Do you believe in an afterlife?

I'm quite a "possibility" guy, if you get what I mean. Yet, life after death sounds just too dumb for me. If I can't learn the facts about something, I almost always carry doubts. It is not actually "carrying", but more like "hah, it can be this, or that; this seems more plausible and/or probable, but that probability is also possible," kind of thinking, and then moving on. Immortality, aliens, time travel etc. are in this category, but afterlife is just a ridiculous concept for me. I can assert that I notice mysteries in life better than most people I know, but afterlife is like NOTHING for me. I don't even take pleasure in discussing it. It is like discussing with a guy who sees long, abundant, and blonde hair over my head, which is actually dark brown and I'm almost bald, haha. Sorry if this sounds offensive, but I'm being accurate and honest here.

Edited by Shadowyzard - July 24 2020 at 13:06

SteveG wrote: Logan wrote: someone_else wrote: I'll know it when I will have passed away, so I'd say yea. I cannot imagine I am no longer when my body stops performing its vital functions. Some things are too hard to believe. By the way, why do all those who don't believe in an afterlife post RIP's in the RIP thread ? Someone who is no more does not rest either. Of course you won't know it if you cease to exist when you die. If you don't exist you cannot know. Many things are hard to imagine, but a lack of imagination does not make it true. I can't imagine not existing as how I do I imagine that nothingness? If I try, then I'm observing it and so it's not nothing (I just imagine darkness, but darkness is a quality), but that's a side-point. Nether-the-less I feel comfortable rationally accepting the concept that I will cease to exist. Can you imagine not existing before you were born? As for such platitudes as RIP, it's just used as an expression by many irregardless of belief or lack there-of. People employ such idioms. I'm sure to some it means that that person is no more as an entity. Death is often regarded as the deepest of slumbers, even if it's not sleep, in an analogous to sleep fashion. It relates again to what one can imagine. Imagining nothing, even the nothing of not having the imaginer to imagine it, would present a challenge. I still say things like "Bless you", and even "God damn you!" at times despite being an atheist. Such idioms persist long after we do, I would say, and we absorb such terms (inculcation, learned behaviors, ritualistic language). To go a bit deeper, and I don't mean this in a negative way. If you're convinced that there is no afterlife, or even if you were convinced that there is, why is it of interest to you as to what others feel about?

Or in my case where I am not convinced that there is an afterlife nor am I fully convinced that there is not an afterlife (I don't think there is an afterlife). I'm interested in what people think on a great many issues and enjoy conversation on a great many issues. This is an issue of more interest to me than many others partially because of the experiences I have had (I have been convinced that there is afterlife before) and because I know many religious people ((my wife being a Born Again Pentecostal Christian, or maybe a lapsed one). When her mother died not long ago, at the funeral and after the topic came up more. I was a horrific funeral service, which we paid for.

I guess I studied Philosophy cause I'm interested in such things, although my primary interest was ethics/ norms. It would take me a long time to try explain why the subject is of interest to me.

I will say that it was directly inspired by a Rest in Peace comment in the Tim Smith thread and got me thinking, hell, I would rather him be having a shouty good time in the afterlife than resting in peace and that I would rather raise hell than rest in peace. To me rest in peace sounds depressing-- of course it is sad when someone dies. Maybe too since I have barely slept for a long time (terrible insomnia) it got me thinking more about resting peacefully.

Mortality is not something I'm comfortable with and for ages people have been trying to come to terms with it. I'm not scared to die(part of me would like to live forever), the dying process does scare me (and I've come close -- that last stroke I had was a wake-up call), but it's when those you love die...

Anyway, I have a myriad of reasons why the topic interests me and I am interested in what others think on a myriad of issues, some more consequential than others. Heck, I sometimes write epic long responses (please so one ask me how I define an epic now) about the most inconsequential of things and am interested in the conversation. I participate at the forum because I'm interested in people and their ideas primarily,and often it doesn't even matter to me what the subject is. That's why I continue to be a member.

SteveG wrote: Image result for I dont know

Image not showing. But again, knowledge and belief are not being used synonymously. If you consider something to be true, then that is a belief (it doesn't mean it's truth, but you believe it). You don't have to know with certainty, and if it is not a truth then the belief is not true knowledge. Basically, knowledge is considered to be evidence-based whereas belief does not require evidence. Knowledge should be based on evidence,on truth. If I don't see the evidence that something is true such as the afterlife, then my default is not to believe in it, even if I don't ultimately Know (have access to truth writ large). It's compatible to say that "I don't believe in an afterlife and I don't know if there is an afterlife". And one can say "I don;t believe in an afterlife nor do is disbelieve in an afterlife"

I did a pretty deep dive on epistemology in another thread, and discussed difference in belief and knowledge, probably the Bertrand Russel one amongst others, and had a related discussion. I'll look for a link to that.

Like I said, if people think of it as "Are you convinced that there is an afterlife?" "Yes or no", that might make the question easier to understand for some who find it it hard to understand the question as I intended, and why I would frame it with a basic dichotomy. The either you believe something or you don't believe it, which does not require knowing.

Edited by Logan - July 24 2020 at 11:10

Logan wrote: Catcher10 wrote: The real question is......If you have no evidence to prove otherwise, because nobody knows the answer, why do you chose to say No? Fear....? I say "no" because I'm an not convinced that there is an afterlife. As I said, it does not require certainty, and knowing something is not synonymous to me as believing something. What is the fear thing? I wish there were an afterlife, at least a nice one. I do not believe in fairies, is that fear, no? If we discover fairies then my belief will change. I believe that which I feel I have sufficient reason to believe. That doesn't mean that what I believe is is necessarily true, of course. My beliefs are subject to change as new evidence presents itself, and I am ignorant when it comes to most things. And as aside-note, though I thought this would be obvious from what I've said: Someone saying "No, I don't believe in the afterlife" does not necessitate that person to conclude "I believe that there is no afterlife". That presents a false equivalence fallacy. Maybe you would expand on your thoughts to present an argument. Why would one assume that it's fear, or that that is the "real" question?

Logan wrote: someone_else wrote: I'll know it when I will have passed away, so I'd say yea. I cannot imagine I am no longer when my body stops performing its vital functions. Some things are too hard to believe. By the way, why do all those who don't believe in an afterlife post RIP's in the RIP thread ? Someone who is no more does not rest either. Of course you won't know it if you cease to exist when you die. If you don't exist you cannot know. Many things are hard to imagine, but a lack of imagination does not make it true. I can't imagine not existing as how I do I imagine that nothingness? If I try, then I'm observing it and so it's not nothing (I just imagine darkness, but darkness is a quality), but that's a side-point. Nether-the-less I feel comfortable rationally accepting the concept that I will cease to exist. Can you imagine not existing before you were born? As for such platitudes as RIP, it's just used as an expression by many irregardless of belief or lack there-of. People employ such idioms. I'm sure to some it means that that person is no more as an entity. Death is often regarded as the deepest of slumbers, even if it's not sleep, in an analogous to sleep fashion. It relates again to what one can imagine. Imagining nothing, even the nothing of not having the imaginer to imagine it, would present a challenge. I still say things like "Bless you", and even "God damn you!" at times despite being an atheist. Such idioms persist long after we do, I would say, and we absorb such terms (inculcation, learned behaviors, ritualistic language).

To go a bit deeper, and I don't mean this in a negative way. If you're convinced that there is no afterlife, or even if you were convinced that there is, why is it of interest to you as to what others feel about?

Edited by SteveG - July 24 2020 at 10:54

Logan wrote: Catcher10 wrote: The real question is......If you have no evidence to prove otherwise, because nobody knows the answer, why do you chose to say No? Fear....? I say "no" because I'm an not convinced that there is an afterlife. As I said, it does not require certainty, and knowing something is not synonymous to me as believing something. What is the fear thing? I wish there were an afterlife, at least a nice one. I do not believe in fairies, is that fear, no? If we discover fairies then my belief will change. Maybe you would expand on your thoughts to present an argument. Why would one assume that it's fear, or that that is the "real" question?

Dead is dead, nothing after that.

The real question is......If you have no evidence to prove otherwise, because nobody knows the answer, why do you chose to say No?