Why Do So Many Believe in Life Afer Death?

[Tugela]

Why do so many people believe that when they die they go to some place where everything is perfect and they'll get to meet up with all their dead pets and relatives, or score some virgin pussy?

Isn't it just common sense that we die, and that's it? Game over.

Because they are not dead yet.

Dead people don't believe anything, because they are dead.

The reason that they believe in life after death is because they cannot comprehend the concept of them no longer existing. It happens to other people, but not to you. Hence there must be life after death in their mind.

 

[Tugela]

There are so many things I don't understand but believe. I don't understand gravity, but I believe it. I don't understand why the sky is blue, but I believe it. I believe in life after death - I know people who have died and have been brought back to life. They are changed afterwards, and for the better. They have a sense of peace and love that wasn't there before. Even if they didn't have the whole "I saw a light" experience that others report, they feel like they passed over to the other side, and can't wait to go back. However, it's interesting, they each say they won't go until its their time. Meaning, they won't squander the time they have left in this life, and try to cut it short.

Sometimes those that question this are trying to understand something that you can only have faith to believe. Believe. xo

They didn't die. Their hearts may have stopped beating for a while, but that doesn't mean you are really dead, it just means your heart has stopped. If, after a bit, and if too much time hasn't past, someone restarts your heart, you go on living.

They might say that you "died" according to an arbitrary clinical end point, but you have to remember that end point is arbitrary and it is still possible to recover after going past it.

 

[Tugela]

I have heard that some major religious text says that when good people die they are greeted in heaven by 72 virgin women.

I wonder who greets bad people when they die? Seventy-two mermaids?

The fine print however is that these 72 virgins are somewhat north of 150000 years old though, and it shows

 

[Tugela]

Here's the thing I never understood about claims of afterlife... People act as if all they are (thoughts, memories, etc.) survive fully intact. Yet I've seen people altered by mental illness (schizophrenia) and age (Alzheimer's) until they are basically not the same people anymore. But there's some magic reset button that makes them all they once were? Seems implausible.

A thought for the atheists though: if you start from the premise that your consciousness is a consequence of your physical brain, etc. and that you developed self awareness from the collection of that physical matter being organized into something sufficiently complex... Well, that matter is not typically created or destroyed. It's recycled. That matter can end up in a new organism one day and that organism will have self-awareness to some degree just as you did. So in some vague way you're going to be reincarnated. Albeit with no practical continuity to who you are right now. (Of course the other maddening fact is that all the matter in your body is effectively replaced every ten years through biological processes. So it's rather pointless to define the physical as the "essential you" either. My point of view is that we're the software, not the hardware, but there's clear evidence the software is not indestructible.)

That is because there is no such thing as a soul. It is a made up concept, and stuff like brain damage proves it.

 

[steverino]

I don't fear death, but I am concerned about the process of dying. Given today's and future technology the thought of being kept alive in a nursing home looking out into space for years on end is terrifying. At that point death is the preferred option.

 

[Insatiable Appetite]

I don't fear death, but I am concerned about the process of dying. Given today's and future technology the thought of being kept alive in a nursing home looking out into space for years on end is terrifying. At that point death is the preferred option.

 

[resercher]

Part of this also has to do with social preshure . I met a man who did not beleve in god seemed to be resonably happy . The thing is there are not any atheist food banks and as far as I know the majority of atheist are not trying to convert people . Whether you beleve in god or not one has to realize that like everything else in order to survive a church is a buisness which has to make money . In order to do that it has to promote it's product A product that is much easyer to sell to people who are undergoing some type of tragic event's in there life.

here is an interesting perspective on homeless shelters from a man who writes a blog on homless surivival


http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.ca/2004/10/shelters-are-for-someone-else-part-1.html


People who are converted to whatever religon often say i began to beleve in x ( x being whatever religon you became a part of) and i stoped doing y ( y being whatever behavior is destroying your life) and x saved me . Well no its becase you stoped doing Y .

 

[UhOh]

It helps people get through their day and deal with stress.
Humans are no more special than a blade of grass. There is nothing but this life for us despite our need to believe we go on forever.
I knew a girl that needed to believe and I loved that girl. There was no way I was going to take that belief from her if thats what she needed.

 

[clu]

People who are converted to whatever religon often say i began to beleve in x ( x being whatever religon you became a part of) and i stoped doing y ( y being whatever behavior is destroying your life) and x saved me . Well no its becase you stoped doing Y .

Some people cannot exercise restraint without the threat of ultimate repercussions. Religion provides this external (higher) power, a proxy. You are promised to gain or lose everything you ever wanted depending on whether you behave or not. For those who need this (and I'm not saying everyone who's religious needs this), they are afraid of "amoral" atheists because they see someone else operating without that supernatural handholding disciplinarian, and think "what's to keep them in check?" because their experience is that a person won't be kept in check without it.

 

[Alabama Blaze]

People should be more concerned about making a heaven on earth vs. waiting for heaven in the afterlife. No good seems to be coming from all of this religious fanaticism. All of these religious fanatics cause more grief, pain and misery than they do good on earth.

I always believe John Lenon had it right.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

The world would be a safer and better place without religion and false ideals driving fanatics around the world. We know where lighting comes from, we know what makes the sun work, why the world spins and so on. There's no God involved in any of it.

You don't need faith in imaginary Gods to be a good person. Living a good life and providing a world where our children can have and enjoy a good life should be incentive enough.

People justify these beliefs because we can't explain how the universe came to be. We may have that answer some day. That'll be a day where anyone looking for a higher power will be disappointed by the hard scientific answer.

 

[FreeG]

A great but under-rated film: The Invention of Lying, Ricky Gervais. A little heavy-handed at times but kinda sums it up Another less-funny but just as clear explanation, in my opinion: Life of Pi. See below for spoiler if you don't feel like watching the film (which I thought was excellent, btw) or read the book (also good, but a little long at times).

Another quote from Gervais: I see Atheists are fighting and killing each other again, over who doesn't believe in any God the most. Oh, no..wait.. that never happens.

The world is a cold, ruthless, painful place at times. The vast majority of us likely experience First-World problems, but a quick click through news reveals tremendous horror out there in this day & age (and I can't imagine what it was like 100-1000yrs ago and beyond!). Religion helps many get through such a life, gives them hope and, yes, helps keep some in line like a 24/7 security cam. (odd that anyone religious would then object to govt snooping into their shit, eh? Anyways...) I've come across some beautiful acts of kindness driven by religions, but alas, some horrible acts of cruelty as well, which makes the whole mess ridiculous, as Gervais aludes to in his Tweet.

I certainly HOPE there's some kind of cool afterlife but scientifically, I see no evidence and like others have said, "who" would be in the afterlife? Me at age 20? Age 40? Age 80 when I'm suffering dimentia? Better in my opinion to be a humanist and live towards leaving the world in a better place than it was, whether you have kids or don't. TO do otherwise continues to propel our planet towards doom.

And on that note, I'm going to check if the muffins I baked are done. Bon apetit! ;-)



So if you haven't read Life of Pi and are too lazy to read the plot on Wikipedia, here's sorta the synopsis: young lad survives a shipwreck. Throughout the story, he shares a raft with a tiger, zebra, monkey & hyena. The hyena kills the monkey & zebra then is about to kill the lad when a tiger jumps out of nowhere and kills the hyena. Majority of time spent trying to share raft with tiger w/o getting killed, staying alive on an open ocean, etc. Odd/weird/unexplainable things happen. Finally, lad & tiger wash ashore and he retells his tale to shipping company. They don't believe him, so he tells another story, of a cook, his mother, an injured sailor and him who survives. The cook kills & eats the injured sailor, kills the mother, then the lad kills the cook and survives on the ocean alone. The punchline: which story do you prefer? So it is with God/religion.

 

[sdw]

Religions started as rules by the village shaman that reduced the number of people dying.

Pork has a worm in it that kills if the Pork isn't stored safely (refrigerated) and cooked well enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis The worm is still present in Pork, it this YouTube a Health Worker describes how to get the worms to show themselves. About 3:50 he's able to show the worms.

Shellfish that is collected during a Red Tide has bacteria that kills. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralytic_shellfish_poisoning

Grain that is contaminated by Rats will kill. https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/hantavir.html

Grain that is stored in damp cool conditions or is harvested while damp will kill. http://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/2013/10/19/ergot-poisoning-2/

Poultry that is killed and then stored improperly (not refrigerated) will kill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonella

Then there are rules on delivering babies, cleaning house, etc

All are because the village shaman observed that people died as a result of doing certain things. So, (s)he required the villagers to follow rules. Of course, the village shaman needed to get paid, so (s)he required payment so that they could afford to counsel the villagers and keep them alive.

Villages where many lived, became towns which became cities. Places that decided they no longer had a need for shamans tended to slide back into eating contaminated food because contaminated food costs less to produce. It is actually necessary to have someone that monitors food production, storage and preparation.

 

[hornygandalf]

There is so much we don't know or understand. And we have been educated to believe that everything has to have a scientific explanation, or it isn't possible (accepting that there are some scientific explanations yet to be found). But, there are things that are outside of empirical observation and explanation.

When a neurosurgeon is clinically dead and then comes back to life, and is able to recount what was going on while he was 'dead' and in other rooms, how do you explain that. Do you just dismiss it as fantasy? Is it still fantasy when they are many instances of similar things happening? My SO had a brother who was dying and the spirit of another brother who had passed away inhabited one of her nieces, and took charge of family events over the last couple of days. The spirit speaking through the niece knew all kinds of otherwise secret things. Does this get dismissed because we can't explain it? Or are we asking the wrong questions and looking for the wrong evidence?

I believe there is a lot more than the physical life we know of here. That there is much that we don't know, and that we have been taught to dismiss that we can't understand. One possible explanation, and one I feel much affinity to, is that we are all spiritual beings here for a period of time to experience physical life. Soul mates, can literally be that... and you may just dismiss this... until you meet someone who you are sure you know from somewhere/sometime else.
The bit I like about this is that sex in our physical being is so much better than in the spiritual realm, which is why so many of us want to be here... and why we should be having as much sex while we can

As one gets older I know there is so much that we don't know and can't explain. I'm not afraid of death, not that I want to die yet or for a long time, but I do believe there is something else in another dimension. But, many are not ready to accept this until they have had some experiences that can't be explained by conventional, scientific explanation.

 

[sevenofnine]

its interesting that perhaps the smartest person ever believed in a god. I don't think he could define it but he believed the universe was to beautiful and complex for it to be an accident.

its funny but I believe there is something as well, I believe science in a way has backed it self in a corner with creation whether it being the cosmos or life.
the cosmos the universe just didn't just happen, materialize out of nothing something some how it got started, and that was the creator but your foolish to explain it or give it any sort of qualities.

I think life too is proof of a god, simply because it runs opposite of what we see in the laws of well the universe, things break down they go from complex to simple high energy to low energy, except in life, its the opposite
its foolish to think of a simple chemical reaction as having a purpose but life does, to continue and reproduce to survive, does a simple chemical reaction care if it burns out, but life sure as hell does.

life runs contrary to the simple physical laws we understand. I don't believe we will ever create life in a test tube,
nor will we ever create some sort of thinking intelligence in a computer.

there is truly more then we can feel with our senses out there,
there is more then science will ever be able to explain.

 

[sevenofnine]

religion started to or tries to explain things we will never understand,

and yes humans being what they are, religion became a way for one person or a group or an institution to give it self power and a purpose make it or them special because they some how knew more then the rest of us.
and we are dam foolish to believe or follow.

but we waste our time and money on everything foolish like television professional sports, the nfl nhl.
look at how much power and money and time we give to like say the nfl or nhl or nascar

whats the difference between going to church on sunday or watching the nfl on sunday.
they both get a certain amount of power and control of our lives.

 

[Tugela]

"Why Do So Many Believe in Life Afer Death?"

Because they are not dead yet!

 

[Tugela]

its interesting that perhaps the smartest person ever believed in a god. I don't think he could define it but he believed the universe was to beautiful and complex for it to be an accident.

its funny but I believe there is something as well, I believe science in a way has backed it self in a corner with creation whether it being the cosmos or life.
the cosmos the universe just didn't just happen, materialize out of nothing something some how it got started, and that was the creator but your foolish to explain it or give it any sort of qualities.

I think life too is proof of a god, simply because it runs opposite of what we see in the laws of well the universe, things break down they go from complex to simple high energy to low energy, except in life, its the opposite
its foolish to think of a simple chemical reaction as having a purpose but life does, to continue and reproduce to survive, does a simple chemical reaction care if it burns out, but life sure as hell does.

life runs contrary to the simple physical laws we understand. I don't believe we will ever create life in a test tube,
nor will we ever create some sort of thinking intelligence in a computer.

there is truly more then we can feel with our senses out there,
there is more then science will ever be able to explain.

Actually, you can create life in a test tube. The mechanisms how it would arise are well understood (it is just chemistry after all), and given enough time it is inevitable that it would happen through sheer chance.

Just because something is complex doesn't mean can't be accidental.

 

[Cock Throppled]

The delusion of believing in a " life after death" probably started with the shitty, horrible, disease-ridden, uncomfortable, filthy way we used to have to live and the shitty, painful deaths people endured.

I mean, there has to be something better than eating raw meat, freezing most of the time, suffering painful conditions or giving birth with no relief, being horribly injured in accidents or battles with no anaesthetics or anti-biotics, right? So, wishing for something better isn't that unusual. Extrapolating that to a mythical pleasure dome after you snuff it is a semi-logical extension, borne of desperation.

As for all those tales of seeing a white light, meeting long-dead aunt Mabel in a field of wheat, or visions a dude in flowing robes, there are always logical explanations. Let's face it - there is absulutely no proof of just about anything religions market, just blind faith. The fact they're still in business is a testament to gullibility. "I believe, Brother Caleb. I believe" So it must be so.

I'd like just one of those martyred Muslim extremists to come back and show off a few of those virgins he's banging, or just one Pope to come back to confirm all the BS they've foisted on poor people through the centuries. I think we've had enough tough times to warrant Baby Jayzus to making a return appearance, but he just doesn't seem to care.

I always get a kick out of stories where there's been a horrible accident that kills multiple people, but the one survivor was saved and it was all due to prayer, his belief or God's will. Of course, God never seems to get the blame for causing the accident, or preventing it, or killing the ones that died.

 

[hopalongreen]

Check out research by Jim tucker. "Life before Life"

 

[deathreborn]

watch some people get killed on ogrish. there is nothing peaceful about it. no soul floating gracefully away. alive then dead.