An afterlife for Atheists?

[Baron Pepperpot]

How long did I not exist for before I was born? Since time began with the creation of this universe then the answer must be 13 billion years. How long will I not exist for after I am gone? Perhaps forever but perhaps not. Maybe it's a question of chance. Let's pretend I have just dealt one playing cards at random. We could record the result, gather up the cards and try, through chance alone, to replicate the exact order of the cards. The odds against this are 52 x 52 x 52...2 times to 1 against. That's a bewildering number...many, many, many times the number of atoms in the universe. But suppose I never stopped trying to get the cards to fall in this order again. Not only will I make the unlikely inevitable, but I will make all other possibilities certain too. I will, at some point and through chance alone, ensure that our hand will be dealt a trillion, trillion, trillion times in a row.

Is that a yes or a no ?

 

[vic123]

The idea of external 'nothingess', quite obviously I suppose, fills me with a certain degree of terror. However, as there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, I may as well carry on with life!

That's a wonderful philosophy! I sometimes think that we're here for no other reason but to enjoy ourselves.

 

[Billy the Fish]

that blows that ghost thread out of he water then

There's a theory that every particle is cabable of storing information, a bit like a hard disk, and sometimes stored information gets played back as a sound or a hologram. That also accounts for people who think they've existed in a previous life - memories have been passed through living cells and somehow activated.

 

[Goat lung]

There's a theory that every particle is cabable of storing information, a bit like a hard disk, and sometimes stored information gets played back as a sound or a hologram. That also accounts for people who think they've existed in a previous life - memories have been passed through living cells and somehow activated.

Ah that's it then

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

There is a pre life / life / after life, it's just that we're not (in our human existence) capable of understanding it.

 

[Brightonia]

There is a pre life / life / after life, it's just that we're not (in our human existence) capable of understanding it.

Proof??

 

[vic123]

Is that a yes or a no ?

A yes or a no to what? To whether I believe in life after death? I guess it's a yes...ish. The point is, are we here through chance or are we here through God? I believe that chance is the reason that we exist. Of course, the odds against us existing are massive, just like our one hundred card hand. But our hand is only unlikely if we deal one single time and leave it at that. If we never stop trying to create our hand, we have taken something that is unlikely and made it inevitable. It is infinity that makes the magic happen. Let's assume that I never stop spinning a roulette wheel. Eventually you'll see all manner of unlikely combinations appear, such as the number 1 landing a hundred, trillion times in a row, just by chance alone! If we, here in our "perfect" universe are the product of chance then it stands to reason that, just like our roulette wheel, the universe never stops trying to create conditions needed to support life. Perhaps this one universe is one of many, a speck among infinate specks being churned out by a huge, cosmic multiverse in the shape of a giant roulette wheel. We're talking about infinty here, and the possibilities are endless!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There is a pre life / life / after life, it's just that we're not (in our human existence) capable of understanding it.

Well there patently IS, for your individual atoms. Simples.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Proof??

Hypnotic regression of past lives / Life / Out of body, near death experiences - none of it proof, but better than the alternative of oblivion.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Well there patently IS, for your individual atoms. Simples.

Good point, well made.

 

[Brightonia]

Hypnotic regression of past lives / Life / Out of body, near death experiences - none of it proof, but better than the alternative of oblivion.

I'll stick with oblivion until I have the proof!

 

[willyfantastic]

people that say that there definitely IS/ISNT a heaven/hell/afterlife etc piss me off NO end. you DONT know, dont go about like you do. you dont sound clever or important, you sound like a f***ing moron


p.s. i dunno, i hope so

 

[Lawson]

i choose to believe in an afterlife because if i am right i can be like 'i told you so'. If my girlfriend is right and there isn't one she won't ever have the satisfaction of knowing she was right.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I'll stick with oblivion until I have the proof!

If there was proof, we'd have it by now

 

[vic123]

people that say that there definitely IS/ISNT a heaven/hell/afterlife etc piss me off NO end. you DONT know, dont go about like you do. you dont sound clever or important, you sound like a f***ing moron


p.s. i dunno, i hope so

Touch'e salesman.

Although, nobody here has conceded their point past conjecture...one way or the other.

 

[jgmcdee]

Hypnotic regression of past lives / Life / Out of body, near death experiences - none of it proof, but better than the alternative of oblivion.

Just waffle. Nothing there that points to anything other than wishful thinking.

Yes I'd love to have some way to exist in a meaningful fashion after my death. No I haven't seen anything that even suggests that it's a possibility*. Better make sure I get the beers in now.

*Not saying that future technology couldn't allow transference of an entire persona from one physical entity to another, but right now it's far enough in to the future that it's not worth considering.

 

[Brightonia]

If there was proof, we'd have it by now

Then how can you be sure??

 

[Biscuit]

You rot. You become part of the world again. The wind, the sky, grass, rain, EVERYTHING. I think that's infinitely more beautiful than the idea of the pearly gates where quite frankly the housing crisis must be insane.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Then how can you be sure??

I'm not, I would just like to believe that our consciousness transcends death. No one can say to the contrary.

 

[Birdie Boy]

You rot. You become part of the world again. The wind, the sky, grass, rain, EVERYTHING. I think that's infinitely more beautiful than the idea of the pearly gates where quite frankly the housing crisis must be insane.