Thread: Do Atheists believe in a after life?

Believe in an afterlife? Nopes...

If anything does come after, well fine, but I see no reason in believing in such things.

Simple.

It's a stupid question. If your personality can't overcome brain trauma, how about brain death? Simple, eh?

I'm an athiest, but I believe anything's possible in an infinite universe.

When we die, our consciousness ceases. Consciousness is what we use to measure time. When time moves infinitely quickly, who knows what will happen?

Anything's possible. I'm hoping there's an afterlife, but I wouldn't bet on it.

I have a feeling that reincarnation might be roughly analogous to the truth... but I don't know. That's just based on the huge improbability that the current time should happen to intersect with my life time...

Break the definitions between life and death, and existence and non-existence. THe question is meaningless, in the end.

no i don't believe in an Afterlife. Your consciousness is in your brain, for example if you have your frontal lobe removed you lose your ability to feel emotion, so that's destroys who you are. Similarly there are parts of the brain that control memory, fear etc. So basically since when you die your brain ceases to function i see no reason why you do not simply rot away and the elements you were made up of are used as nutrients for other creatures( and don't give me that, " well your now part of every creature...please")

I believe there is an "after-life." More specifically, that after your life is done, you are dead.

I don't, but you can't assume every atheist doesn't too.

Originally Posted by Serkat

It's a stupid question. If your personality can't overcome brain trauma, how about brain death? Simple, eh?

LOL i cant believe everybody took this thread seriously

Judging from the way you post it wouldn't be too much of a surprise to have that ridiculously bad style accompanied by mundane contents.

Your consciousness is in your brain

No it isn't. Consciousness has no location; if there's one thing about consciousness which is known almost for certain, it is that.

Consciousness is the result of mathematical interactions between neurons in the brain. Asking where consciousness is is like asking where maths is. Maths is everywhere and nowhere, so to speak.

Originally Posted by Xei

No it isn't. Consciousness has no location; if there's one thing about consciousness which is known almost for certain, it is that.

Consciousness is the result of mathematical interactions between neurons in the brain. Asking where consciousness is is like asking where maths is. Maths is everywhere and nowhere, so to speak.

How so? If it's the mental result of physical processes at a specific location, it would seem logical that this is the the location of consciousness as well. Where "consciousness" doesn't define a clearly marked-off area but a continuum of locations. Kinda like when you ask "Where is the gas?" and it's actually all over the place, but for approximation you'll just say "It's in this room" or "Part of it went outside".

Atheists are not a dogmatically constrained group. I would imagine there are atheists who believe in an after life for whatever reason.

Why this question? It seems obvious to me that the answer is that most atheists don't believe in the supernatural. Has a situation made you question that?

Originally Posted by apachama

Atheists are not a dogmatically constrained group. I would imagine there are atheists who believe in an after life for whatever reason.

Why this question? It seems obvious to me that the answer is that most atheists don't believe in the supernatural. Has a situation made you question that?

Actually I just ponder on how Atheists would react/respond to this thread.

Serkat; I know what you mean, but let's be careful; hopefully you agree that we can say that consciousness is the result of a process, loosely speaking... in the same way that, say, adaption is the result of a process of natural selection, as a weak analogy. The question, 'where is adaption?', clearly has no meaning.

It is correct to say, 'the physical process which causes consciousness is in the brain', but to say that 'consciousness is in the brain' is wrong, I think.

If you think about it, the only reason we think that consciousness is in our brain is because our brain is behind our eyes, and recieves input from the body in which our brain is located. Close your eyes, feel nothing... and then you will be getting close to the true nature of consciousness, I think.

Thinking about it, perhaps that's how englightenment works.

You're being well to general with the definition of atheist. An atheist just doesn't believe in god, and though most probably do not believe in the afterlife asking this question is a bit like asking "Do white people believe in Jesus?".

I believe that when you die you go to a big black empty void and helplessly float there in the cold, numb, dark for all eternity...

Originally Posted by Halocuber

TITLE says its all!!!!!!!!!!

and by Atheists I mean the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism
term for Atheists

The title is a trick question. You might as well ask do polygamists believe people should be allowed to have only one wife or husband?

Theist = Believe in God
Atheist = No believe in God
Buddhist = No Believe in God
Buddhist = Atheist
Buddhist = Believe in Nirvana
Nirvana = Afterlife

Therefore, Thread Fail.

Some do, yeah. Many do not.

Originally Posted by ExoByte

Buddhist = No Believe in God
Buddhist = Atheist

A few years back I went to the Buddhist centre in my city very regularly. A large portion of their puja was dedicated to making offerings to supernatural beings, boddhisattvas, buddhas, etc.

When I asked if they had a literal belief in beings like the 1000 armed avalokiteshvera, Tara the Buddha of compassion, etc. Some said they did and that they had experienced these beings.

How can they be both atheists and believe in a whole host of Gods?

Originally Posted by apachama

A few years back I went to the Buddhist centre in my city very regularly. A large portion of their puja was dedicated to making offerings to supernatural beings, boddhisattvas, buddhas, etc.

When I asked if they had a literal belief in beings like the 1000 armed avalokiteshvera, Tara the Buddha of compassion, etc. Some said they did and that they had experienced these beings.

How can they be both atheists and believe in a whole host of Gods?

Depends on the variation of Buddhism, like Theravada (which has no deities, so in essence it is an atheistic religion).

When time moves infinitely quickly, who knows what will happen?

That's the exciting thing... an infinite amount of time will pass in no time.

An infinite amount of time... in no time