Is There Anything After Death?

Life Is Grand

A close friend of ours passed away last week-only 41 years old- from cancer. It was truly the saddest funeral I have ever attended. His wife was a mess, and their two little boys were being so brave for her-it was absolutely heartbreaking.

Anyways, the minister giving the funeral service talked about how he is in a "better place" now, and it really started me thinking. I have lost both a parent and a child, and others who are close, and I always try to convince myself that there really is something after death. I want to think that they can maybe look down from somewhere and see what is going on in the life of my family and be happy for us. But deep, deep down in my heart, I know that I don't believe this. I suppose that this is due to being told all those years that you die, and that is all there is. I can't get past that-even after being out of the JW cult for over 20 years.

Just wondering if anyone else has this problem-the need to feel and believe that there is something more than just these few short years on this Earth...but being unable to grasp any type of belief and really, truly believe it in your heart.

LIG

Scully

I'm thinking if I do my life right this time around, it really won't matter. I'll have had a full life, loved and will have been loved, and made some great friends and touched other peoples' lives in a positive way.

Life Is Grand

I agree with you 100% Scully-as long as you are lucky enough to live to a half decent age...I just wonder about people whose lives are cut so short-they never really got a chance to do all that they could have or should have in this world.

That's when I think that there must be more to it.

kid-A

It does'nt bother me really because I know that I myself will also eventually return to a non-existent state. So far, I have had

a pretty good run of things and am content with my life and what I have done with it. I do miss those I have lost, but they live on

in my memory and the impact and influence that they had on my life has been incorporated into who I am today.

Time is the great healer, it swallows all pain and loss if we allow it to. My state after death will be identical to that before

I was born: nothingness, which is really "nothing" to fear.

nicolaou

Hi LIG

The Watchtower did a good number on us didn't they? Convincing us we'd live forever, how obscenely abusive is that when you truly think about it? I wrote something about it here.

I've come to realise that this life really is all there is. I hope it doesn't hurt you too much to read something like that - I hated becoming aware of that reality but have grown to accept it.

Love to you,

Nic'

Life Is Grand

Kid-A

It sounds like you are very much at peace with the whole life/death issue. I think that's great.

Hopefully I can reach that place someday....and perhaps these thoughts I am having are just because this funeral has opened some old wounds up.

lilybird

I agree with Scully on this one. Life is too short to wonder what comes after.Worrying can't change it anyways.. Im not really sure what I believe happens after death, but I am going to enjoy this life I have to full.We didn't know what life was before we here, I am sure life after death is just as peaceful.

I' m sorry to hear you have lost a child. That is the most difficult loss to bear for anyone. I can see why you don't like to think that this life is the end of it all.You need to find the belief system that best gets you thru life. It is different for everyone and what works for one person is not necessarily best for another.Just my thoughts.

daystar

I suppose that this is due to being told all those years that you die, and that is all there is. I can't get past that-even after being out of the JW cult for over 20 years.

I don't know that there is anything to get past. Today, I think that this part is one of the few things the JWs got right. The idea that there is some, any, sort of afterlife might appeal to me. But I don't have any evidence of such. In fact, the pravalence of so many different stories and versions of some sort of afterlife, or lack thereof, would tend to make me much less a believer than otherwise.

Warlock

LIG

Even though the WTS has made me bitter to a degree, I still think and hope that there is some kind of painless existence at some point after we die.

Whether it is actually in the earthly realm, or heavenly, I guess we will all have to wait and see.

Warlock

greendawn

Biblically the issue seems to go both ways some verses strongly indicate eternal life at least for some humans while others seem to imply the opposite. Eg Paul looked forward to death so as to be with the Lord, apparently he believed in life after death, and the souls of the martyrs are under God's throne.

Is There Anything After Death?

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