belief in an afterlife

Apparently Lord Longford said that if he did not believe in an afterlife, he would not want to live at all.

I can fully empathise with that view, for a variety of reasons.

However, because I do believe in the principle of 'cosmic balance' (or karma), rather than 'heaven' per se, it makes it easier to live with the inequities and challenges of living now.

How do non-believers handle the same issues?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I think the principle of Karma really describes a successful strategy of living. This has been confirmed through game theory and doesn't need a cosmic agent.

I don't believe in afterlife, unless all life is a kind of afterlife, and it makes our individual experience of living all that more rare and special.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

This would work well, for me at least, if re-balance was in my conscious time and space. But it isn't. I'm sure you know what I mean.

It is not that I want to see, for example, a Hitler or Stalin get their comeuppance in this time and space, but my belief allows me to cope with the terrible things they did knowing that somehow they would have to make 'spiritual' restitution in some form at some point in time and space.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide all adverts.

I think the afterlife is one of the most irrational of religious beliefs.

It exists purely because of wishful thinking, but when you think about it rationally, there is nothing to fear. I compare it to before I was born, and that wasn't all too traumatic, was it? In fact oblivion will be good restbite from peeing my pants when I'm an old man.

Seriously though, an afterlife is so unlikely that it is safe to consider it impossible - god or no god.

 

I can't possibly see any reason whatsoever for such a statement, it makes no sense at all. In fact, it clearly contradicts itself.

 

*************
M*W: If there is an afterlife, then there would have to be a beforelife. Jeeez, this one's hard enough, but I chose to get my reward in this one.

 

Therefore its not uncommon for scriptures (particularly those that deal with karma) to advocate that the living entity is eternal

 

The real question is why do you feel this way? Life, for many people, is fun and interesting. Is your life so frought with misery that the only consolation is a prize waiting for you after you're dead?

Granted there are many more who suffer the daily struggle of just staying alive. But if one firmly believes in a better afterlife, why is there so much trauma and grief associated with death? Why don't suffering humans just stop eating? Like the Pak when they have no further purpose in life?

 

I really don't have a problem with not being able to accept any form of afterlife, and still living my life to the best of my ability causing as least harm to others as I can.

 

To me, the afterlife appears to be a human belief of which various version find their way into the various human superstitions. There is no reason to believe that there exists anything in our lives that continues after death. Concepts of "soul," etc. are speculations that we apply to ourselves in a very selfish manner since humans have difficulty coming to terms with death and non-existence.

Probably from the earliest ancestor that wondered where his father, mother, brother went when dead -and why the body is now cold instead of warm as when sleeping, we've conjured beliefs of other places that the dead go to. This is evident in the many cultures of the world: the Egyptian believed in various forms of immortality; the Zuni of the American West believe that the dead live in the West (interestingly enough, the West was also a place of the dead for the Egyptians -both probably noted that this is where the Sun goes at night) with the ancestors; other cultures believe in re-incarnation such as Hindu cults. Christian and Islamic religions believe in heaven or some sort of eternal life, depending on which cult is examined.

But for the non-believer, this life is all that matters. Its all there is. For the humanist non-believer, this is all the more reason to live life to its fullest -not the "eat, drink and be merry" attitude that might come to mind for some, but, rather, focusing on providing some lasting benefit for society as a whole. Enjoying the many pleasures that this life holds, be it the natural world (hiking, boating, stargazing), literature, or art. And helping our fellow man where necessary: advocating solutions to poverty, war, human rights abuses, environmental issues, etc.

Humanist non-believers do this not to earn a place of status in some afterlife that probably doesn't exist, but because it is the right thing to do. Because our species' future depends upon what we choose to do now.

I do not believe in any afterlife. I think that when you are dead, that's all there is. If any part of me goes on it'll be the words I've written, the memory of the deeds I've done, or the organic molecules my body is comprised of will feed a wolf that will nurture its pups and a tree that will give water and oxygen back to the world in the processes of transpiration and photosynthesis.

The religious and spiritual new-agers are content to rest on the fact that since science hasn't discovered all there is to know about human consciousness and the so-called mind, that this means there is something that can go on past an individual's life. Perhaps there is. There just isn't any reason to believe it to be true other than fear and hope. The mind and consciousness, so far, appears to be electro-chemical and decidedly not mystical, contrary to the postmodernist and new age mumbo jumbo others will undoubtedly refute me with.

 

The notion of the afterlife is not a mere means to elicit good behaviour - it is a claim about the nature of reality - whether a person is encouraged to display good or bad behavior says nothing about it

 

I say you're wrong. Every religion I can think of presents some version of an afterlife with clear implications that to get the positive reward, living in accordance with the cult's expectations is mandatory. Many of them assert that living outside the cult's expectations results in a negative reward "afterlife." Either way, it is all unfounded poppycock.

 

There is great irony in the above statement. Fascinating. Someone tell LG that I think he's cool (he can't see my posts).

 

SkinWalker

....that word ......

...... is characterized by this word

...... and its repeated again here

obviously

If they thought otherwise they would probably have a different world view than the on e you opened with.

The limits of such a focus is the material body ..... which has a predictable course

such attempts for solutions are plagued by the issue of equality - namely why are some people in the world free to go hiking, boating and stargazing and why are others free to scrape through with barely enough money from working 12 hours a day to feed themselves and their family. Even a rudimentary knowledge of economics indicates the impracticality of bringing the entire world's poulation to the same standard of economc development. Therefore the attempts by super powers to address these problems are token half measures (just examine national budgets and see the comparison)

Actually this is a tautology - the general scientific consensus is that the universe will perish a slow heat death which means that as a species we will all die when the universe freezes over - so regardless what we do as a species we will all die - you seem to have latched on to a need for an eternal existence however (even if its the view of MY species must live forever). How did you ever form such an irrational notion?

You are expanding the tautology here to include yourself rather than your species - even the wolf pups die a heat death eventually, what to speak of your words and the memories of others along with the entire cosmic manifestation - why do you think that your molecules are capabale of delivering any benefit in this world? How has this weakness of heart come upon you?

You are already expressing a reason to believe it through your tautologies - the only difference is that you apply it to a paradigm of scientific reductionism (the further contributions of YOUR molecules, the eternal existence of YOUR species etc)

so far? Curious how you can determine the distance between a known (electro chemical impulses) and the unknown (the nature of the mind, ie the self as context) without relying on mumbo jumbo

Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

 

I would love to think that there was an afterlife, or some type of reincarnation, but it doesn't seem very likely at all.

 

Good for you. I couldn't care less if there were any universal scheme of omniscient justice.

 

I don't see how that belief could actually change anything in his or anyone's life? All of the physical happenings wouldn't change, so it's all in his head only. And I've heard that just smiling can change ones attitude, so...?

No, I can't see it making any difference in the reality of ones life.

Baron Max

 

Lately I have had a renewed fascination with the spiritual and afterlife, partly thanks to halloween. Even If there is no after life now, which is contrary to several circumstancial evidence, we scientists may be able to invent psychic brain inplants that could render people to an afterlife of their choice just minutes before and after the big kick of the bucket. It doesn't make it more or less real. Just a thought. However, we christians are hoping you may not need it.

 

"Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."

 

Because you can post braindead speculation as feel good absolutes, you're somehow right?