By that I mean, it must be an inherently comforting thing to think - we inherently know this and want there to be something after death, because it feels right, or more meaningful. There’s a reason basically every civilization ever has some sort of afterlife ethos.
I realize I am basically horseshoeing my way into evangelicalism but still. Maybe life was better if we believed there was something beyond this. [edit - please note that yes, the world is shitty, things are awful and getting worse, and that is exactly my point – we get THIS SHIT, and nothing else? god that’s awful]
Don’t think so. If life is just your SAT… I don’t think examns are that enjoyable. And it’s not like God gave us clear instructions anyways. If that sucks, it’s on him. And the bible is more treating us with the carrot and a stick. Lots of it is invoking fear… don’t do this, don’t do that… He’ll send plagues and illnesses, seems a narcissistic father and has no issue whatsoever making some of us suffer. I wouldn’t like it at all if it were true.
Some people however will get a comfortable feeling from being exposed to empty promises. But to make them more effective, I’d say it’d need some more visual invitations. Like God showing himself and performing some more miracles so it becomes believable. And we need clearer instruction because christianity is just filled with contradictions. And it’s hard to cope with that. The promise is afterlife, but you’re set up for failure because of the bible telling everything and the opposite. And being set up for failure sucks.
I was raised Catholic, but as time went on and I left it, I think one of the misconceptions people who are still deeply religious have is that atheists or non-religious people are continually thinking about NOT having religion as much as religious people think about their religion, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes MONTHS go by where I don’t have a single thought about religion, the afterlife, God… When you grow up in an organized religion you tend to feel the lack of religion is some kind of continual rejection of it, and it’s hard to imagine people for whom it just isn’t a presence in ANY sense. When you realize the presence of religion is neither necessary or sufficient for any part of life, you can start to see how life satisfaction or lack thereof has nothing to do with belief. There are horribly depressed devout worshipers and annoyingly peppy and positive atheists. It’s an entirely different axis.
This is an insightful observation.
I was raised Catholic as well, stopped going to Mass when I left home in my early 20s, and just never missed it. As a child I think I believed but as an adult religious belief seems completely unnecessary.
My son, who was raised an atheist, is now deeply religious—he’s a Benedictine monk (no, we didn’t see that coming!)—but even when visiting him religion seems like a lot of nonsense to me. (He’s happy and we accept his choice despite not sharing his beliefs.)
All of the depression I have, has been caused by the people who believe in all that.
Science is a tool for answering questions about the physical world. By definition, it can’t provide complete answers about things outside the physical realm.
Never found the idea of god particularly comforting
Especially a petty, vindictive, narcissistic one who will torture you forever if you don’t kiss his ass. No wonder “Chrisitians” love Trump. They were brainwashed as children to think that is normal.
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science has probably proven there is no god / afterlife
Well, for one, you “probably proven” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless maybe you’ve got a paper waiting on peer review confirmation. In any case, it is exceedingly difficult to definitely prove something isn’t for cases like this. Does every bit of evidence point to ‘no’? Yes. However, it’s still technically not proven to be false/absent.
Anyway, that’s not the actual important part here. One human lifetime is generally a long time. There are lots of meaningful interactions that a person can have in that time. I would argue that, since it’s not an eternity, the pressure is on to do something better with your life. That doesn’t require gods or afterlives. Volunteer, meet up about hobbies, find a social group, etc.
we inherently know this and want there to be something after death, because it feels right, or more meaningful
I disagree. For one, if you get do-overs on life or an eternity to do whatever, isn’t it inherently LESS meaningful since there are no stakes? Secondarily, I personally don’t like the idea of trying to exist for an eternity; that sounds like it always ends in boring monotony… at least so much as something ‘endless’ ‘ends’ anyway (English be silly).
For one, if you get do-overs on life or an eternity to do whatever, isn’t it inherently LESS meaningful since there are no stakes?
I don’t know of any religion in which you get do overs with no stakes
Religions that support reincarnation is one, though most would say you get reincarnated as something more/less favorable depending upon the life lived.
By no stakes above, I was mostly referring to an eternal amount of time to do anything, supposing a bit that one could accomplish a lot in many of the version of afterlife I’ve heard of. I wasn’t thinking of it in a ‘no morals’ or similar way, but I can see how it could be read as such.
In most religions I know, the afterlife is mainly to live with the consequences of what you did. It’s not just more life
One human lifetime is generally a long time
No it’s not. Just a mere few decades. Less than nothing. And then it ends.
An afterlife was created by humans natural survival instinct. Before science, I’m 100% sure that it was a coping mechanism to deal with our knowledge of impending death.
Now that we understand more of the universe, most still can’t shake that need.
“When I’m dead, just throw me in the trash” - Frank Reynolds
No. It’s because of lifestyle choices affecting diet, exercise, and sleep. But it does help to believe in something and feel a strong sense of purpose and meaning in life.
Yeah surely it’s the afterlife what caused my depression. Not the unemployment, my inability to find a job in the industry I’ve spent years of education, not my finances, not trying to figure out how to afford the dentist, not the state of my personal relationships and friendships no no no. It’s the afterlife
I think probably more influential is the accessibility to global knowledge, so now it’s really easy to see how shitty everything is, and also find more things to worry about
No man. I am so happy that for what i did now have no consequences after i die. So i live as i see fit.
Modern science didn’t have to prove to me that unicorns, elves, and fairies don’t actually exist. Somehow, I figured that out on my own and moved on.
Somebody did their own research.
Modern science didn’t have to prove to me that unicorns, elves, and fairies don’t actually exist. Somehow, I figured that out on my own and moved on.
If you take the right things, you will see fairies and so much more
A horned horse to me makes more sense than the concept that is usually called “god”.
Especially makes more sense than narwhals.
“I figured that out on my own” -> science
Figuring it out on your own is science, but I have a feeling OP didn’t actually personally search the world for one-horned horses or pointy eared-people with long lifespans. I bet they didn’t even work out how biology changes with scale and how evolution works to show that there can’t be tiny winged people.
Yes you’re right. It’s more an untested hypothesis and no (counter) evidence has appeared by themselves to OC yet.
Im an atheist and im not even remotely depressed. I live everyday to the fullest because I know it might be my last day on earth, all we are guaranteed is right now. And once I die I dont need the superstition of an afterlife, I believe that I will live on in the positive influence Ive had on many people.
