What Happens When We Die Religion Essay

What Happens When We Die Religion Essay final stage is an issue that we separately face no matter what our per newsal beliefs be so What Happens When We Die?, is angiotensin-converting enzyme of the greatest questions of aliveness. Gener in ally we be very(prenominal) reluctant to think of our own expiry. finale is a great counterpoise and no matter what or whom you atomic number 18 in livelihood, eventually we all subscribe to to face the macrocosm of dying. Is terminal the end of our consciousness and hu bit creations? In spite of hundreds divisions of research, Science tail assembly non prove when or where breeding began.Researchers open found that the human nervous scheme and brain start largely through with(predicate) electrical impulses. The brain requires rakehell and oxygen to function, when breathing, if our blood circulation is impaired, the brain simply does non function or ceases completely. Humans ar a complex structure composed of m both co-oper ating interactions within our bodies. We h ancient up a desire to understand and influence, search for explanations through our natural speciality and yet, we be so preoccupied with the everyday bear ons of our lives that finish is pushed into the background until we win for to face it through the deprivation of a love one.Our thoughts turn to their demise and we decide whether we believe they ar gone to a better pace, is in that respect a better life aft(prenominal) expiry, does ending bring a new life, are our de voxed loved ones sleeping and awaiting reawakening, or does finish signify non human universes .(Atheist). The sheer grief and pain of finale, the loss of a loved one causes affirming for those left behind. We carry out an set to the highest degree of customs during the burial of our dead, we commemorate them in memory of their lives as creation has a need to go through a ritual in order to try to understand what happens when we die. Is it averageal to want a afterwardlife life after death or is death necessary as our limited conception can non conceivably harbinger all life constantly?We question What is Death? What is life? Is death a simple and definable end to life? Where does our record go when the bond between our sensible body is dissolved? Is death permanent? We wonder whether upon death when our carnal body disintegrates what happens to our reason?. If we do return, do humans keep the baron carry memories of past events into their present life?. Our attempts to understand death baffle concern, contr oversy, self-questioning and rationalisation.In every purification when a loved one dies ceremonies are held by family and friends to reminisce about the dead. Universally, although cultures differ, praying plays a highly important naval division during the death Lords Supper. The finality of death is frightening and humankind generate dealt with their loss since the beginning of time through ceremonies whic h us to get through what we dont understand. Death has been depicted by macabre images such(prenominal) as the Grim harvester coming to take away a psyches soul. The scythe is a type that he reaps the soul of both saints and sinner a manage The Harvest of Souls. tangible death is the Bottom of Form 1cessation of bodily functions, when your bosom stops beating, your brain stops to function and you stop breathing. It is also the part of the connection between our spirit from our bodily body and when consciousness finally vanishs our human make believe to go to the next life. The mind or soul is not a physical part of our bodies, it is formless and a recount entity from our human body form. Questions are raised upon death when the body disintegrates at death does our consciousness cease? This is where we search for phantasmal answers through religion, creators, God, Gods and Goddesses.During our lives we try to find answers to the umteen questions we start about death and m an, since the beginning of time, man has tried to conceive a way to escape death. Questions range from Is death permanent? Does our spirit carry on in an new(prenominal) form and at a deeper level of consciousness? Can be reincarnated and write out back to Earth? If we are reincarnated are all of our previous memories erased? Is thither a creator who go forth welcome us into our new globe? Are we merely a collection of cells, molecules, skin and are we fair(a) an early(a) cycle of nature? Are we a natural part of evolution? Is in that location an futurity? Is our physical demise pro tem? Where, if anywhere, do we go?Scientists find it difficult to accept a life after death theory. However, they hurl to accept unintelligible natural phenomena and near other realms of reality through their own facts based on Quantum Mechanics. Death can be considered either as the end of creative activity or as a transition to another articulate of being or consciousness. The Hindus deal w ith death by sideing life as an illusion and learning through the levels of reincarnation the true meaning of life and both religion and mythology concern themselves with what happens to our essence after physical death.There are many an(prenominal) causes of death such as the natural process of aging, natural death, illness, disease, suicide, homicide, natural disasters, accidents and wars. Universally, death rituals can vary extensively depending on religion, race and culture however, rituals and ceremonies are cross cultural such preparation of the corpse for a funeral and the ceremony surround the disposing of the corpse. Although practices may differ from culture to culture, death ceremonies are the norm and can include a three day watch of the corpse, group of relations and friends to mourn their departed right through to elaborate rituals which go on for weeks.The Ancients flourished on a social structure where rites of ancestor adoration and spiritual beliefs were the no rm. The Celtic Druids had a strong belief in hold and believed in the reincarnation of the soul into another form hence they did not fear death. The ancient Egyptians practiced forms of ancestor worship and believed in transition after death and considered death as merely a temporary interruption. The Mayans were a very religions stack who lived in fear of their destructive Gods so their funerals were held with great respect and ceremony. Shamanism is based on the belief that pot likker and invisible entities permeate our visible world. The Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and came down to earth to rid them of original sin therefore saving their souls and after death, returning to God in en crystalliseenment. Jehovahs Witnesses believe that the record is the Manual for Life, Jesus is the Son of God however, they are not Trinitarian. On their death they sleep until God calls everyone who has departed this Earth for Judgement mean solar day and those who l ived their lives according to the Bible, will live back on Earth and be reigned by a Council in Heaven.Taking the Bible as an physical exercise we determine that the cry Heaven, which is used in a strictly textile signification as forming a part of the created universe. In Genesis i.1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The ancient Hebrews, however, soak upm to have socialise strange notions as to the structure of the real(a) Heaven, believing it to be a full-blooded arch resting on pillars, and having foundations. Thus, in Job xxvi. 11, the pillars of Heaven tremble, and we are astonished at his reproof. In other passages of the Bible Heaven is compared to a curtin, or the covering of a tent, as in Ps. civ.2, Who coverest thyself with calorie-free as with a garment who stretchest out the heavens like a curtin.The ancient Jews believed that there were several different Heavens the demean, the mediate, and the terzetto or higher(prenominal) heavens. The lower level of Heaven was considered to take in the clouds and the atmosphere the middle as being the stellar or starry character and the third as being the Heaven of Heavens, or the habitation of God and his angels.The word Heaven is not only used in a material but also a spiritual virtuoso, to indicate the future base of the righteous after death. The belief in Heaven beyond the grave, accordingly, is not limited to Christians, being a recognized creed of Heathens, Jews, and Mohammadeans. Among the ancient Romans and Greeks, the Heaven to which the good ascended was named Elysium. The precise location of Elysium was a topic of debate for generations writers of clean antiquity declared the happiness of the souls in Elysium to be complete and allegedly, well-nigh believed that the departed souls would return to earth again.Eternal blessedness was, in view of the ancient Pagans, reserved for those who were distinguished for their exhalted virtues and who were accordingly admit ted into the society of the Gods and could, at any time, return to their ancestors on this earth. Summerland, a arse for resting of the soul until it is ready to compensate on a journey of self, until the person learned and escalated to the higher realms of pure(a) consciousness.Heaven of the Hindu culture is the absorption on Brahm and of the Buddhist, annihilation or Nirwana. The priesthood of the ancient Egyptians taught the immortality of the soul under the mane of Palingenesia, or second birth, being a return of the soul to the celestial spheres or its reabsorption into the absolute Being. This doctrine was allegedly inculcated only upon the illerate multitudes who could form no conception of the existence of the soul without the body.The ancient Scandinavians, believed in ii different heavens one, the castling of Odin which they named Valhalla where this divinity received all of those who died a violent death and the other called Gimli ( gift covered with gold), the everl asting home of the righteous where to enjoy ecstatic and deathless delights. Those received into the palace of Odin, heroes, believed that every day would be filled with fighting, eating, drunkenness and surrounded by virgins. Judaic Rabbis teach that there is an upper and lower paradise or heaven with a fixed pillar of Zion. On every Sabbath or festival, the righteous climb up and feed themselves with a glance of the Divine majesty until the end of the Sabbath or festival. The souls of the righteous, according to the Jewish Rabbis, do not ascent to the upper paradise immediately after they have left their body, but they are represented as undergoing a pervious kind of novitiate in the lower paradise, which is situated half(a) way between this corporal world and the upper Heaven.Mohammadeans believe in a Heaven prepared for the blessed among the faithful a place for those who are true to their religion and followers of the holy prophet Mohammed. Here, they shall overleap eternit y and shall join him in perpetual light and all celestial pleasures, always beautiful, in their full strength and vigour, ardenter than the sun, and thought worthy to see the face of the Most High God, and to adore him. They hold that there are eight Heavens of varying degrees.We have ported at varying traditions in the belief of Heaven and now shall look at the belief in Hell. Both in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures there are two words, Sheol and Hades which are sometimes translated into hell but which denote the world of departed spirits in everyday while two other words Tartaros and Gehenna, signify the place of eternal punishment reserved for the immoral and wicked after death. The Amenti of ancient Egyptians, the Patala of the Hindus and the Orcus of the Romans, refer to a future state but the doctrine of a future punishment is found embody in all religious systems whether Christian, Heathen, Jewish or Mohammedean.Hell is believed to be a place of eternal torment, a botto mless pit, a dirt ball that never dies, the fire that shall never be quenched. The Jewish Rabbis believe in an upper and lower hell. Gehennon, to which the Talmud adds seven other names, is said to be use to seven mansions into which hell is divided. Many Jewish people believe in hell, not as an eternal dwelling-place of the wicked, but, to the Israelites at least, as a place of temporary purgatorial punishment. It is believed that the very wicked shall be eternally annihilated.The Mohammedeans, like the Jews, divide Hell which they call Gehennon, into seven portions, but they are not totally agree as to the inhabitants of these districts. The most common opinion is that Gehennon, is articled for those worshippers of the true God who have not acted up to the principles of the faith which they have professed the second division, called Lodha, is for the Christians the third named Hothama, is for Jews the fourth, denominated Sair, is destined for the Sabeans the fifth, called Sacar, is for Magicians or Geubres the sixty names Gehim, will received Pagans and idolaters, whilst the seventh, the most severe place of punishment within the utmost depths of the abyss, is named Hooviat, and reserved for the hypocritical professors of religion.The Hindus believe in a graduated shell of future punishments as well rewards the less wicked being drop down into a lower position in the next birth (reincarnation), the more(prenominal) wicked being sent down to one or other of the innumerable Hells, to reappear, however, on earth, in mineral, animal, and vegetable forms before they rise to the human, the most wicked of all beings doomed to invite the misery and woe and pitfall until the time of the dissolution of all things. The Buddhist tradition has a system of eight principal narakas, or places of torment, all of them situated in the indoor of the earth and so enclosed it makes it impossible for escape.Gnostics, (gnosis, knowledge), the general name utilize to variou s classes of pagans or heretics, arose in the early period of the Christian Church. They derived from the inform of philosophy and denoted a higher and esoteric science which was designed to deport the superiority of their doctrines to those of the Pagans and Jews. The systems of Gnosticism were various, all of them referable to two fixed historical centres, Syria and Egypt. Hence, there was a marked difference between the Syrian and the Alexandrian Gnosis, the former(prenominal) being characterized by a predominance of Dualism, the latter by a predominance of Pantheism.It is impossible to even cursorily examine Gnosticism in the modify aspect which is assumes, without being at almost every point reminded of the old religious systems of Asia, Buddhism, Parsiam and Brahmanism. Gnostics believed in intuitions and symbols rather than conceptions. In the eye of the Gnostic everything became hyposaterized, which, to the Hesperian thinker existed only as a conception.The foundation o f most of the Gnostic systems lies in the idea of two different and opposite worlds, the one region of light, the other the region of darkness one a region of naturalness and the other of sin a superior world and an small world. The cardinal source of being was the Bythos (like the Brahm) of Hinduism in which was an invisible, incomprehensible being, enjoying perfect quiescence and from whom all emanations proceeded. Following their line of thought, they alleged the God or Jehovah of the Jews to be Demiurge, and the law they promulgated in the Old will to be inferior and imperfect whereas, the law which Christ promulgated in The New Testament was the expression of the mind of the Bythos or Unknown Father. Most Gnostics key outedly believed that redemption rested merely on knowledge and that a man who feature knowledge needed no more.The realisation of human mortality lives with each and every human being and ghost stories, spirits and hauntings have been a part of our history, handed down from generation to generation. We are taught about spirits, Witches, Angels, Demons, Gods and Goddesses and the telepathic world is rich in psychics, supernatural events, divination and with people who have real start outs with the paranormal such as out of body dwells, pack interaction with ghostly phenomena and unspoiled death experiences.Sceptics cannot ignore or dissolve paranormal go onrences just as Science cannot explain the unexpected e.g., apparitions, ghosts, hauntings, orbs or the supernatural. To sum up, no matter what our personal faith, belief, religions, culture or race, it is up to you whether you believe that the evidence is strong enough to justify your belief in paranormal, the supernatural and an afterlife. go about death experiences (NDE), the age-old debate, have been occurring for centuries. In the year 360 BC, Plato writes about a soldier named Er who recalled his NDE. Near death experiences are quite common and have been recorded through history. You may have heard someone who nearly died saying that they experienced their whole life flashing right before their eyes.NDEs have been a part of mankinds existence for thousands of years, as some ancient civilizations have recorded these supernatural encounters. With this history, many different explanations have come as to what could be the cause, or if the afterlife is real.Millions of cases are documented worldwide of NDEs, or near-death experiences. As they are such a common occurrence, Scientists have conducted research into thousands, if not millions, of cases. During the past 30 years, near-death experiences have been the focus of intense Scientific studies at Universities and Medical Centres about the world and they can no longer dismiss this phenomenon as psychotic beliefs, chemical changes in the brain just prior to death, or as a pharmacologically induced experience. Science has questioned and studied NDEs experiences and one thing agreed on by all those inv olved in research is that near death experiences really do exist.No two near death experiences are the same they are as unique and as someone as the person who goes through this experience. People who suffer severe trauma, clinical death, or those who nearly die, have reported similar traits during their near-death experience and many believe it to be very real and have significantly changed the views on life, spirituality and particularly their views on death. Some common experiences do occur however, not all NDEs follow a pattern.Common traits that have been wide documented with NDE includeFeelings of Peace and TerrorThese feelings may include sufferance of death, total calmness, feelings of quiescence, being emotional and physically comforted. The person sees a bright as a new penny(predicate) light filling the live which they interpret as Heaven or God. Then there are those cases documented of people who do not have a feeling of peace, did not meet with family or well-disp osed spirits. Rather, they experienced terror as while being attacked and upset by demons.(OBE) Out-of-body ExperiencesThe person feels that they have left their physical body. They observe from above, often describing the muckle of doctors working on him. In some cases, the subjects spirit then wing out of the room, into the sky and sometimes into space. We have all heard stories about someone on the verge of death seeing a bright light at the end of a long tunnel, revealing that they have entered another dimension or realm, seeing spiritual entities and deceased family, friends and loved ones.The persons spirit may take a bit of time to look around and then notice a bright light. The light may start out to be small and then become larger as the spirit of the person moves toward it. In some cases there is not a tunnel, but a very bright light that fills the room. The light is brighter than anything the person has ever experienced on Earth, but they are not bothered by the it.Gen eral feelings that people experience include euphoria and report floating feelings and beautiful visions of scenic places. The majority of people who experience near-death say they feel very happy with a wonderful sense of calm and belonging.Another Realm or DimensionOther people that experience NDEs say that they are led to another realm, most have commanding experiences however, a few have reported a blackball experience in which they get a feeling of loss of get the hang and falling into a deep bottomless chasm.Near death experiences moves the person beyond this natural world and into worlds unseen, usually commencing with a tunnel of light which they are compelled to enter. This bright light pulls them into another realm and, as they leave this world behind, they experience sightings of spirits, family and their departed friends. Lastly, they experience a life review, where one sees their entire worldly life in fast forward.Once on the other side, they have reported being s urrounded by entities, some of them they knew were dead and others who are there to talk to them. Some report being told certain things and are asked to go back to their bodies.The most common report for survivors of outer body experience(OBE) is that people feel they have been given a glimpse into Heaven as they encounter beings of light, or other representations of spiritual entities.Spiritual Beings and EntitiesWhen a person experiences NDE most report that the feeling surrounding the spiritual beings and entities are pleasurable, and they feel completely disassociated with their physical body, have the business leader to see through walls and they relate stories about what was happening outside the room where their physical body was pronounced clinically dead. Some report the enigmatical or mystical elements emit a sense of complete peace and contentment and, on their return after communication with the spirits or entities, it has been reported by many people and they describe a antheral voice telling them that it is not their time and to go back to their earthly physical body.Returning to the Physical BodyOn returning to their physical body, in most cases, they have a sense of being reborn, desire to learn more about themselves, are stronger, self confident and espouse a life of truth with heightened appreciation and contentment. The typical near-death survivor emerges from their experience determined to live life to the fullest and most do not fear death.Negative NDE ExperiencesUnfortunately, for others, the experience may not be a positive one. Some people have said they have increased fear, suffer from depression, and focus more on death. However, thankfully, it is a very small luck that experience negativity after recovering from their NDE.Many survivors of NDE struggle with a fear of mental illness, ridicule and fear of rejection. Problems associated with shun experiences of NDE include depression, isolation, with a difficulty in explaining th eir experience to their family or to the medical profession and unwarranted due to their difficulty after this experience to return to their previous beliefs.Those who experience a negative NDE can become very distressed, retreat into themselves, take years to adjust a near-death experience, believe that their experience was a hallucination rather than a real experience, fear to seek help or counselling and may feel that they have lost control over their minds. For these people, their mental stability is challenged as is their belief systems. The effects of those who experience negative NDE are often life-altering.No Scientific explanation to date can account or explain all of the aspects of near death experiences, wherefore they happen or what are the causes and effects. NDEs follow a broad general pattern that crosses cultures they remain in memory for decades as being realer than real. Scientists have delved into various forms of studies and a couple of examples include lack of oxygen is not a factor in all NDEs, nor is the presence of drugs or practice of medicine responsible.Sceptics have a big problem with the belief in Near Death Experience because it is impossible to define the line between when life and death occurs. Definitions of death can vary from continent to continent and from culture to culture e.g. what makes a person?, Define the soul or spirit in a person? and as none of this can be proved scientifically. However, this does not discount the real fact that many open and honest people have near-death experiences and that Scientists and Medical Practitioners have investigated the phenomena with no solid result or evidence to refute their experiences.