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It is not an article of faith, it is a reasonable belief based on the preponderance (and lack) of evidence. Everything we actually DO know and can determine points away from it. Many of our hopes, dreams, aspirations and longings very much want it, which is why we have a tendency to credit those hopes and longings over the available data. It is also how religion has such a hold on people. If a belief system can convince them that the alternative to a blissful eternal life is unthinkably horrible, and you can achieve that afterlife only with their knowledge of various esoterica that they alone have, then you bind people to that system via their needs and fears. I certainly don't fault people for subscribing to an afterlife, so long as they are aware that it is a personal belief and don't try to disparage others for failing to come to the same conclusion. I DO point out faulty reasoning processes and poor or absent evidentiary standards when I see them, but I do not judge the actual personal belief. Most people who believe in such things hold them as personal truth and don't impose them or try to justify them as objectively proven and self-evident.
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yeah, that's what i was pointing out about your own "cherished personal religious belief" that "humans are finite" and you are "comforted by oblivion."
"so long as you are aware that it is your personal belief and don't try to disparage others for failing to come to the same conclusion."
That has always been my reaction to cyclic afterlife concepts like reincarnation. It sounds horrific to me, living and re-living the SOS (Same Old ... well, you know) over and over again and not being able to remember what you might have previously learned that would help you in the current cycle.
At least with the linear afterlife of the Abrahamic faiths something actually gets settled once and for all.
Thankfully there's no real evidence for either. I find the prospect of oblivion quite comforting actually. Once you get over the learned helplessness of "it has to be this particular way I've always been told is the only thinkable possibility", and, importantly, get over yourself ... living harmoniously with the fact that we are finite beings who need stories with beginnings, middles, and, yes -- ends, is quite liberating.
To be honest, I strongly suspect that even biological immortality would be its own special hell.
Eternity is vastly overrated, just like most of the cherished religious ideals. To function in an open-ended eternity we would have to be remade into something that isn't even recognizably human ... someone with no hedonic tone, no need for novelty, no needs beyond just existing really. It's probably not an accident that many concepts of post-mortem consciousness involve the loss of all individuality in some passionless oceanic Being. Whoever came up with that reasoned correctly, it would be the only way to survive eternity. But it is also no sort of eternal life from the perspective of what we actually are.
Atheists don't believe in God so they have no puzzlement about why we're here. Christians of course have all this stuff about heaven and being at God's throne for eternity (never even thinking about the sheer number that will be sitting around it--but hey God can do the impossible, right) whereas I'm stuck in the middle--believing in something having created this dump, not sure what and wondering to bafflement why it made this mess only to watch it wither and die.
I would love to believe that there is life after death or that we are reincarnated, but sadly it seems illogical and impossible. Sadly, when we die, it is simply the end and we return to non-existence like before we were born. I wish that weren't the case, but I just don't see evidence any other way.
I would love to believe that there is life after death or that we are reincarnated, but sadly it seems illogical and impossible. Sadly, when we die, it is simply the end and we return to non-existence like before we were born. I wish that weren't the case, but I just don't see evidence any other way.
Sometimes I have to wonder how sad it really is that we simply die and end of story...
I can think of many examples or reasons to consider a simple end something of a good thing. A blessing. Other reasons to consider that are not so bad at all. Live life to the fullest and not worry about the end either way. We're all going to end up there one way or another. Sooner or later. No point in wasting time fretting about the end before we're there, because that will surely mean once we're there we'll regret we didn't make better use of our time while we still could!
Example, if you die at 90 years old, you will be immediately reborn after having lived in the womb for 9 months.
Same as if you die at 80 years old. You will be immediately reborn after having lived in the womb for 8 months.
Same as if you die at 70 years old. You will be immediately reborn after having lived in the womb for 7 months.
Some people live to be 100 and over. There are children that are born at 10 months.
People that have died in their 10's 20's,30's,40's,50's,60's are born at 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months and 6 months.
Example. Someone in their 30's dies in a car crash. He/she is suddenly no longer in the womb. Premature birth
Someone shot and killed in their 40's is suddenly no longer in the womb. Premature birth.
You are an unborn baby right now somewhere. Whatever your age is, that is how old you are in a woman's womb as of this moment.
Is it possible that this is how the universe operates?
A simple basic logic should tell you that with this process, the world population should've not been increasing.
Otherwise, please update the work flow and tell us about your fantasies as to how new souls are added into this process?
From supposedly 1 human pair, we are now over a 7 Billion. How does reincarnation address this?
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If you are referring to this physical existence, I agree with you. That would be Hell, IMO.
