hey [#1542]

[DL]

hey ive watched some of your videos on how god is imaginary and i was just wondering what you think happens to you when you die. now im not trying to prove you wrong or anything i was just curious.

thanks.

[William]

Exactly the same as what happened before you had a life - basically nothing, and it doesn't matter or hurt 

[Emily]

It's the end of you. (BTW: Live life to the fullest while you can, and don't worry about being sent to fictional places like heaven or hell.)

[Hermes]

hey ive watched some of your videos on how god is imaginary and i was just wondering what you think happens to you when you die. now im not trying to prove you wrong or anything i was just curious.

I'm open to discovering more about this topic.  For now, here's my reply, based on what I currently think matches reality.  If you agree or disagree and have details to add to this conversation, feel free to join the forums and add your comments to the thread on this topic...

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No souls, no way to get to an afterlife
http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forums/index.php?topic=6546

How can anyone get to an afterlife if there is no such thing as an incorporeal soul?  You can't; even if Heaven exists, nothing that ever was alive will ever get there.

Consider my more modest wall of words that I never get a complete answer to;

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"Where will I go when I die?"

I know the answer to that.  When I'm alive, I am -- when I'm dead, I am not.

Here's the long version;

Summary: There is no such thing as a soul.  Because of that, there is no existence for us after our lives are over.  That's why it's called death.

How can I write that with any confidence?

Think about what we know -- what we can actually check and examine.  Think about what we do not need to speculate about -- on both life and death.

1. Death is not a clear line; on one side alive, on the other completely dead.

Death happens in stages as individual cells no longer retain integrity for a variety of reasons, often because of oxygen starvation from organ failure or trauma that prevents the blood from circulating.  Parts of us are dying and new cells are being made all the time.

2. Organ transplants.  Even when 'we' cease to be, parts of us are still coherent, allowing organ transplants.  There is even a method of blood extraction from corpses that is used occasionally.

3. All of our thoughts while we are alive are contained in a structure of neurons.  This can be seen in a variety of well documented cases from Phineas Gage through to the impacts of severing the corpus colosum and the impacts of traumas such as strokes and alzheimers as well as the structures found that map nerves to a variety of tasks and thoughts.

4. When people start to die, the brain is frequently one of the last organs to be starved of oxygen.

5. The 'tunnel of light' is caused by the visual cortex losing oxygen and the remaining parts of the brain attempting to deal with that.  The same 'tunnel' can be simulated.  Pilots experience this when they use a centrifuge under high G forces for training or to test new gear.  Both these are documented and can be duplicated with the proper equipment and/or circumstances.

6. People who live after being through this oxygen starvation tell stories based on their brain's attempt to deal with the stress.  They talk about 'flash backs', they talk about 'stepping outside' of themselves and seeing themselves.  The same thing the pilots in the centrifuges report.

7. The more time the brain or any organ is starved, the more damage.

8. People don't act any differently from more damage (that brings them closer to complete death and thus an 'afterlife') then other victims of brain damage.

9. When people 'come back' from 'the dead' their bodies have not suffered complete cell death; they weren't completely dead.

10. When cell death is complete, there is no place for 'us' to stand; there is no way to 'see the other side' and return to talk about it.

11. Think back to #3.  Now, with that in mind, where do 'we' go if our brains suffer a stroke or other damage?  Are there surpluses of souls hanging around, waiting for brain damage before they can be inserted into a live body?

[Irish]

i was just wondering what you think happens to you when you die

Nothing.  When you die you die.  Game over, goodbye, sianara, see ya later, et cetera.  The same thing happens after you exist as happened before you existed.

A similar question I pose to you.  What do you think happened to you before you were born?  Can you remember?  The same thing happens after you die that happened before you were born... nothing.

[Ashe]

You stop existing.

[Procrustes]

You stop existing.

A quibble.  How are you defining existence?  How are you defining "you"? 

If I suffer a heart attack right now and "die," as in, my heart and brain cease to function, my body still exists, but my perception does not.  So, if you're speaking of "you" being "your perception," then, in an existential way, you're right, but only from the point of view of the deceased.  If another existentialist comes trotting along, it's not as if the deceased's lack of self-awareness prevents the living from tripping over the corpus. 

[Ashe]

If I suffer a heart attack right now and "die," as in, my heart and brain cease to function, my body still exists, but my perception does not.  So, if you're speaking of "you" being "your perception," then, in an existential way, you're right, but only from the point of view of the deceased.  If another existentialist comes trotting along, it's not as if the deceased's lack of self-awareness prevents the living from tripping over the corpus. 

The bolded part. I speak only from the point of view of the deceased, as I interpreted the question from a personal perspective and, from my perspective, it's not necessary to wonder about my physical body once I've reached death. In that sense, after death, my body is going to decay or otherwise go back to nature.

[StPatrick]

hey ive watched some of your videos on how god is imaginary and i was just wondering what you think happens to you when you die. now im not trying to prove you wrong or anything i was just curious.

thanks.

Do you remember what it was like before you were born?  It's like that.

[Nam]

I have no idea. Truthfully, I'm hoping nothing at all. Who wants to live forever? Oh, yeah: religious people -- and Vampires.

-Nam