[quote name='MaraM']Many of my friends are Christians and I appreciate the fact that they 'let me go on my merry way' trying to simply live my life without doing harm to others - so I hope no one takes offense when I say that "if I'm wrong and there is a God, surely he will have a sense of humour and understand I simply did my very best".[/quote]
That's my attitude as well. The way I look at it is this: If some form of god exists, and I was created by this being, then this creator also gave me the brain with which I try to better understand the world around me. So when I die and have my chat with this creator, you would think he/she/it would understand my point of view better than I do and take this into consideration.
On the other hand: if by questioning the world around me in the only way I know how, with the brain I was born with, I am damned...my only conclusion is that I simply should not have existed in the first place.
Now, to
strictly adhere to the topic at hand (

): of all I have learned of history, world religions, culture, society...of science, of the behavior of the universe...of all of my own personal experiences...I would conclude at this point in time that in all probability there is no life after death; we are but mortal creatures who share the planet with a multitude of others like us.
I would go further and suggest that consciousness is, in a way, a self-contained universe. The only way to make a measurement is through comparison; to compare death to life would require a similar consciousness and awareness that exists in both. But if consciousness is only a result of the curious arrangement of molecules in which we exist, then this awareness ceases to exist when life ends. Therefore, to know what it is like to be dead would be comparable to remembering a time before you were born.
This post has been edited by locally pwned: 23 May 2006 - 06:57 AM
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - Albert Einstein
"The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion." - Thomas Paine
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands." - Douglas Adams