Do any of the atheists here believe in an afterlife?

[BIG D]

then what is the purpose of this life??

 

[swamplizard]

Hi Big D,

Does life need justification?

best,
swampy

 

[Noaidi]

Do any of the atheists here believe in an afterlife?

Only in the sense that the elements that comprise my body will be taken up into other organisms.
In a 'spiritual' sense? Then, no. There is no evidence to suggest that "I" will continue in a form that I would identify as still being "me".

 

[BIG D]

Hi Big D,

Does life need justification?

best,
swampy

I'm saying for those who believe in an afterlife, what is the purpose of the before life???

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I don't see any rational reason to believe that there is an afterlife. Of course, this is a completely independent rational conclusion from atheism. I also don't believe in ghosts, psychics, or flying elephants for the same reasons.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Rebirth is what personally I ascribe to, albiet thats a dualistic and somewhat innacurate way of putting it. As I see it, we obviously have all manifested out of death* by way of our birth, and giving reason that since the aspect that we call life has certianly happened, there is no real reason why this subsequently can't happen again, and conceivably again and again ad nausiem provided of course causes and conditions permit this. The only true death is that of the mind or ego, which is why IMO we cant remember past lives too well or not at all depending of course on your particular view.

Letting go of the duality of how we think of this, upon observing we find that as an organism we actually live and die constantly and continually moment by moment, simontaiounsley, and for the most part are not even aware of this unless direct attention is brought upon it. In essence, we dont actually in a true sense live or die akin to turning on and off a lightswitch. When it comes right down to it intrinsically, there is no life to death, to afterlife. More like ".....lifedeathlifedeathlifedeath...." rising and falling waves on an ocean.

Thats my personal view on this.

*or apparant nothingness if you prefer.

 

[outhouse]

Nope

afterlife is a want, not a known aspect of reality

 

[A. T. Henderson]

Nope

afterlife is a want, not a known aspect of reality

Are atheists not permitted to have wants? I was under the impression that was more of a Buddhist thing.

 

[outhouse]

Are atheists not permitted to have wants? I was under the impression that was more of a Buddhist thing.

yes we all have wants.

But i dont subscibe to known mythical wants

 

[Matthew78]

I can't say that I "believe in" an afterlife because of a lack of evidence. I'm hopeful, however, that there is one. I fully realize that wishing or hoping something is true doesn't make it true in the slightest. But I'm hopeful that I have a "soul" or "spirit" and that it lives on. I would love for reincarnation to be true so I have a chance at what I never got in this life. For instance, I never got to go to any of my high school proms. I would love to be reincarnated so I can have a chance to go to them. I would've liked to be able to grow up in a middle class suburb which I didn't in this life. My dad's pastorate was in San Francisco. I never got to experience life in a nice middle class suburb although I longed for it when I was a teenager. Anything to feel "normal". So there are a bunch of things I would love to experience in a future life that I never experienced in this one.

 

[dust1n]

My afterlife will probably be followed by a feast on my body.

 

[chinu]

then what is the purpose of this life??

To search "What is the purpose of this life", Is the purpose of this life.
And congratulations! if you, or anybody is doing this.

Don't be sad if till the end of your life you didn't searched anything, Because am sure definatly one day you will get the credit of this searching, may be in your next birth...
Definatly those who have really searched anything, has been searching something, or done some efforts in their previous births.

Well.. at the end think's Chinu... That this is not the game of loss because: If you win -- its good because you have searched the biggest purpose of life, If you loosed -- its also good because you loosed the biggest puropose of life while searching it, means in both the cases you will die like a lion.

 

[chinu]

There is only life. What comes after? :flirt:

During the whole life time the illusion which our mind has created all around ie: My Home, My Childrens, My Friends, My Relatives, My Body, My work, etc... The fear of loosing it will arrive at the end of our life before anything, and then this fear will push us in the womb of our next mother, because in this condition our soul cannot become one with nature.

 

[Twilight Hue]

afterlife is a want, not a known aspect of reality

Of course it can be a known aspect of reality. Dependent of course upon one's approach.

Arguably, right now is the afterlife, even in the absence of having any prior conceptual notion of ever living before there is still the fact that "you" were actually dead and "non-existant"* before this all happened. Life nevertheless flourshes from what some consider already by admission an impossibility from nothingness** I think the term can be arguably applied in a practical sense, noting that death and life occurs unceasingly again and again and again in a very tangable manner, of which the composition thats responsible for causing life never really goes away and can reoccur as conditions permit.

All that said, I completely agree with you if a want pertaining to an afterlife*** happens to be something utterly fantastical, to which there is nothing really substancial to base or compare any view upon making it completely made up notions.

*Or broken down at the atomic level in this case
**Which is why I think causes a number of people have the conviction that life once lived is just a static one shot deal forever, making this a paradox in face of new life manifesting just about everywhere on earth and arguably elsewhere in the universe.
***Enternal rewards, belly and lap dancers, harp, hymmbooks, and halos. Free pizza every friday. You get the gist.

 

[Corkscrew]

The “after life” is probably a lot like the “before life”.

 

[Ghost of a Rider]

This atheist doesn't. I simply haven't seen any reason to believe there is one.

 

[cablescavenger]

Do any of the atheists here believe in an afterlife?

Not me.
Nor ghosts, spirits, poultergheists, mind reading, telekinesis or any other supernatural occurrence.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

Certainly not in a supernatural sense that I know of. No atheist I know of believes in a heaven and hell, or fairies or ghosts that walk through brick walls or being united with all their dead relatives on the other side or making contact with them on the other side through Ouija boards etc.

 

[St Giordano Bruno]

That being said I think the only rule for an atheist is the rule not to believe in God. They are free to believe in other stuff from poltergeists or ghosts which could categorize them I guess a atypical atheists. But if they were to subscribe to some form of afterlife reincarnation would be the most plausible option because it is closer to biological reality than all that supernatural mumbo jumbo. But strictly speaking I don't believe reincarnation qualifies as a form of afterlife because it is more about life more or less the same as the life we are living now, but an afterlife is just that "after" life not life as an ongoing conscious existence that is not life as we know it such as existing in ghostly spirit form or a dammed soul in hell - the nastiest outcome imaginable which I viewed as something in far greater dread and anxiety than absolutely nothing and just staying dead and that is it, which I found to be much more appealing than hell or even heaven which also gave me the creeps.

Like there was an old joke about an apparition of the Virgin Mary who appeared to an old man and told him "I have some got news and some bad news" they old man said "what is the good news?" and the Virgin Mary said "you are going to heaven" then the old man said "what is the bad news?" and the Virgin Mary said "you are going tomorrow"

 

[Penumbra]

Do any of the atheists here believe in an afterlife?

I do not particularly believe in one, because I have not seen evidence that indicates that life exists independent of the body.

I view it as just another in a list of claims that are not supported with evidence. If there isn't some form of consistent methodology, then everything is guesswork. So people that claim, "this is how it is", but don't believe certain other claims when people of a different view say, "no, this is how it is", are being inconsistent in my view.

I do not particularly desire an afterlife either, because I do not particularly adhere to a concept of a permanent, unchanging self. And so the permanent continuation of that self doesn't seem particularly important. Although I do plan for the future, I mostly just consider the present moment of experience to have any real value, since the future and the past are just ideas in the present.

It would be nice if, say, kids that die from being horribly abused, or murder victims, or those who are tortured, could experience something other than what caused their death, so that the end of their experience of life doesn't end like that. That's mostly just an aesthetic view; since if consciousness terminates, it's not like a nonexistent consciousness could wish it ended a different way. But, it seems sad that some people have very unsatisfying lives and/or deaths.