Is there Life after Death?

Is there Life after Death?

It is likely that you have both asked this question and been asked it yourself during your life. There are so many different ideas and beliefs on the subject but are we just looking for reasons not to fear death? I hope to put a few discussion points forwards here.

 

Let’s start with the very well-known belief of Heaven and Hell.  Some people believe that when we die we go to a place that exists as a type of spiritual realm. It is seen to be as a reward for being either righteous or faithful to a given deity and being eternally happy in a wondrous place. The opposite is Hell, a place of eternal damnation and a punishment for your sinfulness.

 

Another common religious belief is reincarnation. It is believed by some that our soul or spirit will leave our body and enter another physical body. Reincarnation takes the actions of our previous life into account. Better known as Karma, our current life is believed to be consequence to our actions in a previous life. This gives very good incentive to be a good person in this life if you believe in reincarnation.

 

Like with most religious idea’s science has tried to prove or disprove whatever they have to say. The afterlife is a conundrum that has puzzled science probably for as long as science has existed. There are many scientific theories about what happens after we die, one I find particularly interesting is how we enter an almost dream like state, with plenty more evidence attempting to disprove the religious ideas but as with many ideas, nothing can be proved. It’s equally as possible after all that after we die we have no feeling or sense and everything is gone, it’s not like we can ask someone who has passed on what happens when we die. The point of this post isn’t to theorise however, it’s too discuss.

 

Death is a strange and let’s face it, terrifying concept to try to understand. Think of what I said above, imagine that all that awaits us when we die is an empty void, nothing but emptiness. Close your eyes, shut them tight. You can still hear, still feel. Imagine having none of that feeling at all, there’s just nothing. It could very well be what awaits us when we die. Death is such a difficult thing to comprehend, honestly it makes me personally feel cold and almost empty just thinking about it. Nothing ever again, not even the smallest ray of light is a terrifying concept and I don’t care who you are, it scares you. The afterlife, in whatever way you may believe is clearly a better alternative.

 

I should point out I in no way mean to bash any religion or say any person is wrong in their beliefs of the afterlife or their faith in general. However I would argue that it is more than likely that some people have fabricated their beliefs out of a fear of death. No one wants to believe that after everything we go through in life in a split second it all ends. Is this why we look for an answer to the question of life after death? Because we’re afraid. Its common knowledge that people are afraid of the unknown, what’s more of an unknown than what happens after we die. More than that it’s something we will all experience eventually.

 

So do you believe in your idea of the afterlife because you fear death? You know what, it doesn’t matter. If you believe in Heaven or reincarnation or anything else for that matter it doesn’t really matter what actually happens after we die. Your beliefs are yours and if they are strong beliefs that you genuinely believe in then they are to be respected. If you read through this whole thing and shook your head when I talked about the emptiness then good for you. No one will ever be able to prove what happens when we die and you cannot be wrong about something that no one will ever know. Perhaps more importantly though you lived your life believing in yourself and your ideals. I don’t think there’s a better way to live.

 

There is something else to this discussion however. There is absolutely nothing wrong with fearing death, just don’t use that fear to dread death, rather to enjoy life.

The Facade of the Real You

The Façade of the Real You

Last time on random psychology / philosophy / society thing blog post I talked about the Real you. Who you really are? Well this time I’m going to expand on this with how maybe we sometimes don’t want people to see the real you. That we perhaps like to wear a metaphorical mask that hides it away. Why does this façade exist, what are we afraid of?

 

We want to be liked and accepted is the simple answer. This makes a lot of sense. Being alone is something everyone on earth fears at some point. Especially when going somewhere new we all want to make new friends and be accepted. The last thing we want is to be an outcast. Seems simple right? Sadly no. Hiding away the real you is a temporary fix, but it can also be exhausting. To make real friends and be truly comfortable is to be accepted for who you are. Letting out the real you is necessary in order to be happy, nothing is fun about constantly having to keep up the pretence of who you are.

 

You know ‘those people’. Those people who follow everyone else and just say and do what’s popular. The sheep type people who follow the crowd. It’s too be popular of course, but does it work? Kind of, maybe. Okay, they always have a large group of acquaintances and know a lot of people. However people tend to bitch about them behind their back. They don’t make those close friendships that other people do. You know those unpopular people who you say are strange or weird. It stands to reason they have an admittedly small number but very close friends. Which would you prefer?

 

Now I’m not saying this applies in every situation, far from it.  The point is thinking to yourself which you would prefer. I think about my own situation and I could ask my friends but all three of them are busy at the moments so I’m not really sure. It’s easy to say be yourself and you’ll be fine but we all know that isn’t true.

 

It’s almost tragic at times, being yourself can be a terrible thing for your social life. They may be stereotypes but they do exist. It’s fact that certain types of people and certain activities are far more common and popular. That’s not bad against those people, it can just be difficult for other types of people. Hence the façade of who we really are comes in to mask over the personality traits that won’t fit in. How would most people react if you asked about their favourite yu-gi-oh card or favourite piece of classical opera? There’s nothing wrong with these things at all, they’re just not popular. But to fit into the trends you may have to pretend to be a fan of popular music or something less nerdy than yu-gi-oh like Magic the Gathering. It can be a difficult line to tread.

 

So what’s the solution? Is it good to mask your personality in the pursuit of acceptance? I’m not ignorant enough to say you should just be yourself and you’ll find ‘your people’. However I am ignorant enough to say that you should try. After all, it is better to have tried to find your own way than live life as a sheep. Or as per usual when I write these things, you may think I’m full of crap. That would be understandable. Either way have a think, you may enlighten yourself a little and join me for the next psychology / philosophy / society thing blog post thing next week which will hopefully be on Monday. I think it’s a good one.