If you are an atheist, what are your thoughts on the afterlife? Mortality? We are what we are until we die, then are no more?
Thank you.
A question for Atheists
by IP_SEC 42 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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seattleniceguy
Hey IP_SEC,
I don't believe in an afterlife because there is no compelling evidence for such a thing. Based on the available evidence, it appears that when we die, we are no more. Most people are willing to accept this when it comes to plants and animals, but when the finger points at us, we suddenly seem to think that we're different. It sounds like a delusion of grandeur to me.
Here's my outlook: Live this life as if it were all you're going to get. If there is more, cool. If not, you'll never know the difference.
I hope there is something after this. I just don't believe that there is.
SNG
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IP_SEC
Hmm that is an interesting, hard to swallow concept. What do you think of consciousness? Nothing special? Just a pattern of chemical reactions that some of our ancestors had that enabled then to better survive?
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SixofNine
<------ Agrees with SNG.
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Wild_Thing
<-------- Agrees with SoN.
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AlmostAtheist
My position on the afterlife mirrors SNG (an atheist version of high priest, he) so I won't elaborate.
What do you think of consciousness? Nothing special? Just a pattern of chemical reactions that some of our ancestors had that enabled then to better survive?
A computer that could accept all the inputs we accept and produce all the outputs we produce would have a quality indistinguishable from consciousness. It's awfully hard to fathom that there is some sort of limit to our ability to make better machines that will prevent us from developing one that thinks and is self-aware, the whole shmeer.
That being the case, it sort of puts the lie to the idea that our consciousness is anything magical. Just like the computer is just an electrical pattern, our brain -- and our consciousness -- is just chemical patterns.
The best evidence for this is a person with a head injury, damaging their brain. Once the mechanical lump of goo gets damaged, their consciousness reflects it.
Are you considering coming over to the dark side, IP_SEC? ;-)
Dave
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IronGland
Oh, baby, it?s cryin? time,
Oh, baby, I got to fly.
Got to try to find a way,
Got to try to get away,
?cause you know I gotta get away from you, babe.
Oh, baby, the river?s red,
Oh, baby, in my head.
There?s a funny feelin? goin? on,
I don?t think I can hold out long.
*and when the owls cry in the night,
Oh, baby, baby, when the pines begin to cry,
Baby, baby, baby, how do you feel?
If the river runs dry, baby,
How do you feel?
Crazy, baby, the rainbow?s end,
Mmm, baby, it?s just a den
For those who hide,
Who hide their love to depths of life
And ruin dreams that we all knew so, babe. -
Robert K Stock
When we die we cease to exist.
There is no such thing as immortal souls. No such thing as spirits.
Live your life to the fullest because this is all you get.
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talesin
I love Emerson, he's my favorite American philosopher ...
The soul gives itself, alone, original, and pure, to the Lonely, Original, and Pure, who, on that condition, gladly inhabits, leads, and speaks through it. Then is it glad, young, and nimble. It is not wise, but it sees through all things. It is not called religious, but it is innocent. It calls the light its own, and feels that the grass grows and the stone falls by a law inferior to, and dependent on, its nature. Behold, it saith, I am born into the great, the universal mind. I, the imperfect, adore my own Perfect. I am somehow receptive of the great soul, and thereby I do overlook the sun and the stars, and feel them to be the fair accidents and effects which change and pass. More and more the surges of everlasting nature enter into me, and I become public and human in my regards and actions. So come I to live in thoughts, and act with energies, which are immortal. Thus revering the soul, and learning, as the ancient said, that "its beauty is immense," man will come to see that the world is the perennial miracle which the soul worketh, and be less astonished at particular wonders; he will learn that there is no profane history; that all history is sacred; that the universe is represented in an atom, in a moment of time. He will weave no longer a spotted life of shreds and patches, but he will live with a divine unity. He will cease from what is base and frivolous in his life, and be content with all places and with any service he can render. He will calmly front the morrow in the negligency of that trust which carries God with it, and so hath already the whole future in the bottom of the heart.
I like the idea that we are all connected ... collective consciousness ... means the soul is fluid ... energy and matter never ceast to exist ... they are merely recycled ...
Beyond that, I agree with SNG, too.
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rem
I believe an afterlife would be great! I also believe that pots of gold at the ends of rainbows would be wonderful too. Unfortunately I believe they are both very unlikely.
Consciousness is a great and wonderful mystery. Maybe some day we'll figure it out; maybe not. Knowing how something works doesn't necessarily spoil its beauty. Rainbows are still beautiful even though we know they are simply refracted light. Consciousness will continue to be awesome even after it's figured out.
One thing we do know about consciousness, though - it has something to do with the brain. It probably has nothing to do with a mysterious soul.
rem