The fear of an afterlife. Or in other words a hell. It’s the only reason I’m alive today. I’m agnostic. I’m not sure if spirituality is real or not. I hate being alive. I wish I had proof that spirituality is or isnt real. I cant be the only one. That is all.
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I believe in an afterlife, its what motivates me to turn off the lights.
It’s a large part of what keeps me here too. I tend to assume religious belief is fallacious bullshit, but it seems possible that conscious experience could continue beyond death (in a worse state.) And I have very little confidence in my own ability to rationally comprehend reality, so I can’t absolutely rule out the existence of hell.
Eternally tormenting wrongdoers doesn’t seem to me like the pursuit of all-loving God, but then I’m a wicked sinner so I would think that.
Our top scientists still don’t know how consciousness emerges from billions of neurons firing. So explain to me how this same conscience state can continue to exist when those neurons/cells die off? I’m not criticizing, I’d genuinely like to know how people can think we can exist non-corporally.
We all know about brain disease/damage like Alzheimer’s where people lose their memory, they forget faces, their own past. They basically lose their identity and who they were. So that utterly destroys the idea that our ‘selves’ exist as immutable persistent entities, which can then move outside a body.
It’s very clear when the cells die off (like the ones holding our memories), that we stop being who we used to be. So it logically follows when all the cells are gone so is the person.
And if anyone can show what a thought is made from and how it can persist beyond our biological basis from which it arises, then you’d win a Nobel prize. Of course that hasn’t happened because consciousness doesn’t leave the body ever. We are bodies, when the body dies so do we (our minds).
Your idea of a God is product of western culture. Were you born in the East, you’d probably believe in many gods or none if you were a Buddhist. Strange isn’t it? It’s almost like we live in a universe where gods don’t exist except in our mythology books, fairy tales and our imagination and nowhere else.
One quick point I forgot to add. If there was a God, then everyone would know him/her and billions of people would belong to the same religion. Not because it was spread by fire and sword or evangelism but because this God creature would’ve given the exact same message to all humans.
The fact that we have so many disparate beliefs even within religions because they can’t agree on the dogma just proves these are man-made myths and not some divine message from magical super space being who will torture us for eternity if we don’t love him back. These ideas are too idiotic and infantile to be believable or taken seriously, that alone should make people realize religions are frauds/scams to be avoided.
I can guarantee you with 100% certainty that there is no “afterlife” for “you” (whatever those words mean).
Im going to find out pretty soon
I find it strange that a lot of people try so hard to convince themselves that there is an afterlife, I personally think it’s a bit odd to expect more than what we have now. Realistically there probably isn’t an afterlife, and that’s not that bad you just won’t exist anymore. Still I would always suggest never making any of your decisions for your now based off of a chance that there might be an afterlife, even if there is it doesn’t at all matter to you in the context of this existence. Even if there was an afterlife there’s no certainty that it would be you, it almost certainly wouldn’t you’d live in a different place maybe not even have your current memories, so you wouldn’t be you as you are now…. You may even think that that is just life too, and it could be worse or better. I still just go with the assumption that I just won’t exist after I die, just the same as before I was born, that requires the least number of assumptions.
Also the feelings associated with spirituality are certainly real, and people feel them about all sorts of different things.
It’s very simple, we all already know the answer. If there was an afterlife, we wouldn’t be wondering or guessing. There would be hard evidence. For example we all know Paris, France exists even if we’ve never been there. If you don’t believe it exists, then all you need to do is buy a plane ticket and go there, to prove it to yourself.
There is no afterlife because there is no evidence for one. It’s simply an idea that people invented when we didn’t know about the molecular basis of human biology. These ideas from the Bronze Age persist to this day because of religion. If we trusted science instead, religion would’ve disappeared centuries ago.
The reason so many people still “don’t know” or are “agnostic” is because they don’t know how to tell the difference between reality and fiction. They’ve also been taught to distrust their own senses and have been fed a bunch of pseudo-scientific nonsense like the ‘supernatural’ which doesn’t exist, more Bronze Age bullshiit.
If there was another realm or dimension the only people who could tell us is scientists (and I have a science degree so I know something about this topic). We’ve examined the universe and all we’ve seen is stars, space, galaxies. There are no dragons, gods, angels, or Avengers flying around.
Your mind/conscience is a product of the billions of neurons firing in your brain. When your body/brain dies then so does your conscience. I’ve told you the answer as an ex-Christian (now Atheist) but some of you will persist in believing in a lie because it sounds true and you wish there was a magical place you go to after you die. Heaven and hell are right here on Earth, so make the most of your life.
Just because you desperately want something to be true, doesn’t mean it is. I’d also want to live in the real world than believe in an adult version of Santa Claus (as some people do).
I also find it sad that some people choose not to end a bad life because they fear eternal suffering in an afterlife, this is only in their imagination. I know once I’m gone, it’ll be like a dreamless sleep so I don’t fear being dead. I only worry about making sure my attempt succeeds, the day I’m ready to go. Fortunately in Canada euthanasia is legalize now and hopefully it’ll be more widely available so we can take a safer route out.
When you die everything about you dies, your just in a body flesh and bones, it wears out for one reason or another, your brain is you, once your brain is dead that’s the end of you.
No because you just die and it is oblivion, you no longer have your senses and you die. It’s a lot more appealing then being alive, unless you have a nice place to live and a good life. The only reason I am still alive and haven’t killed myself yet is I am afraid of pain, I can only kill myself through a painless method which are hard to obtain (shotgun to head)
I hear you on that. I am only here because I know I will fail and make a mess out of my own suicide, just like I have failed at everything else in my life. As I get older and realize that every day is just more physical and mental pain, the pain of suicide is less of a problem. When walking, sitting, eating, and sleeping are just exercises in different levels of pain, death becomes a very appealing option. If only I could guarantee success.
I don’t think there is anything else. No after. No beyond. No rebirth. We just die and that is the end of it. We are nothing but an over-abundant mistake of chemistry. All of this “god” nonsense is just a way of trying to understand the stupidity of our existence, IMHO. The bible is just a bunch of children’s stories that were created to keep the stupid and gullible wrapped in fear. After all, what is the bible and all of this religion garbage other than a big stick to smack you with to remind you to be good or you will go to hell? I mean, really? Get a grip and just die already is my point of view on the entire species, and me in particular. Just die already.