You can believe in an afterlife without a God. There is always Limbo!

by Anonymous 13 years ago

what is that? and how would it work if without a God, all we have is scientific fact?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

How bout Buddhists?... they believe in Nivana, they don't have a God.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

(Anonymous):*Nirvana*

by Anonymous 13 years ago

They believe in reincarnation. I'm pretty sure Nirvana is ceasing existence, thus ending all suffering, which was Shakyamuni Siddhārtha Gautama (Buddha's) goal.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

That entire vocalism made no sense. Reword it and I might be able to answer you.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You can believe in the afterlife without believing in God. There is no proof of an afterlife though but there's no proof that there isn't either and limbo is also having to do with religion sorry....being stuck in limbo is not getting into heaven or going to hell....so you would have to believe in religion to believe in that but there are other ideas of an afterlife without any God.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@382800 (Slytherinangel): Inception made limbo seem not that bad... lol jk

by Anonymous 13 years ago

lol wow.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Lol I thought it would be funny to put... :D

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Actually, Your thought is correct. Your post is wrong. You said you have to believe in "God". But your second sentences you said "A God" which I assume you meant the whole time. Still, perhaps I believe in Valhalla, and Loki, Odin, and Thor are my gods. That is an afterlife without "God".

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You're right. I meant A god

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Just because you don't believe in 'God' doesn't mean you don't believe there is SOMETHING. And whatever you do believe does not have to be religiously motivated in any way.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

ill believe whatever i want thanks, asshole

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I read something (I believe on this website actually) that has had a big effect on my views of life and death. It was something along the lines of the scientific fact that all matter cannot be created or destroyed. So when you die, although it may not be reincarnation perse, you are still here. Idk if that made much sense but either way, everyone believes different things. So you can't generalize what can and can't be true.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Thermodynamics =]

by Anonymous 13 years ago

When you die, the brain cells that create thought die, so you're no longer awake or thinking, which means that you're conciousness just stops existing, you just become another inanimate object, like a book or a rock, but that's just what I think

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Same here. I think the whole concept of the afterlife and whatever was thought up so that people would hope they could see their dead loved ones again.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I don't see why an afterlife cannot exist without a god, perhaps you could explain it to me?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well, how would athiests, for example, explain their reasons for belief in an afterlife? It defies nature and reason. Only through belief in a god could someone justify that sort of belief. Perhaps a flamer on here could give me the other side of the argument, instead of just ripping my opinion

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You say that a belief in an afterlife requires a belief in a god to justify it, but then what justifies the belief in a god? Many/most people who believe in a god say that they don't need justification, that they have faith and that this is enough for them, and I don't see why this cannot equally apply to a belief in an afterlife. The belief in an afterlife with a god and an afterlife without a god are both unsupported by empirical evidence and to state that one is reasonable while the other unreasonable seems contradictory to me.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

that's exactly it. Religious people belief that living by faith (ie believing in a god) is a worthy and honest endeavor. Thus, to them afterlife is just an extension of that faith. Atheists slam religious views for saying there is no proof, and that it is all foolishness. To turn your question around, if atheists can muster the faith to believe in an afterlife, why do so many of them claim that religious faith in a god is ridiculous?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I completely agree that for an atheist to ridicule theists for lack of evidence, then turn around and belief in an afterlife is completely hypocritical. But to say that it is impossible to believe in an afterlife without a god is taking it too far.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

fair enough, fair enough. see my post at the bottom of the page for why I have trouble seeing an atheist's belief in an afterlife. It is more hypocritical than anything, but as for genuine beliefs, I suppose I'm not one to judge so harshly

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm not sure what to say about this. I don't believe in God or the afterlife, but I'm not sure what to vote on this thing, so I won't.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@joelarson: I def don't think a belief in god is needed to believe in an afterlife. If someone believes something, why do they have to justify why they believe it? In my case, I just do. No specific reason. And definitly not a religious reason.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It seems to me that people who say "I believe in an afterlife, and that's it" don't have a leg to stand on. How can you truthfully believe in something without an explanation to back it up? I truthfully believe in an afterlife, and also truthfully believe in God to explain it. I understand that everyone wants to believe that there is life after death, but cherry picking the goodies without providing an argument seems a bit sketchy to me

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"How can you truthfully believe in something without an explanation to back it up?" "(I) truthfully believe in God" I'm not trying to argue with you here and it is a bit off topic from the original post, but I would love to hear your explanations backing up your theism.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

These aren't explanations, but questions that I ask myself, that without God would have incomplete answers 1) What do you consider your purpose in life? 2) Why are you here, why do you exist in the first place? 3) What gives you joy/fullness? 4) Is this physical world and society all that there is to life?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I'm not trying to convince you of any of this, but to contribute to the exchange of ideas here are my thoughts: 1) I don't consider my life, or any life, to have a purpose, other than that which we give it. e.g. I might decide my purpose in life is to raise a family, but this is a purpose of my own choosing. 2) Why am I here? This could have two meanings, one very close to the first question, and the other meaning what caused me to be here. What caused me to be here is a very complicated question, and I think science has many of the answers and will eventually find many more. 3) Many things give me joy, but let's assume for the moment that nothing does, and that my life is empty without God. Believing in Him may make me a happier person, but that says nothing about whether or not the belief is true. 4) Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But my natural inclination is to believe that something doesn't exist until I have some evidence that it does.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

thanks for your replies. Of course, we are back to the starting point: atheism vs faith. And of course, I believe without absolute proof and you need to see to believe. I know that neither of us will be able to easily change the others' mind, but I am glad we could talk, for understanding of ourselves and the each other

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@383361 (JoeLarson): In response to "How can you truthfully believe in something without an explanation to back it up?" "(I) truthfully believe in God" So many people want to say that people of faith (Christians in this instance) just believe blindly. This is true for some but there are several reasons that substantiate my belief in the one, true God. For example the cliched analogy to gravity. You can't see it or hear it but you can feel it and if someone tried to come along and tell you gravity isn't real you would find them crazy. Though 'scientic' people love to forget that gravity is merely a theory. Though a greatly proven and seemingly accurate theory. Just like gravity, the princples displayed in the Bible, which is a personification of God Himself, prove to be true time after time. Once you've invited God into your life, he is as real as gravity. Atheists like to sit on their ivory tower and belittle Christians for having faith, but it takes intelligence.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Gravity is actually a scientific law, but I'm nitpicking there and it doesn't affect your overall argument. I'm not sure I fully understand the analogy. The law of gravity states that there is a force that attracts objects with mass to each other, and people 'believe' this as it has been observed countless times and never not been observed, not because they can 'feel' it. What are these biblical principles that have been similarly observed repeatedly? Also, personification means to represent a thing or abstract idea as a person, and I'm not sure that that is what you mean.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Again, why do you have to back up what you believe in? Why does there have to be justification. You can choose to believe whatever you want. It doesn't have to have religious motivation it doesn't have to be justified by anything its an opinion. How are you going to tell someone well, you don't believe this, so you can't believe that.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I believe in the afterlife. To me, there's no involvmemt(sp?) of any god in the passageway to the afterlife.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You're right. there's no god and no afterlife.

by Anonymous 13 years ago