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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:
x2boys · 14/08/2023 10:04

TheYadaYada · 14/08/2023 01:21

The proof is that there has never been any evidence whatsoever of an afterlife.

Show quote history

There has also never been any proof that there isn't an afterlife .

MsRosley · 14/08/2023 10:07

Lightningspeed · 14/08/2023 01:29

I think that very materialist people have just no imagination. They have never wondered why the protons and neutrons and electrons that make up a chair or a TV or a rock, in different configurations could make a cat or a person or an idea or a movie. They don't wonder about anything.

They can't cope with the fact we know the square root of fuck all about life.

Totally agree. That was always my beef with Richard Dawkins, even back when I was a materialist atheist. He's so certain he's right, but cannot see how blinkered his own views are. How does he know that death won't be like waking from a dream, to a totally different reality? How does he know this reality is the only reality, and not one of many, or a simulation? He doesn't know. He has absolutely no basis for his certainty that this life is all there is.

meatbaseddessert · 14/08/2023 10:07

@x2boys it's not possible to prove a negative. Those who assert must prove. Without proof the status quo must be true. There is no afterlife.

Boredombeckons · 14/08/2023 10:08

I already feel this. A part of me does believe and hope! But growing up around pretty religious (not fundies though - very professional/corporate focused, and that's the problem!) made me realise people tend to constantly pray in order to smooth over actual problems that could be addressed by doing really hard emotional work and introspection. And also somewhat put off investing properly in relationships because they don't realise this is their last chance / only life to see their loved ones.

WantingToEducate · 14/08/2023 10:14

How does he know that death won't be like waking from a dream, to a totally different reality?

What if our current life on earth is what is happening after we’ve woken from a dream from a previous reality? Why is the assumption that this life is the first life we’ve ever had?

And if we just dream and wake up and go from different realities to different realities, then surely the Afterlife is just another one of the realities we will at some point wake up from and then find ourselves somewhere else?

So what’s the point of it all? Where does it ever end?

Do people really think that there are dinosaurs, elephants, cats, hamsters, sheep, wasps, worms and horses floating around in an animal Afterlife? Or is it only human beings who are deserving of this eternal life?

CockneySignora · 14/08/2023 10:22

MsRosley · 14/08/2023 10:07

Totally agree. That was always my beef with Richard Dawkins, even back when I was a materialist atheist. He's so certain he's right, but cannot see how blinkered his own views are. How does he know that death won't be like waking from a dream, to a totally different reality? How does he know this reality is the only reality, and not one of many, or a simulation? He doesn't know. He has absolutely no basis for his certainty that this life is all there is.

Show quote history

He’s a scientist, aware he can’t prove a negative, and that any hypothesis about the nature of reality has to made on the basis of current knowledge. Russell’s teapot etc.

MsRosley · 14/08/2023 10:43

@CockneySignora In which case, you'd think he'd be a bit more humble and open-minded, rather than scathing and patronising about people who do believe in god or a higher power.

Louloulouenna · 14/08/2023 11:05

Have you read the God Delusion?

TheYadaYada · 14/08/2023 11:41

meatbaseddessert · 14/08/2023 10:07

@x2boys it's not possible to prove a negative. Those who assert must prove. Without proof the status quo must be true. There is no afterlife.

Exactly.

EilonwyWithRedGoldHair · 14/08/2023 12:47

it wouldn't make any difference to me. It wouldn't make me an atheist or anything, I'd carry on as my beliefs add value to my life regardless of if there are any god/esses or an afterlife (I'm pagan, so meditating, studying pre-history, re-organising my altar every three months or so, tarot.)

pointythings · 14/08/2023 12:56

I don't believe in an afterlife. I am content for the molecules and energy that constitute me to go back into the universe and become part of other things.

Strangerthingshavehappenedtome · 14/08/2023 12:57

I don't believe in an after life.
I don't want an after life either 😬. I've experienced nothing before I was born and that's what I will go back to one day . I find that comforting. There is nothing to fear about something I won't experience

Tiddlywinks63 · 14/08/2023 13:00

Having had a childhood with going to Sunday school, confirmation etc going to a RC secondary school where hellfire, damnation, purgatory and mass three times a week despite being CofE it was something of a relief when I decided that religion had an awful lot to answer to and definitely wasn’t for me.
No, I don’t believe in the afterlife etc and I ‘m perfectly happy with that.

Tessisme · 14/08/2023 14:20

I was a born again Christian for a few years. Very committed and immersed in it. I gradually stopped believing and have been an atheist for more than 30 years now, with no belief in any afterlife. The way I live my life hasn't changed. I think I feared death more when I believed in an afterlife to be honest, possibly because I couldn't cope with the idea of life after death being different from what I was used to in this life.

Louloulouenna · 14/08/2023 17:26

Yes, I wasted far too much time sitting through enforced church services in my youth. I remember when I was about 17 sitting there and thinking “this is just utter bilge” and it was a like a weight lifting from my shoulders.

My in laws are deeply religious and it never ceases to amaze me how unkind and hurtful some religious people can be. They seem to be under the impression that because they go to church they are somehow automatically good people rather than living a life which would actually make them good people.

I’ve been careful not to influence my children but they are all atheists too.

Cactusali · 14/08/2023 18:03

I do believe there’s an afterlife but I don’t think we have any understanding of what it is. I believe that there is a moment of transcendence when we merge with God or Love or all of human consciousness…something sublime and unimaginable to our earthly human selves. We probably won’t meet Aunty Doris or our Ex- husbands or our best dog as they were in life but we’ll know them in some different form of energy. There’s some interesting research about Shared Death Experience which supports much of NDE.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 14/08/2023 18:07

CockneySignora · 14/08/2023 10:22

He’s a scientist, aware he can’t prove a negative, and that any hypothesis about the nature of reality has to made on the basis of current knowledge. Russell’s teapot etc.

Show quote history

There's definitely a degree of frustration and incredulity to Dawkins that I can understand and sympathise with. I understand the emotional reasons why some human beings choose to believe things that are full of irreconcilable problems, contradictions, and lack anything whatsoever that suggests they might be true, but I do not understand the annoyance when you query "why?"

The idea that the lack of belief in an afterlife is rooted in a lack of imagination or curiosity is risible nonsense. It's human curiosity in the form of scientific scrutiny that has failed to produce anything whatsoever that would suggest these things are reality. The more educated a population becomes, the more they turn away from religion.

nonheme · 14/08/2023 18:17

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

TheWayoftheLeaf · 14/08/2023 23:30

No. I already believe this. So nothing would change.

pharamondtravel · 14/08/2023 23:52

This reply has been deleted

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

You do know what proven means, right?

Cattenberg · 15/08/2023 00:14

I don’t agree that there’s no evidence of an afterlife, but I think the evidence we do have is weak and very difficult for researchers to replicate. This includes NDEs, ghost sightings, messages relayed by mediums, and the recounting of past life memories by small children (a few of whom even have birthmarks corresponding with wounds on the person they allegedly used to be).

Most of these experiences can be explained by non-paranormal means, e.g. the effects of oxygen deprivation on the brain, hypnagogic hallucinations, errors of perception or memory, infrasound, cold reading techniques or outright fraud. But the occasional case can’t be explained so easily. That said, finding actual proof of an afterlife feels like pinning jelly to a wall.

MsRosley · 15/08/2023 00:31

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 14/08/2023 18:07

There's definitely a degree of frustration and incredulity to Dawkins that I can understand and sympathise with. I understand the emotional reasons why some human beings choose to believe things that are full of irreconcilable problems, contradictions, and lack anything whatsoever that suggests they might be true, but I do not understand the annoyance when you query "why?"

The idea that the lack of belief in an afterlife is rooted in a lack of imagination or curiosity is risible nonsense. It's human curiosity in the form of scientific scrutiny that has failed to produce anything whatsoever that would suggest these things are reality. The more educated a population becomes, the more they turn away from religion.

Show quote history

I don't agree. I think quantum physics reveals all sort of underlying issues with what we glibly call 'reality', as if there were one stable, uniform level of material existence. There has also been considerable scientific support for multiverse theories, which would mean there are multiple realities, that may or may not intersect with ours. The more we do science, the more strange the universe becomes.

peebles32 · 15/08/2023 01:41

Love this.
My mum died and I read a lot about where consciousness goes.
I listened to an amazing podcast and it was about World War Two pilots who had passed out due to the g force. It was interesting that quite a few said they had transcended out of their bodies and could see themselves flying the plane.
It just seemed too coincidental that they all reported the same thing.
I don't believe in an afterlife as such but we did exist in the womb and remember nothing. This might happen after death.
There is an American cardiologist who studied NDAs and it is really interesting that people report the same thing after they getCPR. A feeling of peace, light and love.
We are energy. I think we just change states.
I am quite spiritual and follow Michael Singer, Alan Watts and Elkhart Tolle. Think it's Alan Watts who said life might just be a dream. When we die , we wake up.

Friarclose · 15/08/2023 04:55

I'd be torn.

I'm a staunch atheist so I already believe there's no afterlife.

That said, since my beloved grandmother died in 2020, I have found it inconceivable to believe I'll never see her again. I feel almost panicked at the thought. Her death was sudden as she had a fall and died 3 weeks later and during those 3 weeks she became delusional and delirious and didn't know who I was. I never got to say goodbye. She was one of my favourite people in the world. To think I'll never get to see her again and have her know me... to have that proven, yes, I think I'd find that incredibly hard to deal with.

LinMortisanass · 15/08/2023 07:58

Louloulouenna · 14/08/2023 17:26

Yes, I wasted far too much time sitting through enforced church services in my youth. I remember when I was about 17 sitting there and thinking “this is just utter bilge” and it was a like a weight lifting from my shoulders.

My in laws are deeply religious and it never ceases to amaze me how unkind and hurtful some religious people can be. They seem to be under the impression that because they go to church they are somehow automatically good people rather than living a life which would actually make them good people.

I’ve been careful not to influence my children but they are all atheists too.

I used to work with a very religious woman who went to Mass on all the holy days of obligation, crossed herself and prayed during the day, talked about God a lot etc. She bullied me from the day I started, by literally laughing in my face, making snide comments about my work and my looks etc. It's almost as if some religious people think as long as they say sorry they are forgiven anyway, so they can be as nasty as they like.