Concepts of God (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by BBella , Thursday, April 14, 2016, 00:28 (2934 days ago) @ dhw

It is a fact that different people have had different experiences of an apparent afterlife, and so it is a fact that diversity is a feature of the hypothesis. But I don't see how you can call it a “scientific” fact. -Ok, so better said: It is an indisputable fact that millions of people have differing experiences of the afterlife. Not scientific fact - just an indisputable fact.-> 
> BBELLA: So what if in fact the this fact of diversity is simply a factor (or an aspect) of the multi-level possibilities of the afterlife - in the same sense that there is a multi-leveled possibilities of types of beings and experiences on the earth itself. From the most simplest organism to the most complex, etc - the diversity of what is experienced here on earth is on such multi-levels it cannot be categorized easily if at all. 
> So why not the same about the afterlife? Simply, if our world that we know is filled with such diversity of levels and experiences of all that it can be (all possibilities), why not the unknown in the afterlife be the same? Could not that which is above be the same as that which is below?
> Maybe, between the separate i-dentities and the ONE I-dentiy of God, is a multitude of levels of states of being that we humans can experience (on some level) while here. This could account for our experiences that seem so different from each others experiences, though sometimes they seem similar (kind of like the fable of the blind men feeling the different parts of the elephant and giving different accounts of what they feel).
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>[dhw] Perhaps we are back to solipsism, in the sense that we all experience this reality in our own way, and the same may apply if there is an afterlife. But I'm not sure what is implied by “levels of states of being”. -I was thinking how just on our earth, different entities experience different levels of states of being. From basic bacteria to humanity. All beings experiencing being in a different way. Maybe the afterlife could be in someway similar. Or, differing levels of existence to be experienced in the in-between by each being differently. By the differing accounts there are so many similarities and then many differences, so that alone says the explanation of levels makes sense as a possibility.->However, “states of being” seems to indicate some kind of spiritual hierarchy that culminates in God. Perhaps you could explain this in terms of our i-dentity?-I dont know about "spiritual hierarchy". Maybe it's more like when a being is on the matter plane of existence (on earth), a being is cloaked within a heavier level or state of existence. Maybe in the afterlife a being can move to a multitude of levels, most would probably be a less dense state of being - so closer to the ONEness of God. Maybe some move to a denser level. Maybe one could move to a state of afterlife where we choose to move toward the ONEness or back to the heavier state of being of earth etc. Of course, conjecture. I'm just using the small amount of facts I know about what I've heard about the afterlife and trying to make some sense of the diverse accounts and what that might mean - other than the easy answer - hallucinations.
 
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> BBELLA: Also, it could be a fact that the very fact of these differing accounts that might cause a person who has not experienced any of these experiences (never even felt an elephant), very skeptical that there is anything of truth to any of it - that all of these experiences must be a figment of billions of peoples imagination. In other words - there is no elephant. Possibly?-> whether the i-dentity actually lives on after the death of the body (not just the brain) is a question I simply don't feel able to answer.-Of course. But for millions that have experienced the afterlife (however different their experiences) and for those who have had experiences that gave them insight to an afterlife or something more than what we see, their experiences shouldn't be discounted (which you aren't) but should be considered as fact and way past the half way mark on the scale of possibility especially when discussing concepts of God.