Somewhat Catholic but not sure if I believe in an afterlife?

[Rozellelily]

I’m a bit of a contradiction because I’m a baptised Catholic but I don’t agree with everything the Catholic Church teaches although I do agree with the majority of it and see the value of Jesus’ teachings as being imperative in our world where people can often be self focused/self absorbed or materialistic etc.

At the same time,I’m not sure I even believe in an afterlife.Or at least not in the traditional sense of people being aware of being “in” heaven or the resurrection of the body.
From my understanding,all brain function ceases at death including memory,thoughts and perception.
In reality,sadly,sometimes these things can even “disappear” for some people when those people are alive (such as the cognitive decline in dementia or severe schizophrenia) likely due to brain atrophy/cerebral cell loss,so imagine even more so when people physically die and blood flow is stops pumping to the cells (which produce thoughts and perceptions).

I don’t know how the Catholic/Christian belief can be reconciled with modern science knowledge

 

[po18guy]

Sorry to hear of your dilemma. Couple of things:

1. Get a Compendium of the Catechism and read the brief, easily digestible teachings and the reasons behind them.
2. Find out when your local parish offers adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Then, just go and spend time with Him. Lay out your doubts, either in prayer, or even out loud if you are the only person there. Then, be as patient with the Lord as He has been with you.

When you receive your answer, your consolation, you will be changed.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I don’t know how the Catholic/Christian belief can be reconciled with modern science knowledge

Why does it have to be?
Jesus referred to Heaven and Hell. That’s enough for me.
Peace!

 

[Rozellelily]

I’m the sort of person that things have to make sense to.
You probably have more faith than I do,I’m too “concrete”.

 

[Dlee]

there is head knowledge and heart knowledge. Sometimes it takes the heart longer - be patient and keep seeking.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

My own personal favorite apologetics book is “Handbook of Christian Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft. He’s a philosopher and theologian and IIRC, he breaks down the reasonableness of believing in the afterlife.
But in either case ray:t2:ray:t2:ray:t2: For you on your spiritual journey!

 

[Limoncello4021]

So the brain and body dies. Well, yes, that’s what happens. Jesus died. But He rose again, and we will be resurrected as He was. Faith is not in the least incompatible with science. It is complementary to it. Many famous scientists were Catholic in the history of the Church.
What you lack is faith. Ask God for it and you will receive it.

 

[bobperk]

Your concern seems to be that a human being is basically a material animal whose life depends on the brain, which houses one’s thoughts and memories; therefore, when that person dies, the brain dies, so perhaps one does not have a soul at all, but is merely processing chemical reactions in the brain.

But we are dependent on more than the brain. God in all his glory designed bodies to work together. The brain depends on blood from the heart to function, yet the brain also tells the heart to beat. And one cannot consciously control the heartbeat (unless one runs or comes to rest) and one certainly cannot exercise the thought to stop the heart. So which is greater, the brain or the heart? They are dependent on each other. That is one thing.

A human being is capable of grasping concepts outside of the natural order. A squirrel sees a tree and knows its utility for providing food, travel, or shelter. These are material needs of the squirrel served by the tree. But a human being can admire the beauty of the tree, and has the ability of using wood from that tree to make a house or an instrument or something greater than the tree. So traditional thought (according to Aristotle or St. Thomas) identifies that since the human brain, functioning as part of the human soul, is able to grasp immaterial concepts, the soul itself is immaterial and is capable of living outside the body.

As for folks who lose brain function or have other impairments, while their bodies may not function appropriately, or while the way they communicate may not be fully developed, we are unaware of their innermost thoughts. An imperfect analogy would be to suppose that you were a fully functioning, intelligent human person, but you were stuck in a small room with only a computer to communicate to the rest of the outside world. You (the soul) are using the computer (representing the brain / body function) to express your thoughts to everyone else. If that computer begins to break down by losing keys from the keyboard, a virus, or other wear and tear, then your communication and interaction with the world is deficient although you yourself are perfectly fine. Again, not a perfect analogy, but a way to maybe conceptualize the body-soul relation.

Finally, God made animal bodies a composite able to see, hear, communicate, taste, touch, walk, create, etc. for a reason. If the brain were the ultimate and only relevant part of the body, God could have made “humans” a body consisting only of a brain, heart, and a way to feed itself.

But we are more than that, as evidenced by your question to being with. No other creatures ponder these types of things which are beyond the natural world. We are more than bodies consuming energy and firing signals in our brain which disappear forever when we die.

 

[Rob2]

I’m the sort of person that things have to make sense to.

I think I understand where you are coming from

Would you see yourself as one of nature’s sceptics ?

As for belief in the afterlife , as some grow older they do tend to have doubts about how they used to envisage things after death . I don’t see any problem in having doubts . I have them . I accept them as part of the human condition . And there is nothing unCatholic about having doubts .

As for the influence of modern science , some need a new expression of their beliefs which takes account of the findings of science .

A medieval cosmology is not going to make much sense to a 21st centrury person . Theologians need to find a way of expressing the Deposit of Faith in keeping with a modern cosmology .

Unfortunately there has been a Religion v Science outlook . The two , religion and science , complement each other , or they should do .

But one thing to be avoided is the arrogance of some modern thinkers that somehow modern man has outgrown religion . That modern man is superor to the peoples of previous generations . What nonsense ! How dare the thinkers of this age of Auschwitz and Belsen , of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , of the Gulags and the gross naked consumerism think that we are better than folk before us ?

 

[petra22]

You need to do more reading about people who have experienced death and have “come back”. I can’t think of the title right now but there are many that have written their experiences. One was a doctor who believed exactly as you do… he had a miraculous change of mind and heart.

Also, do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe he is God? If yes, what did he tell us? Pray for understanding and to believe the words of Jesus. I’ll be praying for you!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Initially when we exist after death, it is in a form separate from our physical body, so our brain function is completely irrelevant. Our souls go to Heaven, Purgatory or Hell, leaving our physical body, including our brain, behind on earth. So the fact that our brain function ceases along with all our other bodily functions, and that our body including our brain in most cases decomposes away, doesn’t matter because we are not confined to that body or that brain any more. It’s like a shell that our soul left behind.

When Jesus returns to earth and the “resurrection of the body” takes place, the bodies will be restored to fully functioning, although in a transfigured form, like Jesus’ body after the Resurrection, and we will be put back into them.

Your issue seems to be the common one of thinking that God’s work is bound by some kind of human logic and that we are bound by our physical brain or other aspects of our physical selves. I see my body as just a tool I am given to walk around in and use on Earth. My brain is like a computer I was given to use, to control the operation of my body and to store memories in a physical form while on earth. My brain is not my soul or my self.

I agree with po18guy’s advice here.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m the sort of person that things have to make sense to.
You probably have more faith than I do,I’m too “concrete”.

If you keep trying to make God “make sense” according to earthly principles, you’ll always hit a brick wall.

Earth is a construct of God. He isn’t bound by it. Neither are we because God created us to live forever beyond the time when both our bodies and this physical Earth are long gone.

We’re just visiting here in the “meat suit” God gave us to function here.

 

[bobperk]

We’re just visiting here in the “meat suit” God gave us to function here.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[1john418]

I don’t know how the Catholic/Christian belief can be reconciled with modern science knowledge

I don’t really consider this modern science knowledge. I’d reckon humans have known that blood flow stops, the body decays, and that a dead person is dead for thousands of years.

I think you’re looking at the afterlife from an incorrect perspective. No one believes that it is the mortal body that continues to exist after a person has died, it is the soul. As others have recommended, if this answer doesn’t help you, I recommend prayer, it will only strengthen your relationship with God.

 

[Rozellelily]

I’ve read these things and to be honest,ironically,they are actually part of what’s formed my beliefs/strengthened them.
Personally I believe that a lot of these experiences are actually hallucinations in a sense due to anoxia/oxygen deprivation.

Perhaps it’s not the case for all of them,I don’t know ,but I do think this is the case for any of them.

Near-Death Experiences Linked to Oxygen Deprivation | Live Science

 

[VeryBlessed]

The book “Beginning to Pray” by Anthony Bloom has an interesting statement about Science (he was an MD and an orthodox priest). He said that the role of science is to construct models (in our minds) of reality, and that when science discovers that the model is inadequate, the scientist is glad and then they improve the model. So science is not and will never be “complete”. There is so much science cannot measure - like the depth of someone’s love. So reality is greater than science. For me, God is in that very vast space beyond the reaches of science. And if humans could fully measure and understand God, then he’d be no bigger than a human, and I want a God who is vastly beyond my little human mind and capabilities.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You don’t have to believe in NDE to be a good Catholic. Our Creed does not say “ I believe in near death experiences”.

However, it’s interesting to me that many people who have NDE come back profoundly changed by the experience. Either they are motivated to change and improve their lives, or they no longer fear death, or they all of a sudden believe in an afterlife they didn’t believe in before.
Sounds to me like more than oxygen deprivation is happening. But that’s just me.

You may want to simply accept that we don’t know much about the afterlife till we ourselves get there. And then focus more on Jesus and less on “science” trying unsuccessfully to explain Him away.

 

[ShowersofRoses]

Have you read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis? I think it would be helpful for you. Also Theology and Sanity by Frank Sheed.

I think when one really examines this question, you see how animals and humans are different. Humans have an inherent dignity that we all recognize. We have a worth and a value beyond animals.

Why the difference? Because humans have souls and animals don’t. We have souls that can grasp our own existence, appreciate beauty, and long for a better life. When we listen to a piercingly beautiful piece of music, it can make our souls sing. We recognize we have a soul because we are obviously not just physical creatures.

Our minds were made for a higher plane. They were made to be in communion with the One who made us. He made us to have immortal souls, to live forever with Him. Right now we have this pesky thing called sin that is temporarily keeping us from God, but Jesus redeemed us so that at the moment our physical bodies die, our immortal souls will go to Him (usually taking a pit stop in Purgatory first or, unfortunately, instead a nosedive to Hell).

If we were just physical creatures dependent on our brains, why the fuss about abortion, euthanasia, and the death penelty? Why do we even care? Why do we have elaborate funerals? Why should we care about genocide or human rights?

We care because we are a whole lot more than just brains and synapses and blood cells. This physical body is a temporary vessel…but one day it also will be redeemed and glorified.

Praying for you. I hope you take poguy18’s advice and spend time with the Blessed Sacrament. Take all your doubts with you and go to Mass faithfully. Just go and tell God about your doubts. Talk to Him about it the way you’ve told us. Ask Him for the gift of faith…He is longing to give it to you.

 

[Cruciferi]

I’m a bit of a contradiction because I’m a baptised Catholic but I don’t agree with everything the Catholic Church teaches

That’s a problem.

From my understanding,all brain function ceases at death including memory,thoughts and perception.

The brain will die but your consciousness will continue into the next life. Everything necessary is contained in your soul and it’s immortal.

I don’t know how the Catholic/Christian belief can be reconciled with modern science knowledge

Nothing needs reconciled. Science cannot prove everything nor is it always right. God is eternal and he’s provided us with sufficient resources to make it to Heaven.

 

[Spyridon]

don’t know how the Catholic/Christian belief can be reconciled with modern science knowledge

Scientific knowledge says what happens to the physical body at the point of biological death.

It has no way of saying what happens to the mind - that is, you, your ego, your soul, your spirit - after death.

Don’t buy into the falsehoods of scientism. Science is only able to speak on the natural world around us, and even on that it only speaks in a way which is far from infallible or definite.

Science has not a word to speak about religion, philosophy, metaphysics, or supernatural concepts. Any “scientist” who claims it does is not a scientist at all, but rather a peddler of the delusions of scientism.