Any Downside to Atheism?

[Cobblestones]

But you believe that atheists who don't accept the afterlife will merely rot in the ground...

This is a bit off topic but personally I find all this business of embalming and laying people in coffins in a state in which physical decay is severely slowed is really a shame. What good is a body after death except to become a meal for other living creatures on the planet and eventually to return to it's original elements and perpetuate the life cycle? Whether you're religious or not I don't see what the big deal is. If your spirit departs the body then what use is embalming it? If we are merely biological then the same question applies.

Personally, I'd rather that my flesh be fed to the wild beasts than to be embalmed and buried.

 

[Luminous]

Wake up!....obviously when I say nothing to look forward to...I am referring to the next life.
If you don't believe in the life after death....eternal darkness of the grave will have you.

I believe in life after death...not because of a book...not because someone told me to....etc, etc,etc,....
I believe because I have suffered serious injury, and those injuries failed to stop my thinking and my feeling.
I believe because there are 6billion opportunities for the making of unique spiritual lives. (souls)

Now if all you have is this immediate moment....fine...enjoy.
But when you lay down to breath your last breath, you might be surprised.
What if you keep on thinking....feeling...dreaming....

What if your apathy and disbelief should render you unable to escape your flesh? You can't do so now...even though you think you are in control.

If philosophy and religion fail you in such matters....try Edgar Allen Poe's ...Premature Burial.

There is nothing in atheist logic that makes certain there is no life after death.

too true. ur reason sounds very similar to "pascal's wager". how ever, such statistical analyisis for a reason to believe is quite delusional. 'what if' is infinate. there for an atheist can be a confessing atheist. maybe only then will they have an iternal life. what if the true god is really jealous of idols but is a diest god and thus will send only atheists(no false gods) to a permanent and happy afterlife? but everyone esle burns in hell forever for worshiping makebelieve gods? ur "the best choice is to believe" is quite a dumn argument really based on nothing.

 

[Thief]

too true. ur reason sounds very similar to "pascal's wager". how ever, such statistical analyisis for a reason to believe is quite delusional. 'what if' is infinate. there for an atheist can be a confessing atheist. maybe only then will they have an iternal life. what if the true god is really jealous of idols but is a diest god and thus will send only atheists(no false gods) to a permanent and happy afterlife? but everyone esle burns in hell forever for worshiping makebelieve gods? ur "the best choice is to believe" is quite a dumn argument really based on nothing.

For me, life after death is not a wager...it is the result of this mortal coil.
Your belief...or lack of...determines how you will be dealt with.

 

[Vile Atheist]

What if an atheist wants to believe but doesn't find enough evidence? I guess they're half asleep in the afterlife? I dunno. You tell me.

 

[Vile Atheist]

Your belief...or lack of...determines how you will be dealt with.

Do you have evidence for your statement?

 

[Thief]

What if an atheist wants to believe but doesn't find enough evidence? I guess they're half asleep in the afterlife? I dunno. You tell me.

Greater and lesser abilities in this life...likewise in the next.

If you have what it takes...you may then do as you please.
If you don't play well with others....too bad.

 

[Alceste]

For me, life after death is not a wager...it is the result of this mortal coil.
Your belief...or lack of...determines how you will be dealt with.

So for you it boils down to NOTHING BUT belief? A Christian child-raping, wife-beating murderer will live forever in heaven, but an atheist who devotes her entire life to helping others in love and humility will (not sure if I got this right) remain conscious in her grave after death while her body rots?

IMO, if this is what you believe - if people who don't believe what you believe are horribly punished despite a complete lack of wrongdoing - it shows your faith is very weak.

 

[Cobblestones]

Do you have evidence for your statement?

Of course, they have to take that by faith just like everything else.

 

[Vile Atheist]

Again, Alceste nails the implications of Thief's beliefs right on the head.

 

[linwood]

The next life? What's so wrong with THIS life that I should need or want another one?

The "eternal darkness or the grave" won't "have me" after my death any more than it "had me" before my birth.

Again, I pity you for feeling you need or want some other life, some other world, some escape from the finality of death which inspires so many awake and aware people to make the most of this life, right now, today.

The fact is, you could die tomorrow and you don't know what will happen after that. Today, you are living your life as if it doesn't matter - it's all just preamble to the post-mortem bliss you expect to receive as a reward for your faith. But whatever you believe, at the end of it all your consciousness could be snuffed out like a candle, all opportunities lost. Your whole, miraculous life wasted waiting for a better deal. That's what I pity.




Why would I want to escape my flesh? The miraculous, beautiful package that shelters and transports my consciousness?



Yes, there is. Here it is: Where were you before you were born? What is more likely: that you will return to the nothingness from which you came, or that you'll go somewhere else entirely with all your memories, character and physical self-image intact? Is it likely that if you were stuck with all your memories, character and physical self-image FOREVER, packed onto a cloud with everyone who has ever lived - a cloud which got more and more crowded every day - you would feel blissful?

Face it: There is absolutely nothing "logical" about your belief in an afterlife. It's nothing but window dressing for your desperate fear of death, which is the flip side of your desperate fear of really living, right now, today.

Me, I'm not a fearful person.

Frubals.

Edit:

Or would be if the damn frubal fairy wasn`t so unforgiving.

 

[Autodidact]

For me, life after death is not a wager...it is the result of this mortal coil.
Your belief...or lack of...determines how you will be dealt with.

Cool. O.K., I believe that after I die I will be able to sing like Aretha Franklin. Also I will once again weigh 125 pounds.

Do you find this sort of magical thinking usually works for you?

btw, and just out of curiousity, on what do you base this belief?

 

[MSizer]

btw, and just out of curiousity, on what do you base this belief?

Hogwash, hooey, baloney, balbble, balderdash, madness, mumbo jumbo, superstition, senslessness, silliness, fatuity, folly and Faith.

 

[Thief]

What...so you don't believe?
Why then be bothered?

If you are correct...you die...end of story.
If I am correct...I go on without you.

 

[Kerr]

What...so you don't believe?
Why then be bothered?

If you are correct...you die...end of story.
If I am correct...I go on without you.

And if both are wrong... we may both go on! I hope we both are wrong.

What makes you think you will go on but I won´t?

 

[Alceste]

What...so you don't believe?
Why then be bothered?

If you are correct...you die...end of story.
If I am correct...I go on without you.

I think the point is that I am not bothered about the issue of whether or not there is life after death. I'm pretty confident there isn't. What bothers me is the repercussions people's beliefs have right now, here, today. The belief this world is sinful, flawed, inferior, inadequate, sub-par, etc to the "promised land" appears to inhibit the celebration of life. The belief that death is a beginning rather than an end cripples our sense of the holiness, sacredness and fragility of the life of every sentient being who shares the world with us. Believing we will be given a key to another paradise after death appears to make us less than ideal stewards of THIS paradise.

 

[Reverend Rick]

I just don't see a downside.

I'm trying to picture an Atheist's funeral. You all do have them right?

 

[MSizer]

I'm trying to picture an Atheist's funeral. You all do have them right?

While I happen to be the exceptional case who prefers not to have any ritual at all after a loved one dies, death ceremonies are almost universal to humans. It's part of the bereavement process. It has much more to do with psychology than religion.

 

[Kerr]

I'm trying to picture an Atheist's funeral. You all do have them right?

No, we just let the corpses rot out in the open. And sometimes we use them as scarecrows.

 

[McBell]

I'm trying to picture an Atheist's funeral. You all do have them right?

what, now religion supposedly has some sort of ownership on funerals too?
Wow, them arrogant egotistical ******** think they own everything.
Wonder when their god is going to show up and prove them right...?

 

[Thief]

And if both are wrong... we may both go on! I hope we both are wrong.

What makes you think you will go on but I won´t?

Picture the situation.
6billion people will die within my life time.
With no one in charge...chaos...total chaos.
Why? too many differences...too much baggage...too much nay saying....
For peace...some sorting will need be done.

In this world there is greater and lesser ability.
Crossing over depends on that.
If you don't believe...how can you perform the 'stand-up'? (no joke)
And who wants to keep company with naysayers?

Pain and suffering has been dealt unto me....to the extent I could not feel the pain. Yes it's true. There are levels of pain that great.
But my thoughts did not cease.
My feelings did not stop.
How far can it go? All the way into dying.
There is no cause to say death is final.

Just to be fair.

A boss I worked for once proclaimed to be an atheist, having been a deacon for his congregation.
So I said to him...
"Bill, aren't you the guy that takes the dangerous work unto himself, sending me after safer things to do?...yes.
Bill, aren't you the guy that takes the responsibility for the actions of the people working under you?....yes.
Bill, don't you do unto others as you would have them do unto you?...yes

"The angels will not ignore you.
But your denial will earn you a good slap up side of your head.
I hope it goes no further than that."