Hard time imagining death

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You know, I'm sympathetic to this perspective because it often happens to me that people read things into my words that I didn't intend, didn't even think about when I wrote them. However, I have learned that many words carry meanings that make them suboptimal for use in particular conversations.

It seems to me that often, when people use words like "ignorant" and "indoctrinated", that they are setting out to establish a particular mode of interaction - one primarily driven by conflict. The fact is you didn't simply ask auntblabby about his beliefs, you told him what you thought his beliefs meant, and the words you used are commonly freighted with negative meanings. While I certainly agree that someone can be called ignorant without being insulting, my experience is that it is a difficult thing to pull off, whatever one's intention.

I certainly wouldn't tell anyone that their words were "redolant of indoctrination" unless I wanted to tell them that their words express views that are not only wrong, but not even their own honest views.

I wasn't telling you what you intended to communicate to auntblabby. I was telling you that how you phrased your response to auntblabby could come across that way. I am usually appreciative when people stop to explain to me how my communication is causing me more problems than they solve, and I endeavor to find new ways to communicate my intended point. Unfortunately, it seems in this case you are quite satisfied with a communication style toward religious people that many are likely to take as insulting. At least now it will no longer be a surprise to you when you are not welcomed with open arms after offering your insights.



As far as insults go, this makes no sense at all. What the heck is a "shiny suit" in reference to and what does it have to do with Americans?

For the record, I am agnostic, leaning toward atheist. I at one time had a great deal of antipathy toward organized religion, and I'm still not a fan. However, I do not consider other people's religious beliefs to be my business, so I do not spend time or energy trying to tell them they're wrong. I am most definitely not religious.

For that matter, politically I am far left, leaning into anarchist (although not an anarchist).

I'm so glad i joined this forum, it's amazing at how we are all alike...This has been bothering me too, it makes me sick that when i die, that will be...The idea of living without my family, friends, music just anything that i love will be gone forever doesn't make me feel good. I wanna believe that there is an "afterlife", but at the same time i hate religion and what it does...

You know how dreams feel real at the time, but when you wake up you realise "wait, that wasn't real - this is"? Near Death Experiencers have reported feeling the same thing while out of their bodies - that it felt more real than anything else. So it may be that life is like a dream and death is like waking up from it.

Again, I seem to have been misinterpreted. I never said anyone was ignorant or indoctrinated. My concern is the way "Heaven" was slipped in as an already established truth. It is this behaviour, not the beliefs behind it that I sought to question.

You said that other people's religious views are not your business. I couldn't agree with you more. It is for this very reason that I am uncomfortable with people making such assumptive remarks as "heaven will exist" as if that is of itself an indisputable truth. Had he prefaced his remarks by "I believe" then, firstly all the condemnation I received would have been fair and justified BUT, secondly, I wouldn't have had a gripe with it in the first place. The fact remains, though, that he didn't.

I must admit that I felt riled by some of the criticism, especially where the bible was quoted or where wildly inaccurate assumptions were made about me, which evoked a less considered and more retributionist response than I had intended.
"Shiny suits" refers to TV (or otherwise) evangelists who, to me, are just about the lowest form of existence. Sadly for America, these people and their ilk hold an unhealthily disproportionate amount of influence and can often colour the views of people outside America when the subject of religion rears it's head. That said, however, I wish to apologise to any Americans who read my remarks about their country and were offended by them UNLESS they are the type of person who prosthelytize in the manner I described.

my sister and the nurses observed at the moment of death a wispy white filmy stuff rise to the ceiling above his bed, then dissipate. this also was no anomaly according to the nurses in the hospice.

If this was such a common occurrence, did anyone ever attempt to record this wispy white stuff on video (or in any other way) and study it? Surely something like this would be well-deserving of scientific study!

If this was such a common occurrence, did anyone ever attempt to record this wispy white stuff on video (or in any other way) and study it? Surely something like this would be well-deserving of scientific study!

Over the past day or so, I've been obsessing on what would happen if something came and crushed my cranium. All of my seeing and hearing and thinking would cease forever! That is such a difficult thing to comprehend.

I cannot imagine myself being dead, no longer seeing, hearing, and thinking things.

science is a primo useful tool but it is no deity to be worshiped above all else.

I've actually heard of this kind of thing before, so I'm guessing it has been at least documented. I've also heard of other weird things, like our bodies weigh slightly less when we die. I haven't looked into this enough to be able to provide any verifiable evidence to it myself, but just wanted to mention that auntblabby isn't the first one I've heard of this from.

I've never heard of it being properly documented. Unfortunately, such stories always turn out to be just that - stories. I can't see any reason why someone couldn't document it - yet nobody seems to.

The stuff about losing weight at death - that was a documented, even famous, scientific experiment, but the quantity and quality of the data is far too low for any conclusions. To my knowledge it has not been reproduced. See http://www.snopes.com/religion/soulweight.asp

One problem with such studies is defining the "moment of death", because death is actually not a moment at all, but a process. Sometimes it's a very fast process (like if your head gets chopped off ), but it can also be very slow, especially with modern medical care. Any experiment designed to study what happens "at death" would have to carefully record all kinds of vital signs and then see if there is any correlation with seemingly unexplainable events like sudden weight loss or wispy white stuff escaping the body or whatever.