When the body dies, what is left?

[tonyrey]

Hey tonyrey,

Don’t know if you garden or plant things. But, I will merely be lawn fertilizer.
We are all made of the same stuff basically. And when we return to the earth we give back to it. There will be many benefits to the soil when I am buried deeply into it.
We are all carbon based life forms.

By the way, I do hope that my relationships while alive and efforts while alive are good enough for me.

Thanks for your reply, SJ. Our bodies are certainly made of the same stuff as everything else on this planet but do our brains know they exist and can they choose to destroy themselves?

 

[StrawberryJam]

Thanks for your reply, SJ. Our bodies are certainly made of the same stuff as everything else on this planet but do our brains know they exist and can they choose to destroy themselves?

We run in survival mode if we are not compromised by factors that disable that ability.

I really feel regretful putting out my absolutely first thought out there on this thread now, because I feel as if I have caused you to worry about my view.

Of all the posts and there are very very many that I have put forth, you hit me in the heart with your reply more than any other poster ever has.

I am trying to see what you see tonyrey, And I can say that I wish more people who claimed to believe in God had your approach at evangelism. You see me as human.

I want to believe for a person like you especially.

In the meantime, know that I respect you very much.

 

[openmind77]

When the body dies and we are reduced to just a soul, what is left? I think our body is the way we interact with the physical world, so it seems like we’d loose an awful lot. I don’t know how much the Church itself teaches on this, but I have to imagine that there have been Catholic thinkers that have pondered this.

• do we keep our personality?
• our memories?
• gender?
• love is sometimes described as a series of chemical reactions… what is love when we no longer have chemicals?
• how can we sing praises to God if we don’t have a tongue?

I realize that a lot of this will probably be speculation, but any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Hinduism defines 5 sheaths or ‘bodies’ that cover the soul in incarnation.

Instead of giving the Sanskrit names, I will give equivalent translations:

• Physical body
• Energy/Life force body
• Emotional body
• Intellectual/Wisdom body
• Causal/Spiritual body

Upon death, the outer two ‘bodies’ die (physical and life force bodies). The other three bodies are alive and still cover the soul.They also still contain all the memories, emotions and knowledge that the person has before death. You can read afterdeath.info/ for more details

 

[tonyrey]

*Thanks for your reply, SJ. Our bodies are certainly made of the same stuff as everything else on this planet but do our brains know they exist and can they choose to destroy themselves? *

We run in survival mode if we are not compromised by factors that disable that ability.

How did the urge to survive originate? Once again back to basics!

I really feel regretful putting out my absolutely first thought out there on this thread now, because I feel as if I have caused you to worry about my view.

After many years of discussions with atheists nothing worries me. The truth has a habit of surviving… I happened to glance at a diagram of the eye yesterday and it struck me as a miracle we take for granted - at the opposite extreme from the negativity of the materialist.

Of all the posts and there are very very many that I have put forth, you hit me in the heart with your reply more than any other poster ever has.

Probably because you have regarded me as a friend for several years. I must admit the word “fertilizer” made me indignant. It reduces persons to insignificant particles.

I am trying to see what you see tonyrey, And I can say that I wish more people who claimed to believe in God had your approach at evangelism. You see me as human.

I want to believe for a person like you especially.

In the meantime, know that I respect you very much.

Thank you for those kind words, SJ. The one thing that stands out in life for me is love that doesn’t care about survival. That’s why I’m a Christian. Many people today have nothing to live for except the good things of this world - like the mother who was going to die and tried to make the most of life with her two young children in the few months that remained. Not once did she even consider the possibility that this is not the only life.

Believers are often criticised for being dogmatic but at least we realise we need faith. This unfortunate woman, an educated journalist, was so immersed in the things of this world she was left without any hope for the future. Nothing can be more pitiful than life in a spiritual desert. She had blind faith in her narrow view of reality.