Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You should live a meaningful life without worrying about the so-called "afterlife".
Religion has made bad joke on you. People are afraid of death -- they shouldn't (it's a natural process, no one is going to live forever). Religion took this chance told you a bad joke: "yes, you are gonna die -- worse, if you don't do religious stuff as told, there is a bearded man in the sky named 'God' who will toss you into a lake of fire named 'hell'."
So, are there "God", "hell", "sins", "afterlife" ...? None. These are all religious lies. If you listen to religious people, this stuff can get into your head, and you will be worrying about afterlife all your life, and you won't live a meaningful life -- all you do is pay church, pray, worry about hell, pay more to church, pray more, worry more about hell ...
Without scientific reasoning being advanced enough, primitive people tried to explain away the things they saw in their world by using the supernatural as an excuse. With the constant march forward by science, more and more people are abandoning primitive, illogical ideas about gods and the supernatural and realizing that it's all a crock.
So yeah, it's being steadily abandoned. Just because you're not keeping up with the program doesn't mean others won't wake up and smell the scientific coffee.
Not like people once expected or not at all really. Generally speaking atheism in the world is stable or declining. This is due to low fertility rates in the most atheistic nations and conversions in former Communist nations. The French are something of an exception as their fertility rate equals replacement and they're highly atheistic.
True irreligion is growing, but irreligion is not the same as atheism. Many irreligious people maintain a belief in something supernatural, transcendent, or beyond *scientism. Even in the European Union roughly 52% believe in God and just 18% state that there is "no God, spirits, or life force." (Eurobarometer, January 2005: Social Values, Science, and Technology)
Atheism tends to be most common in nations that officially encouraged secularism (France, Communist nations), affluent nations that have an established church (Scandinavia, Britain), or nations that had an established church that has since been discredited. (State Shinto, Japan) Nations that have modernized without those features are not necessarily becoming atheistic or at least not all that atheistic.
Why atheism is such a failure, considering its once grandiose predictions of growth, would be a long story and not one relevant to this thread. For this thread it's sufficient to say that yes there are people who believe in an afterlife and not God. The most obvious example being certain forms of Buddhism, which are not theistic and yet maintain a belief in reincarnation or nirvana. I've read conflicting things which indicate the Jains believe in souls, but not God. The reverse also occurs. I believe some Jews believe in God, but not the afterlife. Also I think deists tend not to believe in the afterlife.
*"Scientism" is the idea that science is the only valid way to learn or know anything and that everything can or will be explained. This is as opposed to "Science", which is simply the trial-and-error method of explaining or studying repeatable natural phenomenon. Scientism has mostly been stable or in decline since Godel, Heisenberg, et alia. It's getting a bit of a revival in attention due to philosophically naive or ignorant scientists writing books. Also because the Internet is very attractive to tech-oriented males with mediocre to poor understanding of non-scientific disciplines. I'm putting this here as a footnote as it's too long for parentheses.
I doubt it but I suppose there's a tiny possibility. I am kind of hoping not though because if there's nothing governing this hypothetical afterlife it could be good or it could be a really horrible existence (errr... nonexistence). I'd rather stay dead than end up in an awful afterlife.
I'm not saying there is or isn't... but what if our sentience survives death in some form but there is no one directing the show?
If so, that could explain why there are ghost sightings, near death and reincarnation experiences and also explain why religion is all over the place without any single obvious source and or/why "god" sends seemingly random help, if at all?
Could it even be possible for sentience to survive, and if so could it be a evolutionary process?
What would the consequences be for a being that existed beyond mortal death but for no apparent purpose or greater goal?
What are your thoughts?
If you ask me its entirely possible, and whose to say its wrong or right, no one knows:P id say that's a decent theory me, personally i think all the ghost sightings and all that are coincidences and things that are explainable we just cant explain them.
Never say never. After all, nobody disputes gravity exists but we cannot see, measure or adequately explain how it works. We can only see gravity's effects.
I'll admit there's invisible forces that we don't totally understand but at least there are obvious indications that they're very real. Gravity gave me a personal display of it's power when I was painting with a makeshift ladder constructed with two by four's tied to a ladder that was too short to reach a spot at the top of a staircase. It collapsed and gravity, which never gives us a break when we make a mistake, pulled me and my mickey mouse ladder to the bottom of the stairs. Now I've never seen any such evidence that there is some sort of unknown entity that somehow resides in my body until I die and then it takes me off to happy land. I've had X-rays, a catscan and an MRI and none of these procedures discovered anything that won't still be there if they do an autopsy. I also don't see how such a thing could have developed or come into being in the first place.
I'll admit there's invisible forces that we don't totally understand but at least there are obvious indications that they're very real. Gravity gave me a personal display of it's power when I was painting with a makeshift ladder constructed with two by four's tied to a ladder that was too short to reach a spot at the top of a staircase. It collapsed and gravity, which never gives us a break when we make a mistake, pulled me and my mickey mouse ladder to the bottom of the stairs. Now I've never seen any such evidence that there is some sort of unknown entity that somehow resides in my body until I die and then it takes me off to happy land. I've had X-rays, a catscan and an MRI and none of these procedures discovered anything that won't still be there if they do an autopsy. I also don't see how such a thing could have developed or come into being in the first place.
You haven't, but I have. I've seen a little girl in my house that shouldn't be there 3 times and has a nasty habit of disappearing into thin air. After researching the history of the place I found a 5 year girl died there in 1918 AFTER seeing her completely out of the blue, and when I was a self-proclaimed atheist.
So there are two possiblities here. Either I am crazy or our opinion of what is and isn't reality is incomplete. I guess you can choose which reality you feel more comfortable in, but my own reality is a bit more complicated now. I have been on a quest for answers ever since.
And BTW, my MRI came back normal, there was no radon or carbon monoxide in the house and I haven't eaten or smoked any funny plants, nor do I drink more than once or twice a year, and even then only sparingly, and not when my "experiences" happened.
You should live a meaningful life without worrying about the so-called "afterlife"...
I know a man who says pretty much the same thing. "I don't believe in god, but I conduct myself as though she does exist." I don't believe, and neither does the man I quoted, that one must have any kind of supernatural guidance to have a moral compass.
I'll admit there's invisible forces that we don't totally understand but at least there are obvious indications that they're very real. Gravity gave me a personal display of it's power when I was painting with a makeshift ladder constructed with two by four's tied to a ladder that was too short to reach a spot at the top of a staircase. It collapsed and gravity, which never gives us a break when we make a mistake, pulled me and my mickey mouse ladder to the bottom of the stairs. Now I've never seen any such evidence that there is some sort of unknown entity that somehow resides in my body until I die and then it takes me off to happy land. I've had X-rays, a catscan and an MRI and none of these procedures discovered anything that won't still be there if they do an autopsy. I also don't see how such a thing could have developed or come into being in the first place.
Things to ponder, Mr. Guy.
Can you see electricity as it courses through the wire? Of coure not, but jsut as that energy can be measured in many different ways, from various meters to the electromagnetic signature electricity creates, we know it's there.
Gravity is measured also, in pounds, grams, etc.
Sunlight to is a form of energy that can be measured, it's parts seperated and analyzed, and like teh other examples, a causual effect can be seen even if the energy itself cannot be.
Human beings run on a form of electricity, do we not? Is the caloric based system we run on not a form of energy as well?
There are many types of energy int he Universe, and I think I can safety say there are types we have not discovered, do not have the measuring equipment to investigate, nor even the idea that these energies exist.
In our beliefs, the psiritual spect of ourselves, and even the various gods and heavens, are merely a matter of types of energy we can directly influence, and be influenced by in certain cases.
I'm not saying there is or isn't... but what if our sentience survives death in some form but there is no one directing the show?
If so, that could explain why there are ghost sightings, near death and reincarnation experiences and also explain why religion is all over the place without any single obvious source and or/why "god" sends seemingly random help, if at all?
Could it even be possible for sentience to survive, and if so could it be a evolutionary process?
What would the consequences be for a being that existed beyond mortal death but for no apparent purpose or greater goal?
What are your thoughts?
Both the World and the afterlife belong to God Almighty. And all people living in the World are His servants: whether righteous or not; as are all spirits and souls living in the afterlife.
So when man dies, he will realize that he was correct or wrong concerning his beliefs and doctrine.
Man in the afterlife will see angels, devils and human souls (or spirits or ghosts as do some call them.)
In the World, man has his provision, but this provision comes indirectly: he has to work in order to get his livelihood, while in the afterlife he will reap the consequences of his belief or disbelief and his righteous work or sins: so the provision will come to him there directly: according to his belief and work in the first life in the World.
So the believer will be delighted according to his faith and belief in God as One God without associate and his good work in the World;
while the disbeliever will be disappointed when he see himself a ghost and that only his body that has been buried; and at that time he will know his God!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just because you're not keeping up with the program doesn't mean others won't wake up and smell the scientific coffee.
I'd rather stay dead than end up in an awful afterlife.
