Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'll be participating in this one. If I win, then the prize will go to second place. I'll be posting last, though. On the deadline.

I will say i do love tori's answer. Especially that last bit.

Where do we go when we die? Personally, I try not to think about it. I, like a majority of America was raised to believe that if you spread the word of God accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you'll be allowed into Heaven. I very much detest some aspects to that belief, because they also said that good deeds count for naught and that even if you live your life as a rapist/child molester/murder/thief/etc, so long as you're saved before you die then thats all erased and you can get into Heaven. Where as if you go through life doing good deeds, helping people, and living your life to the best of you ability and try not to do anything wrong, if you weren't saved you were going to Hell.

As I said, I don't entirely agree with this. It doesn't explain a lot of things that I've experienced in life, such as hauntings. It's said that if we die, our spirit leaves the body and goes to whatever plane of existence we are told or choose to believe in. If thats true, then what are hauntings? I've heard multiple theories as to why spirits/ghosts are trapped in between this realm and the next, and I've also heard that where they are is the next realm, and that there's nothing after it. If that is true, then what happens when a ghost "crosses over". The theory I've heard recently is that they are re-incarnated. I have yet to open that can of worms so I'll stray from that subject for now.

So, what if you don't believe in spirit, and instead only believe in mind and body? Well, then you die, the brain dies, and there for can not support the body so they both start to decompose. This in turn releases gases that some plants use to create food and energy. So basically you become fertilizer and return to the earth. Even if your cremated, this theory still stands, as ash is bio degradable and actually mixes will with soil for some plant life. Now a days when people are cremated, they don't have to have there ashes scattered if they don't want, nor must you sit on someone mantle for teh rest of there non existent life. You can be turned into a friggin diamond if you want, or used in artwork on canvas.

To summarize, where do we go when we die? Any number of places. Heaven, Hell, trapped as a ghost, come back as someone or something else, turned into plant food, be worn on your loved ones ring finger, or framed and hung on a wall for all to see.

((Is this some bet between you two, or what? You already turned down the prize...))

I've got conformation from GAIA that there are issues with the systems associated with giving and receiving items, thus I must apologize to K for the pressure. My bad! Sorry! sweatdrop

I think I'm going to take a same type deal as Kain...I'll write my thoughts, but I don't want the prize. (next place down if I win)

Now, what happens when animals and humans die? It's silly to think that they do anything different. Once you don't live, that's it, nothing more. The 8 characteristics of life include the following:
Intake/Use energy, produce waste, reproduce, react to environment (sensory input), maintain stable internal environment, move/delivery, produce/contain proteins. Now, we do that as well as animals do. It's silly to think of anything after death. The part of your body that receives that which is a part of hellfire or heavenly clouds is gone, so who says you can even feel anything after death? To be conscious after death...pah, silly...

But isn't it also silly to think that it's that simple? That we're that simple? Are we the same as animals, then? I'll offer you differently. For one thing, animals don't believe in God, they don't have religion, they don't have our arrogance. An animal doesn't rush to a fight it knows it will lose. Humans declare they can do anything, they have that preconception already that they can win and will win, and that they're number one. An animal isn't capable of such. It can FIGHT and EARN the title of "Alpha Male" but it does not boast it will win before it fights. Subsequently, also, the animals respect the winner, unlike us humans, who still think we're better, and then later will challenge it, and other select principles.

We have what's known to some as a "soul." I don't personally believe animals don't have a "soul," so this is really just a matter of having different names. I might venture to call it the conscience. We've got society's thoughts in mind, that "Is what I'm doing right or wrong?" And to some extent, we can teach animals this, and to some extent they already have it. If it's afraid of what YOU will do provided it takes this action, it will show a hesitation, like when we do something we know is wrong. It's that same fear when you're near a lion, and you would also hesitate. Fear. For us it's our Morals--or again--our conscience. What else, then? Okay, maybe you don't want to say that, still: Philosophy. Do animals have that? Whatever it is that we have while we live as humans, who's to say that isn't something that doesn't deteriorate to nothing like everything else? That's the principle of the soul. This thing that rightfully humans shouldn't have, this oddity that separates us from animals (for better or worse), what is it? Soul or not, it would seem it does pass on and continue after the body is gone.

Why do we have it while animals don't? You can't answer that. You can't explain why we have those extra characteristic, beyond basic "life," or, for that matter, animals. It's a silly idea to think such a thing could happen, but guess what, it did. So who's to say there's not anything after life? Now that I prove it's possible for ANYTHING after death, I make my statement finally. Your heaven and hell, or perception of it, or the preacher's perception of it--I take to be the same. THAT'S RIGHT! I think heaven and hell are just two parts of the same place. Cast into the flames for those sinners, and embraced by clouds for the good folk. No. Nothing is neither completely good or completely bad, not white, nor black, just different shades of gray. I think if you are a generally good person, that you've done more good than bad, it's off to heaven for you, which I take to mean you might get your punishment, but also reward. I think whatever this heaven is, it is just like life here.

Now hell? Yes, I believe in hell, but not in the same way as you do, most likely. If you don't believe in God, that's fine, you don't need to. Also, don't need to believe in the devil to follow me on this one. I don't think that hell is just fire and the devil laughing at you. As I said, if you've stayed mostly good (though, what is "good?") I believe you receive that in heaven for you to atone for what wrong you did commit. Hell, in my opinion, is only for those who were nasty till the end, with a malicious and defiant attitude to the very end. And now, what hell actually is, in my opinion. Not torture, not fire, not being told "Bad boy! No! Bad!" not even a spanking. To an extent, that's even satisfaction to some. That means they have to acknowledge you, and thus you controlled them in a way. It's showing you could make them do it. I think hell is nothing. TRULY nothing: Just you all by yourself, a floor to walk on, but no walls, no people, no texture, no path, no trail, no sky, just a thick fog. All you see is that fog and the floor. Those truly bad are damned to walk this forever.

Hell on Earth is this, for me, as well. If I had to travel this for even a minute with nothing to grant me company, I would be despairing. An hour, I would have severe anxiety. For a number of days having to bear this, I would go insane. For all time? I'd beg for death. An end. Hell on Earth, or closest to it, is those that don't have anyone or anything there for them. Insanity is hell on Earth. Please, go to your nearest nut farm, loony bin, whatever you call it, and just HUG SOMEONE! Poor souls...

Just imagine what you'd do if you had nothing--utter nothingness--and that's where you will find hell. I find nothing worse than knowing I'll be walking that nothing forever. As expressed by Three Days Grace: Pain. "I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all." Me, too.

If no ones post in the next 2 and one half hours. Johnny wins. Sorry guys.

Second place Kain For inspried heaven vs hell speech
Third Tori For his last line. "Essentially, the afterlife is the subconscious mind's final victory over the mind and body."

Fourth Neko