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Original poster

If it was proven that there is no afterlife

234 replies

magicalkitty · 13/08/2023 21:17

No heaven, no reincarnation, no seeing our loved ones again...
Would it make you live life or see things any differently?

I think a lot of everyday life things may suddenly seem very meaningless. A lot of us like to believe there is something else to come, even if not religious.

OP posts:
Luckydip1 · 13/08/2023 22:06

Life after death is the same as life before death, nothingness, no pain, no joy, no misery, no happiness. Our fantasies of life after death are just that, fantasies.

Louloulouenna · 13/08/2023 22:07

I have never understood how an afterlife is supposed to work and certainly don’t believe in it!

Annaishere · 13/08/2023 22:08

I used to hope I would get another chance. But now increasingly I feel a drive to live to a fuller potential before it’s too late. Whether I stay alive or not, there’s something important about this life

cocksstrideintheevening · 13/08/2023 22:13

I don't believe in an afterlife and I'm a cradle catholic. I love that it gives comfort to those that believe but it's not for me.

ReadRum · 13/08/2023 22:15

”If nothing you do matters, all that matters is what you do.”

PurpleSky300 · 13/08/2023 22:17

I would feel hopeless and lost. I need to believe in something.

whereaw · 13/08/2023 22:18

I'm agnostic.

But how can one in this life, prove or disprove any sort of after life? Surely its logically impossible.

tillytoodles1 · 13/08/2023 22:22

PurpleSky300 · 13/08/2023 22:17

I would feel hopeless and lost. I need to believe in something.

Me too. I can't believe that life ends with death and then there's nothing. Other people can believe what they want, I believe in an afterlife.

mondaytosunday · 13/08/2023 22:23

It will affect those where the society is based on a religion that believes in an afterlife or sone sort of reward in heaven. I don't think it would affect most others that much.

CockneySignora · 13/08/2023 22:24

I grew out of the idea of an afterlife in my teens. It’s a juvenile belief. Ethical adulthood is attempting to behave well without the carrot of eternal life or the stick of damnation.

ASGIRC · 13/08/2023 22:26

That is already my belief, so nothing would change in my life.

abqkep · 13/08/2023 22:30

PurpleSky300 · 13/08/2023 22:17

I would feel hopeless and lost. I need to believe in something.

I think this is how a lot of people feel, and therefore why religion, which really is based on nothing but an idea someone had one day, is so prevalent still. I find it very interesting.

mrsanflowerpot · 13/08/2023 22:31

My mum died when I was a teen and my dad died a couple of years ago at the age of 60, nearly 20 years after her, having given up when she died. He wasn't a believer at all, but called my mums name a couple of mins before he died. The thought of that makes me want to believe more than anything else and I let myself believe they're looking down on my kids

Justanotherlurker · 13/08/2023 22:33

I have been having this kind of related discussion this week with colleagues in response to a discussion of conspiracy theory's being a right wing trait, which is clearly bullshit, there is just as many as many from the left as there is on the right around government censorship/cover up and on song with big business etc
Even if we are going to go down the hole of the extreme of flat earth bullshit, in the uk we have the a life long left leaning brother of a former leader of the opposition being a prominent figure head of the 5G madness, but that is another discussion but kind of related.

My very bad take was we are truly living through the most ideologically radical times in history. Take away people's beliefs and they don't believe in nothing, rather they believe in anything. Never before in history have we had the power to conceive of and believe anything like we do right now. The basic premises of life can be questioned in a way they never could before. Technology has made it not just possible but normal to exist as an island without a emotional/psychological connection to the greater community. And it's not just a small group of ideologues this time, it's happening to everyone at the same time, most of whom not even knowing it's happening and just imitate whatever latest shit they see on social media or whatever.
Of course, instead of being an era of enlightenment as some might have hoped, it's an era of mental illness and being unavoidably confronted with the shitness of the human condition.

I'm not saying things like the afterlife etc should or should not be believed, as an ex muslim I have faced discrimination from both general shit heads to the devout, i would be banned for trolling if I made posts around some of the instances I have confronted from my religious 'sisters' and 'brothers'. But it is more a general thing, there is a reason why the left leaning have now become pro bigh business and banks and promoting the GDP must go up mantra, it isn't excusing the right before anyone jumps on me, it is because the new religion is the economy and personal wealth.

Thank you for listening to my ted talk...

Echobelly · 13/08/2023 22:34

No, I don't imagine there is anything, or if there is, it is somehow 'neutral', this life is the point, not some theoretical thing that may happen after.

Mischance · 13/08/2023 22:37

The law of conservation of matter seems relevant here. My OH is dead, but all of his body is still around, just in different forms - in his case earth that feeds plants and more life.

His influences over all those who knew him are, as I see it, also "matter" and they do not go away just because he has died. They live on in all of us.

But I do not think there is anything remotely resembling life of the person after death.

This knowledge does influence my life in that I try and live each day to the full, as far as I am able; and to be as kind as I can, because everything I do will live on - and I would rather it were nice things!

inky1991 · 13/08/2023 22:39

Timetochangegonzo · 13/08/2023 21:31

I mean it is proven. The absence of proving anything exists makes this so. You can’t prove something doesn’t exist only that it does.

there is nothing when you die

What a load of crap.

People would have believed the earth was flat for centuries until proven otherwise. Any civilisation prior to 200 years ago couldnt possibly even fathom the concept of electricity/ipones/aeroplanes etc. We have no idea what we will discover in the future.

No one KNOWS there is no afterlife. It is only a belief and it's their prerogative.

Maybe if the afterlife was proven, we would take less value in our earthly lives. More suicides etc...

User15387500 · 13/08/2023 22:43

Of course there isn't an afterlife. and after about 50 years it is like you never existed, no one will remember you.

RaininSummer · 13/08/2023 22:43

No changes to my life as I don't believe there is any more consciousness after death. Also how on earth would it work if for instance you had one much lived partner who died and then you had another much loved partner. Is the afterlife polyamorous? And what if they were they didn't want to share?

MoltenLasagne · 13/08/2023 22:44

I wish I could believe in an after life but I just can't. I desperately wanted to be religious growing up too, I felt like believing in God would give me a sense of hope with some pretty dark times, but I just seem to lack that capability.

For me, having no after life makes this life more precious. My aim is to leave a net positive, so that I have been a contributor of happiness rather than grumpiness, a friend not a foe, and to try to leave the world a little better for having been in it.

MissHoollie · 13/08/2023 22:46

This realisation happened to me .
I used to believe in an afterlife then I saw sense.
It has changed how I live.
Life is more precious

MarieKlepto · 13/08/2023 22:54

If there is no one in the "afterlife" that you have any desire to see, what happens?

Boomboom22 · 13/08/2023 23:10

Really the whole idea of a conscious afterlife as you is terrifyingly awful, especially if you experience time. And if not then what are you? More like hell even if in heaven surely.

Annaishere · 13/08/2023 23:14

MarieKlepto · 13/08/2023 22:54

If there is no one in the "afterlife" that you have any desire to see, what happens?

An awkward coming to get you

MouseMinge · 13/08/2023 23:21

I don't see how belief in an afterlife makes life any more meaningful than a belief that there is nothing after death. On a very basic level life is meaningless. We're born, we do some stuff, we die. We might do some amazing stuff, we might not, our amazing stuff might be bringing life into the world and loving our children fully and strongly, it might be discovering a cure for some disease that was believed to be incurable. We make our own meaning in life. We live it day to day or we don't. In the past the afterlife was a panacea for all of life's ills. Don't worry that you're dirt poor and have to work from dawn 'til dusk because your reward will be in heaven. Horseshit. It's a beautiful delusion and we'll never know the answer while we live and when we die it won't matter. Maybe there will be something, doubtful, but if there is nothing then it doesn't matter. If we are nothing we feel nothing, we just cease to be and the world goes on without us. We remain alive in the minds of the people who loved us and are atoms live on. To me, that is the afterlife. We continue to exist whilst also no longer existing. It doesn't make me sad or make my life mean nothing because my life means something to me and it means something to the people who love me and that is enough.

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