What happens after death for an atheist?

How dreadful.How true. Neither of those possibilities appeal to me. Any other suggestions?Damned if I can come up with a purpose for my having existed.I would like something attractive and interesting--if possible. Also, I wouldn't mind being fairly important.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-03-2005 17:10 AM

Pretty good idea. I don't think there is any special expertise involved. I could take bits and pieces of different religions and make a new one.I would want my religion to be . . .well, you know . . . rather manly.I'll work on it and report back and maybe set up a Focus Group, like they do to test new TV shows.

It's pretty obvious that you do not understand the concept of the beatific vision.

The questions you are asking are from an earthly standpoint, which of course is quite natural.But the standards of our existence on earth do not apply to the beatific vision. Questions like, what will I learn? and so forth are not valid questions.In the beatific vision, we enter a realm of Pure Being and that realm has nothing to do with us as individual egos. It's not a matter of "what will I do?" "I" will not do anything because there is no "I"--not now, not ever."Direct contact with God" means the elimination of the delusion of the ego, the elimination of time, the elimination of everything except PURE BEING.We, of course, cannot imagine this.

I'd settle for the "virtuous life," repressed or not, but I haven't done that.I don't know how other people are, but it has taken me most of a lifetime to be able to finally look at myself objectively. Not a pretty sight.So my advice is, for somebody young, to try to see yourself as you really are.Then maybe you can do something worthwhile.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-04-2005 08:32 AM

Those who experience Pure Being are those who are capable of it.Some who are very advanced in religious discipline can experience moments of it even in an earthly life.I'm just saying that earthly conditions and states of mind do not apply. Somebody might say, "Won't it get boring?" It would if the subject were in time as on earth, but eternity means "no time."This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-04-2005 12:01 AM

Funny how that doesn't seem to apply the other way. If I do bad stuff and pass it on, I can't really say that the bad stuff I did was MY bad stuff?Oh, yeah, it was mine alright.

The website seems to be looking for evidence of "occult power." What I am talking about is not that. It's an experience that people might have. There's no special powers involved in the earthly sense. It is the transcendence beyond the ego. This is way beyond all the claptrap and fradulent bullshit.

What I am talking about is not "supernatural." There is no such thing as the supernatural in the sense you mean it. It's a natural psychological action that most of us are not familiar with because it takes a lot of sacrifice to acheive it. You might as well say that someone who is remarkably unselfish is "supernatural."

Quite possibly it is mumbo-jumbo. I don't know since I never "experienced" it. I just read about it.Ifen can perhaps address this question.

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The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.---Milton

Ifen knows a lot more about this topic than I do, but I can say something, I think.Ifen says it's not an "experience," which I don't understand, so I will just say that what is "experienced" when the ego is transcended is Reality. The world of ego is not reality. You can also call it God or nirvana. That's the connection.The Beatific Vision is an ecstatic experience.The closest I've come to a Beatific Vision is "Romance."This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-04-2005 15:55 AM

Your number of experiences might very well count but we need more information. What were the specific circumstances of your chilliness? In what sense did you have a different vision of yourself and the world?As regards the absence in your experiences of having visions and hearing choirs and so forth, none of those ingredients are necessary. On the contrary, such claims would tend to invalidate the experience.I am very curious about this since I have never transcended anything and have never had a sudden change in my vision of myself or the world or anything else that I can think of though I have often wished to.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-05-2005 11:26 AMThis message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-05-2005 11:29 AM

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The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.---Milton

Sounds like a transcendental experience to me.Congratulations.Only spiritually healthy people have such experiences.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I said that only spiritually healthy people have transcendental experiences, so it would not follow necessarily that spiritually healthy people must have such experiences. I think this is a case of the undistributed what-do-you-call.You sure are a taskmaster, Para, about this dualism business! You keep the whip handy!Actually, I'm not really "back to dualism," but in order to make some points, I sometimes will assume, for the sake of argument, a dualistic position (maybe this is not a good practice, but I enjoy it, and one has to take one's pleasures as one can find them in this world). My own view is that, given any sort of religious idea, dualism is necessary as an assumption since I don't see any difference between "mind" and "soul."In reality I'm still my old nihilistic self . . .Cheers.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 02-07-2005 08:15 AM

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The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.---Milton

If there is a God I would assume that he would be non-corporeal, which would mean he would be a MIND. No point in saying "spirit" as though that were something different from mind. An unnecessary added assumption.If God is a mind, and God exists, then mind exists; therefore, we would have minds that are not physical, like God is not physical. Hence, in order to have a religious belief, one must be a dualist.So when I'm in my religious role, I assume dualism. What I want and what I can actually do are two vastly different things. You probably want to be an astronaut or something, but that doesn't mean you can. It was 8 am over here when I wrote it. I never drink before 2:30 pm. This is a firm rule, and I think a good one.