Pagans, what happens when you die?

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What happens to you when you die? Do you believe in a soul? Do you believe that humans have something unique that other creatures/living things do not? If so, what happens to it?
 
dranzal said:
What happens to you when you die? Do you believe in a soul? Do you believe that humans have something unique that other creatures/living things do not? If so, what happens to it?
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i do bealive in a soul, and it differs from pagan to pagan…
but i bealive in rencarnation (sry if i misspelled it)
 
Good question.

Do I have a soul? I certainly believe that I have something within me that is self-aware in a way in which I do not see in non-human beings. I also know that that self-awareness has what appears to be a hard-wired connection with something outside of the ability of my 5 senses to experience directly. I don’t have an absolute way to know that other beings (non-human) do not share that in some way, but I see no direct evidence that they do so in the same manner in which I do.

I do believe that everything that exists does share an interconnection, however. Humans are not apart from the natural world, we are an integral part of it. There is no “Nature” that is wholly other.

What happens to that self-awareness after I die? I don’t have any empirical knowledge, nor do I have any for what happened to it before I was born.
 
dranzal said:
What happens to you when you die? Do you believe in a soul? Do you believe that humans have something unique that other creatures/living things do not? If so, what happens to it?
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Yes human beings have a soul and they go to heaven or hell.
All dogs go to heaven! No that was a poor joke sorry. dessert
 
Dessert, I, too, am Catholic. My faith is firm. I have often wondered how non-Christians, particularly pagans and athiests, deal with death. I know many Catholics who have said that their faith in God and His promise of heaven, the Hope Paul speaks of, is the only thing that helps them in the event of bereavement. When a loved one dies, “you” die as well. A new “you” emerges from the experience. This is where the “rubber hits the road” so to speak.

It is enormously important to have a firm grasp on what you believe about death. Without hope for eternal life, what was it all for? This can’t be all there is. Our very souls cry out for more. In our deepest desires honest people will admit there is something that nothing of this world can satisfy. It defies logic that we would nurture such a desire if this is all there is.

It is in that spirit, more than mere curiosity, that I ask what pagans believe about death-their own, their children, spouses, families, etc.
 
I often find myself wondering how atheist cope with the death of a loved one. They don’t allow any hope of seeing the loved one again afterall.
 
It is my understanding that it varies from person to person as to whether they believe in reincarnation or an “afterlife”

There are some that believe in a Summerland similar to Heaven in it’s description.

Please correct me if I am wrong…
 
I am OK with not knowing. There are some things that there is just not enough information on to know for sure. Maybe the Creator knows we can’t handle the knowledge in our present forms. I don’t know. But I believe that God Is and God Loves and in that spirit I trust he will take care of me.

I do see the difference between myself and other life-forms. A soul is as good a name for that as any other.
 
dranzal said:
What happens to you when you die? Do you believe in a soul? Do you believe that humans have something unique that other creatures/living things do not? If so, what happens to it?
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Are you dying, here is a prayer for you or for anyone who is!

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD;THERE IS NOTHING I LACK.
IN GREEN PATURES YOU LET ME GRAZE; TO SAFE WATERS YOU LEAD ME; YOU RESTORE MY STRENGTH.
YOU GUIDE ME ALONG THE RIGHT PATH FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR NAME.
EVEN WHEN I WALK THROUGH A DARK VALLEY, I FEAR NO HARM FOR YOU ARE AT MY SIDE; YOUR ROD AND STAFF GIVE ME COURAGE.
YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL; MY CUP OVERFLOWS.
ONLY GOODNESS AND LOVE WILL PURSUE ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE;
I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOR YEARS TO COME PSALM 23 NAB CE

I lost two dogs and a cat and i miss them very much I loved them but they do not have a soul and are not in the same place we go to. dessert
 
i know this is abit off topic but do you bealive that animals have souls?
 
reborn_pagan said:
i know this is abit off topic but do you bealive that animals have souls?
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Yes, but not immortal ones. See, only persons have subsistent forms (in other words, the part that makes them, them, outlives its matter, if it has any). Animals have non-subsistent forms. The part that makes them what they are doesn’t outlive their body. Angels and God are immortal because they’re nothing but form, essence, so there’s no way for what they are to be separated from what makes them what they are. If it doesn’t have parts, it can’t be broken.

The thing to remember is, as far as animals are concerned, this world is all there is. They can’t sin, but they can’t do right, either. They don’t exactly have free will. So just dying, finally, for good and all, isn’t bad, for them. Also, Christians believe in a resurrection of the body, so once that happens, I suppose animals might come back too.
 
dessert said:
Are you dying, here is a prayer for you or for anyone who is!

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD;THERE IS NOTHING I LACK.
IN GREEN PATURES YOU LET ME GRAZE; TO SAFE WATERS YOU LEAD ME; YOU RESTORE MY STRENGTH.
YOU GUIDE ME ALONG THE RIGHT PATH FOR THE SAKE OF YOUR NAME.
EVEN WHEN I WALK THROUGH A DARK VALLEY, I FEAR NO HARM FOR YOU ARE AT MY SIDE; YOUR ROD AND STAFF GIVE ME COURAGE.
YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL; MY CUP OVERFLOWS.
ONLY GOODNESS AND LOVE WILL PURSUE ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE;
I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOR YEARS TO COME PSALM 23 NAB CE

I lost two dogs and a cat and i miss them very much I loved them but they do not have a soul and are not in the same place we go to. dessert
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No, I am not dying. However, my beautiful son died last year. gabrielanzalone.tributeforyou.com

I am firm in my belief. Another passage from the Bible that is every bit as powerful as you quote is: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived of what God has ready for those who love Him. For the record, there is no reason to assume that animals won’t be in the resurrected earth after the final judgement. Indeed, earth is but heaven’s womb. Everything “good” here is a mere shadow of its heavenly counterpart.

Now, please don’t say you’re sorry for me…instead…say you can’t wait to meet him when we join him and to meet our Father who awaits us all.
 
dessert said:
I lost two dogs and a cat and i miss them very much I loved them but they do not have a soul and are not in the same place we go to. dessert
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Why not, ???

IF there truely is a Heaven, and these animals were so important to you in this life. Why should they not be available to you in the next ?

If Heaven is all that we hope it to be, then certainly anything is within the realm of possibility, including meeting pets that we were fond of.

I would not automatically assume they are all lost forever.
 
I looked at your webiste, and indeed your Gabriel was beautiful and precious. It was painful to just look at those pictures and imagine what turmoil you must have gone through.

There’s something about the innocence and playfullness of children that speaks of heaven, perhaps this is why children were so drawn to Jesus because they looked at him and knew something of home.

I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
 
Since conciousness tied to the physical body, I expect that after I die my conciousness will cease to exist. I will be as I was before I was conceived…not existent as “me”. My stuff will be recycled.

I never found the idea of an after life to be compelling as a reason for this life. This life…is about this life. We are here to live and experience this life, in this form, at this time. That is pretty spectacular.

I do not expect to see my loved ones again.

cheddar
 
Yes, I often pray for poor pagan and atheistic people (there is a lot of them in Russia). I hope that at least some of them will eventually convert to some real faith…
 
kittenesque said:
Yes, I often pray for poor pagan and atheistic people (there is a lot of them in Russia). I hope that at least some of them will eventually convert to some real faith…
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Which ones do you classify as “real?”
 
deb1 said:
🙂 Hey, did you forget that your on a “Catholic” forum, Karen?
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Not at all, but I am on the Non-Catholic Religions section, so it is not outside the realm of possibility that I might encounter either a) a non-Christian, b) a non-Catholic or c) a Catholic who might be willing to admit that other religions actually exist, whether or not they believe them to be true or The True religion.

For instance, I frequently encounter people who, while they disagree with the beliefs, will admit that Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Islam, Sikhism, Jainism, Ba’hai, Judaism, etc are “real” religions while saying that those under the umbrella of Neopaganism are not “real,” but just a bunch of rebellious teenagers playing dressup to shock their elders. People are also ambiguous in their use of the term Pagan/pagan, often refusing to capitalize the proper noun when referring to one of the religions usually referred to as Pagan or Neopagan. Since the poster said “poor pagan and atheistic people…I hope that at least some of them will eventually convert to some real faith,” rather than “the true faith,” I thought I would ask for clarification.
 
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