Newsgroups: talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: Fear of the process of dying.  
From: Hakki_Kocabas@kcbbs.gen.nz (Hakki Kocabas)
Date: 12 Oct 92 12:37:15 GMT
Organization: Kappa Crucis Unix BBS, Auckland, New Zealand

> In article <1992Oct8.194232.16394@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jcopelan@magnus
> >Any theory of death must take into account  
  
'theory of death' ?!  
  
> >the period prior to the beginning of life.  We don't have any memory of pre
> >existence because we didn't exist (this is why I doubt that I will live on 
> >after death).  
  
Suppose you cannot remember, but God sends messengers to remind you :->  
that He created you in a certain way from clay and then He gave you from  
His soul and taught you words and tested you in front of Angels to  
demonstrate your performance and all of the angels prostrated  
for your intelligent performance, except Lucifer and he challenged you...  
Would you call this 'pre-existence', then ? If this is NOT pre-existence  
then what would you call that :-> fables of the ancients ?!   
  
>   
>   In what sense do you mean "exist?"  If you mean existence definined  
> by the World, then you would want to turn to Tibetian Buddhism for  
> contrary opinions.  If you mean existence in a sense that is  
> World indepedendent, then you might look to Plato for contrary opinions.  
> Both, of course, maintain that there exists a memory of pre-birth  
> existence.  
>   
> >  
> >So in one sense, the eternal cycle found in Eastern philosophies is a  
> >meaningful analogy.  
>   
> Perhaps some Eastern philosophies, those that deal with your question,  
> are more than just meaningful analogies.  
>   
> >There is no soul, or such, that exists after  
  
How do you know ?! Remember you do NOT remember the pre-existence :->  
So obviously you won't be able to predict the future, I mean  
after-existence, or here-after...  
  
> >our body "dies."  On the contrary, we live on past death only in our deeds 
> >and in the thoughts of others.  
  
'living in the thoughts of others'?!  
is NOT like 'living in a cartoon-box', is it ?!  
  
Would you buy this if a messenger of God comes and reveales you :->  
'you were living in the thoughts of God' ?!  
  
if NOT, then why shall we buy your :-> 'living in the thoughts of others'?!  
what sort of 'living' is that ?! Would that make any difference to you  
how long you may 'live in the thoughts of others' ??  
Do you also 'die in the thoughts of others' ??  
Where do you go then ?? To a limbo of the thoughts of others ??  
I think you can do without 'living in the thoughts of others'...  
So, why do you worry about that:-> to secure a heaven to live in the  
thoughts of others...  
  
>   This is quite a poetic understanding of death.  See in particular  
> W. B. Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium."  
>   
> >  
> >Should one fear death?  I don't think so.  It is a humbling experience to  
> >know your own mortality, that at some future time you will cease to exist. 
> >But I think that this shouldn't and doesn't render life meaningless.  
   
>   It would seem to me that immortaility would render life meaningless.  
  
Or rather, it would seem to you that if we were 'immortal' than you would   
NOT use 'life' as you are using 'it' now.   
   
> BCnya,  
>   Charles O. Onstott, III