Following on from the various recent religious debates, and linked to Harbourboys often asked but unanswered question about how to choose from so many different options, I'm interested in how people view the alternative religions and how they will fair in an afterlife.

Unfortunately their are far too many religions to try and list individually, so I'm necessarily going to limit it to the major ones, with a couple of others thrown in for known board members. Please except my appolgies if you feel sidelined and put yourself in "other" Explanations of your choices would be probably more helpful than the poll itself.

Poll Information
This poll contains 2 question(s). 39 user(s) have voted.
You may not view the results of this poll without voting.

Poll Results: Who is going to a better afterlife? (39 votes.)

What religion (or lack of) are you? (Choose 1)
* Christian - Catholic - 0% (0)
* Christian - Protestant - 8% (3)
* Christian - Other (Anglican, Mormon, methodist etc) - 13% (5)
* Judaism - Orthodox - 0% (0)
* Judaism - Other - 5% (2)
* Baha'i - 0% (0)
* Islam - Sunni - 0% (0)
* Islam - Shi'ite - 0% (0)
* Hindu - 0% (0)
* Buddist - 3% (1)
* Sikism - 0% (0)
* Shinto - 0% (0)
* Chinese Traditional - 0% (0)
* Primal-indigineous - 0% (0)
* African Traditional - 0% (0)
* Other religious group - 13% (5)
* no religious bent - 59% (23)

Which other religions are going to a better afterlife (i.e. heaven or similar) (Choose 18)
* Christian - Catholic - 13% (5)
* Christian - Protestant - 15% (6)
* Christian - Other (Anglican, Mormon, methodist etc) - 15% (6)
* Judaism - Orthodox - 13% (5)
* Judaism - Other - 13% (5)
* Baha'i - 5% (2)
* Islam - Sunni - 8% (3)
* Islam - Shi'ite - 8% (3)
* Hindu - 5% (2)
* Buddist - 8% (3)
* Sikism - 5% (2)
* Shinto - 5% (2)
* Chinese Traditional - 5% (2)
* Primal-indigineous - 8% (3)
* African Traditional - 8% (3)
* Other religious groups - 10% (4)
* Irrelevant, it depends on how well someone has lived their life. - 33% (13)
* Irrelevant, there is no afterlife - 56% (22)

I don't have any religious convictions and I don't believe in an afterlife, if there was one then where you end up depends on your beliefs.

The results at the moment seem atheist, (yes, I'm one too), religious people, where art thou?

I don't follow any religion and I don't belive in the afterlife.

Don't know whether or not there is an afterlife -- it's a nice thought, but reality isn't always nice.

I do follow a religion and I still agree with DarkStrider - where you end up after death depends on your personal beliefs. I'm sure that my dad isn't in the same heaven as any of the 9/11 hijackers - and by my definitions, if they really were being true to their religios beliefs, they attained whatever constitute heaven for them. It's not up to me to decide. I don't think that any member of one religion can legitimately determine if a pious member of another religion is going to heaven or not.

I don't believe in a god or anything like that however when it comes to an afterlife I'm definately indefinate in my convictions. I have no idea what awaits anyone when they die and I hope if something does await them that it reflects what they did during life.

Yet most of me feels that there is nothing after death, that life just stops. There's nothing. It would be hard to describe but I can assure you it's not a nice thought at the prospects of just not having any sentience.

I can't believe that there can possibly be a load of different after-lifes depending on your beliefs. That's like saying if I believe that the afterlife is one continuous cricket match (hell for some people) that that is what I am going to get. That makes no sense at all (unless we are all going into some sort of Matrix world created by our thoughts)

No afterlife. That's why we reproduce. Our offspring are our afterlife.

I said "no religious bent", and although that's far from a good way to describe me, it's probably the closest thing.

I say that the afterlife is (to a degree) irrelevant, mainly because I'm not receiving letters from ghosts or from people in heaven or hell or from angels or devils. However, I can't really believe in a hell of hellfire or even plain old spiritual suffering, but that's just me. Maybe you would like a special place for murderers or telemarketers to go to, it's just that I can't really believe in that.

I'm going to say that an afterlife is impossible. Not just highly unlikely, but that there is no way (even given the existance of a divine being) to have an afterlife.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say it was impossible, but I have never seen any evidence of it and I can't see how it could be possible. Although that may just be a limitation of my comprehension of the universe.

I am a Christian. Basically, that means that I believe Christ has gone to hell in stead of me and anyone else who believes Jesus alone payed for their sins.
So I voted for all the 3 christian-types.

I said I was a Protestant, because most likely my personal religion is closest to Protestant. In fact I care not if someone calls himself catholic, protestant or 'other'. You believe in Christ or not (Basically).

I should add, though, that I can't judge people, so I can never tell for sure who I will meet in heaven.
I also think that there is some degree of punishment for those who do not believe in Christ. But that's a different thing and will not start this here. Yet.

I voted "other Christian-Anglican etc." since that was mostly what I was raised. As to whether there is 'life after death' I do not know but I voted that how people live will determine what happens to them. It is impossible for me to conceive of a loving, caring god who would say "Oh, you lived a very good life, cared for your fellow humans, tended your garden well but because you didn't believe (add whatever you like) You have to be punished or just tossed into non-existence.

I believe that it is quite possible that there is a continuation of life but in the sense of being absorbed into the Divine...memory. Not sure what word to use.

Pretty vague.

I believe the majority will go to a world like this or better. The only ones that won't are those who commit excessively greivous sins or those that still atr the last day deny that Jesus is the Christ.

Ever seen Powder? Dumb movie with Jeff Goldblum and an albino, hairless Sean Patrick Flannery. (I teared up though)

Einstein got it right. Life is energy, engy never can be destroyed, only changed, when we die the energy that is "us" gets distributed evenly throughtout the universe in less than an instance.

We are all the same, and we are all seperate until death. I am the Irreligious Paladin after all. ;)

Anyways closest I could answer was "no religious bent" and then "other religious groups."

As an Atheist I don't believe there is an afterlife (though I suppose there could be an afterlife without a God).

I missed an option for a good afterlife - the old Norse Valhalla where you go to eat & drink with the Asa (gods) before going out to beat the cr*p out of the bad guys!

Could someone who believes in an afterlife (or not) try and explain to me how I can live after my body has been burnt/rotted away? I'm not to clear how people think in these lines - not a topic I've really debated about much.

Is it a soul, prehaps? But then doesn't that in itself raise further problems? I mean, how can you know that I have a soul? Or for that matter, how can you know that I have just one soul, and not a stream of many souls? And what is it about this soul(s) that makes it (them) me?

What I will say is that I know of the existence of spirits. I've had some private experiences, and a few disturbing encounters with the evil ones. Its common knowledge where I came from. I can't say much more than that. I know life as it were doesn't end with death of the body.

As for afterlife, well ... I don't buy into the idea of playing harps on clouds. That's just a little too cheesy and simple from where I'm standing.

As for how I envision it, I think it gets down to the fact that we choose what kind of people we really want to be. I can't imagine that people like Hitler and Charles Manson could ever abide even being near the spirits of people who had a conscience and knew what they did. In a sense, they've judged themselves. They'd pretty much have to be isolated from the rest, and have only each other for company forever. When you get down to it, its hard to think of a worse punishment than that.

[ September 06, 2006, 12:14: Message edited by: Beren ]

Umm...'Buddhist' is spelt wrong in the poll... -_-;;

I think I'll come back to this topic later (too sick to think properly right now...)

Another atheist. According to current results there is a horde of atheists at BoM. :grin:

Rotku, many believe there's more in person than body. You may call it "soul", "Spirit", or by any other names. And many believe that when your corporeal shell dies, the inner, incorporeal part of you shall got to afterlife, or to the religion's respectable choice.
Actually, it's very simple to explain why many think so. Althought I admit it may sound stupid to some, plenty of people think that intelligence and personality can't be just bodily qualities. To some, saying "I'm me, and I can think", is enough to prove that there is more in you.
So, the soul is your mind and personality. So, everyone has one, if any. Or so it has been suggested plenty of times.

Me, myself, I'm not sure. I guess I'll see after I die. Althought the idea of living forever feels a little horrible to me. I would hate a life with no end, no final rest. Perhaps if I can exist, but sleep forever, then I could accept it...

Judaism - Orthodox? Did you mean Orthodox Christians or just forget about them? I don't know about different jewish communions so can't tell...

Anyway, I'm a christian - protestant just like the majority of people in Finland.

According to current results there is a horde of atheists at BoM.This is yet another one of those questions I'd like to re-ask to the same group of people, about 20 years in the future...

@ Late,
No I meant Judaism, I was of two minds whether and how to split it, (main groups being Orthodox, Conservative and Progressive afaik) and (from my very limited knowledge) decided that Orthodox was the most likely to have significantly different views. As I'm not aware of any Orthodox Christians on the boards, so I'm afraid I lumped them in with Christian - Other.

Interesting results so far - the atheists are the easiest to cut out of the stats (which was to be expected.)
Nice to see that currently more than 2/3 of the religious think that religion is irrelevant to a place in the afterlife (assuming nobody is particularly messing with the poll). Maybe their's hope for us atheists afterall!

Need more data. Feed me data...
:rolleyes:

@Rally,
How do you think the results would change in 20 years?

@Carcaroth She possibly means with the encroachment of mortality, quite often with the incipient onset of a bad case of mortality people turn to religion.

From personal experience having had two heart attacks and being faced with the possibility of my own demise, the clock is ticking louder in my case, I am still of the same opinion as I always have been.

Beren made an interesting point about spirits (and it's uncommon knowledge in my case Beren as to where you came from). I also have had personal experience with good, bad and ambivalent spirits (and that's where they are staying, personal) and believe that some part of some people can still be found if they feel they haven't finished some business or want some kind of closure in one way or another.

[ The Native American community within Canada. I'll leave it at that. ] - Beren

[ September 07, 2006, 04:43: Message edited by: Beren ]

@Carcaroth: I really don't know how the results would change, I'm simply speculating that they would. I remember voicing many of the same sentiments - equally vociferously, too - when I was 17. I'm curious to see if the folks here are any better at prognostication than I was. ;)

This is yet another one of those questions I'd like to re-ask to the same group of people, about 20 years in the future... When Satan gets old he finds god. I would be disapointed in myself if I due to fear of death and oblivion would turn to the illusion of religon when my life nears its end.

There is no Religion. There is no religion either.

The questions we think of as religious are irrelevant, but with profound meaning.

Words are not enough. There is no contradiction.

This is yet another one of those questions I'd like to re-ask to the same group of people, about 20 years in the future... Well, my mom is more than 20 years old than me and she is a stronger atheist than me. ;)

Last year i have helped two very old men in the street who were trying to get to hospital and we walked together there. We spoke as we walked and they had very strong atheist ideas too.

But for some people you may be right. They may change, they could fear from death or they may find a proof of God (at least enough for them). If i can prove its existence to myself i can believe in God too but i would probably wouldn't believe in any religion. Even if God exists it wouldn't need to send messages to us.

The main problem that athiest and agnotics would have with the afterlife and paradise is that in order to get into one you must have worshipped a certain god in a certain way, often doing pretty stupid sounding things like never eating pork on tuesdays or something.

Imagine a man who is a doctor and devotes his life to curing the poor for no reward yet he's agnotic or an athiest. He doesn't do anything to hurt anybody else. Yet when he dies he would get a one way ticket to hell according to many religions because he didn't worship some god in the correct manner however he upheld every other requirement and then some in order to get into paradise.

Don't get me started on the Russian Roulette of gods saying "Worship no other god but me."

[quote]There is no Religion. There is no religion either.[quote]

I think it's quite clear that there is religion, as religion is simply a set of beliefs (for the most part, this is a GENERAL description).

As for me I can't concieve complete and utter non-existance, it just seems impossible. It also seems that we wouldn't have an afterlife without a purpose. What that purpose is I have no idea, but when we die, I'm certain that an afterlife with a purpose will be there.

I marked myself as Christian- Other and that what religion you believe in wont ruin your chance of a good afterlife.

religion is simply a set of beliefsAnd there you have it.