What happens when we die?

[Ace Rimmer]

What say you? Heaven/Hell, reincarnation, nothing...

I'm particularly interested in what you atheists believe.

[creator]

Im more of an Agnostic than an aetheist but i think it doesnt matter what happens after death as without belief you cant be sure...So just live your life how you feel is best.

[Xocrates]

If an atheist gives an answer other than nothing, then I doubt he/she is an atheist.

That said, I don't have reason to act in any way other than an atheist, so obviously I picked nothing. That does not prevent me however of imagining many other possibilities.

[Stewsburntmonkey]

Im more of an Agnostic than an aetheist but i think it doesnt matter what happens after death as without belief you cant be sure...So just live your life ow you feel is best.

I concur. I tend to nominally believe in some form of afterlife, but I don't particularly feel that it affects the way I live. I figure we'll find out sooner or later.

[coolsi]

I'd say "Who cares?" - I'm never going to know what happens so there's not much point spending time thinking about it.

[Feud]

I'd say "Who cares?" - I'm never going to know what happens so there's not much point spending time thinking about it.

You only won't know if there isn't anything afterwards. So if you believe you won't ever know, then your vote would be for "nothing" or "cease to exist".





As for myself, my vote is for the "three degrees of glory", as per my religous beliefs (I must admit that I was surprised to see it listed up there, well done Ace!). A simple but proper explanation of this idea can be found on the following websites (to be viewed in order as each one explains a certain part of what happens after this life):

long link #1

long link #2

long link #3

(edit by NeoThermic - lets not stretch the page!)

[BrianBlessed]

Technically if you're an atheist you can believe in something other than nothing, because nothing in itself needs some form of explanation. There's the traditional sense of complete non-existance, the unfathomable fact that you won't be able to think about the fact you are dead because you don't exist. Several years ago there was also some research done into the Quantum aspects of brain activity in relation to human consciousness. The research fundementally centred around the fact that coma patients had been monitored to have no brain activity, yet patients who came out of the comas frequently stated that they dreamed or some kind of experience that would imply brain activity despite there being none. So you could flimsily weave something out of that, such that when you die you'll essentially go into an eternal dreamstate wherein you could imagine you never died or are in a heaven type place or become satan. That said, as we don't technically know the extent to which our perception of reality is verifiable, we could be in what's class as an eternal dream to begin with and thus such beliefs are of equal plausibility to existing in the first place.

You also have the role of solipsists here, whose views of death varies largely depending on the extent of their solipsism. It again hinges on the fact that we can never really be sure of the extent of the real, however in the solipsist's case it essentially can mean that he is the only thing/being/the universe itself and his entire perception is a world he has woven and thus has nothing to fear from death.

I'm rather unsure because it depends largely on human perception of time. Generally i'll stick to the unfathomable horror of stopping existing one day, however the progression of time is a fickle thing and as with permenant amnesia patients who wake up several years later one day with no memory of what occured in the previous years I wonder why I already don't not exist now. The fact that I feel like I exist now, despite the fact i'm going to not exist after a finite length of time, is a rather large conceptual problem for me. It means I can't really put an absolute view on what happens after death, because that assume that I believe in Philosophical realism and a universe independent of observers.

[xander]

Hey, Feud, those links really stretch out the page. Any chance you could use a couple of [url][/url] tags? Thanks.

As to the question at hand, my answer is not covered: autolysis, consumption by bug larva, bacteria, fungi, &c., and eventual complete decomposition. There is some possibility of fossilization, or preservation due to the chemical environment, but these options are rare.

xander

[shinygerbil]

Yeah, but those things can happen if you're still alive.

[ynbniar]

Yeah, but those things can happen if you're still alive.

Only to folk who try the shinyBonsai manoeuvre!

[Feud]

Sorry guys, I didn't realize it had stretched ot the page for everyone, I'll be more careful in the future.

[Deamon]

It's things like this that can keep you up at night, huh?

[Ace Rimmer]

For those that chose "nothing" or essentially stated in some form or fashion that there is no afterlife I wonder what keeps you going on in life? If you simply "don't know" what happens and have no concrete belief, you're not included here. However, if you truly believe that there is no reward/punishment after this life is over, what then is the reason for living in the first place?

From what I can see, in most beliefs of the afterlife you leave behind the physical but carry on something such as your experience or your character or some such thing. You basically get to keep what makes you who you are (mentally/spiritually). If even that ends with death, it seems that the logical conclusion would be that life in and of itself is pointless. ??

[BrianBlessed]

For those that chose "nothing" or essentially stated in some form or fashion that there is no afterlife I wonder what keeps you going on in life? If you simply "don't know" what happens and have no concrete belief, you're not included here. However, if you truly believe that there is no reward/punishment after this life is over, what then is the reason for living in the first place?

From what I can see, in most beliefs of the afterlife you leave behind the physical but carry on something such as your experience or your character or some such thing. You basically get to keep what makes you who you are (mentally/spiritually). If even that ends with death, it seems that the logical conclusion would be that life in and of itself is pointless. ??

Well it is pointless, it's not like a video game where you have a set of objectives and can either fail or succeed. Life is just a series of seemingly random and pointless occurances, infact the only reason to not immediately slit your own throat with a piece of rusty tin is the fact that suicide would be an equally pointless act. On the upside, if you do stay alive you can seek to try to equate quite how pointless life is to begin with, which is perhaps an admirable feat to attempt.

[xander]

For those that chose "nothing" or essentially stated in some form or fashion that there is no afterlife I wonder what keeps you going on in life? If you simply "don't know" what happens and have no concrete belief, you're not included here. However, if you truly believe that there is no reward/punishment after this life is over, what then is the reason for living in the first place?

Let me flip the question around: certain branches of Christianity (several fundamentalist branches, Calvinists, &c.) believe in predestination. From the moment you are born, you are going to either heaven or hell, and there is nothing that you can do about that, either. If you are a believer in that kind of religion, what is the point of living?

For myself, I don't believe that there is any "reason" for living. Life is a happy accident, caused by the chance meeting of a particular sperm and a particular egg. We each have to come up with a reason to live for ourselves. Personally, living under the assumption that this is all there is, I live to make myself as comfortable and happy in life as I can. If this is all there is, what is the point of being an asshole?

From what I can see, in most beliefs of the afterlife you leave behind the physical but carry on something such as your experience or your character or some such thing. You basically get to keep what makes you who you are (mentally/spiritually). If even that ends with death, it seems that the logical conclusion would be that life in and of itself is pointless. ??

Life might be pointless. Why does it have to have a point? Humans are good at seeing patterns in things. Our brains seem to be wired that way. Humans like to see a "point" to things. That doesn't mean that things actually have objective reasons for existing.

xander