I don't really believe in this, but in almost asia country there is in some way really exist a world of dead people!for example, my aunt had seen my grandmother several time in evening in house, and even my mother dream about her, that is no different if it was only a dream, but that was when i was 2, i played along in bed, and my mother was simply tired, she had not enough sleep, so she falled asleep, and i nearly fell out of bed if my grandmother didnot wake mama up and hold me!

It's a very difficult subject and pretty abstract, indeed, some people believe, some do not, but I am an unusual character... like, I wonder why we even exist in the first place, what the purpose is, to get born, experience much, then die? and when wondering why we really do exist, I come to the point of death, do we really exist only to die, for nothing? like, there is something else lurking in the darkness...

one other thing... my grandfather died about 7 years ago, and my grandmother constantly had dreams about him, he was talking to her very much, she was miserable and said that she wanted him to take her with him, and the next day she was near death herself, so... don't dreams have any connection to what really happens in reality? so even though my grandpa was dead, he appeared in my grandma's dreams, why is that? doesn't that wake up any question about... if he still is alive? but in another world... and I have seen dreams about my grandpa as well, not often, but usually when I am very anxious for a long time, he appears, telling me to not give up and to have patience, or he asks me about my news... and how come that he wants to know about my news when he is dead? I don't think about him that much and I don't dream about him that often... it can go months before I see him.

In the end though, it's a subject of different opinions, no one is right, no one is wrong... you can't tell, because we will never find out the truth, when you die, you can't turn back and tell somebody what happened... there is no return. so... I guess we have to die and then find out for ourselves... but till that time comes... we might as well live, and not wonder about death... because we will only get more confused... how will we understand death when we can't even understand life? ...

To me your dead and that's all.

I say Yeah, there is a Life after this one

My own Views are that when you die, your mind, is released and basically gets to do what it wants, i.e live dreams, do things you always wanted to do, and so on

Whenever I think about the afterlife I can't help but come to the same conclusion - no matter what view I try to take. It doesn't matter. So simple - here's my train of thought:

Let's say someone is an atheist. Walking around not believing in any god/God/gods/pantheon/etc... Now let's say, hypothetically, that this person is correct in their belief - this of course would mean that should they die...nothing will happen. Simply put - there will be void. Now, let's say their wrong. 99% of faiths would most likely classify them as damned. Now just hold that thought a while...

Imagine the same person - only as a very religious individual. Now what happens to them if they're wrong and nothing exists afterwards? Nothing. Not a thing. They just get a happy life due to the positive effect of faith on the human psyche and cease to exist. But, if they're right then they probably get pearl gates/Odin's banquet (it was Odin, right?)/virgins/etc... Now bearing these two people, each with their two situations, in mind, a conclusion can be drawn:

From our point of view, faith is simply something which lets us get through life. It doesn't matter whether or not someone is right or wrong, for as was previously stated, we have no conclusive proof. So it never mattered in the first place whether or not the reward of afterlife exists - the real test is living.

I hope someone else can also raise their point - as this topic has some real potential for deep philosophical stuff.

Absolutely.
I was raised Catholic so I grew up believing in Heaven and Hell and Purgatory.

The house I grew up in definitely has a ghost named Eddie. It wasn't until I was about 5 that I realized my parents could not see him. They told me my "friend Eddie" was just in my imagination so i stopped talking about him, even though I still saw him. I put it together that he was a ghost and was really freaked out. I routinely saw him until a horrifying episode when I was 14 and I thought he was my dad, but then realized I was the only one home. Anyhow, I guess I blocked him out or something and I had no other experiences.

Then about a year ago I was babysitting my three year old cousin at my parents' house where I grew up and she kept going upstairs without me and I told her to stop it, that no one was up there. She looked at me surprised and said, "But I want to talk to Eddie."
Tell me there is no life after death.

I just want to add something along the lines of Gand4lf's post:
As far as if the afterlife exists, there are 2 possibilities:
It is there and you will go to heaven or hell or whatever OR there is nothing and when you die it is just nothing.

So it is basically a 50/50 gamble.
I would rather believe in an afterlife and if it is just some empty void, I won't know the difference anyhow.
But if I think there is nothing after death and there really is, I don't want to end up where the non-believers go.

I don't think whether you believe in the afterlife or not really affects people's decisions in life. I bet there are a lot of good people who are atheists or who just don't believe in an afterlife. I doubt they live careless lives because they don't plan on getting into heaven. As well as I know a lot of people who do believe in an afterlife that lead terrible lives and really don't care if they have a first class ticket to hell.

Of course yes~! i think after you dead, you will either go to the heaven or hell. If you go to the heaven you can get a new life again, all start at the begining (baby= new life). On the other hand, if you go down to the hell, then you might can't get a life again. so i think if we don't have a new life after we dead then there won't be any babies born again.

Had some time to think yesterday and I remembered a story a very scientific friend of mine told me (he's in Uganda now on missionary duty ). It was about the great mathematician, Euler. Once, during Euler's work at St Petersburg academy, a French philosopher, Denis Diderot, was busy advocating Atheism to the court of Catherine the Great. She was quite alarmed at this, being quite faithful herself.

However, Euler was the one to save the day when he came to the philosopher and boldly proclaimed: "Sir, (a + b^n)/n = X, hence God exists—reply!" The man was so stunned he had no reply and was thus beaten that day. Euler's argument did of course make no sense but as literacy was quite rare at the time, no-one argued.

I believe its only some years after hearing the story that I've caught the ironic moral of it: in contrast to his work, Euler showed that faith wasn't about philosophy or reason - it was just faith. So once again I think focusing on life is more important than worrying about death.

It doesn't matter to me if there is an afterlife or not, because my life will still be the same. I'll still act hateful towards most people and assume satanic attributes. There was a post saying a guy knowing that there is an afterlife will be happier than the alternative. They're still living in the same world. Only one is strong enough to admit this and the other needs comfort.

But ignoring reality and believing in magic (if only there were such a thing in this world, there would be something interesting to live for), say there is an afterlife. Aside from thinking that the current world is hell and that Valhalla awaits my spirit for Ragnarok (again, awesome), I, for one, wouldn't want to spend a boring eternity in a serene heaven. I'd prefer being given another life like this, to suffer miserably and repeat the same cycle over and over again.

As for the existence of an afterlife, I don't feel like throwing random ideas now. Maybe there is one, maybe there isn't. I'm going to find out sooner or later. For now, there are some other things that seem slightly more solvable to think about.

Perhaps I wouldn't belive in next life but, in the next stage of our lives.
The stage in which we might not be longer human...

Like some people say, how you live in this life, in the other world you live exactly like that, my mother usually go to see some woman that can talk with dead people, to meet my grandma on some anniversaries for example, a few days before new year, or when some bad things come, to take some advice from my grandma.
Last three week she even went to talk about my study with my grandma, and ask her to take care of me!^_^ My mother said, not only my grandma, but my grandpa appears alot in her dream!
But somehow i don't understand why they can not be born in a new life insist of living in that world? I have read somewhere that there is some children who still remember about their last life even now, they even know exactly where they lived, and their house is still there when they come back to find it!How can some thing like this not happen to my grandparent? I hope they can start a new life instist of go on living in that world, it is kind of sadness and lonely!
Or they must definitely live in happen with some peaceful life than it can be fair, if not then this is really a silly thing that i ever know.
For bad people, they must go to hell, to pay for what they have done in this world!^_^

I'm agnostic when it comes this, I believe there is something out there but I'm not sure what it is yet. I believe the purpose of our existence is to find the 'creator', to bridge science and religion into one unified theory. I think our brains, with all of their neuro-chemical interactions, have signatures that interact with the quantum world, like fingerprints or retinal patterns, only vastly more complicated. I believe that these signatures are what constitutes our 'souls', and they exist as either non-baryonic matter, or into extra dimensions. I believe that it is your decisions, your actions, and your interactions with others that develops this signature over time. for instance, if you disrespect life, and murder someone or an animal, this instance is encoded into your quantum signature. if you do a great deed, or help someone and this action respects life, this too is encoded in your signature, much as it becomes a memory.

I believe that existence in these four dimensions is a preparation for greater mysteries and experiences that await us in the next stage. somewhat akin to a caterpillar changing into a butterfly, I believe our consciousness undergoes the same thing at death. I do not think the struggle between good and evil (respect for life and information vs. disrespect or destruction) is limited to our perceived universe.
to sum up, I think that religion is on the right track, but severely misguided by humanity's primitive desires. One day there may be one unified religion that incorporates science into its theism, but until then, I'll follow what I deem to be logical.

What does it matter if there is or isn't life after death. If there isn't, we won't be around to care, and if there is, then we will be around to care. From a historical and psychological background, the need for an afterlife arises directly from the average person's fear of death.

I kind of like to think this is just one big dream and when you die, you wake up. The better one is that this is some other dimension's hell. But at the end of the day, i would like to focus on one thing at a time. Holding onto this life is draining enough, and now you gotta think about the next one when this is over? Urgh.. lol

I don't question life and death, I live now.