[Gmanc711]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

You're absolutely right, nobody knows for sure what happens when we die. A lot of scientists theorize that your brain stores a lifetime of memories, kind of like a computer. When you're alive, there's a system in place to suppress all of your memories from coming to the forefront of your attention, so that you can focus on learning and doing tasks. But when you die, that system begins to fail and all of your stored memories come to the forefront of your attention.

They theorize that when people have had near death experiences and have seen images of loved ones, they're actually hallucinating because of a combination of 1) the lack of oxygen to the brain (hence a change in chemical balance) and 2) memories surfacing in the brain.

You're right, these theories have not been proven, hence we call them theories. I find those explanations a lot more plausible then the existence of a heaven and a God. But you're right, I do not know for sure.

But an examination of human nature sure does point in one direction: humans are scared, fragile creatures. The fact that we are self-aware and conscious, combined with the fact that we will all die, combined with the fact that we feel so much grief when a loved one dies, creates a great deal of anxiety and defines the human condition. We search for an explanation of what life means and what death is like, but we find none. In the absence of explanation, we fall back on faith. Because without it, we're too scared to face what is most likely the truth:

That when a loved one dies, you will never see them again. That when you die, you will cease to exist. And that your life was just that, a life, nothing more.

When you read those words there, did you get a chill up your spine? Did you feel a little scared or even a little depressed? That's why religion was created: people just don't want to believe it. And they'd much rather go through life believing something else.

I can't knock it. Anything that makes you feel less scared is probably a good thing.

Thats pretty much exactly what I think. I think alot of religions are so people feel better somtimes, and you know what good for them. I mean I tend to have the faith that there is a heaven, and when someone dies they have a spirt somewhere...but do I really belive it? Not really. But it makes me feel better about it, so it's what people do. But that post is pretty much 100% spot on what I belive. And you're right, you can't knock it because dying is a scary thing to think about, so whatever you need to do to face it is what you should do.