I have a question. A friend told me that some Atheists believe in an after life even though

[nirvana555]

they don't believe in a God. I'm very interested in hearing input about this topic. Thanks to any and all for your input!

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Start with Buddhism.

[defacto7]

2. Interesting the OP is from

nirvana555...

[Warpy]

5. It was also a band that somebody born in 55 would probably like.

[uriel1972]

3. I guess technically you don't have to believe in gods to believe in the afterlife...

However, until someone brings forth solid evidence for 'souls' or whatever you would call the essence that remains after death is presented, I will have to face oblivion.

[Warpy]

4. Buddhists are largely atheist

and they believe something goes on and is reborn.

I'm not sure what to think about this except that memory, personalities, skills, and other things we consider to be ourselves are a function of our brains, which will be dead.

Who the hell knows? All we know for certain is that it's a one way trip. Nobody has ever really come back to tell us about it.

[nirvana555]

6. I agree with who the Hell knows. I'm not an Athesist but completely support any and

all belief systems. About may name (Nirvana555), it's kind of two- fold. I have a very strong affinity towards the band and Kurt Cobain; and I think of Nirvana as a state of mind that's like you're on the best drug ever! The 555 was the time my only child was shot and killed as he was trying to save a young woman who was being car jacked. He was 27 and had just received his Master's Degree in Special Education, specifically Autism. He had been in the Peace Corps for several years and he thought he was behind in his career by "graduating so late". I'm surprised someone would bring up the 555. No one ever has in any of the other forums. I've never been to this forum. I guess when you loose your only child you hope/wish that you'll see them again and that's one of the reasons i hope (actually i guess i'm just choosing to believe there's a possibility in an afterlife). I'm sorry if I offended anyone........

[Warren DeMontague]

8. I'm deeply sorry for your loss.

[Warpy]

9. I don't think we were particularly offended

Just a little puzzled.

Thanks for the explanation.

[JNelson6563]

12. Oh my dear!

I have no words for your loss.

Julie

[Ron Obvious]

20. Wow...

How could you ever think any of us would be offended by this story of personal tragedy. I'm so sorry -- I can't imagine anything worse.

I've just about survived all of my loved ones but one, but I can't see how an afterlife is plausible so the thought brings me no comfort. That doesn't mean any of us condemn anyone who sincerely believe in one.

Peace to you.

[progressoid]

38. ...

"I guess when you loose your only child you hope/wish that you'll see them again"

Absolutely....

A few years ago, I lost my brother/best friend. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. While it would be wonderful to see him again, I don't spend a lot of time dwelling on the idea of an afterlife. If there is an afterlife, great! If not, well, that's that. I don't mean that to sound cavalier, just pragmatic.

[AlbertCat]

40. "I guess when you loose your only child you hope/wish that you'll see them again"

Of course you do! You're human!

But being your child means that 1/2 of its DNA is yours. What does that mean in an afterlife?

Your Grandmother shares 1/4 of her DNA with you.... and most likely a bunch of experiences you two had together as you grew up. All those experiences and memories are in your brain. You both die. So now that your DNA and your grandmother's DNA are both gone and neither of your brains are working....just how are you to recognize your grandmother in the afterlife? What does "grandmother" even mean without the physical and experiences gone? Nothing of your relationship exists anymore....(except maybe 3rd party memories of the two of you)

All afterlives and reincarnations were invented because no one wants to die coupled with wanting to see absent loved ones again. Of course you do! You're human!

[Warren DeMontague]

7. If you believe you didn't exist before you were born, you moved from a state of non-existence

to a state of existence.

If you believe you won't exist after you die, you will once again be* in a state of non-existence, correct? Is that state of non-existence fundamentally different than the state of non-existence you were in* before you were born?

I guess the point being, if one can pop out of nothingness once, why couldn't one do it again?

Conversely, all we really know, is existing. We exist, we remember existing, we don't remember and have never experienced non-existence. It may possibly be that we have no choice, but to exist, because there IS no choice.


*even talking about "existing" or "being" in a state of non-existence dances with impossible logic, and as such highlights the point made above.

[LostOne4Ever]

10. Long ago I came across the website of an atheist who believed in an afterlife

Can't find it now, probably long since gone (back in the geocities days) but if I remember correctly the person claimed to have had a near death experience that convinced them there was an afterlife.

Personally, I don't buy it. I am convinced we go back to the oblivion from which we came. Or to put it another way, its like a dreamless sleep. One where you lose consciousness and the next thing we know its morning. Its like no time at all has passed, yet we know for a fact that time did pass.

We might as well not have existed during that time.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

11. Atheist with a Buddhist leaning here...

Born and raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, I embraced atheism at a rather young age, sixteen. I looked towards Buddhism for moral direction. Catholicism seemed to me to be too disingenuous. I was born into a very scientific minded family which probably explains the "Proof of God" problem that I have.

In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system cannot change—it is said to be conserved over time. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but can change form, for instance chemical energy can be converted to kinetic energy in the explosion of a stick of dynamite.

Our physical bodies are powered by energy. Fact. That energy some call the soul, life force, spark of life, ect. Belief. Can that energy be encoded with our memories, can it be used to power another new body, human or otherwise? Unknown. Where does it go after it leaves our body? Unknown. Yet it is not destroyed. It will be somewhere in this cosmos either changed into a different form of energy or in stasis till it is, loosely worded here, used again. Is this the "afterlife"? Unknown.

I do not believe in god, heaven or hell but I do believe in the laws of physics. I used Buddhism to balance the beliefs I was encoded with as a child to the facts of those laws.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. me too. As a way to live a good life, buddhism works for me, I just skip the reincarnation woo.

it isn't needed and explains nothing and adds nothing to the philosophy other than to comfort to those afraid of death. "That energy" is consciousness, it needs no other description.

[truebrit71]

17. ..and I think that the energy changing form is where the reincarnation thing comes in..

...at least it does in my mind...I don't think that we are necessarily "re-born" or spend time as dung beetles before working our way up...but I do think we are all 'connected' in the energy/physics sense of the word...

..although it would be kind of cool to spend an eternity floating through the cosmos in some form or another...makes just as much (if not more) sense as living in a cloud with all of my dead relatives but with wings and harps...

[uriel1972]

36. All we are is a pattern of matter and energy...

When we die this orginization breaks down the, energy dissipates into the surrounding environment and the matter is dealt with by the environment as well. No great mystery, no afterlife, only death of the individual, oblivion.

It would require the existence of some unknown energy, a 'soul' if you will for there to be an afterlife. After all these years of searching we can fathom the depths of the universe and the shallows of the quantum level, but still can not find any evidence of this 'soul' energy.

[nil desperandum]

13. After Life

I am not certain about states of non-existence or existence.

I assume that energy at the atomic level moves us all. What form that energy took before my birth is unknown to me, and what form it will take after my death is also unknown to me. I can only assume that since that energy was not intelligent prior to my birth it will no longer be intelligent after my death which would indicate to me that I will no longer be myself as I know myself to be at this time. Which means I will no longer be cognizant of what I am, and without self awareness we are non-existent.

So for me that assumes no afterlife. I will confess there is some comfort in that, as I have not always been a stellar human being and the idea that I would see a replay of all the things I have done during my life would be as strong a version of hell as I could imagine.

[Arugula Latte]

15. I've also heard non-believers talk about "the preservation of energy"

as in, your "energy" continues on, whatever that means. I have no idea if it is scientifically feasible. I seriously doubt it.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

22. Non believer...

Explain, please.
This term sounds demeaning.
Correct me if wrong.

Belief in what?
Religion?
Science?
Yourself?
Others?

[Arugula Latte]

23. Non-believer in religion.

Demeaning to ... ?

I thought it was a very common term.

I'm a non-believer.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

27. Sorry

That's a term that sets some off I guess I'm one. Didn't think so but...
It just sounds like ya gotta believe in something or you are wrong
I guess belief in nothing counts.
With me?

[Arugula Latte]

28. No worries...maybe there's a better term.

I didn't really think about it before I wrote it.

[uriel1972]

37. Agnostic?

The old Greek for Not Knower maybe?

[Neoma]

43. Agnostic is a word Christians bug you about.

Because it means the person has a chance to be converted because the person just isn't completely convinced, in their eyes.

[Rob H.]

16. If I believed in an afterlife

I wouldn't want it to be like the classic "sitting on a cloud playing a harp"-style experience that's been written about. I'd want to be able to look through time and space to find answers to questions that interest me. What were dinosaurs really like? Is there life on other planets? If so, where is it and what does it look like? What does the future hold for our planet? That would be my idea of heaven.

[Iggo]

18. I believe in an afterlife.

I call it death.

[Exultant Democracy]

19. I'm agnostic about time, I don't even believe in before or after. (let alone an afterlife)

[Arugula Latte]

24. But do you believe in coyotes? ;)

I believe in coyotes and time as an abstract
Explain the change, the difference between
What you want and what you need, there's the key
Your adventure for today, what do you do
Between the horns of the day
~ R.E.M. "I Believe"

[Act_of_Reparation]

21. Atheism is a lack of belief in God or gods...

...and that's really about it.

While atheism and skepticism generally go hand-in-hand, this isn't always the case. So, an atheist that believes in existence after death, while a minority, is not an anathema.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

26. Wrong!

So wrong. Think freethinker. One whom doesn't accept the normal. But thinks on his own. One who questions everything. Questions, needs proof. Does not accept dogma. Thinks on his own, critical thinking. Free in thinking, accepting no dogma. Until proved.
Now tell me about atheists
Obviously you are not. I apologize if wrong.

[Act_of_Reparation]

29. I am not an atheist?

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

31. I did apologize to you if I was wrong.

Answer to your question.
Only you know. I cannot answer that.

[Act_of_Reparation]

34. I firmly reject that apology...

...and kindly suggest you familiarize yourself with a dictionary.

[RebelOne]

25. I would like to believe there is an afterlife.

One strange thing happened that got me thinking. When my 12-year-old Rottweiler, Bear Bear, died, I got another Rottie from the same person who I adopted Bear Bear from. That was Legend, who was 2-1/2 years old. After she had been with me for a few days, she developed the personality, actions and characteristics of Bear Bear for a few days, and then she was back to being Legend again. It's like Bear Bear was coming back to let me know she was okay. Legend died when she was almost 13 years old. I would like to think there is a doggy heaven.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. I believe in an after life

After I got divorced, my life became incredibly better. It was like a whole new life. Of course, having a suicidal, manic-depressive, violent person to come home to was not exactly living. More of a living hell, actually.

[PumpkinAle]

33. Spiritualists

do not believe in a God per se, but do believe that God is not a man figure, but more a Spiritual force.

Spiritualists have several principles which they live by, one of which is:

'We affirm the moral responsibility of individuals. They make their own happiness or unhappiness as they obey or disobey Nature’s physical and spiritual laws.'

Hope this helps.

And I too would like to offer my condolences about your son - I can not know what you went through or are going through, but I offer hugs in hope that it will give you a comfort that people do care.

[AlbertCat]

41. What are "spiritual laws"?

Sounds like more made up baloney....just a watered down god...trying to infuse some kind of scientific terminology in there to give it "gravitas".

[PumpkinAle]

42. Why should I waste my time explaining, when you

have already made your mind up.

[AlbertCat]

46. Why should I waste my time explaining

IOW.... you got nutting'

I mean, it should be not too hard to list/ tell/ point out...."spiritual laws"

[RussBLib]

35. some might, most won't

After incompletely absorbing Einstein, it's easy for me to imagine that our life force - our consciousness - or whatever exactly it is could pass into some other indefinable dimension after the death of the body on this planet. It's unlikely, but it would be beyond our comprehension.

The term "after life" will be different from one person to another. Everyone guesses at it. No one knows.

I agree with an earlier poster. I believe in an "after life" called death.

[Curmudgeoness]

39. I reject the idea of an afterlife.

In fact, I expected most atheists would just bluntly say that they do not believe in an afterlife, since (to me) that would require a god.

I am glad you asked the question, since I have learned something new here.

And after reading you story of your son...I am so sorry for your loss. It is a pain that I cannot imagine. I don't blame you for hoping there is an afterlife. And just because I feel so strongly that there is not one, I have no way of knowing. There may be one. But remember that your memories keep him alive.

[nirvana555]

44. You guys have been so great! Thank you for the dialogue I was truly hoping for.

Thank you also for your kind words ragarding the situation I described. As far as the question I asked, it's awesome to hear everyone's POV. I was actually kind of nervous to post but am so glad I did.....

[Curmudgeoness]

45. LOL.

No reason to be nervous.....we don't bite. The worst that usually happens is that no one pays any attention to a post and doesn't answer. Disheartening, but not devastating.

I think that the only time I have seen people here be upset about a post is when the OP is looking for a fight, and that has happened. Sincere curiosity is not a problem. Besides, we like to have discussions here. It is a good bunch of people in this unholy place.

[stone space]

47. I was hoping to have my consciousness uploaded to the cloud.

Surely there's an app for that.