• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

How would you react..........

Mark Sinista

seeker of Truth
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.

I would be scared, very very scared if there's no afterlife. I can't even bear the thought of absolute nothingness. Not existing anymore... it feels like horror. The believe in God and afterlife, gives me closure, encourages me to live a good life. Be good to myself and good to others. I am not haunted by the purpose of life anymore. I believe from my heart and I find peace in that.

If you don't believe, it's your choice but I request you to live a good life, be good to others, live in peace. Your life is precious, treat it that way.
 

JJ50

Well-Known Member
I would be scared, very very scared if there's no afterlife. I can't even bear the thought of absolute nothingness. Not existing anymore... it feels like horror. The believe in God and afterlife, gives me closure, encourages me to live a good life. Be good to myself and good to others. I am not haunted by the purpose of life anymore. I believe from my heart and I find peace in that.

If you don't believe, it's your choice but I request you to live a good life, be good to others, live in peace. Your life is precious, treat it that way.

But if your consciousness doesn't exist after death you will be unaware of the fact, so it won't bother you.
 

Fool

ALL in all
Premium Member
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.
the personality that existed in this life does cease to exist. the information that was that person doesn't cease to exist.

the no hiding theorem has been proven by experiment.



https://phys.org/news/2011-03-quantum-no-hiding-theorem-experimentally.html
 

Mark Sinista

seeker of Truth
But if your consciousness doesn't exist after death you will be unaware of the fact, so it won't bother you.

I know that already, but I don't want my consciousness to be lost forever. I want to live. I want to experience more and more. It won't bother me then but it will bother me now.
 

JJ50

Well-Known Member
I know that already, but I don't want my consciousness to be lost forever. I want to live. I want to experience more and more. It won't bother me then but it will bother me now.

It would bother me if I believed that there was an afterlife.
 

osgart

Nothing my eye, Something for sure
I would on my deathbed feel an empty sense of relief from all suffering. And at the same time mourn the loss of love in my life. Then take comfort in the fact that i will know nothing and be cognizant of nothing upon my death. That is enough nihilism for me. I don't buy into all that ceasing to exist stuff. I suppose there is an outside chance that all of life is an unintentional hiccup in the vast cosmos. I don't buy it.
 

Scott C.

Just one guy
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.

Total game changer on how I think, live, and perceive my environment. Hard to imagine.
 

A Vestigial Mote

Well-Known Member
I find that hard to believe, but if it is so let me be the first theist of your acquaintance to answer thus - I would probably connect with the Secular Humanistic Judaism movement and then go on with the business of living my life.
So I poked around, and I found a thread that was close, titled "What if there were no god/gods - how would life change," and only a very few people went on to make "clever" comments about how it didn't matter because God does exist, or how the question couldn't even be asked if God didn't exist, etc. Those are probably some of the types of things I would have lumped into the type of reply I (admittedly) over-estimated the popularity of.

Contrary to my expectations, a good number of people did reply to what they thought the world might be like. Of course... half of those were bent on discussing how horrible and purposeless everything would be. The other half expressed that they didn't feel that anything much might change, because they seemed to accept that their concept of God was just that - a concept.

So, as it happens, I was wrong about the preponderance of theists who refuse to answer that sort of hypothetical outright. I have seen it, obviously, but it seems I have been caught unfairly stereotyping.
 

Spartan

Well-Known Member
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.

It's a pipe dream.

But how would the heterosexual fornicators and the active gay sex crowd react if they knew it was true that unless they repented of their sins and received Christ as their Savior, they would spend eternity in the flames of Hell? What would they do?
 
I noticed many answers include the existence of a god as a necessity for there to be an afterlife. There can still be a god, or Creator, but no afterlife. LIFE is the gift from the Creator, and I cherish it while I can.
 

exchemist

Veteran Member
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.
I don't think it would make any difference to the way I live my life, or to many others either. I think what most of us get from religion is a source of guidance and balance in our lives on this earth, which has really not much to do with the much-talked of, but to be honest not terribly appealing, rewards of heaven.

What I think many would feel is some sadness that they will never be reunited with those they love who have died. Since the death of my wife, I have come to the conclusion that much of religious teaching about the afterlife is to do with that, rather than the prospect of some sort of ill-defined and theoretical eternal bliss for the individual themselves.
 

dybmh

דניאל יוסף בן מאיר הירש
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?
... not much would change for me. A lot of my books would go in the trash, and i would spend time on other hobbies.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

With indifference, I must assume. I already believe that to be the case, after all.

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story.
Same here, except perhaps that I would like to believe that I made a difference while alive.
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?

I would be relieved that once my life is over that is it, end of story. I am of the opinion that is the case, but of course there is the outside possibility I am wrong.

I have asked this question on forums before, often the reaction from devout believers is that god/afterlife exist and there is no other possibility.

Over to you.

One can not really comment on what they see as an impossible if. I personally can not imagine a creation, or any life worthwhile without God.

Its like imagining our world and life without any sun or light, it is just not possible.

Regards Tony
 

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
Considering God represents Ultimate Reality, and that if the Ultimate Reality is that no God exists, then that is still God existing since that is the Ultimate Reality, and God represents Ultimate Reality. :) If we say Ultimate Reality doesn't exist, then that is our view of Ultimate Reality. Doesn't seem possible anyone can get away from that. Everyone has a view of that, regardless of what they believe about it.

How we understand what that God is, that Ultimate Reality, is the only thing that changes. But ultimate truth is still ultimate truth, no matter how we think of it, be that in terms of theism, agnosticism, pantheism, panenthiesm, or atheism. It's all still a view of God, or Ultimate Reality, despite all protests otherwise.


As far as the question of the afterlife, I think one has to first define what Life is, and secondly what or who "I" or "self" is.

Personally, I think all there is is Life, and it is not possible for Life to not be in some form or another eternally. Therefore, there is no "after" life. There is only Life in different forms. It is Life in all forms, past, present, and future from our perspectives, whether that's you, me, my parents, my children, my dog, the trees, extra-terrestrials, etc. It is One and Many. Therefore, there can be no "after" nor a "before" to what just simply IS eternally.

From the perspective of individual forms however considering its form as it is, none of that if fixed either. As a 50 year old, a person is not a 5 year old. The body today is not the same body as it was when we were 5, yet we see it as the same body. In reality, that 50 year old is the "afterlife" for that 5 year old. :) In fact, on that 5 year old's happy birthday, blowing out his candles on his cake and then going to bed that night, the next day is the afterlife to that child from the day before. And so on.

If we self-identify as the physical body, with its bones and cells and tissues, then every passing second sees the passing away and rebirth of that. If we self-identify with our personalities, then that too passess away and is reborn anew throughout our physical lifetimes. So what then signifies "death"? What signifies "life"?

You see the challenge of this question? It's not so simple to say when this body dies, that "we" die. As I see all forms as that single Life, in constantly changing forms in each and every passing moment in time, physical death of the body is simply another change of the form into a state of dissolution and decay. Where was "I" residing before in all those myriad change-states during the body's lifespan? In the cells? In the liver? In the brain?

It really comes down to identifying the seat or the locus of self-identification, and then going from there. When someone speaks of the "afterlife" in a religious sense, who are they seeing themselves as in their self-identity? If they are imagining walking about in heaven on two legs and having their dog restored to them with their new heavenly house with new gold paint, then they are identifying with their egos in this life, as the ultimate truth of themselves.
Amazingly windy, but very roundabout way of denying that "ultimate reality" is anything other than "that which is." And once you have "that which is," there's really no need to inject anything else to be kind of "boss of that which is." Existence exists...that's its special nature. Really, really mundane, but what're you going to do?
 

Firemorphic

Activist Membrane
…...........if it could be proved beyond any shadow of doubt no god or afterlife exist, when you die you are no more?
Depends firstly what it would mean for you to be the other way around, firstly.
As, material-absolutism itself just ends up in the same chasm of contradiction, until contradictions are resolved it remains an endless cycle of irrationality, if that view was accepted.
Either way I wouldn't "react" because I'm not that kind of person.
 
Top