Posted: Nov 17, 2010 3:35 am
Everybody faces their own death. It’s the ultimate moment of Truth which gets closer each day.
Atheists and theists alike BOTH have coping mechanisms - one says it doesn’t matter, death is NOT the end. The other says it doesn’t matter death IS the end. Both are voluntarily held views about death.
But what if life after death was simply a matter of “believing” in the soul? Your own personal continuation of a journey of existence in a reality which your “soul” can either keep traveling through or, if it is tired, simply give up the journey.
What if the afterlife is a placebo effect and the only thing your soul needs to survive the physical death of the body is conscious exercising of your soul - psyche, ego, chi, free will, mind, anima/animus, etc, call it whatever you like - by doing things which atheists would say are a waste of time (Praying, believing God and the afterlife.) What if the strong soul did not "die" and the sickly weak one did? The ne plus ultra of placebo effects.
There is ample evidence of psycho-cybernetics, where people who, for no other apparent reason, were able to achieve feats of endurance simply because they “believed” they could. Mind over matter.
What if the ability of the soul to continue conscious existence outside the body really was optional? What if the ONE THING needed for your soul to survive an illness called "death" was a strong immune system called "belief".
If you don’t think you have a soul then it doesn’t really matter whether your soul has a weak immune response to the process we “call” dying. But what if the physical/material transformation known as death (as a trauma,) impacts conscious awareness of "reality" differently depending on the individual souls "immune system"? What if atheism is an idea which, if embraced, is to the soul, what smoking is to the lungs? Or to use a different analogy, what if the soul is an entity/energy which can either be concentrated (strengthened) by the vaccine called theism or diluted (weakened) by the sickness called atheism which literally sees the patient embracing no hope of a cure or antidote that can surpass death – no placebo is offered.
Psychoanalysis is sometimes called the talking cure. Words making a person well. Words curing a persons (mental) illness. Think about that for a second. Words (from the mind) curing someone’s sickness.
The connection between mind and body is ....how shall we say..."complex". (Don’t want to say anything which sounds like "woo") But there wouldn’t be too much objection to the claim that your health and immune system are related to mental attitude and the idea of DIS-EASE caused by stress is widely accepted by mainstream medicine.
Well, what if you can strengthen your soul’s immune system like some chi gung exercise to the point where death, when it comes, is not the dissolving of your conscious awareness of reality but a release of concentrated energy – a “big bang” new beginning if you like.
If you insist on believing that there is no God and no soul and no parallel universe called the afterlife, then maybe there doesn’t have to be. You simply get what you expect. Nothing. And on the other hand, maybe you really do reap what you sow when it comes to belief and faith in afterlife reality – even if it is just a holograph...part of some weird quantum "woo" metaphysics.
BTW – The placebo afterlife and spiritual immune system is just an idea about death, the soul and the afterlife for consideration of atheists and agnostics. It’s a thought experiment. Nothing more. Make of it what you will. I wont be debating theology or religious doctrines in this thread. I will read any further comments or responses with interest but don’t bother fisking me or trying to “crash test” my Christian comfort zone. I'm alright Jack! Stress free thank God.
Lion (IRC)
Atheists and theists alike BOTH have coping mechanisms - one says it doesn’t matter, death is NOT the end. The other says it doesn’t matter death IS the end. Both are voluntarily held views about death.
But what if life after death was simply a matter of “believing” in the soul? Your own personal continuation of a journey of existence in a reality which your “soul” can either keep traveling through or, if it is tired, simply give up the journey.
What if the afterlife is a placebo effect and the only thing your soul needs to survive the physical death of the body is conscious exercising of your soul - psyche, ego, chi, free will, mind, anima/animus, etc, call it whatever you like - by doing things which atheists would say are a waste of time (Praying, believing God and the afterlife.) What if the strong soul did not "die" and the sickly weak one did? The ne plus ultra of placebo effects.
There is ample evidence of psycho-cybernetics, where people who, for no other apparent reason, were able to achieve feats of endurance simply because they “believed” they could. Mind over matter.
What if the ability of the soul to continue conscious existence outside the body really was optional? What if the ONE THING needed for your soul to survive an illness called "death" was a strong immune system called "belief".
If you don’t think you have a soul then it doesn’t really matter whether your soul has a weak immune response to the process we “call” dying. But what if the physical/material transformation known as death (as a trauma,) impacts conscious awareness of "reality" differently depending on the individual souls "immune system"? What if atheism is an idea which, if embraced, is to the soul, what smoking is to the lungs? Or to use a different analogy, what if the soul is an entity/energy which can either be concentrated (strengthened) by the vaccine called theism or diluted (weakened) by the sickness called atheism which literally sees the patient embracing no hope of a cure or antidote that can surpass death – no placebo is offered.
Psychoanalysis is sometimes called the talking cure. Words making a person well. Words curing a persons (mental) illness. Think about that for a second. Words (from the mind) curing someone’s sickness.
The connection between mind and body is ....how shall we say..."complex". (Don’t want to say anything which sounds like "woo") But there wouldn’t be too much objection to the claim that your health and immune system are related to mental attitude and the idea of DIS-EASE caused by stress is widely accepted by mainstream medicine.
Well, what if you can strengthen your soul’s immune system like some chi gung exercise to the point where death, when it comes, is not the dissolving of your conscious awareness of reality but a release of concentrated energy – a “big bang” new beginning if you like.
If you insist on believing that there is no God and no soul and no parallel universe called the afterlife, then maybe there doesn’t have to be. You simply get what you expect. Nothing. And on the other hand, maybe you really do reap what you sow when it comes to belief and faith in afterlife reality – even if it is just a holograph...part of some weird quantum "woo" metaphysics.
BTW – The placebo afterlife and spiritual immune system is just an idea about death, the soul and the afterlife for consideration of atheists and agnostics. It’s a thought experiment. Nothing more. Make of it what you will. I wont be debating theology or religious doctrines in this thread. I will read any further comments or responses with interest but don’t bother fisking me or trying to “crash test” my Christian comfort zone. I'm alright Jack! Stress free thank God.
Lion (IRC)