To an atheist from a Christian.

[mineman43]

Hello, I haven't quite seen this question around the site, but please answer.

What do atheists believe will happen when you die? I would appreciate specific answers too...

[anne]

Hello, I haven't quite seen this question around the site, but please answer.

What do atheists believe will happen when you die? I would appreciate specific answers too...

you'll die. stop excisting. like ashes to ashes and, in time, dust to dust. it's just that simple for me.
Question: why do you feel the need to shuff me in the box called atheist?
Only believers take a groupname, christians ect. I don't need a groupname based on a beliefsystem. I just don't belief in a higher being/purpose.

[Cephus]

When you die, you cease to exist as an individual entity. Your body rots and returns to the earth, the electrical energy in your brain dissipates and you go back to the same non-existence that you had before you were born.

Why, is that hard to understand?

[Zzyzx]

.

When you die, you cease to exist as an individual entity. Your body rots and returns to the earth, the electrical energy in your brain dissipates and you go back to the same non-existence that you had before you were born.

Why, is that hard to understand?

Death may not be difficult to understand intellectually, but very difficult to accept emotionally. That is probably a major incentive toward religion for many people -- fear of death.

Knowledge of what happens to a body after death may be very disturbing to many people. When I have included a scientific description in discussions of the improbability of "resurrection" it has usually been greeted with total silence (lack of response).

[Vanguard]

Death may not be difficult to understand intellectually, but very difficult to accept emotionally. That is probably a major incentive toward religion for many people -- fear of death.

Knowledge of what happens to a body after death may be very disturbing to many people. When I have included a scientific description in discussions of the improbability of "resurrection" it has usually been greeted with total silence (lack of response).

I would imagine this is the case for a majority of theists. For me, I don't wrestle as much with the notions of what happens to my corporal body once it dies as much as I do about the concept of another realm after this life.. Frankly at times, I wish my consciousness would end once I die. It makes things cleaner...

At BYU during my undergraduate program, I took a World Religions class from a pretty sharp LDS gentleman. On one occasion he mentioned to the class that he did not spend much energy thinking on the "realities" of another realm or how he might be assured entrance though the "pearly gates" but rather on how he could serve his fellow-man in this life. He felt so powerfully the influence of the Savior that he claimed only wanting to emulate the best of what the Savior represented in this life. He concluded by stating that whatever happens to him after this temporal effort will be left for God to decide and that he quite preferred this perspective. His comments have remained with me ever since. I wish there were more of this type of thinking within theist circles.

[elva]

"who could believe in, or worship, such a perverse creator who determines whether you spend an eternity in joy or torment, based on whether or not you believe in him."
Author Unknown

Basically, since I have acknowledged to myself that there is no way we as humans can possibly know what exactly will happen to each of us after our death, I have felt a very heavy burden lifted. IMO "to know" is "not to know", and I am perfectly happy with that thought!

[Zzyzx]

.

Death may not be difficult to understand intellectually, but very difficult to accept emotionally. That is probably a major incentive toward religion for many people -- fear of death.

Knowledge of what happens to a body after death may be very disturbing to many people. When I have included a scientific description in discussions of the improbability of "resurrection" it has usually been greeted with total silence (lack of response).

I would imagine this is the case for a majority of theists. For me, I don't wrestle as much with the notions of what happens to my corporal body once it dies as much as I do about the concept of another realm after this life.. Frankly at times, I wish my consciousness would end once I die. It makes things cleaner...

At BYU during my undergraduate program, I took a World Religions class from a pretty sharp LDS gentleman. On one occasion he mentioned to the class that he did not spend much energy thinking on the "realities" of another realm or how he might be assured entrance though the "pearly gates" but rather on how he could serve his fellow-man in this life. He felt so powerfully the influence of the Savior that he claimed only wanting to emulate the best of what the Savior represented in this life. He concluded by stating that whatever happens to him after this temporal effort will be left for God to decide and that he quite preferred this perspective. His comments have remained with me ever since. I wish there were more of this type of thinking within theist circles.

Bold added to emphasize a statement with which I agree completely.

Organized religion is often a divisive factor – driving people apart – rather than a cohesive factor – drawing people together. There may be some cohesion within the sect itself; however, there is often divisiveness even within a sect related to doctrinal differences, personalities, ego, etc.

Religions often compete as commercial enterprises seeking market share, product differentiation, customers and "success". The latter is often defined by income, number of parishioners, and grandeur of buildings.

Why not emphasize living cooperatively and at peace with others as a goal in life rather than obtaining personal "salvation"? There is no assurance of an "afterlife" but there is assurance that we live "this life" in the real world -- usually among other humans. We choose how to behave toward others.

[C-Nub]

I'm going to be stuffed mountain like an attacking bear, personally. I hope to be put on display in the Kindergarden classroom with the lowest per-capita budget, so that the children can learn about anatomy from my cured remains. And terror. They can also learn about terror.

It's my way of giving back.

[elva]

"Organized religion is often a divisive factor – driving people apart – rather than a cohesive factor – drawing people together. There may be some cohesion within the sect itself; however, there is often divisiveness even within a sect related to doctrinal differences, personalities, ego, etc. "

Unless a member lived through divisiveness within a sect, personally, there is no way to describe how literally demoralizing such an experience can be. This divisiveness in my experience, i.e. "driving people apart", can be much worse depending upon how structured and patriarchal the religion is. The moral support one may need during life's trials is not there; instead, criticism, judgment & punishment can be the order of the day. We think many times of the Amish etc. as the ones who ostracize their members for various "sins" or doctrinal infractions. Not so! This goes on everyday within other sects as well! In my own experience I generally loved the members but the judgmental, critical and nonsupporting patriarchy caused me to finally give it up after years of membership.

[Bunny1]

Hello, I haven't quite seen this question around the site, but please answer.

What do atheists believe will happen when you die? I would appreciate specific answers too...

Here's one to bake your noodle on for a while. I am an atheist, mother of 2 children who are active Baptists, my husband's family is mostly Mormon, but he too is an atheist. But, to answer your question, let's go outside the box, if you will.

Let us go with a bit of the scientific and the fantastic together with some good old fashioned folk tales. Science says energy has no beginning and no end, it only changes form. Therefore, when you die, that energy must "go" somewhere.

Many people believe in spirits or ghosts or whatever you wish to call it. Let us call it energy dissonance. An imprint of energy left in the atmosphere and surroundings of a place where a "spirit" was released from its body. This being a ghost, although this would only be the residual energy.

Now we can get even quasi-religious here and say that since many of the world's religions believe in some form of reincarnation, that the energy never "dies", simply changes form, or reincarnates into another form. I am not saying that someone jumps from body to body, but that the energy itself transforms into something altogether different. Let's say it "moves to another plain of existence".

Do I believe in Heaven as a place that only people who worship "the right way" get to go and be happy forever and ever?..... No, obviously not.

Do I believe that the body dies and the energy (soul for Christians?) then dies with it?..... no

Do I believe that we move on from our physical bodies, and move to another level or plain of existence?..... maybe.... it makes more sense than most of the rest.

I prefer logic and well thought out reasons for putting my belief in something, and that is a very hard won habit which came from a lot of research and self-study. I have very set beliefs in regards to what I do NOT believe... but I have very few limitations on the things I think could be possible.

I hope that gives you the answer you were looking for.

[JoeyKnothead]

Alright then, y'all that leak brain matter on the way to work, figure out the math involved. What is the probable limit of energy required to, or required to not, make this whole 'after thing' happen?