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As atheist and agnostics what in your opinion is the odds of there being a afterlife ?

I’m pure atheist however I do think there may be some form of a afterlife . Deffidently not the Christianality version of it or god but perhaps some form of an after life . I don’t think it’s going to be what anybody thinks it is nor do I think any of the religions of today are right about it . But maybe it’s a spiritual world of some sort ? This imo is just wishful thinking on my part but ya never know . Also what do you think are the odds of rebirth ? Reancarntion ? I don’t think here needs to be a god for this to be a possibility. Your thoughts ?

DavidDeLa89 6 Jan 8
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2

So, I call myself Agnostic. As such, I say that I don't know what happens after death. I don't call myself An Atheist because that would mean I knew what happens after death. So, are you really pure Atheist?

I am a pure, complete, and absolute atheist. There are NO gods.
There aren't any now, and there have never been any.
Unless and until I am presented with credible and verifiable evidence to the contrary, I will maintain this position.

It's not that hard.

There are other definitions of an atheist.

purism is not necessarily a good thing. here is what isaac asimov said about it:

“I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.”

i will add that if you're not sure about god or gods you are equally unsure about the tooth fairy. but the tooth fairy is ridiculous, so of course there is no tooth fairy, but god isn't ridiculous so maybe there's a god, right? wrong. god is every bit as ridiculous as the tooth fairy. the fact that more people believe in a god than in a tooth fairy has no bearing on that fact.

g

If you are going to say that there is a 100% chance that there is no afterlife, you are expected to show proof . Taking a position of pure knowledge, even if it is to the negative, is a positive statement. If you are going to make a positive statement you should be able to supply proof.

@thislife atheism = without theism (belief in god). Atheism means no belief in god. Period.

Maybe atheist is sent the word

@KKGator So. We agree. Thanks

@thislife No. There are not "other definitions" of atheist. An atheist is a person who has no belief in any gods. That's it.

@KKGator @A2Jennifer The difference is subtle.
From Dictionary.com:

  1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
  2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

@thislife That's exactly what I said. With the exception of the word "doctrine". There is no "doctrine". Using "doctrine" is contradictory, so Dictionary.com is incorrect.

I saw a VERY long discussion of the difference between atheist and agnostic. The short version is, you can be agnostic (uncertain) about belief or non-belief, but you are either a theist (has belief in god) or atheist (lacks belief in god.)

An interesting (but too long) look at the atheist/agnostic question - worth a skim
[sillybeliefs.com]

2

If you believe in an afterlife, you need to redefine yourself from pure atheist to something else. As an atheist, when you're dead, you're dead. Any other belief, you are something else.

@maturin1919 We are going to have to agree to disagree.

@maturin1919 I'll have to disagree with you also. The umbra of atheism touches on all sorts of religious, mystical and supernatural subjects.

Most atheists, struggling to escape their family religion, find that one endeavor so difficult they rarely venture further. But there is a great deal more in atheism than a consideration of gods.

@HankFox I actually agree with @maturin1919 on this, I think there are a lot of people with atheist beliefs about deities who don’t hold purely scientific materialist beliefs on other aspects of life. It’s very possible to believe in an afterlife while not believing in god or gods.

@maturin1919 You haven't really thought about it. There's a HELL of a lot more in this box than mere disbelief in gods. And I'm not talking about feminism or social justice causes.

@maturin1919 Eventually, I'll have a book on the subject, explaining some new ideas. I expect you to me my relentless enemy. 😀

1

100 percent. It's already established.

Answers saying zero are the height of human arrogance.

Life is just what separates us from inorganic matter. The existence we know, the dynamic world we live in, will cease to exist for the "person" we see ourselves as (the way our atoms are currently constructed). But many of our organic material will go on to do fun stuff, like fertilize the soil or something, I don't know, there's a lot of possibilities. We'll no longer be conscious, most likely anyway, and some of what made us "us" will separate, but it will go on.

The total amount of energy in a closed system cannot be created nor destroyed. Matter can be changed. We will change, but life will go on.

I don't think that is what is meant by an afterlife. A persons whole personality. memories thinking ability etc is in the brain and once it dies and decays that is gone forever, As you say all that is left is some organic and a little inorganic material.

"The height of human arrogance." Heh --- nice cliche there.

But the rest of that ... I don't understand your argument.

You start with "100 percent. It's already established." so I am assuming that's your thesis, but nothing that follows after seems to support or explain it.

@HankFox Well Hank I'm not too sure how this normally works for you, but when I ask for help I typically don't insult the person I'm asking first.

Have fun, cowboy 😉

@creative51 What stops it from being us? I agree there is no afterlife like what people are picturing. You know, you float into the clouds and your mom is there with baked goods and your high school girlfriend just can't wait to give ya a handy under the bleachers or whatever, but the things that comprised us don't just disappear forever into a magic cloud and you know that.

They move on, they become new things, depending on everything from how you're buried to how you died. I mean, if our atoms aren't us then, when are they ever? When they're briefly (on a cosmic scale) assembled into a pudgy jerkwad named Gerald? (I don't know anyone named Gerald so it seemed safe). I guess at this point we're beyond science anyway, and you're right about singularities but that's a whole different topic that we'd have to wax all philosophical on because there's just not a ton of real, hard evidence.

@Moravian

This stage of our existence has always fascinated me so forgive me. You and others keep saying "well what you're saying is that it's not what they meant when they said afterlife." The poster asked if there was some form of afterlife. I answered yes. We're gone. If life is simply whatever quality separates us from dead things, then there are many living things that we are comprised of that will continue on just fine without us.

Sure it isn't "us" as we think of ourselves, or anything even resembling that. But it is a piece of us living on after our body itself is gone. Even long gone.

0

I personally believe in reincarnation. This doesn't involve any deity, so it does not affect my atheism. I have my own proof, which I will NOT discuss.

Just because I believe in it doesn't mean everyone should.

Proof? that's a strong word, O well. I wish you well on that, might see you there, maybe.

@starwatcher-al I believe they asked for opinions. I gave MY opinion; never said it was yours.

0

I don't know what happens after death.....and nor does anybody else.

As for odds on an afterlife that's a tough one. Is it billions to one or 50/50 but either way if you had a flutter on there being one (an afterlife) and you won, how do you pick up your winnings?

"flutter" - Wager?

@Knee-jerk Yes, sorry. UK slang 🙂

1

Odds? That word won't work because there are no statistics. My take on the subject is that our minds are meat-based. The mind ends when the meat dies.

This does suggest to me that when the brain can be simulated well enough and IF our minds can be parametized accurately enough, then we could come face to face with copies of our minds.

I would define that as an after-life, but wonder if our copies could like or enjoy themselves?

Would your copy envy you? Would it beg to be left on or turned off?

@Knee-jerk Just wait until they can download a human brain "copy" into a computer!

1

I think we rot when we die, and that's it.

Orbit Level 7 Jan 20, 2019

I think only your body rots, your body does not define you- consciousness is the matrix of the Universe.

@Lilith no brain, no consciousness....

1

I guess we'll find out when we get there.

Don't bet on it. When you're dead you won't exist anymore.

[amazon.com]

5

It is hard for us humans to think cosmically but IMO the entire chain of organisms can be considered to be a single entity. Time is an illusion—even quantum gravity theory has it so. The concept of an afterlife makes no sense from a cosmic perspective. There’s just life and we are it—right now and forever more. To put it crudely, we are in heaven right now but lack the awareness to fully appreciate our station.

To yearn for immortality as a separate personality is a futile and foolish quest IMO. The sense of self as a particular body is just an illusion anyway. Some bodies are shared by multiple “selves”, all illusory.

Every second of conscious awareness is a heavenly miracle of staggering proportions!

wow!

1

Nothing in nature is eternal. Our personalities are no exception. If you believe our nuerology plays a role in making us us, and you reject the dogma of the soul, there is no reason to believe anything about who we are persists after we die.

Heat dies 2nd law of thermodynamics

0

Zero chance. I'm in agreement with Sam Harris' logic on this one.
Quote
"What we’re being asked to consider is that you damage one part of the brain, and something about the mind and subjectivity is lost, you damage another and yet more is lost, [but] you damage the whole thing at death, we can rise off the brain with all our faculties in tact, recognizing grandma and speaking English!"

1

my thought is our flesh decays and nourishes the soil. back in the food chain.

2

Well IDK ? death seems to be permanent so... No way of knowing on this end

Jaed Level 5 Jan 8, 2019
5

There is no "afterlife". When you're dead, you're dead. That's it, there is no more.
Trying to hedge and think "maybe there is", is NO different than saying "maybe there is a god". Neither can be substantiated.
Anything else is just wishful thinking.

1

I don't know.

SCal Level 7 Jan 8, 2019
1

Absolutely zero

Pc716 Level 2 Jan 8, 2019
1

non sequitur

6

To use the approved scientific terminology: absolutely fuck-all.

Jnei Level 8 Jan 8, 2019
3

I don't believe in any form of afterlife. No heaven, no hell, no reincarnation, no nothing. Death for me is a dreamless sleep for eternity, a one-way trip of our consciousness into oblivion. I believe we are made of matter and energy. Both are eternal, but when we die, they just both scatter away in their separate ways.

1

to me, "spiritual" means "religion light." i am convinced there is no personal afterlife. the brain generates who we think we are. when it dies, we are gone. our bodies decompose. worm food is useful, and we are eventually recycled, somehow, despite all the stuff that's done to preserve us (unless we're king tut) but apart from whatever legacy, large or small, we've left, we're just gone. gone is gone, dead is dead. rebirth, reincarnation, all that, not possible. there would have to be a soul, and while i like aretha franklin as much as the next person, that's not the kind of soul that would make reincarnation possible. it's all fantasy. odds for any of it: zero. unless you're laying the money down on my table, in which case go for it. i need the dough.

g

2

Absolute zero to any kind of an after life. Only religious fools believe in a after life.

4

Zero percent chance.

4

Well there is one for pets? "The Rainbow Bridge" but otherwise? Pure fantasy.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Just ask my Atheist cat group (who is ok with me being self-deluding in this manner).

4

Zero. Nada. Nothing. Zip.

5
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