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Do you believe in an afterlife?

Is the belief in "life after death" merely based on wishful thinking or is there more to it?

Human beings have been struggling with the acceptance of their mortality for a very long time. We understand that life is short and special, but we can't seem to accept that one day it will all be over and it will never repeat again.

Religions have tried to comfort people in different ways with the idea of an afterlife. Religions sell you the idea that don't have to fear death, you are presented an unverifiable promise: "You will live a new life beyond this one. In this new life you can do anything you want and all your wishes will be fulfilled". Some religions offer the idea that you will see your loved ones in the afterlife, you could make up for lost time with them. Other religions tell you that you can spend your time in the afterlife with any person who has ever existed. Religions can also view the afterlife as an arbiter of justice. People who did good deeds during their life will be rewarded in another life, people who did bad deeds will be punished.

As time goes on, religions have added more and more forms of wishful thinking to the idea of an afterlife. The afterlife can offer comfort, justice and reduced anxiety of all things wrong in the world. It also gives us the impression that we don't have to worry too much about this life and all it's problems, if it's bad or unjust then some higher power is going to take care of it after we die. The idea of an afterlife seems to diminish the value of the current life we have, we are promised a "do-over" or eternal life so why worry about anything in this life. The promise of an afterlife also doesn't encourage us to improve the world around us (for ourselves or the next generations), because a higher power is going to take care of all our problems. We don't have to fix our relationships with other people when we are alive, create a good justice system, take care of the environment or try to cure diseases, a higher power is going to fix everything.

Beliefs in the afterlife do not have to be tied to religion. In our current digital age it seems very probable that we will one day be able to scan our brain completely (with all of our memories) and copy it to another brain (biological or mechanical). We can then continue our life in a new body with all of our previous memories intact. This is one way for humans to become immortal. We might also achieve human immortality by genetic modification, this might prevent us from dying or aging altogether. Some animals seem to be theoretically able to live forever with their genetic configuration, they don't need the promise or the concept of an afterlife.

The idea of an afterlife may contain a heaven or hell story, spirit world, reincarnation or the transfer of consciousness to a new (cyber)brain.

Do you know any other forms of afterlife? Would you even want an afterlife?

Momen 5 May 25
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20 comments

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0

I like to think there is a probability, but, what the hell do I know, find out when it happens.

1

Humans are just starting to understand the quantum world. For instance, what is quantum entanglement? It appears to be a simultaneous non local force. If that is true then our understanding of time has to be re-examined. For example, If time is quantized then there could be an infinite number of parallel universes which paradoxically obliterates our current serial (classical) concepts of time (e.g., afterlife).

1

I can not comment about where I had never been. I tell you when I die.

1

Yes. It is called compost.

1

With increased computer technology it seems we can believe in anything using that model as a basis for the belief. My computer can time travel but it does not mean that I can.

1

I am very doubtful of an afterlife. However, I won't be all that disappointed if I were wrong.

1

Sure. Afterlife u no longer exist and go in a hole in the ground

4

Egotistical claptrap, YOU are so important the world would not/could not be the same without you!

I'm agnostic and I believe that. 😂 Just kidding. Interested perspective.

6

I doesn't work for me. I believe death is the totality of life.

what about reincarnation? Not as another human to continuing wrecking the planet, but as an innocent - animal etc. ?

1

Is the belief in "life after death" merely based on wishful thinking or is there more to it?

Belief in “life after death” of the physical body is based on a literal reading of texts that were probably originally referring metaphorically to “life after death” of ego identification, which is a very real possibility, and which removes the fear of death, providing a sense of eternal life.

skado Level 9 May 25, 2021
2

Nobody has ever demonstrated any such thing as an afterlife.

I decades ago accepted my own mortality. It is inevitable, so I am not going to waste any emotional energy worrying about it. I have much better things to do with my life, including getting on and living it.

3

Don't believe in an afterlife.
Don't want one either.

1

I have the last panel as a stand-alone somewhere else; dunno how to crop on an iPad though 🙂

2

No. Just more religious mumbo jumbo

2

We have to say we honestly don't know if there is an afterlife.

Not we, you say that and that would make you wrong. The only life after you die are the ones you will give sustenance to, the maggots that will dispose of your flesh.

@Mofo1953 Do you have evidence there is no afterlife?

We also must say there is no reason to believe there is an afterlife.

@xenoview just gave it to you. Don't believe me? Go to any morgue.

To believe in an afterlife, one would have to believe in a soul. No evidence for the existence of a soul, ergo we recycle our atoms and cease to exist.

4

Nope. I believe death is the end. But I wouldn’t MIND if there were some form of consciousness after. As for the heaven and hell b.s., fairy tales, that.

3

All religions have an afterlife. The afterlife is the carrot religion uses to bait non-critical thinking people into buying the god they're selling. "Believe in our faith and you'll never have to die!" All religions promise this because all religions understand it's the single most compelling benefit they offer.

You can't have a competing religion if you don't offer an afterlife of some sort. Without it, any potential believers will just move on to the next faith that does promise it.

Weird how xtianity has that, but the Bible refutes it?

2

Way too long to read, but will give you the short and sweet answer to the question: NO!

Do you have evidence there is no afterlife?

@xenoview yes, the worms that will eat your flesh once you die is pretty good evidence unless you are cremated.

@Mofo1953 So you have no evidence to give me? My body feeding worms is not evidence of no afterlife.

@xenoview sure it is, all your body and organs will be consumed ergo you're kaput dummy! What else do you think there is, a spirit, a ghost? That's plain stupid.

4

No such thing. You remember anything before you were born? Same happens when life is done.

Well, there are some pretty compelling stories about memories of past lives out there...dunno if I’m a buyer or not though

@bbyrd009 these are call dreams not evidence.

@Mofo1953 in most cases i would agree, ya. But there are a couple of cases, little kids, who (supposedly) knew things they could not possibly have known, etc? Of course written by an adult though i guess

@bbyrd009 no shit, Sherlock!

@bbyrd009 anecdotes are not evidence,Especially if the "interviewer" has bias...just ask highy-trained interviewers in child rape cases!

6

Perhaps a technological after life, from the same people that keep making our military's UFO sightings possible. I mean how would I know, those objects are pulling 700+ "g" when they maneuver.
Certainly not an after life due to some kind of magic or ESP or something.
I'll give the technological after life a small percentage chance.
It's far more likely that when I die I'll be as dead as the 300+ dead chickens that each contributed a little muscle tissue for my last chicken nugget.

I hate getting my hopes up because it unbalances me, on days when life sucks I wish I was dead, on days where everything goes right I wish I could live forever.
Which should I hope for?
Beats the hell out of me.

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