# POLL: What do you think happens after death? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 16, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034 "2002-12-16T06:37:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/41 "2002-12-16T20:50:37Z")
As a matter of fact, I know _exactly_ what happens and I can prove it. However, this information is only given out on a strictly need-to-know basis. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/42 "2002-12-16T21:00:47Z")
What do I think happens after death? None of your business. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/43 "2002-12-16T21:01:45Z")
When you die, you lose conscioussness but your spirit lives on. Conscioussness is a part of the human vessel, not the spiritual self. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/44 "2002-12-16T21:03:11Z")
Phone calls taper off. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/45 "2002-12-16T21:05:19Z")
Put me in with the reincarnation believers. ---
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/46 "2002-12-16T21:10:07Z")
Put me in the nothing but worm food camp. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/47 "2002-12-16T21:27:39Z")
Unknowable from a spiritual viewpoint. Physically, uh, buh-bye. ---
**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/48 "2002-12-16T21:39:00Z")
No more bills! another vote for oblivion. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/49 "2002-12-16T21:56:59Z")
Worm food. ---
**Author:** ![Young\_Mr.Grace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e47c2d/32.png) [@Young\_Mr.Grace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Young_Mr.Grace)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/50 "2002-12-16T22:03:58Z")
Since my computer’s processor can no longer compute sums or run “Quake 3” when it’s turned off, I vote for nothingness. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/51 "2002-12-16T22:07:21Z")
---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/52 "2002-12-16T22:31:17Z")
Worm food. unclviny ---
**Author:** ![swingchick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@swingchick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swingchick)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/53 "2002-12-16T22:46:20Z")
If there is a heaven and Hell, I have lived my life in such a way that I can be happy with my achievments. However , if most of you are right and there is nothingness, I have lost nothing by having faith. However if I am right, you will have lost everything. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/54 "2002-12-17T00:37:49Z")
That’s Pascal’s Wager, **swingchick** , and it doesn’t fly, for lots and lots of reasons. To begin with, even if you choose faith, how do you know you chose the _right_ faith? To my perspective, you’re less likely to choose correctly in that case – in other words, picking one of the tens of thousands of available belief systems – than in the 50/50 “life after death or not?” dichotomy. I say it’s lights out for me; it’s an end to consciousness that is so unfathomable (how do you imagine something without a perspective from which to imagine it?) that humans have concocted all sorts of fantasy workarounds in order to cope with it. Oh, and everybody else lives on, pretending I’ve “gone to a better place” in order to deal with the loss, until it’s their turn. ---
**Author:** ![zorch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/50afbb/32.png) [@zorch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zorch)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/55 "2002-12-17T03:08:19Z")
Wise-ass answer: The reports of my death will NOT be an exaggeration. Actual answer: Consciousness leaves the body, returns to source. No ‘’'heaven or hell" thingy. Source lovingly welcomes all, regardless of our earthly actions. After that, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/56 "2002-12-17T03:13:41Z")
**0rbytal,** I apologise. There are personal issues in my life at the moment and those issues sometimes cause me to behave abominably. I had no right to castigate you or to assign motives to you. ---
**Author:** ![cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/57 "2002-12-17T03:22:25Z")
Rot in a box. ---
**Author:** ![Peregrine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a6a055/32.png) [@Peregrine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peregrine)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/58 "2002-12-17T04:22:53Z")
Return to nonexistence, as far as my conscious self is concerned. Gradual effacement of all traces of my presence. If there is anything eternal about me, it is already in its eternal state, and nothing about that will change in the least. The eternal self is not just never-ending, but completely removed from time, change, and experience. And not good for a damn thing other than platonistic arguments. (To be quite clear for the purpose of the poll, I belong in the “Nothing / decomposition” category.) ---
**Author:** ![0rbytal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/0/65b543/32.png) [@0rbytal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/0rbytal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/59 "2002-12-17T05:37:12Z")
Our standings: Nothing———————————————30 Reunite with ancestors———————1 Reincarnation————————————3 Heaven / Hell ————————————2 Enlightenment————————————2 Meet Cecil ——————————————1 No way of knowing—————————–3 None of my business—————————1 Spirit lives on (Nothing else?)————–1 Ambiguous answer——————————1 **Louisb** , i forgive you… ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2002, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034/60 "2002-12-17T07:35:45Z")
If **VarlosZ** ’s was the ambiguous answer, then you can put him in the Nothing camp. As for me, although I’d like to have a “spirit” that “lives on”, truly believing so requires a faith I don’t have. So, nothing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-what-do-you-think-happens-after-death/143034.md?page=4)