<p>Ok, the way I see it, there are three paths in life.</p>
<p>You either believe in some afterlife, believe that you'll stay in the ground and never be conscious again, or become another human/bug/plant in another life.</p>
<p>But I don't really believe in the afterlife and I don't want to stay in the ground forever.
But if I come back again as a human then what if I turn out to be a bad human and kill people?</p>
<p>I don't know what to believe in anymore. I guess I'll just spin that wheel of life and see whatever it lands on...</p>
<p>Well since my dad has really influenced my opinions/beliefs (almost to the point where i question if they are my beliefs or his), I’ve always believed that when you die, you’re gone, you’re 6 feet under, fertilizer i guess. But it isn’t really depressing or anything, the point is you do something with your life to make it worthwhile and have no regrets, as cliche as it sounds.</p>
<p>So you’re a hindu? Nice… It would help if you believed in the theory of karma in which your thoughts and actions in this life contribute to your “bank” of total karma which a part of will be dealt into following lives. So be a good person (eliminate bad qualities such as jealousy, greed, uncharitableness, anger,…) for a favorable disposition in your following lives. But ultimately though, you want to break this cycle…deplete all your accumulated karma. This is done by losing attachment to the material world and eliminating material desires and identifying not with the physical presence but with the eternal, timeless, sustaining force. This is the source of eternal bliss and the end of the cycle of birth and rebirth/pain and suffering.</p>
<p>I don’t know…I wish I could keep memories from past lives…or after you die go to another earth and live forever withthe things you enjoy like the internet and family and stuff.</p>
<p>I used to be scared of the idea of heaven. Staying in heaven for eternity…and eternity…and eternity. I mean, what comes after eternity? Nothing! Eternity.
So what happens 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 trillion billion sextillion googleplex zillion years later? Nothing!! You’re still an angel. It goes on forever and forever and forever, no change whatsoever. It scares me because if it goes on forever and ever there’s nothing else! Just an eternity of the same thing! </p>
<p>That’s what scares me about becoming another person in another life also. I mean an eternity of repeating the cycle of birth life and death. Along with its pains and sorrows over and over and over. What if the big bang repeats and everything mankind has made is wiped out and starts over?Who knows what we have made in the past universe. Yet, we’ll never know.</p>
<p>I mean, I’m not trying to say I’m right or I’m smarter than everybody on the subject. I’m saying how I feel about life and I want some other opinions on it. I want some opinions that might help me cope with this dilemma. I just want to know how other people cope with this.</p>
<p>There is no afterlife per se… heaven and hell are on earth. They are dealt through accumulated karmas. Deist probably have the belief in the “stay in the ground forever” because they believe in a creator of the universe but nothing more. It seems to me like a cop out. The thinkers during Deism’s start did not want to believe in god’s active role in the universe because enlightened thought and science was incompatible with such a prospect. The main reason Desim is incompatible with Hinduism is that in Hinduism god is considered constantly ever present and not gone like Deism would suggest. But follow the path of righteousness and you should be satisfied.</p>
<p>Consider reading up on Discordianism. Religious views on the afterlife are much more nuanced than the three you mentioned. You just have to get out of mainstream churches to realize it. </p>
<p>Life is meaningless. You’re born, you life, you die. Whether or not we’re put on this earth for some greater purpose or something happens to us after we die [besides decomposition and oblivion], I do not know and can never know for sure.</p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean life has to suck. Even if there’s no ultimate purpose for our existence [and I’m inclined to believe that there isn’t], it doesn’t mean that we don’t have an obligation to our species and planet to leave the world a little better than we found it.
Make the most of your life, and make those of others as good as you can as well. </p>
<p>As for karma…sometimes the bad guys win and the good guys lose. Personally…I don’t think I’m fit to judge who’s “bad” and who’s “good.”</p>
Just kidding!</p>