What happens after death for an atheist?

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.

You've asked some important questions in your threads, LDSdude.As an atheist, I don't know what will happen to after, or as, I die. I do not believe in a heaven or hell because I have seen no reliable evidence for the existence of either. I think that some people may "dream" that they are going to one or the other as they die, but I do not believe they are actually being sent there for all eternity. I do not believe that death will bring anything that will register on my senses, since the brain is known to interpret sensory data.There are many goals and purposes in my life which I have set. For example, I hope to continue learning as long as I live, and I hope to graduate from college and then go on to graduate school. Learning is an important aspect of my life. I enjoy increasing my skills and finding out more about the world around me. I don't expect it to matter to me after I am dead, but I would like to spread what I learn to others while I am alive, and I hope that whatever they learn from me will be of some use.The concept that everything in my brain will be lost when I die is not very important to me. Hopefully, if I find out anything new and useful that others don't already know, I will write it down, publish it, and hopefully it will be preserved for future generations. This won't benefit me after I am dead in any way, but maybe it will benefit me while I am still alive. If I can improve the human situation for future generations, then that would be fine with me. I think that that would be a good legacy.I'd like to know what you think will happen to you, LDSdude, after you die. If you expect to go to Heaven, what will you do there? Are you expected to just praise God forever? You questioned learning as a purpose for life in your post. Is one able to continue learning in Heaven? If so, what about? What purpose would it serve to learn anything here on Earth while you are alive when you have all of eternity to do it later? What good does it do to learn to read or write or do math, if you can do it all after you die, with no foreseeable time constraints? What use would there be for anything we can learn on Earth when we are in Heaven? Surely people don't speak the same language in Heaven as they do on Earth. So anything we learn about reading and writing in English is useless. Does everyone who goes to Heaven immediately know Heavenese? I would imagine that having groups who speak different languages would lead to racism and strife. So if everyone is happy, is everyone granted omniscience, so they know everything anyway and don't have to learn anything? If that is the case, what is the point of existing in Heaven, if you don't need to bother doing anything and nothing good can come out of it? Isn’t it all just a huge waste of your time, which could better be spent on Earth improving things before the Earth is eventually swallowed up by the expanding Sun and the universe slowly becomes too full of entropy to sustain life?If Heaven is all about eternal bliss, is this like some kind of drug-induced bliss, with people just hanging around not doing anything because they are so happy? Would you really want to do that? That also seems like a waste of time. I really don’t understand the concept of Heaven and what good it does to anyone as a reward, if it is real. Among the living, I feel it provides many people with hope that they will eventually go on to a place where things will be better. They may feel that their deceased family members and friends will be in Heaven, since the idea that they are still in some way alive is comforting. However, I don’t get why this would support any facts about the existence of Heaven. I don’t see why I should believe it when I don’t see any evidence for it at this particular moment.

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I'd like to know what you think will happen to you, LDSdude, after you die. If you expect to go to Heaven, what will you do there?

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I think Mormons are supposed to become gods themselves have lots of celestial sex to produce lots of celestial babies.

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

I've actually never heard of it. Looking it up, however, I see that beatific vision is an immediate knowledge of God. Is this what you believe happens? Could you explain better? Does this mean that in Heaven, one immediately learns everything that God knows?

This belief strategy is what I've called the "hedge my bets" strategy. Several counter arguments have already been ably stated...you may not be believing in the correct god, worshiping from fear, forcing belief where it doesnt exist. As an exBaptist(i always think of the skit 'ex-Police' from SNL) my favorite is the last. I'm off to find the quote which I think was attributed to Thomas Huxley about this type of belief which ended 'God help me I can believe no other way'. If it wasnt him or if I've butchered it in the paraphrase, it still reflects my view.Arkansas Banana BoyFrank White lives....oh right ...he doesnt

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.

Well, the same thing that happens to the rest of us. Whether a person believes in God or not will not change if God exists. As a christian, I really hope that Christianity is the right religion, and that I don't get any surprises in the after-life line-up to be judged. However, I could be wrong, the right religion could be another one, or there may be no god, but whatever I believe to be true has no bearing on what is. Athiests will undergo judgement just like everybody else. I understand this is a pretty lame answer, but a restatement of the topic is kind of needed: What happens after death if there is no God?Well, then, I just have no idea.

Think of them as two extremes in a continuum. Be creative. If you have to think of it after you have existed, it will be too late. Better think of something now.This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 02-04-2005 04:18 AM

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We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins

What purpose is there?
You are only here because your parents got-it-on and produced you; either with care and love, or the result of a binge-drinking blow-out at the local nightclub while on holiday at a tacky Spanish resort.If we are talking biological then I guess our purpose is to reproduce and pass our DNA on to the next generation (something I have yet to do) but in all honesty there is little reason to believe that DNA cares much if you, personally, fill this biological imperative or not.Other than that your life is yours to carve out as you see fit.As to what happens at death. Why would anyone ever assume there would be something more? Why assume there would be survival of anything other than the memories of you in other people? The human creature is a biological entity and the consciousness/soul is an emergent phenomenon arising from the extremely complicated wiring in the brain. Once that wiring ceases to function that's it you are no more. If you fry the CPU & Hard drive in a computer do you expect it to continue working in someway? No, that would be silly, wouldn't it?Are you in a job you hate? Why? Why waste your life doing crap you hate doing? Go out and find something you do enjoy doing. There is no point living a repressed virtuous life earning brownie points for an after-life that isn't gonna happen.So as there is no real purpose, other than what you define for yourself, and you don't get a second bite of the cherry via life after death, you best make the most of this life. Right here right now, this is all you get.All you can hope for is to have your friends lamenting your passing rather than dancing on the coffin, glad to be rid of you. Immortality comes from acts and deeds, not an immortal soul.This message has been edited by ohnhai, 04 February 2005 13:50 AM

is what everyone does at the end of life.Psalm 146, which we recite daily in pesukei d’zimra, expresses the normal biblical perspective on death: (Jewish)(2.) While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. (3.) Do not put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. (4.) His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perishEveryone's breath leaves at death
Everyone returns to dust from which taken
Everyone's thoughts perish on that dayThere are no exceptions to this, and there is no such thing as an immortal soul, since God only has immortality.1 Timothy 6:13-l 6: ....... until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the Kings of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality............and so on!

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"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."
Hey, Albert, I agree!

Hell is eternal?Where does it say that?An end will be made of sin, eternal hell would keep it around for that long.Where do you get this stuff?

What do you mean by 'eternal punishment'

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

A virtuous life is something to be applauded whether there is an afterlife or not. Moderation is a good thing ( in small amounts)However if there is no life after death. Then living a ‘good’ life simply to earn a place in heaven or at least avoid your place in hell is a little pointless.