Non believers/athiests/and similar: what is your view after death and the end of life?

[Smart_Guy]

Hello!

I'm posting this here because... I don't know where else to post it basically, and to have it as a non debative (if that's a word) section to not debate it. Please don't debate stuff here.

I'm saying "and similar" on the titles to include all those who don't have a religious belief after death and the end of life. This also includes agnostics and similar.

So if you are among them, what do you think happens after you die? Is it a complete nothingness? You become a ghost? You can come back to life again? Any thing else?

Thank you for sharing. I'll take serious answers with respect.

Important note:
Believers, please don't make fun of it. Don't questions them badly or give passive-aggressive remarks. That won't be tolerated. Do that and you ain't gettin' 'ny shawurma, ya dig?

 

[Iti oj]

Nothingness. Non existence

 

[Sunstone]

Your metabolism shuts down, your life is over. That is, you're gone as a self, as a person. That's my best guess.

The question reminds me of a true story. Jiddu Krishnamurti was dying. One of his closest followers came to sit beside his bed in silence with him while he was still conscious. After a long while, his follower asked, "Do we or any part of us personally survive death?" Krishnamurti shook his head no.

 

[Altfish]

Yes, the end for you. No more life, you are dirt, stardust again

 

[Quintessence]

One thing I find interesting about discussion of this conversation in English-speaking cultures is that there are some underlying assumptions about the nature of life and death that seem to underpin responses to it. I notice it because I do not share those assumptions - the assumption of a linear view of time where something like a "beginning" and "ending" can even be identified in the first place. I'm too much a student of the natural sciences (and ecology in particular) to view things in such a linear fashion. Gaea works in networks and flows, in cycles and exchanges, in transformations. So when people ask about "death" I don't see "ending," I see "transition into another state of being."

At times, I've described this view as belief in reincarnation. Other times, I might say I do not believe in after life because all I see is existence unending - there is no "after" for something that has not ended. All imprecise descriptions. Best way to learn how I view these things is to study those energy flows and dynamics of natural systems. Meditate upon water, for that is probably easiest. Think about how the water in the lake "dies" to evaporation and is "born" into clouds. And think about how the clouds "die" to become rain, and are then "born" into the soil it falls upon.

It is the same basic principle with the things we call "alive." All the "alive" things come from somewhere else, and we are constantly exchanging matter and energy with other things we call "alive" and also things we call "not alive." I see this vast, interconnected Weave when I look at reality displayed before me. I see transformations. Humans might call something a "start" or an "end" from their own point of view, but distanced from that, there is simply existence. Endless cycles and transformations.

 

[Kuzcotopia]

The mind is a function of the brain.

It takes somewhere between 3-7 minutes for oxygen-deprived brain cells to die.

I'm assuming that those 3-7 minutes could be very interesting for the mind, as your cognitive functions probably don't all go at once. If the cause of death is specifically brain trauma, then it's probably even more interesting.

That's the only unknown I have about my death. . . A few minutes of experience.

 

[Quintessence]

Another assumption I notice, I suppose, is how egocentric the question often is. I mean, clearly existence continues after we decide to say something has "died." Why do we make it all about the ego? Guess I find that odd too, as the ecological thinker.

And we also forget the stories. That's weird to me too. It doesn't seem to me that my culture believes that our identity is just the physical body. The legacy endures. The impact a creature had upon the Weave persists long after its physical components have returned to something else in the land, sea, and sky.

Some days, I wish I could not be so weird about these things compared to what the usual narratives are in my culture.

 

[Kirran]

Some days, I wish I could not be so weird about these things compared to what the usual narratives are in my culture.

Get some friends and some impressionable youths and go and start a new culture somewhere! It'd be a cool one!

 

[BSM1]

Nothingness. Non existence

Nothing. It's over. You're gone. That's my best guess.

The question reminds me of a true story. Jiddu Krishnamurti was dying. One of his closest followers came to sit beside his bed in silence with him while he was still conscious. After a long while, his follower asked, "Do we or any part of us survive death?" Krishnamurti shook his head no.

Yes, the end for you. No more life, you are dirt, stardust again

I'm not arguing against you guys, but if this is true then what's the point of even living? Why take a chance of contacting a disease or having an injury that may put you in pain for years? Why slave at a dead end job just to barely exist in your late years? Why even bother to learn anything more than basic survival information? Again, what's the point if this is all there is?

 

[Kirran]

I'm not arguing against you guys, but if this is true then what's the point of even living? Why take a chance of contacting a disease or having an injury that may put you in pain for years? Why slave at a dead end job just to barely exist in your late years? Why even bother to learn anything more than basic survival information? Again, what's the point if this is all there is?

This seems to be a jump from 'what' to 'therefore'!

 

[Sunstone]

I'm not arguing against you guys, but if this is true then what's the point of even living? Why take a chance of contacting a disease or having an injury that may put you in pain for years? Why slave at a dead end job just to barely exist in your late years? Why even bother to learn anything more than basic survival information? Again, what's the point if this is all there is?

Why do you need a point to it all? Honest question.

 

[Sha'irullah]

Hello!

I'm posting this here because... I don't know where else to post it basically, and to have it as a non debative (if that's a word) section to not debate it. Please don't debate stuff here.

I'm saying "and similar" on the titles to include all those who don't have a religious belief after death and the end of life. This also includes agnostics and similar.

So if you are among them, what do you think happens after you die? Is it a complete nothingness? You become a ghost? You can come back to life again? Any thing else?

Thank you for sharing. I'll take serious answers with respect.

Important note:
Believers, please don't make fun of it. Don't questions them badly or give passive-aggressive remarks. That won't be tolerated. Do that and you ain't gettin' 'ny shawurma, ya dig?

I do not believe in any afterlife simply on the basis that I cannot prove something until I die nor can anyone else. Those who have attempted cannot depart it from biological experience and many have been proven to hallucinate while atheist who have allegedly died experience no such things.

The only possible form of an afterlife is perhaps the experiencing of consciousness as deconstructed matter. This is in short saying that maybe matter is conscious to some degree as what formulates consciousness in life is also matter. Maybe that is a thing .

But that as well cannot be proven but can at least by formulated as a scientific hypothesis since it would make sense with chemistry and physics to some level. But this of course raises a whole other set of questions as well.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Hello!

I'm posting this here because... I don't know where else to post it basically, and to have it as a non debative (if that's a word) section to not debate it. Please don't debate stuff here.

I'm saying "and similar" on the titles to include all those who don't have a religious belief after death and the end of life. This also includes agnostics and similar.

So if you are among them, what do you think happens after you die? Is it a complete nothingness? You become a ghost? You can come back to life again? Any thing else?

Thank you for sharing. I'll take serious answers with respect.

Important note:
Believers, please don't make fun of it. Don't questions them badly or give passive-aggressive remarks. That won't be tolerated. Do that and you ain't gettin' 'ny shawurma, ya dig?

I dont believe in death. Just cycle of life. All the details are culture related; but, outside of culture and religion, our physical body dies and we return to the earth, then water. Our energy doesnt disappear.

We experience the spirit of other people by their energy. We live on through our loved ones and visa versa.

All up hill.

 

[LuisDantas]

what do you think happens after you die?

Others inherit my karma, much as they do while I am alive.

Is it a complete nothingness?

For me? Sure.

You become a ghost? You can come back to life again? Any thing else?

I might become some combination of blessings, curses and memories for others.

 

[loverofhumanity]

The reason, we are told, why we are not given the vision of the next world is that "“were we to have the proper vision to see the blessings of the other world we would not bear to endure one more hour of existence upon the earth. The reason why we are deprived of that vision is because otherwise no one would care to remain and the whole fabric of society will be destroyed.”

 

[Sha'irullah]

The reason, we are told, why we are not given the vision of the next world is that "“were we to have the proper vision to see the blessings of the other world we would not bear to endure one more hour of existence upon the earth. The reason why we are deprived of that vision is because otherwise no one would care to remain and the whole fabric of society will be destroyed.”

And do you believe there is a hell then? Because that would be a complete cop out followed by a very poor decision in divine planning

 

[BSM1]

Why do you need a point to it all? Honest question.

This is an honest question. There have been times in my life where I have been convinced that living was pointless. I turned to substances to keep myself from driving off a cliff (ironic, huh?) . But eventually I came to realize that the experiences and circumstances of my life was molding me into the person I choose to be (not trying to be preachy, so bear with me). I have determined that my life can't, IMHO, simple be a random and totally useless series of breathes and bowel movements; there has to be something else. I know I could be wrong, but I have chosen to believe in a continuation of my existence. My concept of the afterlife is facing a committee that asks one question: "Did you learn anything?". My answer, I feel, will determine what direction my existence will take.

 

[Sunstone]

This is an honest question. There have been times in my life where I have been convinced that living was pointless. I turned to substances to keep myself from driving off a cliff (ironic, huh?) . But eventually I came to realize that the experiences and circumstances of my life was molding me into the person I choose to be (not trying to be preachy, so bear with me). I have determined that my life can't, IMHO, simple be a random and totally useless series of breathes and bowel movements; there has to be something else. I know I could be wrong, but I have chosen to believe in a continuation of my existence. My concept of the afterlife is facing a committee that asks one question: "Did you learn anything?". My answer, I feel, will determine what direction my existence will take.

Fair enough. Thanks! As for me, I don't feel much, if any, need for there to be a point to it all. I guess we just differ in that regard.

 

[loverofhumanity]

And do you believe there is a hell then? Because that would be a complete cop out followed by a very poor decision in divine planning

There is a next world whether one is a believer or not.

Heaven and hell are states of the soul not places.

‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ being regarded as symbolic terms for nearness to or distance from God,

When we pass to the next world we shall remember the life we had here and we will either rejoice or live in regret and despair depending upon our life here.

 

[BSM1]

Fair enough. Thanks! As for me, I don't feel much, if any, need for there to be a point to it all. I guess we just differ in that regard.

If there were not point, imho, you and I would not be having these deep philosophical discussion; which, BTW, I plan to bring up to the Committee.