How did it start?

I wasn't intending to suggest that you did. If anything I may have been projecting since when I see the label "creationist" I jump to sometimes unwarrented conclusions.

I have a question for you Ned if you dont mind and rememeber I am just trying to find some stuff out. You dont need to explain your answer with 2 pages of response just what you think. What is your opinion on what will happen to you when you die? I have never heard from an atheist what they think will happen. Now I know that what you think is not what every atheist thinks but just your opinion is ok. If you dont feel comfortable answering it that is fine too, I just like to ask questions.

I hope you don't mind a different athiests opinion on that matter. I personally believe that the human body and mind is nothing more than a wondefully complex biological machine. Our brain is a physical entity, and our perceptions and thoughts are the functional byproduct of that phsyical entity working. While it continues to function, we are living, breathing, thinking individiuals. When the brain shuts down, thats it. Your mind no longer exists since the machinery is broken. The end result is that the "individual me" , or you , or anyone, in my opinion, ceases to exist. Not very comforting, but its what best fits my observations and beliefs.

Thanks for your response, and your right thats not very comforting. Its just hard for me to think that when we die its just over, and I dont mind at all on a different athiests opinion. If you around tomorow Darwin I may think of some other questions to ask, I have a test thur so I need to go study. I appreciate you taking the time to help with my questions.

And by the way you can call me Adam, kind of weird getting called Jackal.

Sure, no problem. I have a calculus exam to study for tonight as well. I am just procrasting at the moment. : )
As for comfort, the fact that I don't believe in a afterlife does has its terrible moments. I do understand how religion and faith could be very comforting. From my point of view, however, a lack of comfort doesn't change what I perceive to be the truth, which is that we have a entirely material existance, and that our life span is all we have with which to enjoy it.

Here's another atheist's opinion: I don't know.See, I don't even know what consciousness is, so how can I say what happens to it when my body dies? I have some suspicions, though. Consciousness seems to be somewhat of a social phenomenon, as though some part of your consciousness depends on the sort of "network" you form with other people through language.Obviously, when you die, the bulk of your consciousness stops functioning with your brain, but what about the stuff going on with other people? Are the bits of yourself you've left with other living people, connected by language interaction, enough to support a sort of low consciousness?It wouldn't surprise me if it did. But I can't imagine what it would be like.Honestly though, who cares? We'll all get to find out what happens, right? There's considerably more fruitful things to worry about than death. However you choose to make your peace with it is fine with me.

Hey Darwin, hope your test went well. I have been thinking a lot just about how an atheist may see things different because for some if they dont have evidence or fact to prove something then they have problems believing it happend. Now I am not saying every person may think like this but Im sure some need those facts to reassure them that it really happend. So with that said have you ever struggled that maybe God does really exist and you could be completely wrong? For me when I hear the storys of the bible in my heart I just know they are the truth, something in me just reassures me that they are true and that is all that matters. I dont know if you read the bible or not but I think i remember you saying that your wife is a Christian so I am sure you have. This is just a question so dont take it more than that, but if you have read the bible before do you just think that it is a big lie? And sorry for my grammer I am an engineering major, we dont rely on are grammer skills.

I will be gone. The emergent property of mind will no longer be supported when the brain no longer functions.Believe me I wish it was otherwise but wishes done't make it so.

Hi Jackal, sorry Adam. I'm a scientist, I believe in the Theory of Evolution, but I admit to not knowing how the first life began and not really having any definite opinions on it except that it DIDN'T happen as described in Genesis. There's too much evidence which contradicts the Genesis story for me to be able to accept that. However, I am a practicing Christian. I don't need to believe in the Genesis creation story to believe in God and Jesus and the Ressurection. I don't know what will happen when I die, but I know what I BELIEVE will happen when I die (if that makes sense )

Hey trix, sorry if you dont like being called that i thought it sounded cool. Thanks for your response, I really am just trying to get as many points of view as a can as I am still young and trying to find answers. I know i will never find all of them but I can still try. Like you saying that you are a practicing christian but dont believe in the Genesis part. Are there any other parts you dont believe to be true or maybe you think dont match with evidence found otherwise? Since you do believe in Jesus and the Ressurection and God you must believe some parts of the bible. Just out of curiosity what type of scientist, I was thinking of becoming one and decided engineering instead(hope i made the right choice).

Hi Jackal!I'm basically an atheist, but maybe not all the way out. I mean as rational i am i just can't rule out that some other beeing(s) created life here on earth. Though then I need a way for the god(s)to have started out, leaving me back at start again. So i'm basically an atheist, again I could say that I believe that when I die there will be nothing left of me. As having a blackout one never returns from. But there is one thing bugging me, and that is the fact that we feel things and are aware of our surroundings while alive. I think this is very peculiar.So in order to answer the question "what will become of me when I die?", I need to address the question of what this awareness is.
I see two main alternatives:1) It's something that arises from complex interactions between our braincells. But how could this be ? My braincells are a physical, while my thoughts seem to reside at another plane of existance. So I really cannot see how my interaction between the physical world could connect to this other world of will. This also has other problems. How can the "Me" make changes in then physical world? I mean how could my will affect electrons inside my brain? This drives me crazy. Seems like we do not have free will after all. Anyhow if awareness is just a function of complexity of cells, then when the cells die, so do awereness. Hence nothing left after death.or...
2) The very buildingblocks of universe some how contain the aspect awareness. Awareness is then a fundamental part of the physical world somehow. But here im just out in philosophical speculation.
Here death might still not be the true end of awareness, maybe some parts remain slowly withering away...Well thats it

The test went well. Multivariable calculus isn't easy, but it is interesting. Initally, I started taking classes with an electrical engineering major in mind, but I have found that my passions lie more in line with the physics of it, not the technical application. Currently I am torn between wanting to major in physics or try to really punish myself, and double major EE as well.
As for my belief, it is probably better that I start closer to the beginning. I was raised christian, went to sunday school, ect, and for the most part, was a believer. That said, most people at my church were defintely not literalists. There were a few, but not many. This was probably a good thing for myself, considering the trouble I used to get into while asking questions. For example, I was, and still am, an avid watcher of nature shows. I remember when I was around 7 watching a show on how there are over 250,000 species of beetles. Well, we had been discussing Noah and the ark in sunday school, so the next sunday I asked the teacher how Noah got all those beetles together from all over the world. I didn't ask sacrastically, I just wanted to know, since it seemed so hard to do. She didn;t have an answer. A literal reading of the bible has always been absurd to me, even at a young age at a time when I did believe.
However, I am very much a realist, and as I developled that, amongst other personal traits, I started examining various beliefs of mine and others. I simply found that nowhere in my life had I experienced anything remotely approximating divinity. I found that other than providing a social focal point and providing comfort, there was no basis for religion. The idea central to religion is belief without explanation or confirmation. I found this to be contrary to my own nature.
Since I wasn't comfortable completely casting away religion, I turned to a personal form of deism. I believed that the universe was run by natural laws, but that a divinity provided the spark for the big bang.
However, I came to realize that this again was simply my wish for comfort being manifested in a personal faith. I didn't, and still don't like the idea that oblivion awaits. After a while, I realized that there simply is no evidence for any deity, and that in the absence of evidence, there is no grounds other than personal desires to have faith.
Today, I essentially beleive that the world is materialistic in nature. I don't see the need to appeal to deities for the universe to work. I also don't believe that our human need for purpose somehow means that theuniverise has a purpose. I don't completly deny the possibility of some form of unknown intelligence that somehow created the universe, I just think it higly unlikely. I think that all the supposed faiths on the earth are man made creations.
All things being equal, I don't believe in any gods. There is simply no evidence for it. Additionally, I have found that I can find purpose, love, ethics, and joy in life without resorting to any form of spiritualism.

All religions are based on the human need to believe in a force larger than life that controls their destiny. Religions have been a part of us since we first started asking questions of our place in an otherwise confusing world. It is easy to see how comforting it must have been for our ancestors to believe in something larger than life, not knowing any better.We know more today about science, physics, maths, cosmology and evolution than any others have ever done throughout history. Myself I believe it make more sense to listen to todays scientists and scholars about how life came to be, than our parents and elders who try to pass their beliefs onto you.I have friends that are Muslims, Young Earth Creationists, Jews and more liberal Christians that believe so strongly that their view is the right one, and refuses to believe otherwise. I can't blame them really. If they were to break out of what their religion are today, they would loose much more than their beliefs. Some of them would even loose the connection with their family, so I can't blame them for not wanting to accept anything else.I would call myself an atheist, in that I believe in natural selection and survival of the fittest. I see examples of it everyday. In many ways we are still the stoneage man living in a very hi-tech world. For example, take a look at the divorce-statistics and couples cheating on each other. They clearly indicate that we humans easily fall back on our instinct to mate with others (which I believe is a natural instinct to spread our genes. We are not monogamous by nature. I'm not saying that we can't control these urges so we can live in a monogamous relationship, but the urges will still be there).Anyway, I know from discussing with my friends of different religions that it is futile to convince them otherwise. I can easily see why it's comforting to believe in an omnipitent being from one of the religions, but I think it makes more sense to learn about more "down to earth" solutions from science and knowledge of today

are you familiar with the psychology of religion (click)?It is long and a bit convoluted, certainly antagonistic: oh, and music and dancing ability may have been sexually selected and that gave rise to the increased brain size ......enjoy.

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist