A Question For Athiests

[Meister]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

 

[tathagata]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

Life existed before birth and will continue after death. Your confusion arises in assuming that life belongs to anyone (as in "my life"). There is no "my life", so your question is meaningless.

 

[catzmeow]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

I'm an agnostic, but I'll go ahead and answer. I think that conscious existence as we know it ends at death. I don't know if I believe in ghosts/spirits.

 

[GHook93]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

Life ends at death and there are no ghosts, spirits, angels, demons or for that matter a god! That sums it up! I mean that is far more logic than a philosophy that God created everything, yet I can't prove it so you will have to take my word for it. And when you die you go to heaven or hell, again I have nothing to prove it so you will have to take my word for it. Oh yea, since there are some rather strange occurs that might be preceived as ghost, that is proof there is an afterlife, so there must be a god! I just don't buy it!

 

[HUGGY]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

OK Mr. Meister....

Life begins when you have your first conscious thought. It ends when you have your last conscious thought.

Ghosts, goblins...not likely but having run hard into something that wasn't there playing basketball by myself as a teen schooled me that seeing isn't everything and there are still mysteries to unfold in the future.

 

[GHook93]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

I'm an agnostic, but I'll go ahead and answer. I think that conscious existence as we know it ends at death. I don't know if I believe in ghosts/spirits.

Correct me if I am wrong, but agnosticism is basically a belief that something that is impossible to proven or disproven or even test its provability and if the true value/credability/truth is unknown, then its not followed! Basically it the atheists way of staying content neutral, but in the end an agnostic is the PC'ers way being atheist without outright saying they are an atheist

 

[GHook93]

Life begins when you have your first conscious thought.

So you are saying you are not alive yet?

 

[Agnapostate]

I think belief in supernatural entities would necessarily require belief in some theistic "force," if not an individual entity. Unless ghosts, ghouls, and the like aren't defined as "supernatural"...

 

[HUGGY]

Life begins when you have your first conscious thought.

So you are saying you are not alive yet?

Good one condiver er..I mean gstring...OOOOOO....you got me ...OUCH! ...wheres the bactine?????

 

[GHook93]

Life begins when you have your first conscious thought.

So you are saying you are not alive yet?

Good one condiver er..I mean gstring...OOOOOO....you got me ...OUCH! ...wheres the bactine?????

I was hoping you were a religious man, because you tar the atheist name!

 

[HUGGY]

So you are saying you are not alive yet?

Good one condiver er..I mean gstring...OOOOOO....you got me ...OUCH! ...wheres the bactine?????

I was hoping you were a religious man, because you tar the atheist name!

Billy Mays probably has something for that.

 

[Meister]

I think belief in supernatural entities would necessarily require belief in some theistic "force," if not an individual entity. Unless ghosts, ghouls, and the like aren't defined as "supernatural"...

Supernatural, or paranormal? When I was in my 20's, there was some paranormal activity going on for a period of time in a house where I was living. It was, what it was, from a poltergiest to seeing something moving into my closet. I wasn't a believer at the time, but this certainly changed my mind on it. I am a Christian...but don't wear it on my sleave. So it's easy for me to believe in something like this. But, an Atheist might deal with something like this differently, if at all. There have been a number of good answers and I just want to thank you for them.

 

[catzmeow]

Correct me if I am wrong, but agnosticism is basically a belief that something that is impossible to proven or disproven or even test its provability and if the true value/credability/truth is unknown, then its not followed! Basically it the atheists way of staying content neutral, but in the end an agnostic is the PC'ers way being atheist without outright saying they are an atheist

I'm not an atheist. I see no evidence for an afterlife, but that doesn't mean that a higher power isn't possible.

 

[Coloradomtnman]

I think belief in supernatural entities would necessarily require belief in some theistic "force," if not an individual entity. Unless ghosts, ghouls, and the like aren't defined as "supernatural"...

Supernatural, or paranormal? When I was in my 20's, there was some paranormal activity going on for a period of time in a house where I was living. It was, what it was, from a poltergiest to seeing something moving into my closet. I wasn't a believer at the time, but this certainly changed my mind on it. I am a Christian...but don't wear it on my sleave. So it's easy for me to believe in something like this. But, an Atheist might deal with something like this differently, if at all. There have been a number of good answers and I just want to thank you for them.

Well, you can't lump all atheists together, like you can't lump Protestants or Christians together.

There are atheists who don't believe in theism (which is the original definition). This is the my father and mother. They think there is something, a power, or a something more to the Universe. Maybe a creator. There are quantum physicists like this.

Then there are atheists that, really, are anti-theistic meaning do not believe in the supernatural at all.

Then there are agnostics, like me, who don't belive in the supernatural but remain scientific and open just in case something changes or our life experiences point us in one direction or another - that way we can see it and recognize the opportunity to broaden our spiritual understanding.

Then there are some like my uncle who is what you might call a spiritual humanist. There is something more, there are paranormal occurrences, etc. etc. but it isn't a monotheistic, anthropomorphic God of the modern organized religions.

From my perspective, when you die, that's it. I did read once that a physicist said something like, "If the universe is eternal, and there is infininite big crunches and big bangs, then all of the atoms and molecules which make, made, and will make you will eventually reconfigure themselves in the exact same way an infinite amount of times even though there might be unimaginably long passages of time and many, many big crunches and big bangs between each occurrence (which is the same idea behind "The Wheel" by the Grateful Dead, "Deja Vu" by CSNY, and many other instances of human art and literature. I don't know if I buy it, but its nice to think. Logically, the implication of this is that there are no ghosts or spirits or supernatural anything.

However, have you seen "What the Bleep Do We Know?". There are some wackos who make appearances in the movie, but there are some physicists who make an apparently logical connection that what one thinks exists in the physical world. Almost like telekinesis but not as crystal-ly or new-age-y. The premise is: your brain requires an awful lot of calories to function. If, by thinking, you burn calories and create heat, which is a form of energy, and the brain uses electricity as a control energy, then it isn't that illogical that the energy produced by thinking makes it into the physical world, and therefore thoughts actually, if imperceptibly, exist physically. So, if you've read anything about paranormal activity, many paranormalists believe that some of these occurrences are simply residual energy from previous tenants of the homes or native Americans buried there or some other traumatic or dramatic event which occurred there in the past.

I don't buy it, but its not TOO far-fetched.

But, I don't think science can explain everything. I have two friends, who are atheists and skeptics and don't believe in the supernatural at all, who, although they know eachother, didn't know this about eachother: one is an Alaskan bush pilot and while riding the ferry from Juneau to Seatle saw something she couldn't explain. She and a number of other passengers saw three glowing orange globes of light floating along the steep-sided edges of an island the ferry was passing next to. The orange lights were moving at just a little faster than the ferry and when they reached a sharp edge of the island, the three lights floated off into the sky leaving my friend and her fellow passengers very excited and definitely perplexed. Jen, our herione, told me this story right after she got back to Colorado to see what I thought. I had no idea what to think but coming from her, I can't help but believe it.

Well, two years later, another friend who, one night, was driving from Buena Vista to Leadville Colorado on Highway 24 saw three orange glowing floating lights. He said at first he thought it was a reflection on the window but then noticed them coming closer to his car. Confused he rolled his window down and saw that the three orange lights were keeping pace with him about 100 yards away in the treeless fields which comprise the bottom of the Arkansas River Valley. He freaked out and tried to outrun them but they kept pace. After about 5 or 10 minutes they rose up and floated into the sky where he lost sight of them. He immediately called our friend, Kevin, even though it was 11 at night and went to Kevin's house. Kevin told me that Whit (the friend who saw the lights) arrived at his house shaken and visibly upset. Whit told Kevin the story and Kevin told me the story the next morning. Whit is definitely skeptical. He doesn't know what he saw and he doesn't know what to think of it. But I know Whit and he's 100% trustworthy, the same as Jen (the Alaskan bush pilot). And both, not just one, but both, say they saw the same things. I told Whit about what Jen saw and he got the heebie jeebies.

I don't know what they saw. I don't believe in UFOs (the technology for interstellar flight is too unlikely) but then what the hell was that thing that appeared above Phoenix in 1997?, or ghosts or the supernatural. I don't believe in anything that science can't explain, but I now believe that science can't explain everything. I believe Whit and Jen. I know them, they don't have a need to believe in the supernatural, they didn't represent what they saw as anything but something they didn't understand or know or even have an idea about what it was. I haven't yet made up my mind about these things myself.

Being an agnostic I don't have to deny that these things happened, which would be harder to do than to trust my two friends.

 

[alan1]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death?

Yes

Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits?

They don't exist.

Do you believe in them?

No

I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

When I die, everything will cease to exist.

Why is this in the Race Relations/Racism forum?

 

[Anguille]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death?

Yes

Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits?

They don't exist.

Do you believe in them?

No

I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

When I die, everything will cease to exist.

Ditto, only all will cease to exist when and if I die.

 

[Sky Dancer]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

I'm not a a believer in God. I think this life is dream-like and dying is like another dream. What comes next is also dreamlike, illusory.

Another form of life--in a god realm, a human realm, an animal realm, a hell realm, or a hungry spirit realm.

All six realms appear and are compelling dreams and sensory experiences.

 

[alan1]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death?

Yes


They don't exist.


No

I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

When I die, everything will cease to exist.

Ditto, only all will cease to exist when and if I die.

I sure hope I die before you, cause than it won't matter to me.

 

[KittenKoder]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death? Which means there is nothing after death.
What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them? I'm going at this as a non religion question, and sticking to what you believe in about the questions.

From a scientific point it is not impossible for "life" to continue after death, however just like all religions no two schools of scientific thought agree, and there is no way to prove it either way ... yet. Many believe there is a second type of matter which is invisible and intangible to our universe, and that "spirit" is made up of this. Others believe there are alternate dimensions and that the "spirit" is just from another than our own and returns there after death. There are many others, but only a small few will state emphatically that nothing happens after death. Most ancient cultures took both a scientific and spiritual view at the same time, Ancient Egyptians for one had two events, two parts to the soul that moved on two different planes after death. One stayed here and moved to another being (reincarnation with a scientific twist), the other went to Anpu who judged based on guilt whether it moved to the underworld, otherwise it was stuck in this world until it faded into nothing.

 

[LOki]

I have a curiousity question about Athiests. Does life end at the moment of death?

Interesting questions. To get good answers, you'll need to define life, and define death. It would be helpful if they are not defined in terms of each other.

Which means there is nothing after death.

I'm not sure this necessarily follows. What do you mean by "life," and what do you mean by "death?"

What about ghosts, or spirits? Do you believe in them?

Depend's on one's means to validate their beliefs. Atheists can be superstitious sometimes.