I was reading an article in USAToday about six bodies found in a home in Pennsylvania. One body had a visible head wound, blood and bone fragments were found throughout the house, some of the bodies were wrapped in sheets, and one wrapped in a blanket secured with a phone cord.
I started thinking about the fragility of life.
What kind of person does this to an entire family... to anyone? A five-year old was among the dead.
The image of the person found wrapped in a blanket and tied with the phone cord stands out in my mind. I imagine this person being struck over the head, and then strangled with the same phone cord used to secure the blanket around the limp, lifeless body. I can almost feel this person struggle with the last breaths of life, the pain, the anxiety, the panic he or she must have felt. Then suddenly, nothing. Everything stops, the panic, the pain, the suffering, the struggle. During those final moments of the person's life, was this person worried what was happening to the other family members? Was s/he already aware that others had been killed? The fear this person must have felt is overwhelming for me to comprehend, for any of us to comprehend.
Christianity teaches us to not fear death. In fact, if you go to a truly Christian funeral, many are called "Home-going" celebrations — where the soul of the departed is reunited with the Savior in heaven. It's a pleasant and comforting thought.
Most religions/faiths have a belief of the after-life, the idea that one’s soul passes on to another state of consciousness. But it's the exact moment of death that interests me most. The moment where awareness suddenly ends. I imagine it’s like falling asleep; one moment you are awake, thinking, breathing, seeing, feeling...then...nothing. Nothing?
This "nothingness" makes me wonder: is there something to it? Are we aware, at the moment of death, of the nothingness? Is death like what we've seen on television with the tunnel, the bright light, and the familiar figures of loved ones long lost?
If there is life after death, do we suddenly pass onto that life, aware of our "human" death or do we just start anew, unaware from where we came? I think about reincarnation, which is an interesting idea for me. As a Christian, I know I'm not supposed to believe it, but I'm not like most Christians. Nothing in this life is clearly black and white, so why would the next life be any different? If our souls are reincarnated to the next life, I wonder if it is a sudden event, or if there is a "waiting period" where the soul can ponder the mistakes made in the past, where one can thoughtfully contemplate the steps needed in the next life to reach the inevitable Nirvana.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - GORDYMAN
TO WHOEVER,
IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE IN LIFE AFTER DEATH, WE HAVE FOUND THE PROOF ALL SENSEABLE PEOPLE CAN FOLLOW TO FIND YOUR OWN TO FAITH OF WHAT'S OUT THERE.
SIMPLY ASK YOURSELVES A Q&A THAT YOU DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO, WAIT UNTILL YOUR MIND IS DEVIRTED DOING SOMETHING ELSE,SUCH AS WATCHING T.V. YOU SHOULD GET AN ANSWER WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, THEN TAKE THE ANSWER AND LOOK IT UP,
IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE CONFIRMING WHAT WAS IN YOUR HEAD THEN SIMPLY ASK YOURSELF IN YOUR MIND "WHERE SHOULD I GO TO CONFIRM THIS?" MORE ANSWERS SHOULD
COME TO YOU THAT WILL LEAD TO YOUR ANSWERS PROOF
GOOD LUCK IN YOUR ADVENTURES, "GORDYMAN"
2 - Christopher Rose
I personally AM afraid to die and absolutely don't want to. It follows therefore that my respect and reverence for life and the living is profound and crimes like this are truly horrible beyond words.
However, unlike you, Chantal, I can't accept the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic theory of life after death in some secret and hidden paradise.
It just leaves too many questions unanswered for a start - and then there's the fact that there is still zero evidence for the existence of gods.
Religion causes real problems in that the adherents clearly don't value this world, nor the central message of love religion teaches, seriously enough.
Preferring to trust in a better afterlife rather than working to make this planet into the earthly paradise it could be if all that energy and reverence were put to some practical use, well, to put it mildly, that troubles me deeply.
We talk a lot about living in the modern world but I suspect that, in the future's history, the age we live in will be seen as either the start of the Human Renaissance or the time when fear, ignorance and superstition lead to our downfall.
Who wants to live forever? I do, if only to see how the greatest story ever told unfolds...
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Before I was married with kids, I was very afraid to die. I didn't want to die having accomplished nothing at all in my life. Now that my oldest is 17 and the second kid is 14½, I feel I've accomplished something of what I have to. Also, I've had a heart attack, which, no matter how mild it is, is a brush with death, and a very clear warning of mortality.
I don't want to die yet, of course. I'd like to stick around long enough to go to a grandchild's bar mitzvah in reasonably good health, but I sense that I've accomplished part of what I've had to do. I'm not comfortable with dying, but less uncomfortable than I used to was. Sticking around forever is a very boring proposition.
It wasn't fear of death that got me to be more religious than I used to be, it was realizing that there was backing for some of the seemingly incredible claims in the Bible.
4 - Christopher Rose
Questions for Ruvy:
What does "what I have to do" mean? You're a free man; your life is exactly what you choose to make of it. Passing the burden of choice onto your faith does NOT absolve you of personal responsibility for what you actually choose to do.
Why would "sticking around forever" be boring? I'm enjoying life now and don't see why I should be deprived of that experience by something like death.
Why choose the competitive religion option?
Just because some of the stuff in the Bible is incredible - or even true - doesn't change its status from that of fascinating and important historical artefact, just like the Torah and the Koran. Nor does any of that in any way demean anybody's personal natural spiritual experience.
There are more things in this universe, Ruvy, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, as William Shakespeare so nearly said.
5 - chantal stone
Christopher and Ruvy...thanks for your comments.
Christopher, I deeply respect your opinions. Let me respond point by point:
"...I can't accept the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic theory of life after death in some secret and hidden paradise. It just leaves too many questions unanswered for a start - and then there's the fact that there is still zero evidence for the existence of gods."
I agree that there are so many unanswered questions, and that troubles me also, but I can accept that some questions won't be answered this time around, and I believe that that's what we're here to do...to ask and search for the answers, no matter what they are. As far as evidence....the lack of physical evidence doesn't bother me as much, as I have felt the spiritual evidence work in my own life.
"Religion causes real problems in that the adherents clearly don't value this world, nor the central message of love religion teaches, seriously enough."
I couldn't agree more. Religion is corrupted by the greed of man. And don't promote "religion". I believe spirituality is what's important.
"Preferring to trust in a better afterlife rather than working to make this planet into the earthly paradise it could be if all that energy and reverence were put to some practical use, well, to put it mildly, that troubles me deeply."
Amen, amen and amen! I couldn't agree more. I see this so much in the Christian community where the emphasis is put so much on our "treasures" in heaven, that people neglect what's in front of them. I think this
disappoints God too.
"We talk a lot about living in the modern world but I suspect that, in the future's history, the age we live in will be seen as either the start of the Human Renaissance or the time when fear, ignorance and superstition lead to our downfall."
I agree here also. I just think that the Human Renaissance will include a higher level of spirituality, void of the corruption of "religion"--at least that's my hope.
As far as living forever....sure I'd like to too. All I'm saying is that I don't let the fear of death, and what happens afterwards, stop me from living my life to the fullest right now.
I don't think we are so different Christopher, after all.
6 - gonzo marx
wellwritten, Chantal...and thanks for the pleasant and contemplative read....
on Thing for your amusement, and to perhaps ponder...
might there nto be only one Question but infinate Truths?
example: "why am i here?"....each for their own unique Purpose
same with the "where am i going" Question...
just a Thought to share
Excelsior!
7 - chantal stone
Thank you Gonzo....
and of course...I can accept that the Truth for each of us is different.
It only makes sense that if the God I believe in is infinite, and the Universe is infinite, then certainly there are many questions and many answers to suit each of us uniquely. Each of us does have our own unique purpose, which is why I always question those who claim to have all the answers.
I love the idea you propose Gonzo...and I'm going to ponder it some more while I clean my kitchen!
8 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thoughts for both Chantal and Christopher.
From my point of view, what I have to do minimally is to carry on the family name. I would have liked to have had four sons, I asked G-d for four sons, thinking it was the perfect number of children; and I got four sons. Except that one was killed by its mother in an abortion over thirty years ago (the father was not told till after the deed was done), and one died at 16 weeks in the womb. The other two are at a sleepover at a friend's house a few blocks away.
After my wife had given birth to our second/(third) son and the doctor said that her womb would not be able to carry any more children, it hit me that I had gotten what I had asked G-d for - precisely the way I had asked. When I was nine years old, I didn't think about asking for healthy children. I shivered with fear and wonder at what had transpired in the first forty years of my life.
As a father, what I felt I had to do was to give my two surviving sons the love and security they would need in a tough world, and to pass on the heritage of their ancestors, who suffered for who they were. I didn't feel I had the right to walk away from that heritage. Too much had been paid in suffering, both by the relatives I knew, and by the ones I didn't who died at Treblinka in 1939-40.
That is the big reason we live in Jerusalem instead of Saint Paul. Had I done otherwise, I'd feel empty and miserable, that I had not done my duty to my father or mother or to my family or to my people.
Having done this makes me feel that if G-d chooses to take me today or tomorrow - that I will have done the minimum that in my eyes I had to do. So while I don't want to die now, if I do, I can face my Maker with some peace of mind.
In other words, there was no Torah dictating what I should do, there was my sense of obligation to my father and to my people. And I have always felt this sense of obligation, even when I was twelve and spouting atheism to all who would listen.
Now let's talk about living forever. Let's assume that I did - but that others around me didn't except in small numbers. When my wife would pass away, I would want company. I am that kind of person. An intelligent man wants a companion for more than just a year or two, so I would seek out someone young enough to be one for a number of years. Do you think that a young lady the age of Anthony Grande (17) would satisfy me? Would she understand me? Would I understand her? The gulf in years would be too great.
If it turns out that all of us can live on for a long time forever, those of us born in the middle of the last Christian century all sticking around, maybe it would be worth it. Otherwise there is the issue of "my generation." This is one of the elements of companionship in the eyes of this very old fashioned Jew.
You ask a person to make too many paradigm shifts for my tastes, Chris. There is much more in the universe than my imagination can comprehend. This may be true for a reason. People are finite - only the neshamá (communicating spirit) of G-d within them is infinite.
9 - chantal stone
thank you for your thoughts, Ruvy....
I don't believe that anyone's purpose is written in the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, or in any book for that matter. Our purpose lies within our heart. You felt your purpose through your obligation to your people and family...that was what you felt in your heart.
It makes me wonder, though, why people depend so greatly upon the words written thousands of years ago, instead of relying on what's in their heart? Is it fear?
10 - SteveS
One of the frustrations that I have with religion is that it always tears man down. Ruvy, one comment you made stuck out at me:
When I was nine years old, I didn't think about asking for healthy children.
The way I read it, you blame yourself for an abortion that you didn't have or ask for, and for the loss of an unborn child. I cannot fathom how you can blame yourself for that, but there is clearly a religious foundation for your self-condemnation.
This is primarily why I have turned from religion and get my spirituality in other ways. Religion is constantly about condemning the fraility, the faults of man, making them up if it has to.
Sorry to use that as an example Ruvy, but that's what I read, when I read your comment. Self-condemnation for something that was completely out of your control.
11 - chantal stone
SteveS, thats true...."religion" can be so very negative, exclusionary, and condemning.
I'm "Christian", but approach my faith from a very spiritualistic, personal perspective. The idea of a loving, accepting, forgiving, and uplifting God is what appeals to me....not the fire and brimstone that so many others like to preach.
12 - SteveS
it gets weary to keep seeing that religion after religion after religion is about the weakness of man. Each is based on the premise that a diety is needed to lift man up, otherwise we are mere sinners, or base animals, or weak, or nothing without belief, etc. Religion is about tearing mankind down so that spirituality/faith can lift him back up to something higher. Religion's promise of life after death is paramount in this.
I tend to think if there is life after death, it is more in the form of energy rather than elysium fields of green pastures and lots of grapes and sunshine. Assuming that there are other life forms in the universe, a likelihood given the number of planets alone, our concept of paradise would probably be something they wouldn't view as pleasant. It's got to be more like energy or ethereal rather than paradise lost.
13 - SteveS
curious, chantal, how does the concept of a God play out with your thoughts of other possible life forms. Are we still God's chosen?
14 - chantal stone
I don't really believe in the idea of "God's chosen"...and I certainly accept that there may be other forms of life out there in the universe somewhere. In fact, I believe it's probable. It's arrogant to think that we are the only intelligent life within the infinite universe.
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Steve S. et al.
"The way I read it, you blame yourself for an abortion that you didn't have or ask for, and for the loss of an unborn child."
Sorry Steve. You read wrong. First of all, when I was nine, I reasoned out the perfect number of children in my mind. I didn't think about healthy or not, because I just didn't think of parents losing children as infants or for other reasons.
What I said was not out of blame or self-condemnation. But I realized that I had gotten what I had asked for. That was what was scary. But nine year old children, unless they have been exposed to the tragedy of an infant dying in their immediate family, don't think of adding "healthy" to the list of what they want. The typical nine year old takes health for granted. I don't blame myself for what happened to the aborted baby (it hurts, but there was nothing I could do or could have done), and I don't blame myself for the baby who died at sixteen weeks in my wife's womb. There was nothing I could do. But they were both sons, in addition to the other two. Four sons.
I'm afraid you read guilt and condemnation into my words where there were none.
16 - SteveS
I guess it's interpretation, Ruvy. What I am reading is that you are saying if you had asked for healthy children, then you would currently have 4, so it is by your lack of one word that you had to endure the loss of two children. To me, that is self-blame. I read that you are saying because you omitted one word, you had to lose two children. In other words, it is by your action or lack of action, that you had to lose two children. Ergo, you accept responsibility for something you had no control over. I guess it is a matter of interpretation. I'm glad to read that you feel no blame. The analysis doesn't read that way to me though. Different interpretations.
17 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
hareshít Hokhmá yir'át Hashem. "The beginning of wisdom is the fear of G-d."
When it struck me that I had gotten what I had asked of G-d - four sons - that was the day I began to fear G-d. There were events that occurred before in my life that had moved me towards believing, but the day not long after my baby's birth when I understood that I had gotten what I had asked for as a nine year old - that was the day thay I understood that there was indeed a G-d ruling the universe.
18 - SteveS
Sorry, I edited my comment and took some stuff out of the middle and now it reads like I'm saying the same thing over and over. Sorry.
19 - SteveS
Interesting, Ruvy. Have you ever asked God for anything and gotten no reply? How can you know that you having 4 children was 'Him' answering your prayers and not just the natural consequence of 4 times of lovemaking?
20 - SteveS
I tend to believe that if there is a God, it's more along the lines of love and compassion, like Chantal thinks, rather than something to be feared. I'm not big on promoting fear.
21 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"it gets weary to keep seeing that religion after religion after religion is about the weakness of man. Each is based on the premise that a diety is needed to lift man up, otherwise we are mere sinners, or base animals, or weak, or nothing without belief, etc. Religion is about tearing mankind down so that spirituality/faith can lift him back up to something higher. Religion's promise of life after death is paramount in this."
This is Christianity that wearies you - for the premises that you attribute to religion after religion is the essential concept central to Christianity.
I don't know enough about Islam to speak intelligently, but this is not Judaism at all. Jews are G-d's partners in the creation of this world and are expected to improve it. The idea of life ater death has always been a somewhat nebulous one in Judaism. Now that more of us expect the coming or the messiah relatively soon, the ideas are being refined and honed somewhat, but until relatively recently, there were only general concepts dealing with an afterlife. The concentration always was and still is on this life.
In Judaism, all of Man is not condemned as sinners. There is an equal chance for the commission of good or evil, and we are expected to conquer evil and seek to do good. There is no super-sacrifice to relieve us of the evil we have done, only confession during Yom Kippur and an attempt to make restitution to those we have hurt and the resolve not to repeat the sins against G-d that we have committed.
In Judaism, G-d, who created us, has given us the tools to elevate ourselves to Him, and we Jews are expected to use these tools to make ourselves a holy nation.
And do understand, that I'm not "witnessing" to you with the idea of you deciding that "gee, being Jewish would be cool!" That is another Christian concept. I expect nothing of the sort.
If what I say has any persuasive value at all, look up the Seven Commandments of Noah - which we Jews view as binding all of Mankind, Jew and non-Jew alike. A non-Jew performing the Seven Commandments of Noah is the equivalent of a Jew keeping the 613 commandments of the Torah.
22 - gonzo marx
on the sub-riff of "chosen"...
why does that always seem to depend on who one is Asking?
so many in our History that seem to impart the same basic Message with such variable Voices...
it bloggles my Mind that so many can ~hear~ all this Harmony from the words of Black Elk, the Dalai Lama, Ghandi, King, Siddhartha, Yeshua, Lao Tzu...
and not ~Know~ the validity and solidarity of Content
it's as simple as ....don't fuck with each other
a very old chinese Proverb has always Articulated the Ethic for me...
"do no harm;
if harm is unavoidable, do not hurt;
if hurt cannot be avoided, do not cripple;
if you must cripple to end the Conflict,do not kill;
killing is a Failure, and your own Responsibility to be borne."
fascinating to me what the Newton/Leibniz of our Age has said...
"the more I learn about quantum physics, the more it reminds me of Taoist black magic"
your mileage may vary
Excelsior!
23 - SteveS
This is Christianity that wearies you - for the premises that you attribute to religion after religion is the essential concept central to Christianity.
I should have pointed out that I am not versed in every religion in the world. You have a good point in that there are religions that may promote otherwise. I am not versed in Judaism.
I'm not very versed in Islam either, but from what I can see of it 'from the outside', it maintains such strict control over it's followers, it certainly has no faith in mankind to do the right thing, it's got to force it out of them.
24 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Many times I have asked G-d for things and received no immediate answer, or no answer at all. Many times, I have received an answer, and I've learned that there is a pattern to the answers.
When the request is out of need - like money, a job, etc., the pattern seems to be that you get what you ask for, but just when you need it, and just enough to do the job. I cannot tell you how many ties that has happened to us in Israel. It has happened too many times to be mere coincidence. Read here to get the general idea of "El Shaddai" - the G-d of Sufficiency.
25 - SteveS
I believe in guardian spirits, what most people would call guardian angels, but I'm not entirely convinced they are synonymous with what we generally think of angels as.
Usually I give credit to the guardian spirit. I'm pretty convinced my mom's spirit is looking over my daughter.