Life After Death: Does it exist?

[soreshins]

I like to pose this question in terms of my dog. He has intelligence and some level of emotion so does he live on after death somehow? What about other intelligent creatures such as dolphins, octopi, Pigs? If the answer to them is no then why would a human (intelligent ape) be any different?

I can’t envisage an afterlife menagerie so my persona belief is we go back to being stardust. Enjoy the ride while we can!

[Russic]

I recall a philosophy prof in university discussing the common near-death experience of looking down on your own body and asking "does that mean your soul has an optic nerve?" That always stuck with me as a good point. Even if there's an afterlife, you wouldn't have the necessary hardware to interpret anything (thoughts and feelings included).

[zamler]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

Haha… You think that’s what I’m saying here?

Maybe.

[Buff]

Life after death? Well, let me put it this way:

[Mathgod]

I consider myself an optimistic nihilist.

[Engine09]

I read a Bertrand Russel book that has a brilliant chapter that covered what happened to people with severe head injuries and brain trauma. They're unable to speak, memories are lost, in some cases it changed their personalities dramatically.

When we die our brain is obliterated, what makes anyone think who we are will survive? Reminder, there is still zero proof of the afterlife, absolutely no proof. None.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Matata

I tried the whole atheist thing, but it was just so uninspiring and depressing. Your Consciousness is driving around a magical meat skeleton in a universe of infinite wonder and mystery, and the conclusion you come to is that everything is arbitrary and nothing matters. How lame is that? My life has certainly been a lot more interesting, joyful and fulfilling with my current outlook.

A Humanist perspective is not without meaning, or wonder at the universe.

https://understandinghumanism.org.uk...s%20meaningful.

The one life

Humanists believe we should have the freedom to shape our own lives, finding happiness in the one life we have and supporting other people to do the same. Despite the absence of any ‘ultimate’ meaning or purpose to the universe, we can make our lives meaningful. There is no one-size-fits-all best way to live and we should be tolerant of diverse approaches. Although they do not believe in an afterlife, humanists believe something of us can, in a sense, survive our deaths: our atoms, genes, shared ideas, and contributions to wider society can outlive us.

The one life: the belief that this is the only life we know we have and that that should focus our attention on the here and now

Personal autonomy: a sense of positive freedom – not just an absence of restriction on our choices, but the opportunity to consciously create and choose our own purposes and actions (being the authors of our own lives)

Responsibility: the acknowledgement that we cannot delegate decisions about how we should live to someone else

Tolerance: acceptance of diverse approaches to life (as long as they do not cause harm)

Flourishing: a wider sense of happiness and wellbeing that does not focus only on the sense of feeling happy in the moment, but describes a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction with our lives as a whole (making the most of life and our potential)

Connections: the links that make our lives feel meaningful: to friends and family, to other people on whom our actions have consequences, to our ancestors and descendants, to human history, to the natural world

Wonder: awe and delight at human achievements, knowledge, creativity, or our connections to something bigger (e.g. the natural world, human history)

[Monahammer]

Poor your energies into enjoying the life we know about and can tangibly prove, to the fullest. There are various trains of thought on how to achieve this, some prefer stoicism, some prefer hedonism in vague terms.

The notion that you'll live in paradise eternally subsequent to a life following someone else's strict rules is a bald faced lie. I can't even think of how to put it in simpler terms. It's pretty easy for me to see how it's all designed as a system of control: sure you hate your life living under the heel now, but if you do it well you'll get to live how you want forever!!

But why would heaven not have the same rules? Who gets to define paradise anyways? If my paradise is actually becoming a horrid human butcher, but I lived a devout and pure lifespan, would that be permitted in paradise? What would I then be butchering?

The line of questions goes on and on. Unless you believe that your paradise is completely singular and everything within a self generated copy... but does that sound materially different than an endless dream? Which is how death is sometimes described poetically?

It's a ridiculous notion.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by Sliver

The "simulation" theory drives me nuts. Like if you want to smoke a bowl and pontificate the "what ifs, man" then go for it. But if you actually believe it, you're basically a flat earther to me.

Agree with the rest of your post, but I'll just say that it sounds to me as if you've only heard the dumbass Joe Rogan level interpretation of simulation theory. Actual simulation theory in physics terms... seems to be proving harder to defeat all the time. The idea that it actually matters though? No one seriously interested in simulation theory is believing there's an active controller of the simulation on the other side. It doesn't matter if we are in a simulation, has no impact on our lives or experiences, just would be a cool feature of the overall makeup of reality.

[#-3]

I think it's pretty clear we have physical consciousness, if for no other reason than witnessing the effect of physical changes to the brain.

For that reason I feel the framing of the question is wrong, rather than trying to prove the lack of afterlife the burden should be on affirmatively proving the existence. Why on earth would you think there is one? The only reason seems to be cultural memory of superstition from when we as a society had far less ability to explain the world.

[b1crunch]

To build on the OP's questions. What do you all tell your kids about an afterlife? My 7 year old son asked me about heaven and wondered if that's where we all go.

I told him I wasn't sure. I'm not a believer in the afterlife personally, but I'm not sure I have it in my heart to tell my kid that.

[DoubleF]

Originally Posted by b1crunch

To build on the OP's questions. What do you all tell your kids about an afterlife? My 7 year old son asked me about heaven and wondered if that's where we all go.

I told him I wasn't sure. I'm not a believer in the afterlife personally, but I'm not sure I have it in my heart to tell my kid that.

I went with the Keanu Reeves explanation I saw in a clip somewhere, "All I know is that when you die, those that love you will miss you." (paraphrased) He probably got it from somewhere else.

Jesus, God, heaven... something not real that you can make real and enjoy. Similar to Santa Claus.

Yeah, I know I'm a heathen.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sliver

Would it even be a pleasant surprise, though? I think being trapped in my own brain and my own thoughts for eternity would be torture and I'm living a reasonably good life over here. I truly don't see the appeal of immortality. Sounds awful.

I haven't gotten to that point yet, I'd love to live a lot more and learn and experience new things.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

If you believe that consciousness can only exist within the confines of the 3D plane and what can be quantified based on the detection of our very limited senses and limited breadth of scientific study/knowledge, then no.

If you believe that our distinct cognitive ability to perceive and monitor our own thoughts, have "gut" instincts based on very little, and feel the range of emotions that we can, the processes of which can't be full explained or measured by scientific means might be indicative of humans possessing a "soul", or an essence that goes beyond our physiological structures, then yes.. there might be.

I think to write it off entirely with how little we understand yet about our universe is foolish, but maybe that sense of finality provides people with a sense of comfort about their reality.

I think we exist on a plane that is beyond the 5 senses and that's where a lot of unexplainable intuitive abilities of ours originate.

Just because we can't measure it with the tools of this physical plane doesn't mean it isn't there.

I think we can cease to exist here (and become one with the earth), and yet persist elsewhere.

Everything that comprises a human is just too miraculous to have emerged from the such a short process of evolution. It's a mere fraction of the blink of an eye in the geologic timeline.

[Shazam]

Only for Floop Floopians.

[wretched34]

Originally Posted by Russic

I recall a philosophy prof in university discussing the common near-death experience of looking down on your own body and asking "does that mean your soul has an optic nerve?" That always stuck with me as a good point. Even if there's an afterlife, you wouldn't have the necessary hardware to interpret anything (thoughts and feelings included).

But are we sure that the hardware required to run these meat sacks, is the same hardware required for whatever may or may not come next?

Personally, I've had that near death out of body experience, and can say, that while I had audio and visual senses, they were very different than what I'd experienced before, or what I've experienced since. It's hard to explain, but everything seemed to have an electric field, visually and audibly, radiant light and a hum, but everything was crystal clear, no matter how distant. The strangest feeling however, was the complete emotional disconnection. One second it was shear terror, then nothing. Complete calm, while I witnessed pandemonium, then terror again as I came to.
Has led me to believe that there is more beyond this, and when we're able to disconnect, we move on to another level of existence. Though as a completely different self.

[Senator Clay Davis]

My thoughts on Life After Death? Ready to Die is the better album.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

If you believe that consciousness can only exist within the confines of the 3D plane and what can be quantified based on the detection of our very limited senses and limited breadth of scientific study/knowledge, then no.

If you believe that our distinct cognitive ability to perceive and monitor our own thoughts, have "gut" instincts based on very little, and feel the range of emotions that we can, the processes of which can't be full explained or measured by scientific means might be indicative of humans possessing a "soul", or an essence that goes beyond our physiological structures, then yes.. there might be.

I think to write it off entirely with how little we understand yet about our universe is foolish, but maybe that sense of finality provides people with a sense of comfort about their reality.

I think we exist on a plane that is beyond the 5 senses and that's where a lot of unexplainable intuitive abilities of ours originate.

Just because we can't measure it with the tools of this physical plane doesn't mean it isn't there.

I think we can cease to exist here (and become one with the earth), and yet persist elsewhere.

Everything that comprises a human is just too miraculous to have emerged from the such a short process of evolution. It's a mere fraction of the blink of an eye in the geologic timeline.

It's not short, it was a continuous process that spanned approximately 4 billion years. Our species is just at the end of that timeline.

[the-rasta-masta]

I remember having an existential crisis when I was 7 or 8 years old, when I started thinking pretty deeply one night laying in bed about how there was nothing before I was born, and what happens after we die. And then trying to understand how if "God" created us, then who created him? He couldn't have just been there forever right? What is forever? I got myself pretty worked up and anxious as I contemplated my own existence for the first time.

As a rationale and scientific person who needs evidence to support my beliefs, I've always felt most inclined to believe that it's just blackness after we die. However, I've definitely had some interesting spiritual experiences since my Dad passed away in 2021. Those experiences have made me believe that maybe there is more going on than we are capable of understanding. My mind consistently tries to rationalize these experiences as coincidence and coping mechanisms, and that's likely what they are, but it's still nice to have some hope from them that I may see my best friend again.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Everything that comprises a human is just too miraculous to have emerged from the such a short process of evolution. It's a mere fraction of the blink of an eye in the geologic timeline.

What? Took a leap off into crazyville here. Evolution is exceptionally well evidenced, so I would be quite interested to read your take on why it's too short of a time frame (4 billion ish years as Floridaman put it.) That date for first life is continuously pushed back as well, as we continue to find evidence further back in the geological record.

If for some reason you require more timescale, then perhaps panspermia theories are for you. But you don't need to insert "miracles". To borrow from your strange diminishing of the certainty of death earlier in that post, that's just to give yourself comfort on the unknown.

Edit: upon reading, I decided that panspermia would be sufficiently miraculous to qualify as a miracle, so perhaps I am being pedantic, but to me I read your post as inferring some sort of creator or creationist element, which is ####ing bonkers in this day and age.