What Happens After You Die? (Book Notes: GOD.com)
One thing which so many religious theists have trouble understanding about irreligious atheists is the latter's lack of belief not just in gods, but also in any sort of afterlife. More than any other topic, emails I get regularly ask about what I believe happens after I will die and how I can go on living without some sort of hope for the possibility of an eternal bliss.
In GOD.com: A Deity for the New Millennium, John A. Henderson writes:
The believer will ask, "What happens to you after you die?" That question implies that life must go on forever. The answer is, "Nothing happens, except the body disintegrates." The dead person may live on in the memories of the people he or she left behind. You return to the same place you were before you were born. Perhaps it would be better to answer a question with a question, "Where were you before you were born?"
The theists' question can be difficult to answer because it makes so many assumptions which simply shouldn't be taken for granted. The belief that an afterlife needs to exist suggests that life has no meaning unless it is eternal in some way. This, however, makes no sense. There's nothing else in life which people — religious theists included — require be eternal in order to have value or meaning. On the contrary, it can be argued (and has been argued by many) that is precisely the temporary nature of things like life which allows them to have value.
John Henderson brings up another possible response: if it's acceptable that we didn't exist before we were born, why is it unacceptable that we stop existing after we die? Granted, now that we are alive most of us have gotten used to it and won't like the idea of stopping, but wishful thinking isn't a good basis for believing in an afterlife.
What happens after you die? Who cares — the person that I am is dependent upon my memories and personality. Both of those are dependent upon my physical brain. When my physical brain dies, then both my memories and personality will disappear. When they disappear, then who I am as a person will also disappear. If something does "live" on after my physical death, it won't be "me" anymore and I see no reason why I should particularly care what happens to it.
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Comments
I have no faith in an afterlife. I think the reason Christians ask such questions about atheist attitudes is because they have been indoctrinated with religious ideas all their lives and find it difficult to think differently. That is allied to a natural aversion to personal annihilation. Most of my life I have assumed I will return to where I was before I was born which is out of existence. That thought has no bearing on my life now. I just enjoy life.
“What happens after you die? Who cares — the person that I am is dependent upon my memories and personality. Both of those are dependent upon my physical brain. When my physical brain dies, then both my memories and personality will disappear. When they disappear, then who I am as a person will also disappear. If something does “live” on after my physical death, it won’t be “me” anymore and I see no reason why I should particularly care what happens to it.”
Q.E.D. I think that’s the best answer I’ve heard so far! Brilliant.
After my death, my body should be burned. I feel no fear of such scenario, only when I live that I fear of fire.
Why? Why one fear when one lives? Is life fear?
What is life if not fear that serves to preserve the self. The self is created, is learned, can be unlearned.
Wow what an empty life you guys must live.
As oppose the to “full” life of someone who thinks it necessary to look down up others for no reason but that they don’t share his beliefs?
I’m agnostic and I waver between agnostic theism and agnostic atheism. I can surely tell you I’m totally afraid of death even though I know it is illogical to be so if there is nothing after death (I’m actually not afraid of punishment, I’m afraid of non-existence. To me hell’d be a ball compared to non-existence.). Dunno if it’s my ego, my fear of not seeing my dead relatives and father again or both or something else… but, I know non-existence gives me no consolation whatsoever. To me, it’s like I’m on the edge of a hole and peering into an abyss. No afterlife seems poetically f*cked up.
Just like when my aunt told me as a kid, “WHY you scared of the dark, there are no ghosts!” and I’m like “Yeah, even though I know there are no ghosts or monsters I’m not a bit less afraid.” Lol.
One thing I hope you’d go into more into atheism/agnosticism in a more Asian religious backdrop
(i.e. Buddhism… which looks a bit attractive nowadays… pure Buddhism btw “doesn’t care” about Gods existence as its “unimportant” to what you do in life… gotta steer me away!) as I notice most sites review Atheism/Agnosticism v. Abrahamic religions.
i am just apalled by that. i am not that religious and know that im going to hell but i do believe in god and have a double religion because i m 1/2 catholic and all cristian and i really dont like that
Tina,
I’m agnostic and I waver between agnostic theism and agnostic atheism. I can surely tell you I’m totally afraid of death even though I know it is illogical to be so if there is nothing after death (I’m actually not afraid of punishment, I’m afraid of non-existence. To me hell’d be a ball compared to non-existence.). Dunno if it’s my ego, my fear of not seeing my dead relatives and father again or both or something else… but, I know non-existence gives me no consolation whatsoever. To me, it’s like I’m on the edge of a hole and peering into an abyss.
What do you mean by ‘waver(ing) between agnostic theism and agnostic atheism’? Do you mean to say that you occupy some intermediate realm between agnostic atheism and agnostic theism? If so, then that’s nonsense, because no such realm exists. The proper classification system of people on the basis of their belief (or lack thereof) that there exist(s) (a) god(s) is a dichotomy: one either believes that there exists at least one god, in which case one is a theist, or one lacks such a belief, in which case one is an atheist. There is no middle ground.
If, however, you mean to say that you have bounced around between agnostic atheism and agnostic theism, then I identify very strongly with that. I am also an agnostic who has bounced around between agnostic atheism and agnostic theism, though more than just between those two positions, as there have been a couple of brief periods when I would have described myself as a ‘gnostic’ atheist. I guess, therefore, that you could say that I have jumped about between gnosticism (with a lower case ‘g’ to distinguish it from the ‘heretical’ off-shoot of Christianity known as Gnosticism), which is the position of claiming knowledge of or regarding the existence and/or nature of gods, and agnosticism, the position of not claiming or disclaiming such knowledge, as well as between atheism and theism.
Even when I have satisfied the definition of an agnostic atheist, I have not always used the term to describe myself. For a while, I used to buy into the popular misconception that agnosticism was a middle ground (the position of indecision, if you will) between the belief that there existed a god and atheism, which I thought to be the belief that there is no god. I thought of ‘not believing proposition X’ and ‘believing proposition X to be false’ as being synonymous. I also wasn’t aware that the term ‘theism’ existed, and conflated Christianity with belief that there existed a god, despite being faintly aware of other theistic religions. This may have been the result of years of Christian indoctrination.
Hello, okay it’s really interesting me so if it’s good for you to explain this ministry thing that everyone want to know, You are in the right place and you are in a good step. But How can we’ll that there’s life after death, How can people guess and will know it? After human body of some person die you cannot know what’s going on him, about him. I saw any videos that they prove that there’s life after death that man died and after few minutes or what he came into life again. And I must to read this book that you posted up in this thread. I have a lot of questions about this subject and I will find out and will not be stop until I got an answer for it. thank you for your help.
Sure you can. Memories and personality are the foundation for who you are as a person - if you lost them, you wouldn’t be the same person anymore. The physical brain is the foundation for memories and personality - when the brain ceases to function, memories and personality end. So when the brain dies, you as a person disappear.
Reviving a person after their hear stops isn’t unusual and isn’t “life after death.”