One of the questions people of faith often ask atheists is how they deal with the idea that death is the end- that there is no afterlife.

[Hakluyt]

I just found a copy of my mother's funeral "service" which included a paragraph written by Brian Cox, which explains it perfectly for me.

"Our story is the story of the Universe. Every piece of everyone and everything you love, of everything you hate, of everything you hold precious was assembled in the first few minutes of the life of the Universe, and transformed in the hearts of stars, or created in their fiery deaths. When you die, those pieces will be returned to the Universe in the endless cycle of death and rebirth. What a wonderful thing to be part of that Universe. And what a story. What a majestic story!"

I can see they are beautiful words, Hakluyt :) And I'm glad they bring comfort to people, and hope that the funeral was as good as it could be - I'm sorry for the loss of your mother.

To me it's even more majestic and glorious to be a part of a universe created by God, that God shaped the beauty of this earth and the beauty of us, and longs so much for us to spend eternity with God because of God's utter and outrageous love for us, that we have a purpose beyond the recycling of death and rebirth. I believe God made us with a spirit, a depth that goes beyond the physical of the sum of our parts. I do not think there needs to be that end where all that made us will be recycled, but understand there is a comfort in that too.

I'm an aetheist. I have no problem with accepting that death is the end of my life and that's it. Why do people want or need to believe in an afterlife? I genuinely would like to know.

I'm an atheist and have no fear about the lack of an afterlife - it will be how it was before I was born.

What I do feel is the remarkable luck I have to have been born in the first place. It is a result of countless chance events over billions of years that led to the moment of my conception. How fantastic is that.

I find the notion of an afterlife troubling, not reassuring. I'm glad to not have to think about it. This is life, and then it ends. It's sad to lose someone, but we are sad because they are not with us. They aren't with us if they are "in heaven" either.

That's a really good question, box. I sometimes wonder to myself about the need for an 'afterlife.'

For me, it's all bound up with my experience in this life of a God who loves. My life feels immeasurably fuller with experience of this God, and moments of knowing this in clarity give me an an enticing glimpse into what eternity with God would be like. To be honest, if I didn't believe in God, I don't think I'd be fussed about the idea of an afterlife - the idea of just living again in some kind of unknown realm seems so strange and not particularly attractive, I'd prefer to simply cease being, so I can totally understand why you feel this way.

It's really hard to explain - for me, when I worship God there is a sense of rightness, of everything coming together, of incredible beauty and I know there is more and greater of that to come, and I can't wait. I look at all the goodness and beauty in this world around us, and think about how the bible promises that all will be renewed and restored to what it should be, all suffering will end, and also justice will be done, so all loose ends will be tied. I can't get my head round the idea of 'eternity' really, it seems extraordinary and a completely barmy thing to believe in, doesn't it - but that's Christian faith for you!

This is a purely Christian perspective, though. My ideas of 'afterlife' (a term I actually don't really like, it has connotations of floaty ghosties and zombies) are more to do with eternity with a God I have come to love than re-uniting with loved ones - though obviously I hope very much to do so.

I'd be interested to hear ideas of why people believe in an afterlife from other perspectives too.

The idea of heaven as somewhere that you meet up with family members and can continue to follow the hobbies of this life is very much a 19th century one. For a recent course I read 'Heaven' by McDannell and Lang which charts the history of heaven from a paradise garden through to a very personal one that is in the popular imagination today. It seems that you can learn a lot about culture by looking at how people describe how any afterlife will be.

If as an atheist or agnostic the idea that you are recycled into the universe gives comfort then that is a really good thing - we are stardust - beautifully and wonderfully made.

The Christian view of the afterlife is one of resurrection and the renewing of all creation but Jesus taught a great deal about living in the world now (love your neighbour, care for those who are sick etc) so I mostly don't worry too much about what happens next. I just hope that getting there is not too painful and doesn't cause too much mess on the way.

Another atheist here - I think that perhaps the idea of an afterlife is of more comfort to those left behind than it is for those who are facing death. I can't imagine that anyone - atheist, theist, deist, whatever, isn't somewhat afraid of the dying process, as opposed to being dead - but I can't understand a fear of oblivion - there is literally nothing to fear.

What seems to be the 'comfort' aspect of belief is that we will be reunited with people we have loved and lost - but again, I'm not sure why theists see mourning as a reasonable thing to do, given that they a) believe that their dead loved one is in a better, happier place and that b) they will be reunited with them after death.

Another thing I've never quite grasped is why a loving god would leave us with so much uncertainty and force us to go through the pain of loss and mourning - nor exactly what benefit said god gets from being worshipped, other than ego-stroking on a cosmic scale. 'Hey, cheers god, for making us suffer here on earth in order that we can really appreciate just how brilliant what comes after this life is'. I think it's much more likely that religion developed out of a need to explain the inexplicable (why does the sun come up, why does it go down, how did everything come into being?) and give a rationale to the concept that some people are more privileged than others - just a way of those in power justifying their power over others, and maintaining the status quo.

I do like your quote, Hakluyt - personally I rather like those eco-pod things that have been in the news in recent days, where you can become a tree after death. I've always fancied being a tree :)

"I do like your quote, Hakluyt - personally I rather like those eco-pod things that have been in the news in recent days, where you can become a tree after death. I've always fancied being a tree smile"

My mother would have really gone for that! She died 4 years ago at the age of 94- and frequently said that she had been "brought up by trees"........

I'm a Christian, but like your quote, Hakluyt, and don't find it incompatible with what I believe at all. Your last post and FurryDogMother's reminded me of this, which I read at my DMIL's funeral (she was a Christian, I was at best agnostic at the time - this didn't seem inappropriate either way, and was originally given to me by a Christian minister).

Annals of Innocence and Experience

The death of each of us is in the order of things: it follows life as surely as night follows day. We can take the Tree of Life as a symbol. The human race is the trunk and branches of this tree, and individual men and women are the leaves, which appear one season, flourish for a summer, and then die. I too am like a leaf of this tree and one day I shall be torn off by a storm, or simply decay and fall - and mingle with the earth at its roots. But, while I live, I am conscious of the tree's flowing sap and steadfast strength. Deep down in my consciousness is the consciousness of a collective life, a life of which I am a part, and to which I make a minute but significant contribution. When I die and fall the tree remains, nourished to some small degree by my manifestation of life. Millions of leaves have preceded me and millions will follow me: but the tree itself grows and endures.

Herbert Read

there's another one which I've posted before:

bornagainpagan.com/texts/021-the-physicist-eulogy.htm

for me, not bothered at all. My job is to make the most of the time I have.

Today is the anniversary of my unique, beautiful friend’s death. As an atheist and scientist, I find some solace in Brian Cox’s words – yet, somehow, they are not enough. When, I think of my friend, I feel that the matter and energy from which his body was constructed was not him, any more than a story is the paper and ink of the book containing it.

It seems more relevant to me, if we are to address the issue from a scientific viewpoint, to think about the fate of the information content my friend encapsulated in his mind rather than the matter and energy content of his body. His identity lay more in the complex pattern of his consciousness – in his story rather than his paper and ink. Did that pattern of information just cease to be?

Could the information content of the universe be conserved like energy (and matter) is conserved? (We know,at least, that the information content of an isolated quantum mechanical system is conserved.)

I am not sure what, if any, significance the conservation of total information content of the universe might have for the continuity of my friend’s consciousness in some differently encoded form. But, as I feel his identity resided in the pattern of information that was his mind, the mere possibility of information conservation is more comforting than matter and energy conservation to me.

I hope not to hijack your thread, but to only add some information from my personal experience. I like that quote Hakluyt, as this feels like truth for me.

Outside of any religious teaching, I observe people's energy. It's not just inside their bodies, it is also external. I found it hard dealing with death until I realised, we do continue, and this has been proven to me on many levels throughout my life. Regardless of that, we have animated bodies from a life force of creation. How could that energy die? The body dies, yes. But, the life force....? In my experience, it still remains, observable in a different state. Very much retaining intelligence and personality.

Knowing some athiests who have passed, and communicated once they did, remarking on how surprised they actually were to be still existing.

However, we are alive NOW, so we must make the most of it while we are here. It shouldn't really be a consideration in daily life about what will happen when we leave the body, as this is not exactly the best use of our time, is it? We have life NOW...... :)

"nowing some athiests who have passed, and communicated once they did, remarking on how surprised they actually were to be still existing."

Sorry- no they didn't and no they weren't.

I'm an atheist and have no problem accepting when my time is up. The afterlife, to me, is knowing my actions, deeds and children will live on.

Carl Sagan -
Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.

I can live with that

It took me a while to accept there was no afterlife /heaven/paradise but now I'm cool with it.

The humanist perspective is to achieve everything you want and make the most of your time alive. I think it's a sensible approach.

06/03/2015 08:00 Hakluyt

"nowing some athiests who have passed, and communicated once they did, remarking on how surprised they actually were to be still existing."

Sorry- no they didn't and no they weren't.

Thanks for your opinion on my experiences, no need to be sorry. I'm not here to argue, but to simply express true accounts in my life and my beliefs have been altered based on several experiences.