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Eko

(8,428 posts)
Sun May 7, 2023, 09:47 PM May 2023

Here is an honest question, if you take away the afterlife

would you still believe in your religion? If you died and that's it would you still believe? It's not a gotcha, its not a right or wrong. It's just something thought of.
Thanks,
Eko.

27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Here is an honest question, if you take away the afterlife (Original Post) Eko May 2023 OP
yes... but then I belong to the "Laugh along with God" religion lapfog_1 May 2023 #1
Seems like a really bad joke. Eko May 2023 #2
I would say, most wouldn't believe in religion if they knew there was no afterlife. Meadowoak May 2023 #3
I don't know if I can answer that. BigmanPigman May 2023 #4
I'm not religious, but I believe there is some kind of afterlife. Scrivener7 May 2023 #5
Oh good, you got my point. BigmanPigman May 2023 #6
Interesting argument. Is there a religion out there that doesnt make the afterlife a major part of Eko May 2023 #9
Judaism downplays an afterlife. PoindexterOglethorpe May 2023 #14
Islam is also more about worship and deeds in this life rather than afterlife Beastly Boy May 2023 #16
Lol! You just have to take my word for it? Do you fear I am lying? Scrivener7 May 2023 #22
I am firmly agnostic. I am happy to realize I have no idea what any of this is about NewHendoLib May 2023 #7
I lost my Christian beliefs gradually. pandr32 May 2023 #8
Message auto-removed Name removed May 2023 #27
"You can swear there ain't Heaven, pray there ain't no Hell. You'll never know by living... czarjak May 2023 #10
Yes, whole heartedly would still be a lifelong student of Hermetics Hestia May 2023 #11
Some believe that we recycle through reincarnation. keithbvadu2 May 2023 #12
I don't believe in any formal religion, but I have a very strong belief in PoindexterOglethorpe May 2023 #13
No afterlife is a belief as much as afterlife is. Beastly Boy May 2023 #15
Same with leprechauns and unicorns and psychics Hugh_Lebowski May 2023 #20
Yeah, exactly. Beastly Boy May 2023 #21
Religion EmeraldCoaster May 2023 #17
You come back. AS SOMEONE ELSE. usonian May 2023 #18
Various forms of the afterlife. I like #2 as a qualifier.. keithbvadu2 May 2023 #19
Eko, I always enjoy your posts UniqueUserName May 2023 #23
Thanks for commenting back. Eko May 2023 #24
That was beautiful! UniqueUserName May 2023 #25
I don't know.. LeftishBrit May 2023 #26

lapfog_1

(30,069 posts)
1. yes... but then I belong to the "Laugh along with God" religion
Sun May 7, 2023, 09:53 PM
May 2023

and no afterlife would be just one last ironic joke on everyone.

BigmanPigman

(52,211 posts)
4. I don't know if I can answer that.
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:07 PM
May 2023

I am an Atheist and have been since I was 11. My family and friends are Atheists too but my mom had my sister and me Christened (the "thing to do" at the time, apparently) and I went to the Catholic Church on the big holidays until I was given a choice about this at 11 years old and said, "Nope". 99% of the people I know who were raised as a Catholic, for a little while, became Atheists.

But.....

Most of my friends believe in the possibility of ghosts, after life experiences that are non-religious, reincarnation, aliens, etc.

So...

If you take away religion, would you still believe in the afterlife?

I do. Personally, I have had too many "odd" experiences on my own to at least acknowledge that we don't have all the answers at this time (science/religion). Hamlet was right.

Scrivener7

(52,508 posts)
5. I'm not religious, but I believe there is some kind of afterlife.
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:09 PM
May 2023

I guess we prove the reverse of the OP's question: if you take away religion, some will still believe in an afterlife.

Eko

(8,428 posts)
9. Interesting argument. Is there a religion out there that doesnt make the afterlife a major part of
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:33 PM
May 2023

its beliefs? You are saying something that you have no proof of, that if you take away religion there will still be some who believe in a afterlife. We just have to take your word for it that you are not religious. How are you not religious?
Thanks,
Eko

Beastly Boy

(11,055 posts)
16. Islam is also more about worship and deeds in this life rather than afterlife
Sun May 7, 2023, 11:26 PM
May 2023

Like in Judaism, afterlife is a more esoteric aspect of Islam. It has more to do with deep studies, best left to the most learned among the believers, than living your life in the present.

In Hinduism, on the other hand, there is no difference between life and afterlife. It is one continuous experience, with souls traveling from one body to another. Essentially, it is one long continuous afterlife, body or not.

NewHendoLib

(60,465 posts)
7. I am firmly agnostic. I am happy to realize I have no idea what any of this is about
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:12 PM
May 2023

there is likely nothing - there may be something - and either way , it is of no consequence.

My wife, my dogs, my daughters, my hobbies, music, the beauty of nature - that is more than enough for me.

pandr32

(12,142 posts)
8. I lost my Christian beliefs gradually.
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:27 PM
May 2023

The more I asked questions and researched the more I realized that the concept of God (or Gods) is a mixture of mythology, tradition, certainly patriarchy, and ignorance. We socialize our children into our belief system.
Giving up the idea of a judging God, the fear, and an afterlife is freeing. We are stardust and that is pretty awesome.

Response to pandr32 (Reply #8)

czarjak

(12,388 posts)
10. "You can swear there ain't Heaven, pray there ain't no Hell. You'll never know by living...
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:51 PM
May 2023

Only your dying will tell" B/S/T

keithbvadu2

(39,922 posts)
12. Some believe that we recycle through reincarnation.
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:56 PM
May 2023

Some believe that we recycle through reincarnation.

Not sure if that counts as an afterlife.

PoindexterOglethorpe

(26,607 posts)
13. I don't believe in any formal religion, but I have a very strong belief in
Sun May 7, 2023, 10:58 PM
May 2023

the afterlife. I cannot imagine dying and there's nothing. I realize I could be wrong, that there may well be nothing after this life, but since I believe in an afterlife, I'm fine.

Oh, and I strongly believe in reincarnation. I've had a number of past life regressions. They have made this lifetime make a lot more sense to me. One and done makes no sense.

Beastly Boy

(11,055 posts)
15. No afterlife is a belief as much as afterlife is.
Sun May 7, 2023, 11:18 PM
May 2023

My religion is more grounded in this life than in an afterlife. It is about how you live, not so much about what happens after you die. Of course, there are elements in it that address the afterlife, but they are also closely tied to this life.

So afterlife or not, my religion still endures.

 

Hugh_Lebowski

(33,643 posts)
20. Same with leprechauns and unicorns and psychics
Mon May 8, 2023, 12:29 AM
May 2023

Not believing in those is just a belief, on exactly equal ground as believing in them would be.

Right?

Beastly Boy

(11,055 posts)
21. Yeah, exactly.
Mon May 8, 2023, 08:55 AM
May 2023

Belief is not a reflection of something tangible, but a strategy for coping. This includes search for meaning. Depending on our needs, leprechauns and unicorns, afterlife and no afterlife, religion and atheism, appear and disappear from our conscience.

EmeraldCoaster

(134 posts)
17. Religion
Sun May 7, 2023, 11:37 PM
May 2023

Isn't it just someone telling you they know what happens when you die? Pay me and I will protect you. Snake Oil

usonian

(13,550 posts)
18. You come back. AS SOMEONE ELSE.
Sun May 7, 2023, 11:39 PM
May 2023

Be kind to everyone! Strive to make the future better. (well, that's a low hurdle to jump)

Strive anyway.

UniqueUserName

(253 posts)
23. Eko, I always enjoy your posts
Mon May 8, 2023, 10:48 AM
May 2023

Although your post isn't specifically directed at my beliefs, my ego responds.

It's been 5 years since my friend's stepson died. He was 24. My friend asked me to remember her spouse, and this idea came to me. My spouse has been dead for 4 years. And this is what my brain thought I should know:

"I think of John as a raindrop on a pond. John's life still creates a wave that ripples through time. We are all brief raindrops on the surface of time. But even as the drops disappear, the waves left interact and form beautiful patterns on the surface of time.

We are all part of that pattern and it is beautiful."

This differs from "Gone But Not Forgotten" because that phrase puts the impetus on the person remembering to remember. Thinking of the past person as a wave gives them more agency. Those gone still act on the living.

However, what comes after life is not the same as our current consciousness. If that were the case, having 100 billion people lived before us, at least one of them would have manifested themselves in a meaningful way and not as a dream, or "something in the side of your peripheral vision", or a fleeting thought. At least one person would have communicated at least as clearly as I'm communicating with you.

There is a reason we call dead "dead". Whatever happens after death is as different as what we call life is (as living-and-breathing) is different from being a zygote or a blastocyst.

I apologize for fighting the hypothetical. But I don't accept the paradigm. We can't know the divine but we can touch it from time to time.

Eko

(8,428 posts)
24. Thanks for commenting back.
Mon May 8, 2023, 11:33 AM
May 2023

I agree with the raindrop on the pond. Our lives create ripples through time.
You might like this also.


Thanks!
Eko.
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