To Atheists, I Have a Question

atheist- a person who denies or disbelieves in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
in other words, an atheist has no religion, meaning that they do not believe in heaven, hell, nirvana and so on.
so my question is this: what do you believe happens after you die?
i realize that different people will have different viewpoints about this subject, but i would like to hear all. i am not trying to start a religious debate, frankly, im just curious.

I am not an athiest, but I believe that's it. When you die....your dead. Nothing happens , that's it..
Although I have met some people who claim to be atheist's but believe in ascension.
If I am wrong. I am sure I will be corrected

[edit on 22-11-2007 by highfreq]

OK, I'll bite.

Although not a true atheist, I'll answer your question with questions.

What do you think happens when:

an atom breaks down?
a molecule breaks down?
a cell dies?
an ameba dies?
a bacteria dies?
a virus dies?
a plant dies?
a fish dies?
a mammal dies?
a star dies?

Does every single thing that ever lived in the universe go to heaven or hell?

Or is it just humans?

Why would we be different than ever living thing in the universe?


[edit on 11/22/07 by makeitso]

I'm an atheist, and a de facto one at that.

The only proof of what happens when we die is as follows:

Brain shuts down, body stops creating energy, cells begin to rot.

Buried, cremated, or miscellaneous disposal of corpse and all the little bacteria are happy with the remains.

Since there's no proof of anything resembling a soul, then I can't believe that the consciousness continues after death.

It's just finito. Which to me is a fine thing and makes life all the more precious because it's all there is.

Think about when you sleep and don't dream...

...but only you don't wake up.

No dreams

No consciousness

Just eternal peace...

reply to post by makeitso


ive never thought of it like that, but that would seem likely. i just have trouble seeing nothing in my head.

Nothing happens. Why does anything have to happen. We are both, hang around for a bit, then die. That's it.

Some people have to believe in something to make themselves comfortable and blissful. Then there are some people that just think life is life and that's that. That doesn't mean that those people are unhappy. It just means that they don't NEED to believe in something.

We are animals. Just like dogs, cats and fish. We live, we die. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Nothing happens. Why does anything have to happen? We are born, hang around for a bit, then die. That's it.

Some people have to believe in something to make themselves comfortable and blissful. Then there are some people that just think life is life and that's that. That doesn't mean that those people are unhappy. It just means that they don't NEED to believe in something.

We are animals. Just like dogs, cats and fish. We live, we die. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Primitive man could not get the idea of a 'random' nature. To him a lightning strike was an act of a 'god' above.

Over time there were many gods; fire, rain, thunder.

Then there was one god - essentially what was left after we explained nature.

People like to have a leader. They like uncertainty to be explained.

Clever people in the tribe realized they could exploit these needs, so high priests were created. To keep the people believing and in line, they create a mythology called 'religion' and they'll tell you anything necessary to keep this scam going, including lying about 'heaven' and of course its opposite 'hell'.

Current religions are just rehashings of older religions from Sumeria and Egypt.

So maybe the real question is why are 'believers' still being fooled by this stuff?

I've had a couple of religious studies students tell me that once they started studying religion and the supreme being that it all became clear that it wasn't real and they ended up dropping out.

So it really can't bear too close a scrutiny.

as i said before, i have a problem with nothing. i really cant wrap my mind around it, and when i try, i always end up with a headache, but i dont know why.

reply to post by wisefoolishness


Nonetheless, kudos to you for facing your discomfort and not turning away.

It's much harder to question and try to come to grips with this than just saying, "oh, if you're good you go to heaven, and if you're bad you go to hell."

Keep on with testing yourself and your beliefs!

reply to post by wisefoolishness


Try thinking about the time before you were born.
Nothing right?
Same with death.

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
so my question is this: what do you believe happens after you die?

Nothing.

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
i just have trouble seeing nothing in my head.

Most people do. It makes them uncomfortable. That's why they will work very hard to put something in that void. Most often it's a story told to us by our parents, who heard it from their parents, and so on for the last 50 generations.

It's also difficult for people to understand that except for our marginal contribution to keeping DNA moving and replicating, our lives are essentially meaningless. And once we die, all of our loves and hates and good acts and bad add up to nothing. Again, because as children we learn the concept of good and bad and how our actions are defined by that.

Some people can't handle it. Nothingness. Void. Pointlessness. They get depressed. It drives them crazy. So they believe made up stories and huddle with others who believe those same made up stories, those same lies, because it gets them through the day.

Maybe it's all a delusion and a lie. But what if the "truth" offers no comfort? Which is best? I don't know. Everybody has to figure that out on their own.

[edit on 23-11-2007 by Nohup]

I'm also in the "nothing" camp. My flatmate used to scare himself as a child thinking of the great big nothing after life, so bad that he couldnt sleep. But I imagine plenty of kids have been scared of Hell in the same way.

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
what do you believe happens after you die?

You might have some sort of post-mortem and then be buried/burned/picked at by vultures. Other people will be likely be sad, but you live on in their memories for a time.

[edit on 23-11-2007 by melatonin]

I believe it's all summed up with a line from one of Clawfinger's songs:

"Nothing going on, nothing going on. I've got a whole lotta nothing going on."

A rock does not give rock.

Plant give plants.

Animal gives conscience.

Human gives soul.





[edit on 23-11-2007 by Rigel]

Originally posted by wisefoolishness
atheist- a person who denies or disbelieves in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
in other words, an atheist has no religion, meaning that they do not believe in heaven, hell, nirvana and so on.
so my question is this: what do you believe happens after you die?
i realize that different people will have different viewpoints about this subject, but i would like to hear all. i am not trying to start a religious debate, frankly, im just curious.

The answer is simple from an atheistic viewpoint. Let's consider the strict definition of life: the ability to metabolize plus the ability to reproduce. Let's consider the process of life: those abilities from birth to death. Let's consider the end of that process as the end of the neuron activity in the organism (i.e. because of the lack of oxygen, from heart collapse, the neuromotor system stops functioning). Then, the end of the life process is defined as death, the cells in the organism die (stop performin their natural functions) and they disintegrate. That's very simple! For addition sources, go to the nearest library and get biology books, starting from like $2.00 used & new .

Originally posted by Nohup

It's also difficult for people to understand that except for our marginal contribution to keeping DNA moving and replicating, our lives are essentially meaningless. And once we die, all of our loves and hates and good acts and bad add up to nothing.

And this is where I differ from strict atheists. Its clear to me that our lives are not meaningless, and that our acts do add up to something. From my perspective our actions have a cumulative effect on the generations that come after us.

Let me try to explain. A turtle, frog, and other animals live today exactly as they have lived for millions of years. Humans however act very differently today than they did thousands of years, or even decades ago.

Why? Because we have a cumulative body of knowledge passed down from the previous generations. We would still be living in caves struggling to stay warm without this cumulative knowledge.

A more personal and recent example can also be seen. If an ancestor of mine had not decided to come to America, myself and several generations of his offspring would still be living in an oppressive country with a high murder rate and little opportunity or education. His seemingly personal and selfish action to move to a different location determined the fate and life of untold future generations of his offspring.

An even more personal example would be my fathers work ethic. Which of course was handed down to him. If his work ethic had been to drink heavily, work little, and steal everything he could, I would probably have the same ethic. He would have been in jail or killed, thus I and my children would be living in poverty today.

You can look back at human history and easily see this cumulative effect. You can look back on your family history and see the cumulative effect. You can even look back on your personal life and see a cumulative effect.

What we cannot do is look forward in time and see where all this is leading mankind. Neither will we be able to personally enjoy the future benifits. But its obvious its leading to something, with an unknown purpose and destination.

Its just as obvious that your personal actions, even something seemingly small like working hard or moving to a different location will have a heavy impact on future generations of your offspring.