Could it be that faith is what generates or 'creates' an afterlife? Could it be that belief in God or an afterlife is what opens the door to an alternate reality?
Consider:
Quantum Theory Demonstrated: Observation Affects Reality
Experiment confirms quantum theory weirdness May 27, 2015
For as far back as anyone can remember, religion has insisted that faith was the critical component to a person's survival after death. Faith is what 'gets you there' if not what creates the 'there' at the outset. Suppose that an atheist who believes nothing exists after death will be right...AS will a believer who is confident in an opposing existential conclusion.
Hello N:
Sure they could.. After all, there are people who believe that Obama was born here, and that he wasn't... Other than that, I have NO IDEA what you're talking about..
excon
You realize this question has nothing to do with politics OR Obama, right?
Yes, God only exists for who believe
1) Correct.
http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/can-prayer-heal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficacy_of_prayer
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-find-one-source-of-prayers-power/
2) But did you believe in God or an afterlife PRIOR to the experience?
To be God, wouldn't He or She have to be transcendent of our expectations/beliefs? Somebody has to be the final Arbiter of the true state of Schrodinger's cat.
No there are not many realities.There is absolute truth, according to God! He says he made the heavens and the earth. He rewards people who love him, and he curses those who don't. I want my family to be blessed. God says "all sins lead to death" It is not our actions who saves us but what Jesus, Gods Son, did 2016 years ago for humanity. The consequences of Him saving us will lead to heaven if we repent and believe, or we will stand for judgment. It is not wishful thinking that will get your family blessed or cursed. So I urge people to repent and follow Jesus. He will answer our prayers and bless us in this life, protect our families, and spare us from the judgment that is coming very soon. What can be more important?
"No there are not many realities."
How do you know? Does the bible not speak of worlds, states, realms, hosts and 'mansions' seen and unseen?
"There is absolute truth, according to God! He says he made the heavens and the earth. He rewards people who love him, and he curses those who don't."
I am a Christian universalist. I do not share your narrow (and somewhat monstrous) view of God.
"God says 'all sins lead to death'."
Actually, the Bible records God as saying ..."the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel)" and "the wages of sin is death...(Romans)." That's kinda sorta what I was talking about with the question. Atheists don't believe and are thus 'locked in the sin OF disbelief' if you will. Does the end of their life not equal the cessation of existence both physical and spiritual?
Believers are 100 percent correct about the end of their lives in that they go onto eternal life by the grace of God through Jesus Christ whereas those who don't believe are 100 percent correct about the end of their existence. Both believers and atheists are right. :-)
{Ah, Microsoft strikes again! Accidentally hit some side key and deleted my first answer incomplete!)
An interesting question!
The atheist accepts death is followed simply by physical decomposition, and that's it - though might gain some sort of spiritual satisfaction in the fact that every atom in his or her body has been here since the Earth was formed, and will be released to a new use in something else. He or she cannot prove the non-existence of a supernatural soul, nor indeed of a deity.
The believer relies on the belief being purely that, lacking all evidence or corroboration, because we cannot prove the existence of an everlasting soul of some sort. Let alone eternal lives or gods.
However, that belief is a fundamental plank of every known current religion, and of every extinct but known religion (like the Ancient Greek pantheon). By purely circumstantial evidence from graves, it is very likely that ancient Man had similar beliefs although we cannot know what those were. This means two things.
1) There is no one "true" religion. The stance taken by Carazza and others - that an idea must be "true" because it is in the Bible or other supposedly-holy book - does not hold water because such writings are only statements of their authors' beliefs within their own societies. They are parallel to other religions in affirming a faith in an after-life of some sort; but none can prove such after-life nor indeed the existence of its god(s). Further, any religion is only "true" to its own followers - and a fractious lot many are, squabbling pettily or even viciously over how to pray to their own god.
Obviously no religion is true to the atheist, by definition, but the atheist finds comfort in accepting mortality, not seeking what from his or her view must be a strange, aimless, drifting existence as some sort of ghost.
2) All known religions that have come and gone upheld an after-life of blissful peace in some way. Those religions that died many millennia ago with their cultures very likely held a similar idea, though we cannot say so for certain as the only evidence is the nature of burial traces.
Therefore I think we can accept that religion's main purpose has always been to provide some sort of bereavement counselling, ever since very early Man started to bury his own dead in what they saw as a respectful and dignified manner. (Other animals simply lie where they die, for weather, bacteria and scavengers to dispose of the body - in fact some human cultures have exploited this in the funerary practice of 'exhumation', with due ceremony.)
Historically, the other main purposes of religion have generally been philosophical - why are we here and for whom - and cultural - a basis for social custom, law and artistic inspiration.
So if religion was a bereavement service, it's only natural for it to develop a belief in an after-life, in some form.
There is no such thing as a "one true religion"; each works only for its adherents, but all espouse that after-life.
Whether belief in such after-life opens any spiritual doors as Nimitz asks, is of course a matter purely of faith because we cannot possibly know. We cannot say there is such a thing as a "soul" necessary for such after-life or "alternative reality" - there is no evidence for these - BUT belief in a "soul" is pre-requisite for belief in an after-life, and therefore part of the religion's importance to followers as a means of lessening that most primitive of human fears - that of death.
Perhaps Nimitz is right to the extent that both believer and atheist are right. Each has his or her own approach to personal mortality, and ultimately what matters to the individual is not any belief or otherwise in the supernatural, but coming to terms with that very natural mortality.
Wow! Your answer is five times more interesting than the question! Being a believer I will obviously disagree with a few key points, but on the main you did a stellar job addressing the original dilemma...uh, with the possible exception of commenting on the (quantum?) mechanics of belief/disbelief. Can faith really move mountains (or establish an afterlife/link to an afterlife) and. if so, how?
Moreover, discounting the whole "one true religion" aspect of this phenomenon, is there some otherwise 'evolutionary' benefit to the development of a belief system beyond the sociological or anthropological? Could our ancestors have somehow 'divined' an existence beyond the physical based on the application of principles loosely relating to what we now understand as science, or did they 'merely' create it, whole cloth, in an attempt to find closure to an ephemeral existence?
Edit: FWIW, I use the bible as a reference in response to others who use it as a reference.
Hello N:
Duh, No shit Sherlock.. Look. Do you wanna discuss POLITICS or PERSONALITIES??? Cause I'll put you down all day long.. I LOVE putting right wingers in their place.
excon
Thank you Nimitz.
I understand you using the Bible as reference since that's the text you and most others here know.
The problem with knowing if faith establishes links to an afterlife is actually being able to prove it, but I can understand its importance to the faithful.
Whatever our ancestors did or thought, humanity does seem to need a spiritual dimension in which to believe. That belief takes many forms, but always seems to come back to that original yearning. There may be a benefit, both as comfort to the dying and bereaved, and to provide a sort of external authority to social behaviour; but I cannot say if it goes beyond these.
Unbelievers do not believe that they will be punished by God for their sins. They are sadly wrong. They will, unless Jesus answers their prayers. And he will if they love him. How do I know? Because God blesses me and answers my prayers, and there has never been disasters in my family, no cancers no disasters and no poverty. God protects us for many generations. People are hardheaded and think they can escape? Only to have a little pleasure and do what they feel like doing in this life. But even that is often short lived with pain and suffering. Yes we all have suffering in this life but for those who love Jesus he hears our prayers and can help us in our suffering and keep us safe from this life and life ever after. If we are a Christian, then we need to analize if we are truly saved and have had our hearts changed.In the last days before Jesus coming there will be times of great signs like increased "Great" earthquakes, and false teachers that looks like Christianity but it is of Satan. Satan comes like a angel of light deceiving the whole world, if it was possible even the elect.
God is HOLY, and perfect. We are monstrous, selfish, and deserve punishment. He will do away with ALL sin. So if you sin you are in trouble. That is why Jesus came to save the world. God says in the 10 commandments in Exodus 20 "I am a jealous God punishing the children of the Fathers who hate me to the 3rd and 4th generation, and blessing the children of the parents who love me to the 1000's generation. Jesus says "I go and prepare a mansion for you" to those who love him. He says "I am coming soon." I believe very, very soon. You tube all the people who think so too. I pray you will be ready for him.
This is a great sermon, Carazaa, but it does nothing to address the question or my last response to you.
Good day/God bless you, Carazaa.
I can't say, either, but I think there's more to the story than contriving some mechanism to deal with death/dying. I do see your point, but as elusive as 'proving' an alternate reality might be, I believe the natural world offers some clues. If observation affects reality, and expectations (faith) affect our observations, it isn't much of a stretch to posit that merely seeking a reality beyond the current, perceivable one might actually produce it.
If two computer programs on a holodeck call for the Arch, does it appear? Did it exist prior to being evoked? :-)
I can only imagine how transformative that experience must have been! In a way I'm envious...but not! :-)
I tried hard to answer your question "How do you know"? And I was replying to your accusation that my view of God is "Monstrous" I addressed your original question the best I could in my first reply. You are quite sarcastic saying that this is a great sermon. I always try to witness,.
I'm not a right winger, Ex. This is yet another demonstration of your need to stereotype, pigeonhole and dehumanize those who dare to disagree with you. Thanks for the exhibition. Others may yet need convincing. :-)
In any case, I'll be glad to discuss politics with you...WHEN the question concerns politics. This one clearly does not.
Have a good day, Ex. :-)
And you've born witness to what you believe rather well.
I've no wish to quarrel with another member of the faith, however, so I'll drop it here. Sorry if you took offense.
OK thank you. I would like to clarify something that I said. I don't want to preach just clarify what I meant. I did not mean that Christians don't ever get cancer or that terrible things don't ever happen to Christians, but God promises to answer our prayers and help us. I feel that is true in my life. God bless you too, Nimitz!
I see what you mean but does that risk the alternative reality being a construct of our own rather than really being something out there somewhere?
For perceptually limited beings such as ourselves, that degree of information may be unknowable. . .or at least at this stage of our evolution. :-)
