This is a post that frequently is posted by new members. I have never believed in heaven or hell.

If a god exists, that god clearly doesn't want thinking people to believe because there is no evidence to support belief. There are, however, plenty of claims made by all religions that are easily disproven.

Come on now. Have you seen the state of the world? If there was a God, and that God wasn't a complete socio-path, he or she or it would have blown their head off by now. If that God is a complete socio-path, they would not follow through on that whole, "Adore and worship me and you can go to heaven" deal. "Make the World Great Again", yah come on God I'm not falling for that again you orange douchebag.. wait, I got off subject.

Ha ha ha ha ha...who the hell even CARES!? There is far too much to worry about w/o all THAT BS. In the end it's just someone's personal BS (belief system).

"Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven." - John Milton, Paradise Lost.

Religion have been used to control people and make them do things for a long time. The idea of a heaven or hell is just one of the tools in that package. By this, I do not mean religion is all bad. In some parts of the world many really need something to believe in. Something that give people with a hard life a hope of something better than what they go through every day. Something that makes them go on. Some times life do change drastically. Hope is a good thing.

For people fortunate enough to be in a position where they get educated, and at the same time have the capacity to reap the rewards of such insight. I would say religion, as most of the world see it, should be a part of the history.

This said. For me, the question is not if there is a God. The question is more, what God is. There must be something out there. If not, we would not be here. I spent time thinking about existential questions when I was younger. Concluding only that the more I learn and understand. The more certain I am that the one thing I truly know, in a big picture, is that I know nothing. Despite making that conclusion, I can not help but spend some time contemplating my own existence, and the point of it all. Long story short. For now I settled with the belief that what I am doing here is actually going to school. Of course, most likely, I am just completely insignificant. Thing is, that is a very boring conclusion. Not something a person as arrogant as me could settle down with at this point in time. So I rather choose to think that there is something we could call a soul at the core of my existence on planet earth. That there is purpose to everything. That we do go on after school on Tellus is finished. However, I do not think that happens in a "heaven or hell". What I would refer to as God could not possibly be that limited.

haha, love this.

I will know when I die... that is enough for me now. I got my hands full with this plane to worry about another plane.

If there's a God I would LOVE to know why it tortured me with chronic pain so bad and for so long that I stopped believing in it and wanted to die--and then condemned me to eternal torment because of the way I reacted to its unbearable torment of me in life.

But I doubt such a sadistic bastard would deign to answer, so...

Hell doesn't scare me. I lived there for years.

The Pope said there's room in Heaven for moral atheists. I guess he's supposed to have God at his ear. So, don't sweat it.

I've made it clear, IF "god" is real, I'm gonna spit in It's eye and take a swing at it for being such a passive/aggressive douchebag. I don't want to be 'saved'.

Live your afterlife now. You won't be disappointed.

Which God/Gods exactly? Which religion? Which time period (as the same God in a religion 500 years ago is drastically different than the one portrayed now)? If the tenants of most religions are true, that if you do not believe you go to that religion's form of hell...then what has happened to people before that religion existed? Which hell?

That all aside, let's say that it is all true (pick a religion). Personally, I would find myself far more comfortable in "hell" as most religions dictate that hell was created as a place for beings that did not follow the tenants of God. The absurdity of the majority of those tenants (not to mention how quickly and conveniently they change to conform to societal changes) plant me firmly in the "basket to hell" and I am actually most comforted in that idea....if I am wrong in my thoughts in life.

I am going to cross that bridge when I get to it.

I do not spend much time worrying about what happens after I am dead, as there is really only one way to find out. And, since you will be dead, it will not matter if I was right or wrong if I did think about it. Focus on matters that are actually in your control instead of trying to figure out an impossible fantasy

my general attitude towards this if the afterlife does exist and really works that way I would be happier in hell.
In any case you can't spend your life living with fear especially not with things you have no evidence of.

Would fear and pain make you believe that which you could not before?
Would you learn to love that thing which had put you there for no other reason than that you could not believe? If the bully of the universe would let you off by accepting its rule? Would you praise it then? Would it become "love" for you? You can answer your own question. If I pay the brigand, I will be saved from the brigand's wrath. Forgive me if I am not charmed by this bargain.

Essentially, what happens is our brains release an overdose amount DMT and we hallucinate and that's why some people think they see heaven or hell. Whatever is in their belief system will be what they see. But after that, our brain receptors shut off and we power down...similar to like flipping a light switch and the nothingness.

Pascal Wager overload!

Which god are you referring to?

Every religion and even different christian religions have different ideas about heaven and hell.

So which hell or afterlife do you mean?

If you are talking about christians who can be total shits and accept Jesus as their saviour on their deathbed and so go to heaven - no I wouldn't go back to be saved. Why would I want to be a part of such an immoral regime?

There are more choices then god or no god. If you choose god, which god do you choose? Which god do you prefer to make angry? If I died and found out there was some version of hell I would feel cheated because all the evidence points to god. If we don't go on evidence then "god" expects us to get it in random chance?

If there is a hell and I go there, I'd prefer it to the notion of non-existence, it's harder to conceptualize, for me, the absence of thought because I'm trying to think about not thinking which people compare to dreamless sleep, but since I've always woken up I can't quite use it as a foundation because my mind tries to go out to infinity, death is forever and I love life and will take a torturous eternity where I maintain my thoughts over reality; but as an atheist who can't lie to himself I know it's a pipe dream and that when I die I will never wake up, and that's where the terror sets in.

Many of the celebrity atheists, when asked a similar question, quoted S. L. Clemens, and I paraphrase; I don't recall anything unpleasant before I was born, and I have no hesitation in returning there.
Works for me.

When I'm asked, "what if" I have to consider whether it has any evidence and is even a logical possibility. Did you ever think that maybe someone cooked up all this religious mumbo-jumbo just to exploit other people? One thing I believe is that P.T. Barnum was right. Would you buy life insurance that paid if you were trampled by elephants?