thing.
Personally i'm with the belief that once you die, that's it. You're dead. End of your life, nothing else happens aside from your body either being cremated or slowly decomposing.
Technically, when you are burned, your bodily matter is converted into energy that could potentially be utilized by animals or plants (Oxygen/CO2), which technically makes us a part of the animals. But there are a lot of technicalities in there.
I don't really care about what happens when I die, I'm more focused on what's happening here and now. Although, when I do my body will die but my spirit will live on in both my family and descendents.
I liked the ideas the Anglo-Saxons went with: value earthly things, friendship, loyalty, etc, and and then when you're gone, you're gone. I don't know anything about an afterlife, and I really can't fathom the idea of a second life after death, but I do like to believe in reincarnation. Maybe I'll be a bird or something.
I like this way of looking at it. It reminds me well of an old poem I read, even using the same words. You have read it, have you not? I cannot find it, but it comes to mind. A free verse poem from a sort of transcendental perspective about death, and laying down to rest. Your matter will be recycled no matter what happens to it after you pass on, but some ways are more profitable than others. Giving your organs like he suggested is a more direct way to help those who live on. Most models of the universe that I consider reasonable force me to assert that I do not exist as an individual, and that there is no before and after my life. I am the universe, and the universe is me. We are all the same thing, and if I die, I die only in illusion because I was the whole thing at the same time; only a part of me died. Like a skin cell dying and wasting away, blowing in the wind. The body lives on without that cell, so there is an 'afterlife' for that cell, as the whole of it lives on. The film AKIRA was an artistic expression of this line of thinking. I recommend watching it if you wish to grasp my meaning. Another part of me likes to think that I am dreaming, and I cannot die while dreaming; I was never alive to begin with. No body, only dreaming that I have a body. All is one and one is all again, but I am at the center of it. I feel this way whenever I get the feeling that I might be dreaming, or when something seems too surreal to be happening. This is the polar opposite of my other view. It holds that I exist as an individual and that I am the only thing that exists in all of reality. It is impossible to debate the two views because they are both possible conclusions based on logical reasoning. Perception is gamble, and in this case it is fifty-fifty. I do not believe in death in either case, so that is my answer; I do not believe that one will experience anything after the experience of dying. Among other things... I am always doubting, and it would be interesting to see if I were wrong. Neither of my conclusions please me, so I might be happy to find that the world meant something.
Reincarnation is a nice belief I think, however I believe that everyone goes to heaven, imo God is omnibenevolent and omnipotent so therefore should save all his children when they die, not only save those who believe. It says that we aren't of this world, we just live here- our real home in the kingdom of God so why would only a few get to go there? It just seems unfair. I don't like the thought of hell, I think it's just horrible. Reincarnation and the beliefs of a Hindu fascinate me, but their thoughts are that to break out of the cycle of Samsara (stop the reincarnation of your soul) and achieve liberation you must prove it by becoming perfect- which I believe is impossible, but I do like their beliefs of karma and the atman (soul) but I don't believe them. Of course, I could be completely wrong and I don't doubt that for a moment, but it's a thought that I believe and it comforts me completely.
I actually took the idea from the old Mongolian shamanistic ideas on the subject of death. They say that when you die your soul becomes part of the earth, the sky, the mountains, the river and that which lives in the world. It might have been the earliest theory on what happens to you after you die concerning the cchange of matter and energy. I've found most nature type religious beliefs could be interpreted as som form of early science theories, and it is lovely to think that 3000 years ago we had some grasp on the law of the Universe even if we didn't know it at the time. Now that I read it over it does seem like something i've read before, but... I can't think of what exactly, but you are right it reminds me of a poem. Makaze answers this well enough, every piece of matter and energy today has been in the past recycled into different forms and back again, we could be breathing the same air as the dinosaurs did, it's through a recycling process that allows elements to be sustainable to be used over again. It's a massive chain of events that has led to the current incarnation of the matter you see (and don't see) before you. The carbon in my body might of one day long ago been part of a diamond structure, but over time it has become part of me. We are all connected by one thing or another.
Since my family is Christian, I was taught you'd either go to heaven or hell when you died. Though we went to a strange church when I was younger, and there they taught us we do reincarnate into another life until the end of the world. I like to think there is a heaven, but I'm not too sure now since my beliefs have changed.
Even though I'm a Catholic, I believe that you resurrect as an animal. I don't know why I believe that, I guess because it makes sense. And then I believe when you die as an animal, you resurrect as a human. It's like an endless cycle.
