Would you still follow your faith if you didn't believe there was an afterlife/reward?

[ReallySpicyCurry]

Just something I've been thinking on recently, and I don't mean to offend anyone.

When I was a young child, my family were very religious. I was taken to church a lot, and some of my earliest memories are basically of me sitting there thinking "no, I don't buy this, sorry".

Some of my family are still religious and some are not. I have family/friends who follow a fairly wide range of faiths. All ok. From what I see, the core message of most of them is roughly the same, and they all have something in common - basically that after you're dead, you'll go somewhere nice, if you follow that particular belief.

I've never seen the problem with death. Everything ends. As a gardener, I appreciate the natural cycle of a plant as it grows through the seasons, and it's very similar to us, really. I don't have a problem with essentially turning into a compost heap, hopefully once I'm very old and done. I don't see anything particularly awful about dying and knowing nothing more once I'm dead. Sleep isn't horrible and scary, so I assume death won't be either. It's weird to think of all the things that make up me being gone forever - I've put a lot of effort into me- but you should have seen my annual flowerbed this year. Glorious it was, and I started preparing for it long before a seed even sprouted, but now there's nothing left. I put the effort in, it was beautiful, I was happy, then it ended, and that, to me, is an analogy for life.

I'm very afraid of some things, but being dead isn't one of them. I'm afraid of being helpless and in pain, the process of death being undignified and awful, but not of actually being dead and at an end, and it seems a lot of people are afraid of that.

I wouldn't steal, commit adultry, or murder or any of that anyway, because that's causing needless and life changing pain to other people, so of course I wouldn't.

When I was younger, there were times when I would have liked to believe in something, but I just couldn't. It would be like believing in a storybook I'd just read. I just seem to lack the ability,and I wonder if it's because essentially I don't see any particular issue with the way life plays out in a living creature, which as humans, we are - I mean we're very clever and all, but we've a lifespan, just the same.

So, I know it's a ramble - but, really and truly, is it the "reward" of an afterlife, so to speak, which is the motivation to follow a religion? If that was taken away, would you bother? If you knew you'd live your threescore and ten, and after that, oblivion? Would it matter?

Such a difficult question to answer as belief in an afterlife is such an intrinsic part of my faith.
However I don't follow my faith just because I believe there is an afterlife. There is so much more to faith than that.
I'm sure someone else will be along to express it better than this !

I don't see the point of following rituals and rules if you don't believe in any consequence later.

You can be moral and ethical about your life choices. Morality and religion are not mutually exclusive.

I stopped practising completely when I stopped believing in my religion's version of God.

I think it's very manipulatuve of a God to create people to watch over, have worship him and test their loyalty. If God knows everything he would know what choices we will make and then to punish us or reward us over them is ridiculous.

When I hear of someone culturally practising or paying lipservice to religion I think what a hypocrite.. but on a level i do see why the religious want to keep those half hearted believers.. strength in number and all that. I can also understand the pressure of faking believing for an easier life at least or for fear of persecution at worst.

Its an interesting question as i know people who wouldn't say they belonged to any religion who still believe in something after death and i know religious people who arent really thinking about heaven /hell at all and see it as the way to live meaningfully to them now.

For me, the afterlife was never a big motivator which was odd, having grown in Evangelical American communities with a mother who loved her some hellfire tele-evangelists (I still have John Hagee's 'fire burns if you believe it or not' speech burnt into my brain and watching that with an intoxicated parent is a mindfuck).

One of the big draws when I was working with Chasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities was that while there are various ideas around the afterlife there, for most it wasn't a focus either. The rituals were around making ties to the community and doing good (based on Torah, Rabbinical, and community ideas of that) because it would make themselves and others better rather than an eventual reward (though, like the Evangelicals, there were some a little too focused on a Messianic Age as a reward for my comfort).

For me, the pull to religious and other communities was having an agreed upon to view on how to be good and make things better and having that sense of belonging to people who wanted the same. My leaving those groups was always instigated by seeing corruption within the community. It took me a while to see any ideological group that tries to make an "objective" idea of right and wrong is going to have that, that the ideals will be used to harm and be put aside when it benefits those in power. It took my a while to see what I wanted was community and that it didn't need a long standing ethical or legalistic tradition to be a sounding board for moral issues.

I do still partake in some rituals. Día de Muertos is a Christian, mainly Catholic with ties to pre-colonial polytheism in many communities. For me, even though I don't believe in an individualistic afterlife (I'm open to the idea that some of what remains of us may join a kind of universal energy that we can't yet percieve, though equally open that all the remains is our corpse and memories in others -- but just like how we change as we grow old and damage to the brain changes us, the idea that in death we'd be this perfect snapshot of who were in life makes no sense to me), I think those type of community rituals of remembering those who have died, having dedicated time to talk about death and what we value in life and dying together, I think that has a lot of value regardless of what we think happens next.

Yes, I would. The idea of going to Heaven has never been important to me. I just want to worship God and live a Christian life of service while I am alive. I don't really care what happens after that (as long as I don't have to spend eternity in a fiery pit of doom.)

I would, in fact I do - but then I don't follow my religion as a 'faith'. I follow it as a cultural and spiritual tradition. Neither me to anyone in our families actually believes in God, but following the traditions is still meaningful and rewarding!

I'm Jewish, btw.

Is it the "reward" of an afterlife, so to speak, which is the motivation to follow a religion?

No. I am a Christian as that is my upbringing but I spent a long time atheist moving to agnosticism. Now I have faith because God showed up in my life. I go to church and I pray as those are the best ways I can think of to serve God, give thanks and praise.

I vaguely believed in heaven as an agnostic. I dont think we are all going to be sitting on clouds strumming harps. I think our consciousness goes somewhere. As a Christian I hope for bodily resurrection in Christ and the coming of God's kingdom on earth but I remain circumspect. Knowing God is possible in this life but understanding heaven seems hard if not impossible.

If that was taken away, would you bother?

Yes. Having God in my life is an end in itself. Its not always easy to feel connected to God. He is a support in this life, which gives me some confidence in that continuing after we die. But heaven aside I am grateful to God for everything he has done. I try to start and end my day thanking God.

If you knew you'd live your threescore and ten, and after that, oblivion? Would it matter?

Not so much, but were that true then it would be all the more important to discover God. I guess I hope I have the luxury of eternity to find out more. So my "reward" when I die is a journey of discovery and I hope for some better understanding of God after I die.

I can't deny it would be disappointing not to get to go on that great journey. Better to live in hope and you wouldnt know about the disappointment if death is the end.

I’m cheerfully atheist after a cradle Catholic upbringing, but I think it’s like Pascal’s wager for many people — eg a rational person should behave as though God exists. If he doesn’t, you’ve only lost out on finite pleasures, but if he exists, the believer stands to gain infinitely in a blissful eternal life in Heaven and to avoid the ultimate loss of hell.

Absolutely, yes. I find that the key ideas of my faith enrich everyday life: gratitude, forgiveness, help and support beyond my own strength, community, and the ironic joy of service, where you end up receiving more than you give - all of these are life enhancing. I lack the imagination to imagine what happens after death, but I'm very glad that these things are part of my life here and now.

Yes I would still be a Christian. Being a Christian gives me great comfort here and now. It feel right to me. I believe there is a God and he loves me warts and all. I feel the teaching of Jesus is a way of life I want to try and follow, and it makes the world around me a better place.
I find love your neighbour as yourself is the hardest thing for me to try and do, yet produces the most good.

My faith doesn't involve belief in an afterlife (or technically, for some in the same faith it does) so it makes no difference to me

Okay so some people are saying they'd keep their religion anyway, but the reward must be important to many as believers often use Pascal's Wager as an argument for believing. They say it's worth going through the motions for the sake of the reward.