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Goodbye Jesus

Do You Find Yourself Hoping That There Is Something After Death?


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I have heard some ex-christians derive comfort from the fact that they still feel like something might happen when they die. I feel that many of us here have accepted the fact that we just can't know for sure whether or not God, or an afterlife, or anything supernatural exists. I suppose I am talking mostly to the atheist/agnostic ex-christians (whom I believe to be the majority here?) What I want to know is whether or not anyone here has found themselves hoping that there is something after death.

 

I mean, when you are thinking of the day that you will die, do you feel like you accept it as fact that you will simply disappear as a conscious being, or do you retain hope, even if just for comfort sake, that there may be something that could happen?

 

I personally used to believe that I was certain that no God worshipped by mankind exists, no judging God exists, but when thinking about my death I always chose to console myself by suggesting that "well, you don't know for SURE that nothing will happen when you die, SOMETHING might." Do you guys think this is a healthy view to be taking?

 

Now a days I am becoming a bit more nihilistic, but I really want to hear what you guys think. I find this tiny switch in thinking to be very interesting.

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I don't think it's unhealthy to leave open the possibility that we might remain as sentient , conscious beings after we die. I don't think it's healthy to conclude that you can count on that possibility.

 

Personally, I don't ever think much about the possibility of continued conscious existence after death. It doesn't trouble me in the least to think of slipping into permanent, unconscious, unknowing darkness after death.

 

At any juncture in my life, that attitude could change. We are all transient creatures whose beliefs change over time.

 

I think my concern is to learn to milk all the positive experiences possible out of life before that dark curtain of annihilation descends upon us.

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I find that I do believe something continues after this life, and since I'm a writer, I play with that idea a lot. However, I do not guide my life by it. In other words, I live as though this is it, and I hope there's something more. Why? Because I'm greedy, and 80 to 100 years is just too short IMHO. But I treasure experiences that aren't likely to be repeated.

 

I guess it comes down to balance. The thing I tend to come back to is that if I'm wrong, I'm not going to know it, so what does it hurt if I entertain myself with flights of fancy?

 

And as I fictionalize my various musings, I don't think it will hurt anyone else either. The last thing I want to do is try to influence another person's beliefs unless those beliefs are harming them. I've collected anecdotal experiences over the years - my own and those of others - and I think to simply chalk them all up to imagination is just as arrogant as to think I know what's going to happen after death.

 

But even though I see things that make me think their could be life after death, it's just as easily explained by the idea that we're all connected on some level and tend to have similar imaginations.

 

I don't know. I can't justify my belief, but I can't make it go away either, and I have no real desire to do so.

 

As long as I am being honest, I am not at all okay with slipping into non-existence, so I'm certain that influences me. Whether or not that makes me wrong is another story.

 

However, there are some interesting studies being done on the idea of reincarnation, and it's a very hard area to study because making a double blind study with very non-objective people is difficult.

 

I guess I'm babbling now, so I'll leave it at that. :)

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There is an afterlife, it's called 'being dead.'

 

After the life I've had to live, I could care less if there is an after life or not! I do not think I am so special I need to live forever, however long that is in xtian years? If there is an afterlife, that is nice because it will not be like what we have been told for over 2,000 years what that afterlife will be like. Religion has shown itself to be wrong about everything else.

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I've really thought about this in the last year. Of course, I would prefer to be an angel when I die and fly around to see the rest of the world - but i'm afraid that I have come to the conclusion that it may just be everlasting sleep, with never an alarm clock to wake you up.

Not so bad.......I like sleeping....:grin:

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Yes, I hope there is something better than this. If bad people go somewhere, I hope they are maybe given a chance to be shown what they did and make amends or maybe just get annihilated if they are just evil. Honestly, I don't want anyone to be tortured forever, I don't care who they are. If I wished that people would be tortured forever, maybe that would make me evil too.

 

But I wish for all the suffering people doing their best that there is a better place and a God who truly does care but is maybe unable to change things for some reason we don't know about. When our kids are little, they think we are Gods and can do anything. Then, they grow up and find out we are pretty powerless. I wish the best for everyone, even people who have hurt me.

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zombiejesusbrains.gif
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I don't believe there's anything after this life, but I am not even sure it matters.

 

On the one hand I can say i've had a pretty good life. It's been extreme at times, have experienced both great wealth and great destitution. Have met lots of influential people, celebrities, athletes, billionaires, etc., and experienced lots of things that most people would not. So I definitely made the most out of my life that I could, and still continue to do so (not dead yet!)

 

On the other hand, if "life" continued on after this, who knows what kind of fucked up situation I could find myself in if the "me" that currently exists is transformed into something else? Something worse? What if I am "recycled" as a serial killer or a sewer roach or I am born into slavery?

 

I guess as humans (or maybe Americans?) we are programmed to be optimists. Sure our life now may suck and make us pessimists, but if we endure such strife, perhaps there's a great reward afterward? Isn't that where the idea of heaven comes from?

 

At the end of the day I don't spend too much time dwelling on this.... there's really no point. I just try to focus on the here and now and whatever happens later will happen when the time comes.

 

My 2 cents...

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What Margee said and she is right sleep is good;)

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I see no evidence for an "afterlife" and I accept that as the most likely reality. It would be interesting to be proven wrong. Technically, anything is possible, but I think the probability for surviving death is nil.

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I have long since accepted the idea of life after death, there isn’t one, and to think otherwise is to live in the delusional world of faith.

 

 

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If there is an afterlife I don't see it being anything bad, just a floating, happy thing. Or the light just switches off and we are gone. Either way I am fine with it.

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Although the evangelical/pentecostal description of heaven was never very thrilling to me, that was just about the shittiest part of deconverting: no more afterlife. Oblivion is better than roasting in hell forever for the crime of being a heathen, but it still blows. I'll surely take an infinity of the same old shit--surfing the net, scratching my balls, jacking off, getting drunk--over an eternal dreamless sleep.

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Although the evangelical/pentecostal description of heaven was never very thrilling to me, that was just about the shittiest part of deconverting: no more afterlife. Oblivion is better than roasting in hell forever for the crime of being a heathen, but it still blows. I'll surely take an infinity of the same old shit--surfing the net, scratching my balls, jacking off, getting drunk--over an eternal dreamless sleep.

 

Well said! hahah

 

I know what you mean though - I never thought heaven was exciting either, but I did find myself missing the concept of eternity. I wonder if that is an evolutionary need we have yet to overcome?

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Most 'murikan xian males expect to meet this in heaven

michelle-keegan-bikini-1-05-450x604.jpg

 

But likely to meet this instead.

 

FatButt.jpg

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I've kinda grudgingly accepted no afterlife. Whilst I'm fairly certain that this is it, I certainly wouldn't mind the fact if I was wrong and there was some sort of otherworldly existence.

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I had a fleeting thought the other day that touched on the possibility of some form of reincarnation. The thought was suppose that through some as yet not understood process, after we die the material that makes us who we are (all the atoms, particles, etc) are somehow recycled, perhaps through a totally natural process, and that once that is accomplished it is all put together to form another person. Except this other person is us, or at least made of the same stuff that is us. The only thing, though, is that in this thought of mine, when we are "reincarnated" we have absolutely no memory of our past life. Rather, for all intents and purposes we are a new, conscious person.

 

After considering this, I then thought about whether I would find that satisfying. On the one hand, it would be nice to some day after my death to become a living, conscious person again. But on the other hand, the person I am now will still be lost forever. I didn't find this thought on reincarnation very satisfying nor very convincing, either.

 

I think what made me think this way was thinking about stardust and, like Carl Sagan often said, we are all made from stardust. It's kind of like those stars that died billions of years ago and whose "dust" formed other stars, planets, and us do live again in a certain way.

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I had a fleeting thought the other day that touched on the possibility of some form of reincarnation. The thought was suppose that through some as yet not understood process, after we die the material that makes us who we are (all the atoms, particles, etc) are somehow recycled, perhaps through a totally natural process, and that once that is accomplished it is all put together to form another person. Except this other person is us, or at least made of the same stuff that is us. The only thing, though, is that in this thought of mine, when we are "reincarnated" we have absolutely no memory of our past life. Rather, for all intents and purposes we are a new, conscious person.

 

After considering this, I then thought about whether I would find that satisfying. On the one hand, it would be nice to some day after my death to become a living, conscious person again. But on the other hand, the person I am now will still be lost forever. I didn't find this thought on reincarnation very satisfying nor very convincing, either.

 

I think what made me think this way was thinking about stardust and, like Carl Sagan often said, we are all made from stardust. It's kind of like those stars that died billions of years ago and whose "dust" formed other stars, planets, and us do live again in a certain way.

 

Overcame -Some say that 'stardust' is recycled! I like this idea also. Energy and mater cannot be destroyed (or so they say) - sounds like recycling to me. I like it! :grin:

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unending consciousness for eternity? I'd rather not thanks. Sometimes I just resent waking up in the morning.

 

'Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord'

 

That sounds like ceasing to be to me. I'd be quite happy with that. (but not just yet... :) )

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I never find myself hoping for such a thing. It seems unnatural and weird.

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I never find myself hoping for such a thing. It seems unnatural and weird.

 

You're unnatural and weird. :P

 

I don't have these thoughts much anymore, but they were pretty strong in me up until the last 5 or so years.

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I've grown very comfortable with the thought that I will be gone one day. So the thought of Heaven doesn't occupy my mind at all. Only discussion threads on this forum reminds me of the idea of an afterlife.

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I personally feel there is too much to learn about life to only live one.

 

So I believe I will come back.

 

As to where I go in between, I often have a vision of a cabin built into the side of hill overlooking a clear lake in a mountain valley. The sky is usually overcast or at sunset. It feels like a place of reflection and peace.

 

So that's where I'll be after I'm dead.

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I never find myself hoping for such a thing. It seems unnatural and weird.

 

You're unnatural and weird. :P

 

I don't have these thoughts much anymore, but they were pretty strong in me up until the last 5 or so years.

 

I used to think it would be nice to see loved ones again and catch up, trade experiences, etc. But none of it would matter anymore, so none of us would care anymore. Really, it would be terribly boring after a week or so.

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I never find myself hoping for such a thing. It seems unnatural and weird.

 

You're unnatural and weird. :P

 

I don't have these thoughts much anymore, but they were pretty strong in me up until the last 5 or so years.

 

I used to think it would be nice to see loved ones again and catch up, trade experiences, etc. But none of it would matter anymore, so none of us would care anymore. Really, it would be terribly boring after a week or so.

 

I wouldn't want to live forever, but if I could get a few hundred extra years I'd live a few decades as a slut, a few more as a sailor going from port to port (perhaps also as a slut) a few as a scientist, and then a few more as a researcher following my whims. Basically, I think a Groundhog Day-type experience that allowed me to live and learn without consequence would be fantastic for a while.

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