Philo <" Tests have been done on the brain of people who passionately believe in the afterlife and there is a strong positive electromagnetic field surrounding them, while persons without hope of any future radiate a strong negative field."

Really? I would love to see the scientific results of such tests.
Do you have any websites with this information?
Were the tests done under scientific guidelines or were they attended by religious organisations?

I have seen many people die in my job. The non-religious people died just as peacefully as the others, given the same circumstances.

AJ Philips,<<''i maintain my beliefs,or lack of beliefs no matter how much I may not like them.>>that sure sounds like your maintaining a negative belief/if your belief greats a negative/how sound is it

<<For example,it's easy to say that death will be just like before we were born,>>>sure easy to say/but totally wrong..see before we wwre born/we had the life force of one living sperm[living energy that has grown over your life]..so much more..'energy when we die/..ENERGY/cannot be created nor destroyed'[life comes from life/life energy must live on..[or science is fraud]

<<..but the difference will be that unlike before we were born, death will be permanent and eternal.>>a falicy in so many ways..death is a change of state..one constant in life is change..permanent death is a delusion...[a negative'faith'...you use eternal like a blind man says i see...if your belief precludes death..there can be no eternal/concept founding your errant belief

<<This,[death will be permanent and eternal]..to me,..is the most unnerving aspect of reality,..but I’ll continue..to believe this to be the case/regardless of how much I hate the idea/>>i dont think you hate as much as fear/your delusional missconception of 'eternal'

after death is life/ever evolving/mothing is permant/except the life force sustaining us to live[our being born again/and again..many times[growing changing eternally]..'so much more shall be given'

<<until reliable evidence..to the contrary arises.>>lol your so sure/present your evidence[why should we provide evidence to you/its your belief/its your choice to believe/give life to a lie..you have a hope/fear/not a belief

<<But to cope..with this unsettling reality,>>your belief gives you cope/my belief creates hope/[actually a surity../but believe as you chose/..but why chose such a negative belief/..hope/not cope

[if im wrong i will never know/if your wrong you have eternity/...knowing your decieved yourself]..needlessly/negativly

Thanks for sharing that, Foxy. I don’t want to be the Grinch here, but there just seemed to be so much wishful thinking going on in this thread that I thought I’d throw something different into the mix to shake things up a bit.

OUG,

<<[if im wrong i will never know...>>

Actually, considering how many Gods there are, you’re virtually as likely as me to be wrong if a God does exist. So if you're wrong and a different God does exist, then you'll still know about it.

But at least I’m not making this God or Gods extra angry by worshipping a false God. Think of it as an Atheist’s Wager as opposed to the fallacious Pascal’s Wager.

<<.../if your wrong you have eternity/...knowing your decieved yourself...>>

No, if I’m wrong, I’ll at least live for an eternity in the comfort of knowing that I didn’t foolishly believe in a God despite the total lack of evidence.

No deceiving myself there.

You see, OUG, if it matters not that I may be wrong, because if this God of yours or any other God actually exists, then it has some serious ‘splaing to do.

I am still curious why people feel it is important or necessary to believe in an afterlife, or reincarnation, or more broadly a continuation of some form of ones being past death (supposedly conscious or else what would be the point),.

Certainly those who live incredibly blighted lives may have a sense of being 'owed a better one' or the belief in a paradise allowed them to cope with their lot, but I would hazard a guess that most posters on OLO are hardly in that category.

Is it the perfectionist that lies within so many of us? Do we feel if we had another chance we could do so much better, that we wouldn't make so many mistakes, that our regrets would be fewer?

Is it possibly a product of parenthood? Maternal and paternal instincts are very powerful emotions and we all have a sense that our children would be lost without us. Perhaps the thought that we will be looking over them after our demise is a comfort to us and maybe our children. Has this informed our religions? 'There will come a day when I will join the father in heaven'.

Might it be the thought of 'The lonely grave'? A fear of dark, claustrophobic places?

Is it that our instinct for life is so strong, as it is in many other creatures, that the idea that life continues after death helps deal with the stress that awareness of ones inevitable mortality must obviously bring?

Is it a sense of disappointment that this might 'be all there is'? I'm with Dawkins on this one – why on earth don't we feel this is enough?

I'm a little reluctant to pursue this given many of the posts above, but as open debate is why we are here on this forum I shall take the risk. Some have discussed what they believe but not why. Is it too difficult? Does that type of self examination threaten ones beliefs or is it just the wrong question?

Dear Foxy,
I’d have to agree with AJ Philips that putting hope and truth in one context is “a good way of putting it”, although I do not think they represent mutually exclusive perspectives. They are related: hope without truth is pointless, truth without hope is barren. Hope is what the Yin in us points to, Truth is what the Yang in us points to, if you can bear a mathematician’s attempts at poetry.

So I think it is more of a question of preference: while I think I still have a couple of years left to live, truth is in the foreground, hope in the background; on my deathbed, I reckon, it will be the other way around.

Hope is a state of mind, perhaps not that distinct from Faith. Truth is what science (and for some also religion) deals with and what philosophy (including that of science and of religion) tries to understand.

Especially for a dying person, Faith can offer peace of mind (apparently the case of your stepfather) coming from Hope, as hard as it is to imagine its promises. This does not mean that there are no other ways of dying peacefully, e.g. succumbing to the hopelessness of “non-existence”, perhaps because it requires no imagination.

csteele: <"... why on earth don't we feel this is enough?">

I am not sure Steele. I agree with George that there is wonderful comfort in nurturing one's spiritual beliefs (people with spiritual beliefs are also mentally and physically healthier though explanations vary as to why that seems to be the case). I think too that if we reject that there is more than this earthly life; we are then also required to reject every unusual experience down through time - like NDEs and all that. That would mean rejecting what seems like some available evidence wouldn't it.

Maybe too many of us feel that there needs to be more than this life because of the matter of justice. You know the sort of thing where some individuals are born into such wretched disadvantage that the only ones for whom this life might be "enough" are those who have had a pretty good one.

Personally I don't mind if I only get the one. Like most people I've had my downs and ups but on the whole I think I have been blessed. I am very grateful for the life I've had.

People say "reincarnation" and all I can say is that I hope we get a chance for good nap in between carnations. I'm a tired woman! Plus I don't feel like going all the way through school again :)