| I am a product of the Deep South. I was raised Southern Baptist and trained to be a pastor. I received my Master of Divinity at the age of 23, but getting a divorce and admitting that I was primarily gay pretty much ended my career choice as a preacher. I later explored liberal Christianity, Spiritualism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Religious Science. In my mid forties I began an extensive re-education of my self, reading hundreds of books ( over 250 in 2003 alone) and taking over 30 audio coursed from The Teaching Company taught by the nation’s best teachers. I steeped myself in the scientific method and sought to diligently apply it to my life and thought. I have since embraced an atheistic/ agnostic viewpoint. | |
| My interests are art, history, philosophy, quantum physics, genetics,fine art and literature. |
|---|
share your suicide story
Report Post
Please log in to report posts
6 comments
You have a very interesting background. I guess the big question is, do you believe there’s an “afterlife”? I don’t mean heaven, hell, gods or demons; I mean a continuation of ourselves in some form. Or does everything just end when we die?
The answer to that question is very straightforward, once you’re dead, it’s over. Since mind is a product of the brain, when you die along with your brain, then so does your consciousness.
It’s a boring answer, probably what most people know intuitively, but some people don’t want to accept that their end is a finality.
Ofc in a pre-scientific age, people had all kinds of crazy and nonsensical beliefs and ideas, like an afterlife, but as we learned more about atoms and our universe, we quickly realized there is only the material world another nothing beyond it.
I personally would love it if we discovered other dimensions/realms and that’s a question only scientists/physicists can answer, but so far we haven’t found any other alternate realities.
I wish we were immortal and stayed youthful looking in our 20s or 30s for instance but we’re not there yet. I think in time however medical science will solve those issues.
Religion can never answer these questions because there is no science involved. All they do is make wild claims that cannot be verified and ‘believe’ a god, afterlife, demons, angels, magic, etc. exist. Any sober minded person can see it’s all just BS invented by the human imagination.
I definitely don’t subscribe to any religious beliefs in afterlife, but the question of existence – of consciousness – is far more difficult to conclusively write off. We don’t even know what consciousness is. I believe it’s a bit myopic to think everything ends as soon as the brain stops. I say ‘myopic’ not as an insult; it’s a valid theory to consider; but it’s myopic in the sense that it focuses on what’s in front of our faces. Science itself tells us that things like energy and mass cannot be destroyed. It is entirely possible that consciousness also cannot be destroyed, despite our brains turning to jelly.
OP seems to have dedicated a lifetime to the academic pursuit of different theories. I’m impressed at the diversity from hardcore religious to atheist, philosopher and scientist. Curious to know how a philosophically educated atheist would view consciousness. “I think; therefore I am” does not necessarily imply “I don’t think; therefore I am not.”
You nailed the problem with religion and ‘Idealism’, they exists in the space of possibilities and conjectures, not science.
Are you trying to say that there some “consciousness atoms” or other energy or substance that allows conscience to leave the body?
Well good luck trying to prove that, you’ll win a Nobel prize and become world famous if you can pull it off.
If you’re just proposing ideas, that’s fine, they did that for thousands of years and still haven’t proven any of them, like gods, angels, disembodied consciousness, etc as I mentioned before.
I’m not offended by your comment about being ‘myopic’ thanks for clarifying. However sometimes people are looking for something that isn’t actually there.
Some people (not you) think they’re broader-minded if they can look “beyond science” but that isn’t “deep thinking” it’s just trying to find an explanation outside of the material world/universe.
There is only atoms/energy and NOTHING beyond it, like metaphysics or other realms/dimensions, until they have been proven to exist by science.
When I was younger I’d sometimes wonder about other possibilities also, but I grew out of it. Even though I became an Atheist (ex-Christian) at around 13 yrs old, I still thought that maybe past lives happen as in Buddhism, ofc now I know it’s pretty much BS.
I don’t dismiss ideas out of hand, I keep an open mind, but until there is hard evidence, then they’re just baseless claims….so I don’t give it much thought.
So I firmly disagree with you, consciousness dies with the brain-unless and until someone can prove they can exist without a body. For anyone to say they “think, hope, believe, suspect, etc.” that they do is irrelevant and meaningless.
I have to admit I was surprised at your atheistic/agnostic viewpoint. I guess I was assuming as I read that you would’ve arrived at a much different conclusion. With age I’m also leaning heavily towards agnosticism. Definitely believe there’s a “something” and we have no clue what it is.
Are you agnostic about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy?
Either something exists or it doesn’t. If there is a god, all that we non-believers ask is that you (or the believers) provide solid, irrefutable evidence.
A one-on-one interview would be just a start of that proof…much more is needed.
If you can’t provide proof, then it is not real for all intents and purposes and it’s best to not think about it, just as we don’t worry about Vishnu, Zeus, Thor or Poseidon.
Gods are just rumors passed down through thousands of years. When the believers of these gods die off, then other humans just call it mythology. It’ll happen eventually with Jesus and other popular gods today, even if it takes centuries.
Now that doesn’t mean the question of our origin is not important or interesting, it’s the greatest question ever that scientists are working on. Thus far based on what they’ve discovered is that a universe can come from ‘nothing’ ie-an energy state imbued in space.