RE: The ultimate questions: What am I? Why am I? Where can I go?
I saw your response in son-of-satire's post which led me here. Actually it would be more accurate to say that a series of events beginning with our brief interaction on your followers post, continuing with your kind words on my post from yesterday and finally running into you on s.o.s.'s post led me here :) Even if I didn't want to believe in the divine, or something larger at play then myself it would be a belief I would have to fight hard to keep, ha!
I've actually never heard of deism, but it sounds the most similar to how I would describe myself. The problem for me is that it's still a label.
I was born into an evangelical Christian household, and the level of brainwashing involved in an individual being taught this particular faith from the time they have language is, well probably one of the highest levels of such there is on the planet. Extracting myself from this faith was a monumental effort, hence why I am shy of labels of any kind at this point, lol. Though I am always fascinated by what others believe, if I would allow myself to indulge in one label, it would be seeker, as I am constantly seeking the truth.
From the way you described deist, is it safe to assume that they don't have one particular idea of what happens after this body dies?
Deism is based completely on observation and reason. So each deist may have their own probabilities/speculations they consider for after life. Yet for the most part to treat SPECULATION on what happens after we die as fact is not using reason. So I don't think you'll find a deist telling you what happens after you die.
They might gleefully speculate on possibilities all day long with you though. They simply won't treat such speculations as fact.
After life is a great adventure. It is something each of us will get a chance to experience. Hopefully there is more to it than simply oblivion, but it is not something we've found a way to accurately observe YET.
EDIT: I will tell you I've encountered something related to people that died long after they died before. We use a label of ghosts for such a thing. From my observation the experience of such things leads me to believe there is likely in some/all cases something that occurs after death. It doesn't really tell me what that is though.
Then it is as I suspected, you and I believe very similar things :) I also love to speculate on what might happen after we die, in fact I think it's a lot of fun.
I say similar, mainly because while I like to look at logic and reason before anything else, there are some things I let myself just feel. I feel that my spirit is something living in this physical body, but not tied to it ;)
Yes, I feel it is very important to speculate, to imagine, etc. In fact that is the hypothesis stage of the scientific method. Yet, sometimes we cannot determine how to properly test/prove/disprove those speculations. This does not mean they have no merit and may not be truth.
Yet it also does not mean we should treat our speculations as truth when we admit we are guessing, speculating, or hypothesizing.
It is healthy as it may be impossible to generate new ideas without first at least having that step.
I simply leave room in my speculations that I may be completely wrong, partially wrong, or correct. I try not to turn my words into a bible or to treat them as having the same weight as something that has been proven with fact rather than speculation.
There are a lot of things we have not explained. You cannot prove a thing by lack of evidence, likewise you cannot disprove a thing by lack of evidence.
We really can only disprove or prove things when we have evidence. So speculations could well be true, or paths to truth.
This is also why I tell people I would do them a disservice if I pulled them onto my path. We each walk our own path. Yours could end up being a better choice than mine, for we are not prophets. So by each of us walking our own path we increase the chance of finding the truth.
Very well said. I actually can't find anything about this I disagree with ;) The last part is something my husband often says. He has a way of philosophizing that is appealing to people so he has to be careful about those looking to be led. It sounds like you have that same way about you ;)
I still would love to hear your current speculations about life after death, as a fun discussion.
Let me see what I can do as that'd be a tall order to codify my current speculations. I have several and none of them dominates the other. It is essentially a collection of different speculations and I believe they could all be wrong, one could be right, or several of them could be right at the same time. I'd likely need to frame that as a post. I simply need to decide how I wish to approach it.
Looking forward to your next post...
No pressure. :p
Frank
Sorry, I just saw that you responded. Of course, I know they're just speculations, I probably should have phrased that differently, asked what possibilities ran through your mind. You mentioned that some people thought this could be a simulation, and that is definitely something I've considered. With the way that technology has improved, it doesn't seem we're that far off in this current incarnation from the ability to make a virtual realm that not only appears real, but also feels real. Imagine a virtual reality steemit, where you would put on a full body suit with head gear, plug it in, and step into the platform? Walk the halls that I described in my post? LOL, this is what a fictional writer's brain comes up with :)
I did quite a few posts months ago about reality as a simulation. There were quite a few people bringing up the topic during and after that, as well as some sporadically since then. When I make my post I'll see about including links tot he past thoughts on reality as speculation. Though I don't believe I've ever written specifically about my speculations on after-life before, so I may actually do that. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how I wish to approach it. I may post this today. Depends on time, inspiration, and if I'm satisfied personally with an approach.