Interesting topic!
The only afterlife we can be sure of is that eventually, we will all be recycled and be part of other life forms. Our atoms will never leave the Universe; forever they will be recycled and perhaps become stardust.

As an atheist (at least until someone can prove to me that there is a god at which point I will become a believer) I believe that people have no soul that is separate from the physical body.
When the brain dies, that’s it.
Hell and heaven exist only in people’s minds. It is probably pacifying for some to believe that there is another life after this one, but there is no evidence of it at all.
I am happy with being recycled in the same way all my shedded dead (yet very well moisturised) skin and hair cells and nails have been recycled since I was born.

In fact, our whole body is being gradually replaced every so many years. The cells that make up your body right now didn’t even exist about ten or so years ago- your body has slowly replaced itself. Are the dead cells which you lost suffering in any way because they haven’t gone to heaven? No… they just became stardust or dust mite food. The same will happen with all of our cells when we die; we won’t suffer or even realise it when all our cells will die at the same time instead of gradually, including our brain cells. There is no ‘soul’ that has a life without our physical brain.
Anyway, the best way to guarantee an afterlife for much of your body is to donate your organs.

Spanky, it would be fascinating to find out the truth about déjà vu etc.

About the point on freezing bodies, I can only say that healthy babies have been born from frozen embryos so it might indeed be possible to ‘resurrect’ someone this way.

Continued

About near death experiences, these experiences can be artificially induced by stimulating certain regions in the brain. Perhaps certain hormones or chemicals are produced by the brain that will stimulate these brain cells when we die, or it’s a lack of oxygen or something. I’m sure there is a good scientific explanation for it.

Spanky said: “I've heard of people requesting to be buried with some money in their coffins, to spend in their afterlife.” Oh that’s hilarious- well the Egyptians did the same, didn’t they, taking all their possessions into their tombs. Shame that their brain got ripped out before mummification; it would have come in handy in a next life.

I wonder if burried money goes to heaven… perhaps dirty money will go to hell, whereas laundered money gets into heaven, right?

I really hope that there is no heaven- it seems like a very boring place to be, with nothing to do for eternity and sit around forever with people like Abbott and Pyne.

BOAZ, (or Philo, or anyone with knowledge of the Bible) excuse my ignorance but is Hell being mentioned somewhere in the Bible or was it made up by people after the Bible was written?

Celivia,
The fact is hell is not mentioned once in the Old Testament as Catholics believe. In the OT the Hebrew sheol is used exclusively to refer to the grave. Where the Hebrew word sheol is translated into English hell it means the grave - the place of the dead. It has no reference to an afterlife. The Hebrews had no belief in an afterlife unlike the Egyptians.

Jesus used the term Gehanna a place in the valey of Hinnon which was an ever burning waste disposal area outside Jerusalem. Jesus use of the idea of casting into gehanna has more to do with discarding evil character, behaviour and attitudes characterised as garbage - waste. The Kingdom of righteousness will prevail, and evil characters will be destroyed.

In Matthew 11: 23 Jesus uses the Greek word hades when addressing the mission of the Church that the current evil forces of hades would not prevail. Hades was a Greek view of the afterlife.

Until westerner atheists can see people as not merely their body of natural chemistry, but recognise people are essentially their attitudes, character, behaviours, wisdom understanding etc they will not understand spiritual reality. The kingdom of heaven and hell operate in these dimensions, not in some field of organic chemistry. Our body is merely the venue of the activity of one's mortal life. What is esentially the person has played a continuing part in the living history of humanity.

Philo, the dna that created me, is pure organic chemistry,
no ghosts or spirits in sight anywhere. Just like all other
beings, of all other species.

Frankly, once I fall off the proverbial perch, I really
could not give a rats arse as to what happens to my
remains, as I won't be around to know.

I am far more concerned with suffering of humans and
other species, in this world, fully concious. When warped
religious dogma surfaces, like Catholic dogma that suffering
is noble, then I have a problem.

If Catholics want to suffer, well good luck to them.
They should have no right however, to inflict that dogma
onto the rest of us. Thats exactly what they are doing,
in wanting to deny people the right to euthanasia.

Let them suffer all they want, but please don't enforce
such nonsense on the rest of us.

You know what?
From reading threads like Yabby's, how do we know that when we "kick the can", that we can no longer feel pain? It's not been proven, for all we know, those that get cremated spend there time in the other life, still burning!
The same goes with burial, are we suffocating for all eternity on the other side?

Yabby,
Your personal world view is a total contradiction. You say you are about stopping pain - your answer - euthanise. Then say there is no life after death - euthanise. It that your answer to life? You said, "When warped religious dogma surfaces, like Catholic dogma that suffering is noble, then I have a problem." Your thesis is that suffering Pain is the dogma of the Catholics. Get real! Pain is part of being alive; you either live and manage with good spirit, or face your answer - death. I'd rather live with my pain than die. It reminds me of my mortality so I am able to sympathise with those that suffer - that's noble.

We all suffer pain it is a living mechanism that lets us know we have injury or damage to our bodies. We cannot escape pain. It is better to endure it, find a cure to subdue it than your alternative - euthanise. You are espousing the cult of death as the answer to anything that suffers pain. I might point out - Catholics manage hospitals and palitave care because they care about people that suffer pain. Your answer does not offer care and pain management - "Kill them so they no longer exist". Strange!

You said, "no ghosts or spirits in sight anywhere". I say your spirit has no material or dna substance so stop looking for ghosts as though they have form. I say show me the substance of your love that is transferred that others feel. That is your spirit - but I forgot "you have no spirit" - then you do not obviously demonstrate a compassionate spirit to Catholics. By this quote; "Let them suffer all they want, but please don't enforce such nonsense on the rest of us". I thought they too were human. Small minded! You cannot see pain as part of living and want to euthanise anyone who suffers pain so that they are no longer. Noble people are able to live with pain and not whine and complain about Catholic dogma and want to commit suicide.