Atheists what beliefs do you have of afterlife?

[Lark]

I'm not an Atheist, but I work off the same dataset as them people. I don't see any life after death, just nothing. I suppose in a strange way you can live on in the effects of your actions, but it's not the same as living consciousness.

This is interesting. If you are not an atheist do you believe in God but that he has not ordained a life besides this one or afterlife?

 

[Lark]

There are atheistic (although perhaps they would not have used that label) religious believers, such as Erich Fromm or Fuerbach (spelling), perhaps Maimonides, at least as Fromm conceived of his writings, so it is possible to live a life with religious answers to the existential problems without belief in God in the way theists confess belief in God or necessarily a belief in an afterlife. Belief in the "world to come" and hoping to live in a manner which would mean you belong to it rather than the present could be about believing in a more perfect future, an epoch in historical time, rather than an afterlife of the spirit.

I hope for an afterlife of the spirit, that consciousness exists besides its present form but I dont know if there is such a thing.

Edit: NB another problem or question is not whether or not there is an afterlife but whether or not the consciousness which would survive beyond death would be anything like existence at present, it could be so different as to not warrant the label of after"life".

This may sound daft but there was an excellent episode of the old Hulk TV series which featured Thor, he was summoned from a non-life state by whoever possessed the hammer artifact, in it the Thor character described an existence without body, being entirely mind and remembering the body but being unable to experience anything bodily and he described it as hellish. It was a play upon the idea that Thor was a very typical viking and obsessed with the pleasures of fighting, feasting, f**king but it made a good point more generally. Meister Eckhart made some similar points and described prayer and religious ritual as preparatory for the afterlife, in it being purely about consciousness, the unprepared would experience hell, the prepared heaven.

 

[Qlip]

This is interesting. If you are not an atheist do you believe in God but that he has not ordained a life besides this one or afterlife?

I suppose I don't believe in things so much as devine things (pardon the pun). And while I see the shape of intent in the Universe, I don't see anything that necessitates an afterlife.

 

[Lark]

I suppose I don't believe in things so much as devine things (pardon the pun). And while I see the shape of intent in the Universe, I don't see anything that necessitates an afterlife.

I can actually conceive of a God and divine plan which hasnt an afterlife as part of the plan.

 

[Fluffywolf]

I can actually conceive of a God and divine plan which hasnt an afterlife as part of the plan.

Like Deism!

 

[Lark]

Like Deism!

Perhaps, there's more to deism than God without an afterlife, there is also deism which confesses an afterlife too.

 

[jcloudz]

i believe when i die, i will become fertilizer and my concerns on having a consciousness when im dead won`t matter. i don believe there will be angels to greet me or demons.

i have known people who have died and all have told me that they don`t remember anything. there was no light or voices.

its a scary idea for people to hold onto that when they die, there wont be anything at the end of the tunnel. there wont be a tunnel.
all your deeds on earth don`t really matter.

there is no person keeping track of everything, every little thing about you, including all the hairs on your head because they love you. its fantasy, emotional porn. its fake. something we choose to comfort ourselves as our candles wick burns out.

if there is ever a reason to exercise good moral judgement, cause its probably some question in your head you might ask. it would be for the ones after us can have things better after we have passed.

 

[redacted]

You are born
You live
You die
Then it's all over

(1) Is that what you believe in Or do you believe there is more to it than that?

That's it.

"I" is a description of a certain physical phenomenon. When the physical phenomenon ceases to be, "I" is meaningless.

Also

(2) What purpose do you believe is there to life?

I find that to be an oddly self-referential question. To answer "none" still gives validity to the term "purpose", which isn't quite right. I reject the question altogether, and just define purpose in a much smaller scope -- it's a function of my short-term biological drives.

 

[Lexicon]

That's it.

"I" is a description of a certain physical phenomenon. When the physical phenomenon ceases to be, "I" is meaningless.



I find that to be an oddly self-referential question. To answer "none" still gives validity to the term "purpose", which isn't quite right. I reject the question altogether, and just define purpose in a much smaller scope -- it's a function of my short-term biological drives.

^That about sums it up for me.

I've yet to encounter any evidence to be convinced otherwise, though I'm always open to possibility.

 

[Such Irony]

You are born
You live
You die
Then it's all over

(1) Is that what you believe in Or do you believe there is more to it than that?

Also

(2) What purpose do you believe is there to life?

#1 I'd like to believe there is some afterlife but I seriously doubt there is. Once it's over, it's over.

#2 I'm not sure there is an inherent purpose to life. I do believe life is what you make it. You create your own purpose. Also as [MENTION=10315]Aquarelle[/MENTION] said, "to leave the world a better place."

 

[Haven]

You are born
You live
You die
Then it's all over

(1) Is that what you believe in Or do you believe there is more to it than that?

Also

(2) What purpose do you believe is there to life?

I'd have it at this:

1. You don't exist
2. Your cells coalesce into the beginnings of a living thing
3. You acquire consciousness
4. You have a life, and it is what you make of it
5. Your consciousness ends
6. Your cells decay
7. You return to nonexistence

Although you technically never stop existing, because your deeds in life and, if you were an organ donor, your body parts can still exist without your consciousness. That is, as long as Earth and humans continue to exist.

Life has whatever meaning you can get. If a god gives your life meaning, find a god, though usually you are assigned one shortly after birth. Don't want a god? Find another way to give life meaning. End suffering, explore the world, try beer from every country in the world, climb every mountain, raise good children that can go off and do great things, whatever floats your boat.

 

[UniqueMixture]

My belief is first comes sensation then emotion then conscious thought then spirituality as a way of symbolically processing sensation holistically

Every time you blink your eyes there is a "bubble" created in your visual perception. Ie you don't know what is happening while your eyes are closed. Analogous things happen with the other sensors. All there is is perception in free flow. Logic is the attempt to tie these perceptions into cohesive wholes, but because we are biological sensors that can be damaged we just happen by complete chance I'm sure ignore wide swaths of reality in order to tie the cohesive wholes into forms that reinforce our egos.

^this is where you stop if you're an existentialist

Next level: realize that you're not so different from the other biological sensors around you. Then if you're aware of others around and history you can start to relate emotionally to WHY people believe what they believe even if you disagree. This will let you place yourself in their shoes and create a way of viewing creation stories and death stories as what they really are. Metaphors for events in the individual/culture. Symbols of perception

Next level: the extra-human world. The world of plants, animals, microscopic organisms, etc, their parts (organ systems, cells, dna, rna, proteins, etc, their constituent compounds, elements, etc, the quarks, strings, and math of which they are composed, universes, super massive black holes, quasars, and galaxies, etc

This lets you see that you're in a constant soup of interaction. In fact it gets so complex even math breaks down in trying to describe it. This is where your identity becomes one with your physicality. Where you realize your own universality. That's when the cool shit starts where you start doing on the flt perceptive, emotive, mind poetry and become a soul

There are so many ways to put it all together to "make sense of it all"

YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!

Whether I die or am reincarnated go to another plane of existence or heaven or hell WHO GIVES A FUCK

Everyone agrees we have 100 years here if we're lucky so you best be damn fuxking sure I'm gonna live 200 years in that time if I have anything to say about it. And the whole time I'm going to float and be happy and spread love cheer and goodness wherever I go but you better believe I'm going to be riding life's ass @ 80 mph in a schoolzone because I deserve to give it my all and reshape the parts I encounter to really LIVE. That's what I think about the afterlife, it's a motivator to make the most of the time we have HERE

 

[Lark]

There are so many ways to put it all together to "make sense of it all"

YOU KNOW WHAT? I DON'T GIVE A FUCK!

Whether I die or am reincarnated go to another plane of existence or heaven or hell WHO GIVES A FUCK

Well really!

 

[UniqueMixture]

Well really!

Yes, that is one layer of my consciousness : D. Just like you Lark and all human beings I am capable to interact in many different ways even in the same circumstances. That is what it means to have a soul in my opinion.

 

[Lark]

Yes, that is one layer of my consciousness : D. Just like you Lark and all human beings I am capable to interact in many different ways even in the same circumstances. That is what it means to have a soul in my opinion.

It was just the higher case swearing and possible verbal aggression I was highlighting, I like norms of more civilised discourse, or perhaps I'm channelling my inner steam punk/victoriana self at the moment a lot

 

[UniqueMixture]

Mhmm for me it is more of a positive feeling. Perhaps passion, intensity, or excitement. It is not civilized or uncivilized simply a tool to begin a certain process within the self or outside of the self as is needed

 

[Fluffywolf]

Mhmm for me it is more of a positive feeling. Perhaps passion, intensity, or excitement. It is not civilized or uncivilized simply a tool to begin a certain process within the self or outside of the self as is needed

Looks like classic case of projection to me. But what do I know.

 

[xisnotx]

While not atheist, I'll participate.

For the first question, yes. What more can there be?

For the second question, I live my life as if it has inherent value. Whether this is true or not, I can't seak to, but if the alternative were true the only justified action I could take in response to that would be one I'm not ready to take, so I ignorantly assume its falsehood.

In other words, I believe my natural state at this time is life.

The purpose of 'life' seems impossible to speculate about. I haven't exerienced all of mine yet, let alone anyone else's. The purpose of my life, however, seems to have been (so far) to perceive but not judge, seems to be to say or do something meaningful, and is to finish reading the chapter I'm reading.

 

[UniqueMixture]

Looks like classic case of projection to me. But what do I know.

Actually having feelings both good and bad is cathartic lol

 

[Within]

(1) Is that what you believe in Or do you believe there is more to it than that?

No, because I'm an Atheist.

(2) What purpose do you believe is there to life?

To life, I have no idea. In the beginning it was about improving the gene pool to make sure that the human race evolved. Our evolution blew that scope away when we entered the modern age.

As far as I'm concerned there don't have to be any purpose to life, except my own will to live. That's the only reason that I need.