Discussion Is there any way for an atheist to believe in an afterlife just in order to CTB?

[Aknu132]

I can't conceive that almost my entire life has been a misfortune and that I'll never have a good life, due to physical and mental health reasons and because of the environment. I'll have to die. The issue here is that it's so difficult to accept this, to accept that I'll never have the life I've always wanted. I desire it so much, but at the same time I can't have anything, nothing is within my reach. I try to force my brain to believe in some kind of afterlife so that it will be easier for me to finally achieve death, but it seems impossible. I'm quite an atheist, although I wish I wasn't. I want to have the feeling that I'll have the life I've always wanted after death. Is there any remedy, something, a way to achieve this?

 

[peacebenow]

I think using your imagination to believe in whatever brings you the most peace such as telling yourself a story is lovely thing to do.

 

[OnMyLast Legs]

I used to think eternal oblivion wasn't scary, only hell was scary.

Then I became suicidal as an atheist and thought whoa, nothing forever...I don't think I'm ready for that.

Then when non-suicidal I went back to believing in heaven and hell anyway.

 

[bl33ding_heart]

You don't have to believe in god to believe in an afterlife, if that's something making it difficult for you.

 

[Cauliflour]

Philosophy is complex anyway. Just because you're an atheist doesn't mean you have to believe in the "and then nothing" afterlife theory cause really, nobody knows what happens when we die. Let your imagination go wild, might as well.

 

[DeadnDusted]

That's something ive been thinking about the past few days too. I know it's just a coping mechanism but to alleviate the fact that it's all shit and going to cut to nothingness I simply decided to believe in the possibility of an afterlife where I get the life ive always wanted, in my opinion thats better than spending my last breaths agonizing and cursing at world.

 

[ZeroRedz02]

It's nothing to have with death itself, but when i was in pharmalogically coma, i did dream weird things and they was looking so realistic like i was there..

 

[v0wkeeper]

being an atheist doesn't mean you can't believe in an afterlife. after all no one of us know if there's an afterlife, especially if it's a good one.

 

[iwanttodie019]

I can't conceive that almost my entire life has been a misfortune and that I'll never have a good life, due to physical and mental health reasons and because of the environment. I'll have to die. The issue here is that it's so difficult to accept this, to accept that I'll never have the life I've always wanted. I desire it so much, but at the same time I can't have anything, nothing is within my reach. I try to force my brain to believe in some kind of afterlife so that it will be easier for me to finally achieve death, but it seems impossible. I'm quite an atheist, although I wish I wasn't. I want to have the feeling that I'll have the life I've always wanted after death. Is there any remedy, something, a way to achieve this?

I am also an atheist and i wish i wasn't.Ignorance is bliss.But beliefs don't work that way.
How old are you?

 

[underairpressure]

Been thinking of a similar thing, I'm not an "atheist" exactly (in the "no one knows and can never know until we're gone" camp), but the uncertainty is enough to cause extreme hesitance, pain, and terror for me. Even when I know I can never have a happy life. I can "imagine" any afterlife I want, but it does nothing for the uncertainty. And I want there to be something, ANYTHING, so badly

I wish I could convince myself there was something, and I mean ACTUALLY believe it, even just to soothe my pain and fear. I know there's nothing to look forward to for me here, but the idea that there won't even be solace or peace after this horrible life is finally over........ it hurts

 

[Zyntkalla]

I am an atheist but I didn't believe in an gods but I like to believe in reincarnation. Anyway I don't like the idea of heven & hell it more whether it's ether one it's more the eternity part is unfair & unjustified. At least with reincarnation you can have a chance to have a better life. I can say I do like some of the old stories about the gods though.

 

[Spite]

I've been having very similar thoughts lately. I've never been religious but the thought of eternal oblivion - total nothingness - does scare me sometimes, so does the thought of being banished to Hell after I die.

I think this is just out of sheer desperation and I'm on some nuclear-grade Copium, but sometimes in my head I like to imagine that when I die, all my hardships, all the pain and struggling and agony I had to go through while I was alive, will all be worth it in the end. I like to imagine there is an afterlife waiting for me (and everyone, really), and in this afterlife it is blissful and perfect in every way. I can be happy and have all the joy and fulfilment that I wasn't able to have while I was alive.

What I envision in my head is like an entirely different dimension, a new realm way different from Earth. I imagine this utopic afterlife as a place that is like one of those 'Frutiger Aero' pictures you may see on the Internet, like, large fields of deep green grass with futuristic skyscrapers in the background and bubbles in the sky. This realm has a day and night cycle - in the day it's like Frutiger Aero, and at night, it's like the 'Astrum' world from Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble - and I can dance on dark cosmic purple glass platforms and immerse myself in all the pretty lights all around me, and awe at the beautiful star-lit night sky. I will never have to worry about having to work a 9-to-5, I will be surrounded by all the people I love, everything will be positive all the time - there is no such thing as pain and suffering in this afterlife. I want it to be real...

Sorry if I got a bit carried away in the spoiler there. ^^;

 

[ZwartHartje]

I can't believe that this incarceration in a human body should be the only kind of existence I'll ever have. I've looked a lot into NDEs, and it seems that I'm right...
I recommend having a look at this site: https://www.nderf.org/

 

[DeathSweetDeath]

No need to believe in god to believe in the possibility of an afterlife, they don't necessarily have to be connected.

 

[Dandelion's]

No need to believe in god to believe in the possibility of an afterlife, they don't necessarily have to be connected.

I think many people do tend to forget atheism means not believing in a god. You could still believe there's an afterlife or divine power even just not a creator.

 

[telekon]

really? you'd be surprised how scary suicide is when you're not an atheist.

hilarious how I'd like to change places with you for the exact same reason. the only reason I don't kill myself is because I believe in the possibility of afterlife, and what that could mean in a negative sense if I were to die early.

 

[Numinous]

Yeah, take DMT. Although, it'll have the added side-effect of causing a radical shift in your perspective and making you give life another shot. But it's a double-edged sword to me. I was a nihilistic atheist before taking psychedelics. Not anymore, but now death has become scarier and most exhausting to me. I would have preferred an eternal void, but psyches messed up that fantasy.

really? you'd be surprised how scary suicide is when you're not an atheist.

hilarious how I'd like to change places with you for the exact same reason. the only reason I don't kill myself is because I believe in the possibility of afterlife, and what that could mean in a negative sense if I were to die early.

Infinite mind can conjure infinite realities which can range between the poles of absolute paradise and nightmare beyond comprehension. For me, dying has now become an existential gamble. Least there is certainty in my miserable reality here.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

i don't believe in any afterlife nor reincarnation , 1 second after my brain dies it will be Non-Existence forever

Eternal Non-Existence is much better to me because why would i want to risk suffering a trillion times worse than the worst i can imagine? there's always the possibility of suffering extremely or unbearable pain any second i live or exist . why is the capacity to suffer excruciatingly a good thing? why ?

None of us existed for 13.8 bilion years before we were born . and every second of those years none of us were bothered by not existing , we had no problems no bad memories no suffering no pain . it will be like that again after the brain dies.

no Non-Existence forever is not just much better to me but better by a septilion times than living or existing . Eternal non-Existence is as as good as the worst pain and torture in living is bad.

people don't know how bad pain or suffering can get. imagine a giant steel griddle scalding hot 600 degrees over coals. what kind of pain if a human is put the whole bare skin against scalding hot red hot metal? and held there as in the brazen bull torture? what's worth even 1 second of that ? nothing to me ever not a freaking 80 years of stupid pleasure garbage addictions. what is worth 3 seconds of that unbearable pain the whole skin against 600 degrees hot metal? 10 seconds? 5 minutes? 10 hours? 40 years?

as long as a sentient or conscious animal or human exists there is a posibility of continously suffering unbearable pain every second non-stop for years. that many humans believe in afterlives this increases the probabiliity of that hell also for extending the torture not just for 100 years of continous unbearable pain every second of those hundred years but for millions of years since they believe their conscious doesn't die after a human lifespan .

I'm just a brain that can suffer unending constant continous unbearable pain : to me this is an abomination beyond imagination.

Permanent Non-Existence is the escape from hell to me and the escape from that abomination

i don't see how being tortured unbearably is better than Not existing as before i was born into this hell

so people are scared of the time before they were born ? but not of suffering a hell a trillion times worse than one can imagine as i described here the unbearable pain every second

they constantly praise Life ( which equals this ability to suffer unbearable pain as posted here ) they praise life as something beautiful .they even have everyone believing that if you want to suicide to escape such pain that you are mentally ill . and Eternal Non-Existence is demonized as something very bad the worst thing as if the inability to suffer no worries no problems was something bad or evil. no to me life which can torture a human or animal to unlimited extents is what is evil. how many quadrillions of animals and billions of humans has life tortured?

 

[HNR_]

I think believing in a deity and believing in the afterlife are two separate things, like people above said

Personally, I really hope there is an afterlife, a place where one can do pretty much whatever they want, however they want while feeling at peace and reuniting with people they've known
Since Spite already compared their ideal version of it to some games, I picture it to be something like VRchat in a way where you can visit other people, interact with them and even visit other "worlds" created by these people as well as making your own to live in or roam around or other eras on earth

If there's nothing though, no other side, I wouldn't be mad...well, not like I'd even be able to be mad if I stop existing in the first place but you get what I mean haha

 

[dust-in-the-wind]

I am agnostic because no human being currently alive can know for sure if there is an afterlife, let alone what it might entail. However, I believe we are living in a purgatory state right now. For some of us life is like heaven, with minimal suffering. For others it is absolute hell. I know this for a fact, as my severe depression has brought me to a pain level I could never imagine existed. Sometimes I think this is my punishment for something horrible I may have done in a past life. So maybe reincarnation is possible. But I hope that nothing exists after we die as I am scared it could be worse than what I have already experienced. Other thoughts I have is we all belong to a collective consciousness that our energy just returns to and maybe gets recycled.

 

[broken serenity]

We don't actually understand what consciousness is generated from other than our brains. Like sure our brains make us move and decide, but why do we also feel like an I? Gravity is similar. Why should an object exert gravity upon other things?

They explain gravity with fields and say that within the gravitational field, any amount of mass exerts gravity. I like to imagine there's a field of consciousness and that any sufficiently complex thinking object generates some level of consciousness.

So when I die my consciousness will rejoin the field and I'll just be part of everything again. Idk what that would look like, but I imagine it would feel peaceful and endless in a freeing way. I dream I'll understand things I don't now, and be at peace with what I couldn't do or comprehend in this life.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

i don't believe in any afterlife nor reincarnation , 1 second after my brain dies it will be Non-Existence forever

Eternal Non-Existence is much better to me because why would i want to risk suffering a trillion times worse than the worst i can imagine? there's always the possibility of suffering extremely or unbearable pain any second i live or exist . why is the capacity to suffer excruciatingly a good thing? why ?

None of us existed for 13.8 bilion years before we were born . and every second of those years none of us were bothered by not existing , we had no problems no bad memories no suffering no pain . it will be like that again after the brain dies.

no Non-Existence forever is not just much better to me but better by a septilion times than living or existing . Eternal non-Existence is as as good as the worst pain and torture in living is bad.

people don't know how bad pain or suffering can get. imagine a giant steel griddle scalding hot 600 degrees over coals. what kind of pain if a human is put the whole bare skin against scalding hot red hot metal? and held there as in the brazen bull torture? what's worth even 1 second of that ? nothing to me ever not a freaking 80 years of stupid pleasure garbage addictions. what is worth 3 seconds of that unbearable pain the whole skin against 600 degrees hot metal? 10 seconds? 5 minutes? 10 hours? 40 years?

as long as a sentient or conscious animal or human exists there is a posibility of continously suffering unbearable pain every second non-stop for years. that many humans believe in afterlives this increases the probabiliity of that hell also for extending the torture not just for 100 years of continous unbearable pain every second of those hundred years but for millions of years since they believe their conscious doesn't die after a human lifespan .

I'm just a brain that can suffer unending constant continous unbearable pain : to me this is an abomination beyond imagination.

Permanent Non-Existence is the escape from hell to me and the escape from that abomination

i don't see how being tortured unbearably is better than Not existing as before i was born into this hell

so people are scared of the time before they were born ? but not of suffering a hell a trillion times worse than one can imagine as i described here the unbearable pain every second

they constantly praise Life ( which equals this ability to suffer unbearable pain as posted here ) they praise life as something beautiful .they even have everyone believing that if you want to suicide to escape such pain that you are mentally ill . and Eternal Non-Existence is demonized as something very bad the worst thing as if the inability to suffer no worries no problems was something bad or evil. no to me life which can torture a human or animal to unlimited extents is what is evil. how many quadrillions of animals and billions of humans has life tortured?

just some reasons why there is no afterlife reincarnation nothing after Death

there is no evidence for any afterlife , reincarnation , soul

no one has found not even a single observation , detection or evidence of anything that could be even remotely related to an afterlife

all the tech , instruments nothing

people have billions of HD cameras but nobody has taken any video of a spirit or anything supernatural

they tried to fake a videos with ai but those were debunked.. so why would they need to fake?

why are ghosts everything supernatural hiding so well from every instrument and scientist

a human is just another animal , cells chemical reactions , a machine.

evolution is true. at what point in evolution was a soul installed and by who? at the chimp, monkey, mouse, lizard , fish , worm , ameoba, bacteria? do amoebas have souls no it's a machine.

why would a soul be needed if the brain can do all the thinking ,emotions , consciousness etc?

the cells in a human are the same cells in other animals. all cells have the same fundamental machines like DNA, ribosomes , genetic code, ATP, RNA

All Life on Earth Comes From One Single Ancestor. And It's So Much Older Than We Thought.

Scientists have pushed back LUCA’s origin by hundreds of millions of years.

www.popularmechanics.com

a soul afterlife would violate the law of Entropy and all the laws of physics and the universe. for example where is the energy source for a soul?

scientists and humans have done a lot of work to experiment and find out how life originated and evolved. these are fact in thousands of books.

 

[Worndown]

Everyone dies, regardless of belief.