What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies? What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

Are desire, sorrow, and emotion in general, existing and relevant attributes of life to an athiest?

What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies?

Consciousness ceases. Decomposition sets in. Lots of bugs and microscopic masterminds have good eatin'.



What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

Consciousness appears to be an effect of the brain.


Are desire, sorrow, and emotion in general, existing and relevant attributes of life to an athiest?

Yep

Just wanted to echo Crunchy Cat's answers. I would have said the same thing.

Death is death is death. The end. Lights out, goodnight. Oblivion. It's sheol minus conciousness.

If it seems hard to grasp what Not-Existing might feel like, just think back 100 years. What were you doing from that time to about, oh... 14 billion years ago? Not-Existing.

I would argue that we are MUCH better at Not-Existing than we are at Existing.

I don't think that a scientist is neccessarily an athiest

It's sheol minus conciousness.

Hey! What's sheol? Is this the ancient Hebrew belief in the "nothingless nothingness"? I kinda caught this on a mainstream movie recently and was a bit awestruck that the end-game for Hebrews was so close(yet so distant) from the athiests.

Hey! What's sheol? Is this the ancient Hebrew belief in the "nothingless nothingness"? I kinda caught this on a mainstream movie recently and was a bit awestruck that the end-game for Hebrews was so close(yet so distant) from the athiests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheol

What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies? What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

Are desire, sorrow, and emotion in general, existing and relevant attributes of life to an athiest?

What if consciousness is not real?

Eliminative Materialism, which I learned about just today actually, states that there are no such thing as "desires, thoughts, emotions", and all things are just biological,chemical or material processes. Basically, concsciousness and the mind are not real. You are just a body, and no more real than a rock floating in space. There is no free will, because everything is a set of chain reactions and already pre-determined. Of course if the mind is not real, God cannot be real either. How can God be real if nothing is real?

I'll try to explore it more in another thread titled Eliminative Materialism.
http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=1319588&postcount=1


http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/materialism-eliminative/

If it seems hard to grasp what Not-Existing might feel like, just think back 100 years. What were you doing from that time to about, oh... 14 billion years ago? Not-Existing.

I would argue that we are MUCH better at Not-Existing than we are at Existing.

No existence is just that, non existence. It simply means existence is fake.
To view the world from the athiest viewpoint, you are a robot, and everything "alive" is a robot. Consciousness is fake, and human life is no different from the artificial life. Taken to the extreme, the whole universe and everything in it, is fake and unimportant, as existence does not really exist. Finally the question of free will, if you believe this then there is no free will, everything is following a pre-determined path which cannot be changed anymore than a factory building cars can be changed by the cars in it.

Death is death is death. The end. Lights out, goodnight. Oblivion. It's sheol minus conciousness.

What if theres no such thing as consciousness period?
If consciuosness is not real, what is death?

What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies? What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

Are desire, sorrow, and emotion in general, existing and relevant attributes of life to an athiest?

Those are some strange questions. I think emotions are attributes of all people and many animals.

As an atheist, I think some kind of decomposition occurs to our body after we die, provided we die on the surface of Earth. It is the end of consciousness, which is the flow of information through the processor of the brain.

What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies? What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

Are desire, sorrow, and emotion in general, existing and relevant attributes of life to an athiest?

*************
M*W: Yeah, that's right. That's the ticket. That's what we are..., yeah, that's right. We're emotionless robots.





Is that what you wanted to hear?

What is it? What does an athiest and/or scientist believe happens after someone dies? What do they believe is going on during the person's life, or their take on consciousness?

An atheist might not necessarily agree with a scientist.
An atheist might say that once you die, you cease to exist. That's it.
A scientist will say, no, you continue to exist as energy cannot be destroyed.
(A theist, especially a christian will mention heaven, but will be careful to add that that's NOT where you're going)


Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” (attributed to Bill Hicks):)

An atheist might not necessarily agree with a scientist.
An atheist might say that once you die, you cease to exist. That's it.
A scientist will say, no, you continue to exist as energy cannot be destroyed.
(A theist, especially a christian will mention heaven, but will be careful to add that that's NOT where you're going)


Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.” (attributed to Bill Hicks):)

I was unaware that it was commonly held among scientists that conciousness was energy.

Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.”
Here's Tom with the weather...

WOW! Did you see the news? Something about how we're God's perfect and holy thoughts and we live in his mind, and there's no reason to suffer or lack, ever.


-Bill Hicks

it's like when you fuck up a hard disk

I am an atheist: My view on consciousness is the same view of Buddha. infinite lives.

I can't wait for the many-worlds theory to be proven indefinitely true, then after that it won't be too long until things like reincarnation, the soul, personal realities, etc...is proven true...

I can't wait for the many-worlds theory to be proven indefinitely true, then after that it won't be too long until things like reincarnation, the soul, personal realities, etc...is proven true...

things like that cant be proven true. I imagine we can create a world that in our lifetime exists for a second and in their time exists almost forever and them creating another such world and so on and on...and than time based them able to create their own world by having the world collapse unto itself and than cause a big bang thus making it all cyclic. Well it all can be true...there are games out there, and thats just the beginning.

I was unaware that it was commonly held among scientists that conciousness was energy.

I was equating matter and energy, not energy and consciousness. But since you mention it, why don't you tell me what the scientific perception of consciousness is?

I was equating matter and energy, not energy and consciousness. But since you mention it, why don't you tell me what the scientific perception of consciousness is?

my father, always had this theory on enthropy and how consciousness is energy dissipating, he never did share this with me enough thou. Gotta ask him about it.

things like that cant be proven true. I imagine we can create a world that in our lifetime exists for a second and in their time exists almost forever and them creating another such world and so on and on...and than time based them able to create their own world by having the world collapse unto itself and than cause a big bang thus making it all cyclic. Well it all can be true...there are games out there, and thats just the beginning.

If they are true, then they can and will be proven true. People have to realize that this phase of humanity is just another phase, just like any other, and need to stop pretending like we've arrived at absolute knowledge.

Quantum Immortality is not so far away from reincarnation, but reincarnation instead proposes that there is no death, instead you gain a new existence.

The many-minds interpretation postulates that we each exist in our own personal reality.

As Gautama-Buddha says, three things cannot be hidden for too long, the sun, the moon, and the truth....

If they are true, then they can and will be proven true. People have to realize that this phase of humanity is just another phase, just like any other, and need to stop pretending like we've arrived at absolute knowledge.

Quantum Immortality is not so far away from reincarnation, but reincarnation instead proposes that there is no death, instead you gain a new existence.

The many-minds interpretation postulates that we each exist in our own personal reality.

As Gautama-Buddha says, three things cannot be hidden for too long, the sun, the moon, and the truth....


the problem here is real, we cannot understand that which we are part of on a global scale, the real function we serve.

I am not sure if you will understand me, but here is a parallel situation that applies to this situation: imagine a toothpick, it was made by a person to serve a function, which is to pick the meat particles from teeth. The toothpick exists there for 10 seconds or so, at which point it gets used and thrown away. The toothpick serves its function, we are like toothpicks in this world we serve our function, without any understanding or possibility to understand what this function really is...and we never will understand, just as a toothpick will never have consciousness to understand what it is for. I am sorry if this is a lame explanation...

The way I see it is very similar to how a Computer can hold information in it's memory and why when you turn the machine off that information would be lost if it wasn't for a hard-drive.

Our Conciousness is simply explained as a self repeating/iterating loop although the loops themselves aren't as easily defined as something that's mathematically founded like a circuit board. In the instance of lifeforms there are a number of "inconsistancies" that change the neurological pathways which are constantly adapting their pathways and is constantly the reason why some things we remember through continued repetative re-iteration over other things that we "forget".

On death, the brain no longer functions at trying to reiterate or find new pathways to connect the data and where that information is stored chemically it begins to break down. My take on this is that you could suggest that oxygen is a necessity to hinder the breakdown process and it's why such things as sleep where you breath shallowly or asphyxiation can cause memory loss, however its an unproven theory.

As for Life after death, well there is no natural occurance. Once the body (The brain in particular) has ceased to function within normal parameters and decay has set in you can suggest all ability to think is non-existent.

Therefore death is the final and total oblivion of which you would be oblivious.

On a more metaphysical side you could suggest our bodies are returned to the ecosystem in the form of substance for bottom feeders (food cycle) or a release of chemicals and energy (decomposition and/or incineration).

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about what death has in store for you, but I would suggest concentrate more on LIVING!

the problem here is real, we cannot understand that which we are part of on a global scale, the real function we serve.

I am not sure if you will understand me, but here is a parallel situation that applies to this situation: imagine a toothpick, it was made by a person to serve a function, which is to pick the meat particles from teeth. The toothpick exists there for 10 seconds or so, at which point it gets used and thrown away. The toothpick serves its function, we are like toothpicks in this world we serve our function, without any understanding or possibility to understand what this function really is...and we never will understand, just as a toothpick will never have consciousness to understand what it is for. I am sorry if this is a lame explanation...

Eventually there will be a way to know. Soon some how it will be proven that there are other innumerable, possibly infinite realities or universes beside this one. This will make things like traveling to other planets instantaneously, time travel, personal realities, and many other things possible.

However, we have a while before the 2400s....

Eventually there will be a way to know. Soon some how it will be proven that there are other innumerable, possibly infinite realities or universes beside this one. This will make things like traveling to other planets instantaneously, time travel, personal realities, and many other things possible.

However, we have a while before the 2400s....

if such is true...it will be muuuuuch later than 2400s....

These are amusing opinions. 'Death is death is death' without any evidence or citations. Reminds me of the 'God is God is God' debate strategy.

These are amusing opinions. 'Death is death is death' without any evidence or citations. Reminds me of the 'God is God is God' debate strategy.

life is what we make of it so any opinion is true.

Who knows.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that death is death. Quite simply, it appears that everything we need to function decomposes when we die. Sure it is possible that we continue on but I have yet to see any reason to believe that we do.

What type of existence would it be without our brain anyway? No memory, perception, intelligence, emotion ect..

:shrug:

Well if our 'energies' somehow do exist on, these energies would not have consciousness as we know it now. We would not be aware of where we were, heaven or hell, so no fear!

Consciousness is a word we have to describe a certain pattern of processes that occurs in our brain. The reason we have this word is that we invented the technology of language at some point in our past, probably more than 70,000 years ago before the diaspora out of Africa. Without language there are no words for these concepts, and, indeed, since language greatly increases our power of thought, without language these concepts probably did not exist either.

In other words, it is incredible anthropocentric hubris to think that this one species of animal on this one planet in this one galaxy is so bloody important that the universe has special rules for us! If a butterfly dies its body simply decomposes, but if we die something absolutely has got to happen to our consciousness because we are too damn important for it to simply vanish!

Isaac Asimov put it best. A human being is not the atoms and energy patterns in his body. He is the organization of those atoms and energy patterns. When he dies, the organization simply ceases to exist, and so does he.

Consider: What happens to a house when we demolish it? Everything is still there, right? Well that house was not the bricks and boards, it was the organization of those bricks and boards. Now that the organization is gone, there is simply no more house.

When we die, our synapses immediately start to lose their polarity. We can quibble over the speed of the process, but there's no disagreement that after, say, fifteen minutes, the status of those synapses has been irretrievably leveled. Our "consciousness," our thoughts, our emotions, our memories, everything about is is simply gone.

If you want to talk about "spirit," many philosophies define spirit as something that is shared within a community. The things that you have done have an impact and that impact will continue whether you are physically present or not. Whether it was a good impact or a bad one.

If you leave this world a better place than you found it, your spirit endures, at least a little, in your accomplishments. And if you leave it a worse place, the same thing happens.

But your consciousness is simply gone.

Trying to figure out some way to believe that your consciousness "goes somewhere" after you die is hubris. Get over it. You're not that important, none of us is. But you are important enough for your spirit to endure.

I can't wait for the many-worlds theory to be proven indefinitely true, then after that it won't be too long until things like reincarnation, the soul, personal realities, etc...is proven true...
The universe is a string-net liquid
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325954.200