lpetrich

It's possible to be a complete atheist and believe in an afterlife.

There are even some familiar concepts of afterlife that are independent of most forms of religion. Like becoming a ghost and haunting a house.

But I'm not sure if getting to haunt a house would be anything to look forward to, except if one likes teasing people.

emotional

Yeah, that's what Buddhists do. Though I don't like Buddhism's concepts of the afterlife very much. The Wheel of Reincarnation thing makes me dizzy. I'm more into Spiritualism when I think of the afterlife. Spiritualism is, in principle, atheistic as well, though many of its practitioners have made it into a one-god religion.

Elvithriel

An afterlife is supernatural with no facts to back it up. Why would you believe in it?

emotional

Not necessarily. There are models of the afterlife that treat it as a natural world made of different sub-atomic vibrations than the material world. A many-worlds quantum model of the afterlife. It's weird, and it sounds like pseudoscience, but it's an attempt to put the afterlife on a natural basis - the afterlife is paranormal but not supernatural.

(caveat: not to be construed as if I believe in this model)



I agree. That's why I accept it on faith.

Because I'm afraid of death if death is really the end. Belief in the afterlife removes my fear of death.

sullster

Belief in an after-life increases my fear of death. The idea that you go on and on forever is a horrendous idea. Even in heaven it would be hell in the long run, and I do mean long run.

The wonderful thing about physical biological life, is that you can get out of it. This is not the perspective of a suicidial depressive, but the view of one who says that the idea that you won't be around someday makes you appreciate the day you have now.

That some kind of consciousness goes on forever somewhere else is appalling. Trapped in yourself forever with strange beings ,like a robed guy from the Middle East or some Italian pope's soul, or worse yet, hanging with Pat Robertson.

I prefer uttter oblivion. Lights out. Gone.

Tenspace

Not necessarily. Some very well-wired brains out there think that this is one big video game, maybe more like the Sims than the Matrix.

Tenspace

Daleth

Not everyone comes to atheism through logic. Some were raised that way. Some just never "felt" there was a god. I'm one of those. I can now give a logical rationale for my atheism, but I couldn't when I was 5. I just felt it.

I don't believe in an afterlife, but it's not hard to imagine someone who's an athiest by intuition rather than reason believing in an aftelife.

Dal

AJ113

Examples, please, with supporting evidence.

Marduk

“It's possible to be a complete atheist and believe in an afterlife”

I don’t see why not, atheism is no belief in a deity, an afterlife requires no deity. Reincarnation could be completely random, just a reconfiguration.
I believe it for the same reason I believe in life. My current incarnation was no problem, no reason this phenomena couldn’t occur again. Billions of years go by, poof! here I am, I die, X number of years go by, poof! here I am again. I won’t remember the previous one but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

Tenspace

Oops....

It's taking me a bit longer than anticipated to dig up my references. The two that come to mind are Toffler and Deutsch. I just skimmed "The Fabric of Reality" a couple of times, but could not find the reference where DD states that he feels our existence is a virtual reality, not unlike a video game.

Given time, I'll provide specific references. Sorry for jumping in without my life preserver

Ten