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Originally Posted by Idyllic
Yep, no doubt there, life is precious, and loved, and when a body dies it isn’t going anywhere it isn’t carried, but the soul, the soul is more to me than just the body. [...] The body may be buried/cremated but the essence of the person is no longer that which we discard, the memories are the soul, the soul is made from the memories of a bodies’ life and those memories go on (for me) and they go on young and healthy and happy as they did in the bodies youth before the body simply began it’s rot, imho. This is a part of the gift of life for me, the gift of faith and the gift of uniting in death, with the universe and the love of my ancestors, especially my family and friends. (and yes, my cat)
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Although I like the quaintness of the idea of an eternal soul, I have little stock in it. I cannot see how we can transcend the physical world into a kind of non-physical existence this way. How can our physical existence have physical experiences, only to have it infused, somehow, into a non-physical entity?
I don't see a unison in death in terms of capsules of soulmemory somehow communing for an eternity. My view of immortality is what you leave behind as a legacy. The impact of some is more lasting and powerful than others. Shakespeare and Hitler, for example, will have a greater lasting impact than, say, my grandparents. However, the legacies of each of my grandparents will live on in their own forms.
I guess I don't believe in spirits.
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I don't believe in a vengeful God, I know man can be vengeful and that man has used God as a way to control people, but God is simply about a oneness with the universe and universal love for all animal-kind and the environment itself, the universe, etc, that really is all God and faith is for me.
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It's unfortunate that there aren't more of those who believe in God who think along the same lines as you do.
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Yep, I say these things too, I merely add that when you die you will become one with the universe, one with all mankind and will find peace in that moment, that you will be with your ancestors and the ones you love, how can this hurt. [...]
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My idea of "oneness" in the universe has more to do with the practicality of having lived and died and the impact of the sum of those experiences. I don't think the soul of William Shakespeare is floating around somewhere immeasurable by physical means; but....ask any poet writing today: it certainly feels as though his spirit is looking over your shoulder as you try to cobble together lines of your own...and that can be rather daunting.