An atheist's view on what comes after death

Death would be more accurately described as 'non-existence.' Before you were born, you were in a state of non-existence, and after your life ends, you return to that non-existence. Maybe there is some way to become a conscious being again, maybe your lucky card will get drawn once more and you'll find yourself in another self-aware body.

But those are all just maybes. We don't know what happens, but we sure know we have absolutely no memories of the 14 billion years we spent sleeping in the stars. Many folks insist that a life without heaven or without god would not be worth living, but then what would you do if you found out that was the truth? Would you just kill yourself? Does the love for your family mean nothing if there's no god? Is there no reason to be a good person beyond fearing Hell? Does beauty and joy have no value if you won't remember when you're dead?

I get a feeling a shocking number of theists would answer yes to all of these questions. This demonstrates a horribly twisted and backwards vision of why we're alive. Religious beliefs regarding a life after death are necessarily anti-life, they teach us that there is something better that comes after this mediocre physical life, there's a fantastic, perfect, dream-like existence that comes later. This degrades everything about life - the quality of its beauty is subpar, the good we do is just for credit in heaven, our lives and deaths mean less because we'll just get another shot. In all honesty, if you believe there's something better after this life, why don't you just kill yourself? Why put up with the bullshit? Why work a 9 to 5? Why toil your life away? Why deal with the back pain and the heartache and the disappointment? Is the only purpose in life to suck up to God so he doesn't send you down to the furnace forever for not liking him enough?

What a wretched, disgusting thing to believe.

Category:

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Tags:

• atheism
• souls
• religion
• life
• after
• death
• birth
• dead
• heaven
• hell

[jadyqg12511]

There has to be a god how you think have a heart the power to think some had to make us.

[huxtiblejones]

@jadyqg12511 Human beings were not created, we evolved slowly over millions of years. You can analyze the DNA of every organism on this planet and show conclusively that they form a 'tree of life.' In other words, species evolve and branch off into new organisms. There is no proof at all that human beings were specially created, look up 'laryngeal nerve' for proof that we were not designed.

[jadyqg12511]

@huxtiblejones Do you ever get depressed thinking you won't exist after you die?

[huxtiblejones]

@jadyqg12511 Do you get depressed thinking you didn't exist before you were born?

[1unnamend]

To me you sound agnostic not Atheist but still beautifully said

[huxtiblejones]

@1unnamend That is a meaningless distinction. Agnosticism is the idea that the existence of god (or gods) is unknown. Atheism is the belief that there is no god (or gods). You can simultaneously admit we have no knowledge of the existence of god and believe there is no god. We can't show one way or another if Bigfoot is real, or if UFOs abduct people, or if Santa exists, but we can still disbelieve in them since there is no good reason to believe they exist.

[TheAtheistFuture]

Oh my, well I'm subbing, you look like a young Leonard Nimoy! Hot little bastard you.

[MrVlogafied]

This was amazing. Summed up my beliefs overall and I'm glad someone shares the same views. I've been thinking about the after life lately and yeah, I think we'll go back to a state like before we were born, but the concept of possibly being dead forever scares me... Great video :)

[Timpjsh]

LOL, I tried to type all my reasons not to believe in here but I had too little characters left at reason number 2. So now I'm just posting this.

[1unnamend]

@huxtiblejones Ah, the definition of Agnosticism to me was presented as that there is not enough evidence either way, resulting in the person staying on the fence or in my case not caring. However, an agnostic individual such as myself (my definition of agnostic) would usually have a belief more inclined to the non existence of god, just due to the wrong logic. I think we're on the wrong page here mate :)

[huxtiblejones]

@Dhalsman Nonsense. You cannot point to one religious nation on Earth which has solved the social ills of modern civilization. Your example of Saudi Arabia is really silly, even with Islamic guidance the country is rife with human rights abuses, subjugation of women, persecution of homosexuals, and in 2002 alone had 85,000 crimes reported. It is childishly naive to believe that fear of punishment and desire for reward after death encourage good behavior. It's just false.