Could it be possible there is an afterlife but no god?

[mordant]

Originally Posted by SeekerSA

The more one tries to rationalise stuff, the weirder it gets and there is actually no model that works except oblivion.

Yes ... and I am looking forward to oblivion, even though once there, I won't be experiencing anything. That is, in fact, the point.

It's a funny thing. I have a terrific panoramic view out my office windows, much about the day to enjoy, not all that much to worry about, relatively speaking, and yet this is all not so compelling that I'd want to do it forever. Essentially, that I'm here and have had the experiences I've had up to now is a sunk cost, and given my curiosity, so long as I'm not suffering too much I'd like to stick around awhile longer, but not so much that I'd want it to be open ended, and not so much that I'd miss the battle fatigue of dealing with the vagaries of life all the time.

If you're not used to dealing this forthrightly with your mortality it might sound like this is a rather bleak view of life, but that's not the way I experience it. And I think I have a lot of company. I was shooting the bull with the foreman of the construction crew here in our development and he has an arrangement with a hunting buddy such that he will go out in a regrettable hunting accident if he ever gets some kind of death sentence involving heroic struggles but no dignity. "I'd rather die hunting" is his thinking. And he's one of the happier and kinder souls I've met, so it's not that he's being morbid or something. It's just pragmatic.

Alot of the attachment to heaven and afterlives is just because people are afraid of dissolution and can't face it. I don't know if the aforementioned construction foreman thinks there's and afterlife or not, but if he does he is at least not using it as a way to avoid dealing with his own mortality.

[Futurist110]

Yes, I suppose. Don't Buddhists believe in reincarnation (which is a type of afterlife) but yet don't believe in God/gods?

[mordant]

Originally Posted by Futurist110

Yes, I suppose. Don't Buddhists believe in reincarnation (which is a type of afterlife) but yet don't believe in God/gods?

They believe in rebirth, not reincarnation -- and it is true that they do not have a deity to worship (although some Buddhist sects have demigod-like concepts, probably detritus from Buddhism having arisen out of Hindu culture).

Buddhism believes that there is no permanent self, and as such, rebirth is more like a load of karmic debt transferring to a new life, they do not believe that anything recognizably "you" survives death.

[perry335654]

Originally Posted by Futurist110

Yes, I suppose. Don't Buddhists believe in reincarnation (which is a type of afterlife) but yet don't believe in God/gods?

Hebrews 9:27, I DON'T BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION EITHER. I do believe in an afterlife as some will get a reality check, our bodies will die but our soul remains forever, so so when we leave this world we are just in another phase of life.

God is the final judgement.

[SeekerSA]

Originally Posted by perry335654

Hebrews 9:27, I DON'T BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION EITHER. I do believe in an afterlife as some will get a reality check, our bodies will die but our soul remains forever, so so when we leave this world we are just in another phase of life.

God is the final judgement.

Souls do not exist. This is simply a belief based on archaic thinking and invented to address our fear of death. Nothing survives the death of the brain.

Have you even considered what this "next phase of life" will consist of? If it is an eternal church service as alluded to in the bible, that really does not sound like anything to look forward to.