If it was proven that there is no afterlife

[magicalkitty]

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.

I'm a secular humanist so it wouldn't make any difference to my life.

There is no afterlife whatsoever. Live accordingly.

Have you ever read any Russian literature, like Tolstoy or Dostoevsky ? They answer this question very well. Basically it’s hard to shake off a feeling of religion even for an atheist if you’ve been brought up that way. They decided even if it could be proved it’s not true they would choose to believe in it anyway. I think religion is our conscious awareness of instinct.
I think it’s hard to escape the feeling of an afterlife because we can’t imagine the world without us in it.
its probably something like When we are born we had to lose a certain connection in order to have consciousness and when we die we go back to that universal kind of understanding again and we are all actually the same person/energy just in different forms.

@LordSalem perhaps existence or non existence before we were born, what were we for that infinite period before our current being in a physical senses, that to me is the best clue to what we will be after we die.

I already believe there's nothing after we die. I'll carry on living my life as I've always done.

I just live my life, when I die then I won't know anyway as I will be dead.

I think it's best to still live a good life, even if there is no day of reckoning when you die, life is just better that way.

It's obvious there is no afterlife, but also obvious we need a commenting to the communoty/natural world/worthy cause. Hence the need for religion. It's meeting a need while we are alive.

There is no afterlife and if you think about it too much it’s weird but there it is. One life no dress rehearsal, make the most of it 🥰

I believe there is no afterlife and I find that very grounding. If matter can neither be created nor destroyed then when I die I become food for nature, part of the sea, part of the air. I go back to being the atoms and molecules that make me. I am part of the ecosystem, not separate to it, or a special case of species that a god wants to put in a heaven or hell depending on whether I’ve been a ‘good’ person or not. And what if you’ve picked the wrong religion or faith - there are hundreds of them - surely they can’t all be right? Religion and faith make no sense to me, and I was raised in a religious household (church on Sunday, religious schools, active in the church community- that sort of thing). It would be nice to believe I was going to meet with loved ones again, but I don’t believe it’s realistic.

Oh no, the poor bastard. I'd better do something fun today then, so they can do it too.

I believe there is nothing. I hate all this " can't wait to see you in Heaven" malarkey.

It was said to me after my parents died and I went ballistic.

This has been interesting. Some people seem weirdly pleased with themselves for their materialist stance. It's not naive or puerile to hope that we might be reunited with loved ones in another realm, particularly if they were taken too soon.

I think the people asking 'gotcha' questions about whether we'll always be 87 in the afterlife, even the more fundamental questions about what exactly it is that transcends brain death, are missing the point a bit. If there is an 'afterlife' or a persistence of the soul after death, it will not be in any form we could possibly conceive of with our earthly minds. I don't think many people really expect to be sat around the dinner table rating Sunday lunch with relatives in a movie-style version of heaven. I hope whatever it is would be very peaceful though.

Personally, my view is that we still don't understand why we are here in the first place and so it would be arrogant to think we could even begin to draw firm conclusions about souls, consciousness and the meaning of our existence. Most of life and the universe is still a mystery. You only need to hear a quantum scientist speak to realise that.

😂😂😂

I’m lying in bed with absolutely no desire to get up, but now I’m wondering if it’s actually me having this experience, or whether I’m not getting up because the “me in another dimension” can’t be bothered and so I’m at her mercy.

It’s like the chicken and the egg conundrum…

Who is leading who? Am I leading her or is she leading me?

I’m not denying an Afterlife, I just don’t understand the purpose of it or how it works?

As a previous poster said, the idea of infinity and the concept of never, ever being able to leave ourselves is pretty terrifying.

As Freddie Mercury said, “Who wants to live forever?”

And on that note, are famous people still famous in the Afterlife? Or are they just normal people like us? I wouldn’t mind having a chat and a song-song with Freddie 👍

There is no purpose and there is no why are we here, there are no reasons just evolution and biochemistry.

It's a bit like asking why are there maggots in the food bin. Are you their god? And the watch argument which makes no sense, if our consciousness needs a higher consciousness to make it then so does God and so on and so on.

And what also confuses me is the concept of us being different forms of consciousness and we are currently dipped into the experience of living on earth, but after that we we will be in another form of consciousness somewhere else that is being referred to as the Afterlife.

If that is the case what was our existence before the experience of currently being in this form of consciousness as a person on earth and why don’t we remember it? Or is
birth genuinely the first step of this infinite journey?

But if not, and we don’t remember what came before birth why are people so sure we will remember our current life in the Afterlife? I.e how will we know who to reunite ourselves with if we have no memory of what or who we used to be?

I really would love to believe there is something but I view the concept as being like religion, it is just a faith that
God is real even though there is no proof. Just as region gives a lot of people a reason to live, I think the Afterlife is similar. An un-proven theory that people like to hold on to for whatever purpose it gives them.

I hope one day I am proven wrong.

Like I said though, there’s only one way we will ever find out if there’s life after death and that is to die ourselves.

The idea of reincarnation terrifies me so I really hope that theory doesn’t turn out to be reality.

But there is no reason to believe we will be conscious after we die.

I know, I agree.

I have no reason to believe the Afterlife exists. I understand that others believe in it but my brain cannot comprehend it.

I could sit here and write about 50 questions about how the Afterlife works, for example what happens to criminals after death, do they get to join this peaceful Afterlife too? Are their sins forgiven? Are we still the “same” people in the Afterlife as we are on earth? I assume we must be if we are all reuniting with other people we’ve lost?

And what about those who believe in heaven and hell - is Afterlife the same as
Heaven or is the Afterlife somewhere that the non-religious people go and Heaven is a whole other even better/higher dimension for those who have followed religion?

As I said, the idea of an Afterlife is about as proven as the existence of God. It’s all based on faith and hope and nothing else.

When it comes to the Afterlife, people’s hope often centres around hearing other people’s experiences (NDE) and use that to confirm (for want of a better word) that the Afterlife exists. It’s no different to how religious people base their belief in God by reading of happenings and other people’s experiences that are documented in the Bible.

I’m not discrediting either as there’s no proof that God and the Afterlife don’t exists, but there’s no proof that they do exist either.

It’s all blind faith and hopefully the believers will discover they are right and the rest of us will be in for a nice surprise.

Makes no difference, because onece I'm dead, that's it. Just like the billions of years before I was born. Which is very reassuring.

This is a perfect response. We are here only because of biology, nothing else.

My Dad passed away yesterday and he was religious. He did have some "strange" moments the day before he passed. Seemed to be in a dream like state and looking beyond us as trying to almost reach out and touch things he could see. He seemed happy and calm though
I'm not religious in the slightest but I hope there's something else and that something involves seeing loved ones again
It's heartbreaking to think I'll never see him again

Love this.

And who decides who we get to be with in the afterlife? There's a shit tonne of people Id never want to see again ever.

Is there animals there? Frankly I'd be happy with my dog and my DP and maybe some of my drinking friends. If dogs aren't there then screw it.
But then are all the animals there as that's a lot. Some of my cats were arseholes and I don't want to spend eternity with them

Is there alcohol?
So many questions. If it's floating around in sobriety with Aunt Joan and no dogs and Greg who had a crush in you in primary school then that sounds hellish.

It can't be proved either way but I don't know what scares me more eternal oblivion or.eternal.life

I don't believe there is any afterlife and I just live normally.