Share your best arguments for/against an Afterlife

[_Minsk]

I thought it might be fun to post our best arguments for or against the possibility of an afterlife:)


- if every living being (including countless bacteria) would have an afterlife, it would just make no sense
- so much suffering

+ Many NDE reports, that share a common theme of peace, love, etc

Im curious about yours:3

 

[motel rooms]

There's no person/mind/consciousness without the brain, which decomposes when you die. Everything about your mind can be destroyed forever by destroying parts of the brain. Don't buy it? Observe people who have Alzheimer's over an extended period of time.

Stories about NDE's are stories about altered states of consciousness/hallucinations*. A NEAR-death experience isn't a death experience. If it were, it would be called a fucking death experience. Death occurs when the brain dies. It takes a little time for that to happen; if the doctor managed to resuscitate you, you/your brain didn't really die & you weren't brought back from the dead, Einstein.

* Drop a sufficient dose of acid in your quiet, dark bedroom & you'll have a harmless NDE.

 

[rationaldeath]

One weird theory I have about the possibility of an afterlife involves thinking about the nature of consciousness. If we don't have a soul then consciousness appears to just be a pattern made of matter and energy, and it isn't the matter itself since that changes over the course of our lives (in the same way a wave isn't made of any particular water molecules). That means it shouldn't be impossible to replicate it, and given that the universe is so massive and will likely be around for such a long time I think it's plausible all of our consciousnesses will exist again at some point. So in that sense an afterlife seems very possible (not necessarily a good one, especially if it is replicated in some kind of simulation).

Now the important question is what exactly are "you"? If you and that pattern are the same thing, then you will "come back to life" if your consciousness is ever replicated. But what if two or more of your exact consciousness existed at the same time, would they both be you? If not, then what makes you you? Are you even the same "you" that you were years ago? Or even a minute ago?

This is a pretty strange idea but I've come to view the cohesive version of "me" that exists through time as an illusion built through memories. Think about what "you" would be if your brain lacked all short term and long term memory. There would only be the present moment with nothing to connect the moments to each other. So in this view none of us exist in the way we think we do, there are only an uncountable number of "conscious entities" that are created and destroyed constantly but each believing that it is "you".

 

[LastFlowers]

Even if there were an afterlife (there ain't) who is to say it would be heaven?
Surely no one place could be a paradise to all, we would practically have to be provided each with an individual afterlife, visiting one another at our own discretion..but then what if someone didn't want to visit?
What if that person's absence was another person's idea of hell, in and of itself?
Then what.
Seems to me with so many possibilities like that, there would be no agreeable afterlife, and therefore, it wouldn't be unlike earth, or even the proposed fire pits below.

And in the end, this endless talk of afterlives, heaven, second chances..it's all motivated by desires, not logic.
Even NDEs, as hbg put it, are not actual experiences of an existence beyond the life we know. We think of them that way because so many people want them to be.
My point is that I have not ever had the idea of an 'afterlife' sold to me as anything other than desirable, people's biases and wishful thinking allow them to speak fiction as if it is fact.

I suppose I cannot rule out something of an energy left behind..not entirely, so I probably shouldn't speak in absolutes, but I have yet to see a good argument in favor of there being life after death, and that's just more evidence to put behind the stance that there simply is no life after death.
Those claiming otherwise are the ones who should possess responsibility for the burden of proof.

Also, fuck "psychics".
Those hot and cold reading money grubbing heathens.
Horribly unethical to act as if you're speaking for the dead (mediums are the worst form of psychics.)
Those who don't claim to be serious and provide the service for fun-with such a disclaimer-I take no issue with.

 

[deflationary]

The best argument for afterlife I think is that we don't know why anything exists at all, so who's to say what this existence really is at the fundamental level. I guess that's not really so much an argument *for* afterlife per se, just an argument about the limits of our knowledge. If we can't know the full story of why the universe exists in the first place and how it came to be and all that, then some level of uncertainty about what's going on at the deepest levels will always remain. So the best argument for an afterlife imo is that it can't be *completely* ruled out.

The best arguments against afterlife are all the other arguments that have already been mentioned. Consciousness seems to be entirely generated by our physical brains; the concept of a unitary self barely makes any sense in the first place; there's just no evidence of an afterlife.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Anybody who claims to know for certain what happens to our consciousness after we die is delusional

 

[Cheza_mus]

No one knows what happens after we die..don't be deceived...

 

[demuic]

if every living being (including countless bacteria) would have an afterlife, it would just make no sense

That's one thing I rarely see brought up by those who belive in an afterlife.

Various religions have occasionally brought up the question of whether animals have "souls" and therefore receive some kind of afterlife, and the sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes the answer is no. It's quite funny to me and one thing that reveals the ridiculousness of the concept itself. What would cause a dog to go to hell?

 

[idiotstillwantstodie]

Afterlife is an oxymoron

 

[Julgran]

I hope that all ticks end up in hell - they are evil incarnate!

On the question of if there is an afterlife... well - let's say that we didn't exist for an eternity before we were born, why would there be an afterlife after we die?

...or is this current life maybe the afterlife to the previous life...?

 

[LastFlowers]

I hope that all ticks end up in hell - they are evil incarnate!

On the question of if there is an afterlife... well - let's say that we didn't exist for an eternity before we were born, why would there be an afterlife after we die?

Stink bugs need to join them.

 

[Snake of Eden]

I hope that all ticks end up in hell - they are evil incarnate!

On the question of if there is an afterlife... well - let's say that we didn't exist for an eternity before we were born, why would there be an afterlife after we die?

...or is this current life maybe the afterlife to the previous life...?

Maybe because we existed in some form before this reality? Who knows?

 

[LastFlowers]

Anybody who claims to know for certain what happens to our consciousness after we die is delusional

No one knows what happens after we die..don't be deceived...

So do you guys lean for or against the existence of an afterlife?
Usually no one is a 50/50 split and I wasn't sure from these brief statements, what direction either comment was headed in.

Are the 'deceivers' and the 'delusional' more often believers or skeptics as to the likelihood of an afterlife, in your eyes?
Or either?

 

[Lost Magic]

I am agnostic but I have always enjoyed this one.

 

[user_name_here]

I sometimes ponder the existence of an "afterlife", but i don't necessarily pin it down to heaven + hell.

The universe fascinates me and the fact that we're made up of the same stuff as stars (Atoms) has me sometimes wondering if we actually return back to being stars. Scientists often say we came from stars.

And when you calculate how many stars there are, hundreds of billions in our galaxy alone, then hundreds of billions other galaxies in our universe... i realise, there might be more stars in total than the amount of humans that have ever existed. And new stars are born at a fairly rapid rate.

But at the same time, i know how down right crazy that sounds. just fun to theorise i guess. but we can't prove/disprove much.

 

[Somber]

Not exactly an afterlife theory per se and I'm entirely not convinced I would want this to be true but I'll go full atheist.

We experience time as linear with things from the past catalogued in our brains and the future yet to come.

Yet the past doesn't get wiped from existence just because we moved ahead in time.

Looking up at a nightsky you are literally looking into the past. If a star is located at a 100 lightyears distance from Earth, it took a 100 years for that light to reach us and as such we see the star as it looked a 100 years ago.

It might have gone supernova (exploded) 50 years ago but we won't see it dissappearing for another 50 years. This works both ways so you are still being born when you'd look back at Earth from as many lightyears distance as you are years old.

Time is as such very much a dimension as is your geographical location as described by height, width and length and while you may not physically move in any other direction but the future while alive, all bets are off what rules apply when you no longer consist of matter.

 

[Enigmatic Sailor]

Death is like before you were born. Occam's Razor or some shit, breh.

 

[lostautist]

Bravo @ rationaldeath

Is consciousness a fundamental force of nature? It would have to be. Some physicists seem to think so. Perceived existence is a function of memory without which we would not really experience time. There is no real present but memory of the past is necessary to anticipate what is to come in the future and that moment we observe our prediction is what we call now. Without this memory is it possible that consciousness would even exist without being able to reflect on recollected information? Does any of this information exist past the level of the neuron and at the level of quanta? If it all ends at the neuron, the neuron will die and their electrochemical interactions will stop and everything will just cease and there will be no individual after. Except the matter returning to a state where it's slowly released back into the environment to be reused.

I've had personal experiences. I used to be a 'paranormal hunter' and have experienced unexplainable events. I want to believe. Life is so amazing and complex it's easy to reason such things.

 

[Silenos]

Anybody who claims to know for certain what happens to our consciousness after we die is delusional

This exactly.

Personally I like to believe in an afterlife because of some intense spiritual experiences I've had, but I'm entirely prepared for death to be the end of my existence. A return to the void.

 

[Enigmatic Sailor]

A return to the void.

*puts on sunglasses*
The void awaits...
YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH

 

[KTbear]

Against: It doesn't make sense.

For: because of course there fucking would be one, I'd never be lucky enough to just stop existing.

 

[Ihadagoodlife]

Just think about the universe. Take the time to really realize what it is (even if we don't entirely understand it) INFINITE POSSIBILITIES! How are we even here what even is all this. It's clear that there is an afterlife but what exactly idk and i don't think its the popular ones that everyone believe it is.

 

[demuic]

It's clear that there is an afterlife

How is it clear?

Just because there exists the possibility for something does not make it a certainty.

There are infinite possibilities, and there are also infinite impossibilities.

 

[Live Free or Die]

I believe that in the beginning there was only God. That God had experienced everything but himself so he blew himself up (the big bang). So everything we see is God himself. Every planet, star, tree, rock, animal, person is god. God was everything in balance. Good evil sad happy, everything. But because he split himself some people got more good, some more evil, some more sad, some more happy. Without the perfect balance of God this has created chaos.

Because of this I believe that when we die our energy just returns to God (heaven). Will we remember our past lives and memories? I don't know. I just know that when we return to God we will be back in balance. There will be no happy or sad. No good or evil. Just a sense of overwhelming peace that everything is as it should be. I also believe our energy can be sent back as well (reincarnation).

I believe that nothing is physical. All molecules are energy (quantum physics is starting to prove this). All energy is transferred, nothing is lost and nothing is gained. We are all the original God and will return to where we came.

I believe this, because to me it explains all religions and all beliefs.

 

[KTbear]

I believe that in the beginning there was only God. That God had experienced everything but himself so he blew himself up (the big bang). So everything we see is God himself. Every planet, star, tree, rock, animal, person is god. God was everything in balance. Good evil sad happy, everything. But because he split himself some people got more good, some more evil, some more sad, some more happy. Without the perfect balance of God this has created chaos.

Because of this I believe that when we die our energy just returns to God (heaven). Will we remember our past lives and memories? I don't know. I just know that when we return to God we will be back in balance. There will be no happy or sad. No good or evil. Just a sense of overwhelming peace that everything is as it should be. I also believe our energy can be sent back as well (reincarnation).

I believe that nothing is physical. All molecules are energy (quantum physics is starting to prove this). All energy is transferred, nothing is lost and nothing is gained. We are all the original God and will return to where we came.

I believe this, because to me it explains all religions and all beliefs.

If all was so peaceful and balanced then why did he feel the need to blow himself up in the first place? Just boredom? How considerate.

 

[Live Free or Die]

I wish I knew. Maybe it would bring me some peace on earth instead of the thousands of questions I have about why I feel the way I do.

 

[Circles]

Life is already boring as fuck. So what would we do for a freaking eternity? I remember someone posted on the r/Pessimism subreddit about a song or a short story or something where eternal beings become so bored with existence that they just started staring at the sky, watch the clouds move and weather changing.

Just think about the universe. Take the time to really realize what it is (even if we don't entirely understand it) INFINITE POSSIBILITIES! How are we even here what even is all this. It's clear that there is an afterlife but what exactly idk and i don't think its the popular ones that everyone believe it is

You see I would like to be optimistic and agree with you but my pessimistic side gets the best of me. See because of how infinite the universe/multiverse could be not only could we have lived this same life numerous of times but an infinite amount of times via eternal recurrence. And not only that but we could be living something like in the Egg Theory where we are all born as everyone and every living being in every time period across space and time for an infinite amount of time. Sorry I got so fucking high one time thinking about this.

 

[Shu]

This is the afterlife.

 

[Death is beautiful]

I believe that after death our consciousness will cease to perceive the world, and we will not feel anything. Why? It's just logical

Я верю, что в начале был только Бог. Что Бог испытал все, кроме самого себя, поэтому он взорвал себя (большой взрыв). Итак, все, что мы видим, — это сам Бог. Каждая планета, звезда, дерево, скала, животное, человек — это Бог. Бог был всем в равновесии. Добро, зло, грусть, радость, все. Но из-за того, что он разделил себя, некоторые люди стали более добрыми, некоторые более злыми, некоторые более печальными, некоторые более счастливыми. Без совершенного баланса Бога это создало хаос.

Because of this I believe that when we die our energy just returns to God (heaven). Will we remember our past lives and memories? I don't know. I just know that when we return to God we will be back in balance. There will be no happy or sad. No good or evil. Just a sense of overwhelming peace that everything is as it should be. I also believe our energy can be sent back as well (reincarnation).

I believe that nothing is physical. All molecules are energy (quantum physics is starting to prove this). All energy is transferred, nothing is lost and nothing is gained. We are all the original God and will return to where we came.

I believe this, because to me it explains all religions and all beliefs.

Lol if he exploded then he was a Muslim god

 

[Snake of Eden]

Lol if he exploded then he was a Muslim god

This is funny actually. Just dont do it again