Thread: Do Atheists believe in a after life?

Originally Posted by Taosaur

Except that they routinely pray to both their ancestors and the Buddha, who are held (at least among the laity) to have deific power to intervene.

Eh, oh well, it's not my area of expertise anyway, so I can't really argue against. Just something I read a few times...

the religion of jainism also has no deity

Originally Posted by nitsuJ

the religion of jainism also has no deity

Although they, again, have a series of tirthankars, who are similar to Buddhas. They look like Gods to me.

And I left alone ExoByte's assertion that nirvana is an "afterlife." It's not somewhere you go, but a way of seeing by which what dies is negligible.

My favorite religion is the one where you are reincarnated over and over again until you reach a state of enlightenment in which you deserve to be a the highest level...then you reach Nirvana and cease to exist =).

Originally Posted by Sandform

My favorite religion is the one where you are reincarnated over and over again until you reach a state of enlightenment in which you deserve to be a the highest level...then you reach Nirvana and cease to exist =).

But who or what determines what you deserve, and by what mechanism do you advance?

Originally Posted by Taosaur

But who or what determines what you deserve, and by what mechanism do you advance?

I'm not sure...it is probably something about innate universe bladdy-blah construction like a test on a computer where you click the option and you get points positive or negative.

I just like that the reward is to not exist =)

Originally Posted by Sandform

I'm not sure...it is probably something about innate universe bladdy-blah construction like a test on a computer where you click the option and you get points positive or negative.

I just like that the reward is to not exist =)

Quite an ill-informed mash-up you've put together there.

Originally Posted by Taosaur

Quite an ill-informed mash-up you've put together there.

Yep that is why I said that religion instead of the religion <insert name>.

I kinda wish there was one, but I don't think there is an "after life"

Originally Posted by Sandform

Yep that is why I said that religion instead of the religion <insert name>.

Raises the question, is it more preposterous to assume your present personality will persist in some form, or to believe anything that could be meaningfully defined as 'you' will cease to exist altogether? Are both equally ridiculous?

Originally Posted by Taosaur

Raises the question, is it more preposterous to assume your present personality will persist in some form, or to believe anything that could be meaningfully defined as 'you' will cease to exist altogether? Are both equally ridiculous?

We might as well just skip to the part where you say "what defines you" and I say the mind, and you say that is arbitrary, and I say yeah but you can lose your body parts and your brain would still be capable of cognitive comprehension, and you say yeah but your brain gets exchanged with new cells, and I say yeah but is the patterning in the brain that I'm talking about not the material of the brain, and eventually we get down to the part where someone other than the two of us says AHA! but then we could just make a clone of your brain! Then we all just say fuck it and leave the thread =)

Anywho the point was it isn't very hard to imagine the mind ceasing to exist, comprehension ceasing, as long as you don't aggrandize what "you" are.

You just have to acknowledge that every moment of your life you die...and you aren't actually who you think you are =).

Originally Posted by Sandform

You just have to acknowledge that every moment of your life you die...and you aren't actually who you think you are =).

So is death and all the time afterward (or birth and all the time before) such a departure from the period when you are fairly certain you exist, though you are in fact dying and being reborn continuously?

Originally Posted by Taosaur

So is death and all the time afterward (or birth and all the time before) such a departure from the period when you are fairly certain you exist, though you are in fact dying and being reborn continuously?

The only difference is there isn't any version of you left to continue thinking before and after death.

Originally Posted by Sandform

You just have to acknowledge that every moment of your life you die...and you aren't actually who you think you are =).

That's not the same as the actual concept of death, you 'change' within every moment of existence, however when you die you no longer exist physically or conciously, there is nothing left of you that goes through phases or any particular change.

Just before a person is about to die, an alien race from somewhere around the center of the universe scans the person's brain thoroughly. They then replicate the brain to exactness, and download it to a core. The core is an internet of thoughts, bound by machines that circumvent many systems of our modern AI, yet somehow allow for incredible depth and storage. The person is conscious in the core, but can't really be called a person, since they lose individuality. By trading individuality, they gain knowledge (because they can freely view another being's consciousness, including memories, emotions, and morals). Based on either a system of karma or seniority (I haven't quite figured that out yet), a consciousness can leave the core and be placed within a mechanical body to live on the surface of the core planet for a set amount of time.

The aliens, of course, don't only deliver the minds of humans, but any species that it deems "sirunti" (a variable mix of sapience, sentience, and society). The aliens don't know the meaning of life, nor if there is an afterlife. The maxim of the aliens can be translated most closely to "Through unity, enlightenment." By gathering the consciousness of all sirunti species, they hope to discover the answers to the noble truths. I say they are obsessively afraid of the afterlife, hence, they built the core as a means to achieve immortality. I say they'll never find these truths. But still, it's nice that they provide somewhere for us to go, instead of just poofing.

Originally Posted by Ne-yo

That's not the same as the actual concept of death, you 'change' within every moment of existence, however when you die you no longer exist physically or conciously, there is nothing left of you that goes through phases or any particular change.

I fail to see the difference between your past self not existing though your "present self" exists for a moment in constant change, and your past self not existing while having no present self...

For example is that person who used to be you really even existent anymore? What of him is left except a new model?

When you die, there's blackness.
Then you get a menu with some buttons.

[Heaven]

[Reincarnation]

[Eternal Peace]

[Other...] (lol hell)

[Create New Afterlife]

Then I would click Create New, create one where I can do anything I would ever wish. Copy + Paste the universe and be God in my copy. Then if I get bored, I can go to heaven, or just say, I'll have a thausand years of pure nothing but happiness. Then I will wake up.

OR! Imagine that consciousness is really a huuuuuge cloud of something. And it works like our brain, it trains certain parts to get better with it. But it's so huuuge that it has no chance to train all the parts at once, let alone handle those parts it has not learned yet.

So, it takes off an untrained piece of itself, sends it to some world where that piece fits in, then it lands in a brain. That piece of consciousness learns alot through life, and once the person dies, an intelligent piece comes back. And in the end, the consciousness will be so intelligent, that it no longer needs to train. Then that will be you, so smart that with a single thought, you can 'visualize' a world infront of you, and not only will you see it, but it will be there. Actually, you are so powerful that you can even make new consciouses(? o_O) which will need to train.

Oh. Hi. I consider myself an Atheist. I don't believe in an afterlife.
But why not? Why the hell not? It's not like I will go "DAMN I WAS WRONG" if I do.
I like to believe it. Just because it would be more fun to. Even if it is just wishful thinking.
I think I'm going to believe Astral Projecting aswell...

Oh and I'm tired. I shouldn't be writing random things.

Oh. Hi. I consider myself an Atheist. I don't believe in an afterlife.
But why not? Why the hell not? It's not like I will go "DAMN I WAS WRONG" if I do.

That was great, Maeni. XD

Well thanks! I thought my whole post would not make any sense at all
But if I don't go to bed soon, I'll probably end up actually making a nonsense post.

Oh. Damn. I promised myself I was going to sleep on the floor tonight. *facepalm*

When I die, I expect to be able to reload from my last save point.

Originally Posted by skysaw

When I die, I expect to be able to reload from my last save point.

Careful, you might save just before you die and get stuck in a loop.

Originally Posted by tnemrot

Careful, you might save just before you die and get stuck in a loop.

Pfff, l2 keep multiple save files.

When you die, you wake up in a room full oh high tech gadgets. A big helmet comes out of your head, and from some speakers not too far away you hear a voice saying "That concludes the demonstration of our life-simulator prototype. Expect the final product to be in stores by next Christmas".