Does a belief that we go on in spirit after we die require a belief in a god being?

Our brain produces a little substance that has recently been getting attention, that, if you have ever experienced, will without a shadow of a doubt give you insight into the very real existence of a soul.

This world is an illusion.

The fact that people are as cut off from their divine nature is a tragedy that has been orchestrated, by TPTB in order to control people. It really is that simple.

There is a reason that the main theme throughout all philosophical history as well as core of religion is sumed up with one very simple expression "Know Thyself"

There is also a reason for the resurgence of interest in Ayahuasca and other notable psychedelics!

a reply to: elementalgrove

Could you elaborate on how a spiritual existence is possible without a spiritual source?

Every single religion or spiritual philosophy on the face of the earth has a source. Whether it's some amorphous "collective conscious universe" hippy crap, or the all father of Norse mythology, etc. EVERY SINGLE ONE accounts for the source of the spirit.

How then, can there be no God (source), yet there is an afterlife?

a reply to: DeadSeraph

I never asserted such a thing.

Obviously there is a source of all, hence why every single one of them accounts for such a thing!

Ah to be an atheist!

I remember when I was a teenager I was an atheist because I disagreed with the obvious corruption of the Christian church however I knew there was some kind of divine intelligence when I was about 4 years old back when I first learned that when I breathe, trees breath, and when they breathe, I breathe.

Philosophizing is fun! Even if it is a bunch of "hippy crap"

originally posted by: DeadSeraph
a reply to: gmoneystunt

But the OP specifically states that they believe an afterlife is possible without God. That is the subject. Yes, I personally believe in an afterlife, and I am on the fence about reincarnation. But my personal beliefs aren't the subject of the thread.

The OP states that there can be an afterlife and a soul without God. I would like someone, anyone, to tell me how that is possible (without making juvenile attempts to link the issue to religion).

Let me try again. It is possible that the natural state of consciousness in this reality is energy/spirit/soul and that physical form is simply one of the ways that energy/spirit/soul is manifested.

I said possibly, it is as possible as anything else I have heard.

Does the above idea require a god?

a reply to: Jonjonj

Depends on how you define "God", which I suppose the author of the OP should do. But yes, it certainly requires a source. Again, is this /spirit/soul eternal? If it goes on to an afterlife as suggested in the OP, where did that afterlife come from? Who created that soul/afterlife?

All things have a source. How is it that anyone can claim there is an afterlife that doesn't have one?

a reply to: Jonjonj

I cant argue, It very well could

I guess it really depends on what you consider "God" to be. I perceive it as the visible and unseen forces of the Universe, all energy and consciousness that exists and truly does not give a #. it just exists in all it's epicness, expands and contracts after billions of years and starts anew each time, forever. God and spirituality are able to converge perfectly with no conflict, in my opinion, unless you are speaking in terms of religion especially abrahamic idea of God.. Which if you ask me, whoever believes in a guy flying on a cloud in the skies of this irrelevant planet, condemning people for believing the wrong book has gone full retard.

I still don't understand the concept of what a soul actually is or where it originates, and it's relation to the source of all being. What's the point of a soul? Thats what mind#s me. Like when I think of my own experience here, and then look at the vast infinite space of the universe I wonder how the # does my experience even relate to this amazing stuff?

I might be over thinking this or I might have smoked too much weed. Either way, good thread and thought provoking!

originally posted by: DeadSeraph
a reply to: Jonjonj

Depends on how you define "God", which I suppose the author of the OP should do. But yes, it certainly requires a source. Again, is this /spirit/soul eternal? If it goes on to an afterlife as suggested in the OP, where did that afterlife come from? Who created that soul/afterlife?

All things have a source. How is it that anyone can claim there is an afterlife that doesn't have one?

Well the source could be the energy in this reality/Universe, couldn't it?

Ahh but now it seems it is you who is demanding a religious reason, which you expressly demanded not be included.

a reply to: isthisreaI

Almost seems as tho you are describing God to be nature of the universe which could be true. The point of the soul is the same as life to exist and survive. I don't think it is over thinking. I think it trying to understand the meaning of life

No it doesn't require a belief in God.
A spirit world or our soul living on could just be a way of saying that our energy lives on or returns to the universe.
We are Star Dust after all.

Religion is as clueless and in the dark as we are, more so in fact because they believe the ramblings of 2000 year old sheapards and fishermen.

There are people right now exploring the nature of consciousness, reality and the universe - without having to squeeze God in at every turn and dismiss things because it doesn't make religious sense.
Believe whatever you like OP.

a reply to: Jonjonj

I'm not demanding a religious explanation at all. Simply a logical explanation as to how there can be a soul and an afterlife, yet no God.

Here we are again, with you accusing me of being religious. You do realize that the concept of a God is not a religious issue, right? This has been debated among the greatest philosophers in history for ages. It really is a philosophical issue. I think the only reason you all would like to make it a religious issue is because you are incapable of providing a logical explanation for how there can be an afterlife without a God.

God can be seen as an distributed consciousness interconnected on all levels. If it existed before big bang or have evolved upwards in conscious awareness do not really change what is. Even in the bible the whole Elohim created man in in our image makes me think of the ONE that are many individual parts but still ONE whole.

Genesis 1:26

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

Even in a human body where a spark of awareness is incarnated and emerge as a collective output of the cells creating both the conscious mind a and subconscious mind. You can see the output as one being but it is also a sum of every cell working in symbiosis.

You can have quantum consciousness where the consciousness is separated from the body (astral projection) playing around with the light energy without the existence of a subjective one person god.

originally posted by: DeadSeraph

Every single religion or spiritual philosophy on the face of the earth has a source (without making juvenile attempts to link the issue to religion). Yet all I have seen so far are juvenile attacks on "religion"

I unfortunately compiled your comments together to easily show your own contradictions.

a reply to: gmoneystunt

Where is the contradiction?

originally posted by: DeadSeraph

Every single religion or spiritual philosophy on the face of the earth has a source

Was your comment then you said,

(without making juvenile attempts to link the issue to religion)

Then you said,

Yet all I have seen so far are juvenile attacks on "religion"

I see you edited your comments

originally posted by: DeadSeraph
a reply to: Jonjonj

I'm not demanding a religious explanation at all. Simply a logical explanation as to how there can be a soul and an afterlife, yet no God.

Here we are again, with you accusing me of being religious.

Ummm I don't know that I have ever accused you of being religious have I? I simply said that you are demanding a religious answer because of this:

Who created that soul/afterlife?

You used the word who, not what. That surely infers some kind of sentient creator, or am I missing something?

a reply to: gmoneystunt

I edited my ONE post (other than this one) for punctuation. Your quotes still contain the original content. There is no contradiction to be had.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

If you don't see the contradiction yet then I apologize for not understanding you

originally posted by: droid56
Does a belief that we go on in spirit after we die require a belief in a god being?

No.

On the other hand, when asked about the subject, most spirits confirm the existence of god. See Kardec's books on spiritism.

And it would totally make sense since our spirits are supposed to be fragments of the greatest Spirit (God).


edit: lets be factual here. This is what spirits/spiritism are saying about god:

Some writers define the soul as being the principle of organic life, having no existence of its own, and ceasing with the life of the body. According to this purely Materialistic belief, the soul is an effect, and not a cause.
Others consider the soul as being the principle of intelligence, the universal agent, of which each being absorbs a portion. According to them, there is, in the entire universe, only one soul, which distributes sparks of itself among all intelligent beings during their life ; each spark, after the death of the being it has animated, returning to the common source, and blending again with the general whole, as brooks and rivers return to the ocean from which they were produced. This opinion differs from the preceding one, inasmuch as, according to the latter hypothesis, there is in us something more than matter, something that remains in existence after our death; but, practically, it is much as though nothing remained of us, since, no longer possessing individuality, we should retain no consciousness of our identity.
According to this hypothesis, the universal soul is God, and each being is a portion of the Divinity. It is a species of Pantheism.

The beings who thus enter into communication with us designate themselves, as we have said, by the name of spirits or genie, and as having belonged, in many cases at least, to men who have lived upon the earth. They say that they constitute the spiritual world, as we, during our earthly life, constitute the corporeal world. We will now briefly sum up the most important points of the doctrine which they have transmitted to us, in order to reply more easily to the objections of the incredulous. "God is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, all-powerful, sovereignly just and good.

"Spirits belong to different classes, and are not equal to one another either in power, in intelligence, in knowledge, or in morality. Those of the highest order are distinguished from those below them by their superior purity and knowledge, their nearness to God, and their love of goodness; they are "angels" or "pure spirits."

etc, etc, etc, ...

www.allankardec.com...

originally posted by: droid56
My answer is "no". I believe we continue to exist after we die in a spiritual form, but I don't believe in a being god.

To me, it's a mystery.

Nope. There are many indigenous groups & non-traditional religions that believe that the spirit lives on in different ways. Some believe the spirits pass on into new creatures (reincarnation) or can have parts of their spirit divided into new things (like trees, plants, or even man-made creations). Some believe the spirits can linger on the Earth for an unspecified amount of time, sometimes until certain tasks on Earth are finished. Some even believe the lingering spirits can possess or aid the living.