An afterlife for Atheists?

[vic123]

Does no God necessarily equal no afterlife? Is a deliberate designer the only being which can offer an afterlife or can the universe offer one too? What will be the difference between a religious afterlife and a natural one?

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Dunno. Nobody's ever come back to tell us IMHO 'we are stardust' sounds infinitely more scientific and proveable than the pearly gates / eternal burny fire thing or the four and twenty virgins thing.

 

[Fungus]

Do you have a dog called Cleo?

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Que sera sera!

 

[Arthur]

[yt]y-RJeqyh-vI[/yt]

 

[Frutos]

If there is an afterlife I cannot believe that admission to, or denial of, entry to it would be based on an individual having chosen the right imaginary friend to talk to while clinging to this little bit of rock.

For what it's worth, I think we die and then either rot in the ground or are incinerated and scattered. No more than that.

 

[SeagullSongs]

Afterlife? I don't believe in souls, heaven, hell, or anything like that.
We'll just rot in the mud once we're buried.

 

[The Andy Naylor Fan Club]

Dunno. Nobody's ever come back to tell us IMHO 'we are stardust' sounds infinitely more scientific and proveable than the pearly gateseternal /burny fire thing or the four and twenty virgins thing.

This and the fact that there is no proof that you would get twenty very attractive females, you may end up with twenty very ugly males.
Eternal life, not for me. When you are gone that's the end.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

How would babies and very young children (that die) enter an afterlife? Would they spend eternity as infants, or instantly achieve maturation? As much as I'd like to, I can't get my head around the prospect of an afterlife that is based on the age at which we die.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

How would babies and very young children (that die) enter an afterlife? Would they spend eternity as infants, or instantly achieve maturation? As much as I'd like to, I can't get my head around the prospect of an afterlife that is based on the age at which we die.

For sure. It'd be a bit rubbish spending all eternity aged a hundred with a dodgy hip.

 

[Brian Fantana]

I would LOVE to believe in some form of afterlife, to help me reconcile the idea of death, but I just can't.

 

[vic123]

How long did I not exist for before I was born? Since time began with the creation of this universe then the answer must be 13 billion years. How long will I not exist for after I am gone? Perhaps forever but perhaps not. Maybe it's a question of chance. Let's pretend I have just dealt one playing cards at random. We could record the result, gather up the cards and try, through chance alone, to replicate the exact order of the cards. The odds against this are 52 x 52 x 52...2 times to 1 against. That's a bewildering number...many, many, many times the number of atoms in the universe. But suppose I never stopped trying to get the cards to fall in this order again. Not only will I make the unlikely inevitable, but I will make all other possibilities certain too. I will, at some point and through chance alone, ensure that our hand will be dealt a trillion, trillion, trillion times in a row.

 

[GNF on Tour]

Does no God necessarily equal no afterlife? Is a deliberate designer the only being which can offer an afterlife or can the universe offer one too? What will be the difference between a religious afterlife and a natural one?

There is no afterlife whether there is a God or not (and there isn't).

 

[vic123]

Oops...that should be one hundred playing cards with odds against of 52 x 52 x 52...all the way up to one hundred, not 52!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

How long did I not exist for before I was born? Since time began with the creation of this universe then the answer must be 13 billion years. How long will I not exist for after I am gone? Perhaps forever but perhaps not. Maybe it's a question of chance. Let's pretend I have just dealt one playing cards at random. We could record the result, gather up the cards and try, through chance alone, to replicate the exact order of the cards. The odds against this are 52 x 52 x 52...2 times to 1 against. That's a bewildering number...many, many, many times the number of atoms in the universe. But suppose I never stopped trying to get the cards to fall in this order again. Not only will I make the unlikely inevitable, but I will make all other possibilities certain too. I will, at some point and through chance alone, ensure that our hand will be dealt a trillion, trillion, trillion times in a row.

So, can we put you down as a 'don't know'?

 

[Billy the Fish]

For what it's worth, I think we die and then either rot in the ground or are incinerated and scattered. No more than that.

I used to think that, but after reading about some of the modern scientific theories on consciousness and holographic theory I'm not so sure.

To me the idea of a creator is a bit absurd, and the idea of heaven and hell even more so, but if you ask if there's such a thing a a soul and can it exist somewhere else in the/another universe once our bodies give up - I'm open to ideas on that one.

 

[Brightonia]

Your parents have it off, you wait 9 months, you come out, you live your life, you die.

That's it!

It's that simple!

 

[vic123]

I would LOVE to believe in some form of afterlife, to help me reconcile the idea of death, but I just can't.

As an atheist I often contemplate what total and eternal non-existence means for us all and what the implications are. I will say that I am not too concerned about the prospect of my own death...(ish.) I guess it comes down to natural laws and logic. The odds against both of us being here today are clearly not so overwhealming so as to be impossible. The universe created us once, perhaps it can and will do again. Maybe we've existed before.

The thing I cannot reconcile is the idea of Heaven. The idea is logically offensive to me. If we do carry on, it must be structured in a way where we always "feel" that this is our one and only shot. After all, if there were no mystery and we were all sure as sure could be that death does not mean the end then we'll all be pressing the reset button as soon as any problem comes along. That's not the way a constructive species is supposed to work. Maybe we need the fear of death.

 

[Brian Fantana]

As an atheist I often contemplate what total and eternal non-existence means for us all and what the implications are. I will say that I am not too concerned about the prospect of my own death...(ish.) I guess it comes down to natural laws and logic. The odds against both of us being here today are clearly not so overwhealming so as to be impossible. The universe created us once, perhaps it can and will do again. Maybe we've existed before.

The thing I cannot reconcile is the idea of Heaven. The idea is logically offensive to me. If we do carry on, it must be structured in a way where we always "feel" that this is our one and only shot. After all, if there were no mystery and we were all sure as sure could be that death does not mean the end then we'll all be pressing the reset button as soon as any problem comes along. That's not the way a constructive species is supposed to work. Maybe we need the fear of death.

The idea of external 'nothingess', quite obviously I suppose, fills me with a certain degree of terror. However, as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, I may as well carry on with life!

 

[Goat lung]

No ghosts or shit like that then , that blows that ghost thread out of he water then , I agree with most no god , no afterlife , no soul (only arseholes) , you're born you live you die the most important thing is what you do inbetween