Atheist's Afterlife?

[Katsumoto]

I was just wondering, what do Atheists believe happens after we die? Do you believe everything just goes black and stays black or what? I find it difficult to believe that once we die we will just stop "being". So yeah, what do you guys think happens?

[Helm]

I don't know would be the answer to that.

[Tigrul]

There are atheist religions, such as buddhism, which do present the idea of an afterlife. However, for the purpose of this thread, and given your OP, I'll assume you're referring to non-religious atheists.

I don't believe everything goes black, because that implies that something of our conscience remains. So far as the physical goes, we cease to exist, the atoms in our bodies slowly get separated from it and so on, so from a physical perspective, yes, we simply END. If you want to debate the supernatural, it is entirely your choice, but there is no rational reason to assume the supernatural, there is no rational reason to assume that there is an immortal soul.

As for you finding it difficult to believe: first, it does't really matter, reality is the same regardless of whether you are capable of accepting it or not, and secondly, you might be having difficulties because you are bound by emotions such as fear of death, and because you are using the instruments of an entity adapted for 3D existence spanned over a fourth dimension and used to materializing everything and are trying to comprehend what follows the passing into inexistence of the material pattern which forms you, what happens to you beyond the limit of your existence over the time dimension.

[Bucket of Lithium]

I find the image of me being completely without any form of consciousness not comprehendible. It is beyond human means to understand the complexities of not existing. An afterlife would be pleasant, but the answer will never be answerable to an atheist, as helm said, I haven't the foggiest idea would probably suffice in the most part (barring personal beliefs).

[Ishoss]

I find the image of me being completely without any form of consciousness not comprehendible. It is beyond human means to understand the complexities of not existing. An afterlife would be pleasant, but the answer will never be answerable to an atheist, as helm said, I haven't the foggiest idea would probably suffice in the most part (barring personal beliefs).

This.

[EireEmerald]

I find the image of me being completely without any form of consciousness not comprehendible. It is beyond human means to understand the complexities of not existing. An afterlife would be pleasant, but the answer will never be answerable to an atheist, as helm said, I haven't the foggiest idea would probably suffice in the most part (barring personal beliefs).

Well can you comprehend what it was like before you were born?

My good sir, you have, as the saying goes, grabbed the wrong end of the stick

Leeham, your SIG!!!!!!! YOU CAN SPEAK IRISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Leeham991]

Well can you comprehend what it was like before you were born?

Well, most people can't remember earlier than when they were 3 years old. So "before you were born"... Well... It's sort of pointless imagining because there could well have been something there before the 3 blank years that is also forgotten.

Leeham, your SIG!!!!!!! YOU CAN SPEAK IRISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A little...
Now tell me what the heck it means please?

[Tigrul]

Damn... how could I have forgotten this?!

@thread author and Bucket of Lithium:
It shouldn't be THAT difficult to imagine your conscience not existing. You experience conscious inexistence every night. And just in case you want to tell me about dreams, you experience those at times very close to getting conscious.

[Katsumoto]

Damn... how could I have forgotten this?!

@thread author and Bucket of Lithium:
It shouldn't be THAT difficult to imagine your conscience not existing. You experience conscious inexistence every night. And just in case you want to tell me about dreams, you experience those at times very close to getting conscious.

But you still exist, you don't just stop existing while you sleep.

[Helm]

Or think back to what it was like in the time before you were born.

If there was such a thing as an afterlife then my money would be on some form of reincarnation.

[Downey]

do you remember what it was like before you were alive? because probably going to be more of the same.

[Helm]

If there is nothing before or after then the entireity of your existence is confined within the time period in which you were alive. Though that time period will always be there.

[Helm]

You're conscious while you're asleep just on a different level, not that you remember it on awaking. It's the reason why say a sudden noise in the room will wake you up.

[Bucket of Lithium]

Tigrul, try to imagine right now you being completely devoid of thought or life. The closest I can come is the imagination of some huge black nothingness...but then how would I be in huge black nothingness if I did not exist. I've gone over this many times in my head, wracking and wracking, and reminds me of when someone once asked me to think about not thinking.

Harder than it sounds in every possible way.

[Helm]

Try thinking about literally nothing at all, not easy to do.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I was just wondering, what do Atheists believe happens after we die? Do you believe everything just goes black and stays black or what? I find it difficult to believe that once we die we will just stop "being". So yeah, what do you guys think happens?

That depends on the individual. Personally, I think we die.

[Helm]

In the words of Richard Dawkins "If you die then you're one of the lucky ones."

[ThiudareiksGunthigg]

In the words of Richard Dawkins "If you die then you're one of the lucky ones."

That "quote" doesn't make much sense in isolation. Here's what Dawkins actually said:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.
(Richard Dawkins, Unweaving the Rainbow, 1998)

[Playfishpaste]

Every atheist has a different opinion about the afterlife, given that atheism doesn't state anything about the afterlife.

I, for one, don't know much about it, but am sure it will be interesting.

[Tigrul]

@Katsumoto, you've misunderstood the meaning of my post. This whole discussion is based from the perspective of our conscious selves. When we sleep, our conscious selves are inexistent, just as when we're dead.
@Helm: no, we aren't conscious on a different level, unless you call subconscious a different level of consciousness
@BoL: I have tried that many times, and it is as always, and as it is for everyone, and as you say. I have already explained why it is difficult to do that exercise in my first post in this topic. When we try to think of inexistence, we're trying to do so from the perspective of beings used to material existence, used to being confined to a 4D existence. We are obviously bound to fail. (before anyone misinterprets, I don't believe in mumbo-jumbo; when I say we're confined to 4D, I don't make any assumptions on other Ds; when I talk about us being used to thinking materially, I don't make any assumptions on immaterial things)