Atheism and Death

I'm noticing a few misconceptions here...

1) just because you consider yourself an athiest does not necessarily mean you don't believe in an afterlife. Reincarnation can quite logically be considered an 'afterlife' (as it happens after you've lived once) and many cultures without a concrete 'God' still believe in a continuation of existence after death. Might not be a NICE existence, mind you...

2) Being an athiest doesn't mean that once your life is over you're erased. Gone. Kaput. People still talk about Shakespeare, for instance, and he's been dead and dust for 400 years or so (if he ever existed at all). You can obtain a measure of immortality in two ways that I know of: make such an impact on others around you that they remember you (Jesus, Buddha, Einstein, Ghandi are some good examples, Gengis Khan and Hitler are some bad ones), i.e. immortality through your work, or 2) have children (your genetic material moves on. My great-grandfather is the spitting image of my brother, whose son is the spitting image of him). But really, if what we are consists of our thoughts, feelings, 'personality' and those CAN be continued on even after our deaths, have we really died, per se? You live as long as memory of you does.

For the record, I don't believe in God, but I like the idea of an afterlife wherein you return to the collective unconscious, as it were. Both one and many. Time ceases to have meaning. Whether or not I actually believe this is what happens, I don't know. And yes, I have been at deathbeds. Death is not pretty, fast or slow. But it all the more says to me I could be doing one heck of a lot more good in the world by actually helping people in the here and now than worrying about what happens to their souls after death.

death
Vand, good post.

Vand, I'm one of those atheist that believes in total void when I'm dead. c.i.

One of my MOST favorite writings on a tombstone by
the woman beneath it follows
Do Not Stand At My Grave
(by Mary Frye 1932)

do not stand at my grave and weep,
i am not there - i do not sleep,

i am in the thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow,
i am the gentle showers of rain,
i am the fields of ripening grain,

i am in the morning hush,
i am in the graceful rush
of beautiful birds in circling flight,
i am the starshine of the night,

i am in the flowers that bloom,
i am in a quiet room,
i am the birds that sing,
i am in each lovely thing

do not stand at my grave and cry,
i am not there, i did not die.
----------------------------------

It is just nice. It has nothing to do with christianity or any
religion, it is just a personal belief, which I occasionaly
think is what we FIND for ourselves here, or maybe not.
THOSE WHO KNOW - are gone. All that remains, are
those of us who don't know a darned thing. But I like it, it
has a sort of eternity within it's words, ashes to ashes &
dust to dust, a re-creation of what we leave behind - as
the essence of what we were, simply becomes the essence
of something else. I'd like to be a long climbing rose that
blooms all summer long, bringing endless pleasure to my
gardener.

babs, In that sense, I'd like to be a part of every flower in this world - now and for the future. c.i.

Vand- Absolutely believe in your #s 2 &3.......but for me, reincarnation IS a stretch!

My view is that "life" is a continuum; "we" are not!

But, of course, within that assessment, without "us" there would be no continuum!

BoGoWo, What is more amazing to me is the fact that we're all decendents of the same ancestor way back when...... c.i.

life
BoGoWo, if we are expressions of life, are we not also part of the continuum?
C.I., you and me related?

JLN, Yes, about a trillion-billion times removed, we are cousins. c.i.

truth
C.I., give me a virtual hug, bro.

Yep; looks like we're all related, right back to the beginning.
(But then, I thought the "Big Bang" was a porno movie!)

yieeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

I've created a monster.......

The whole world is my family; I embrace everybody. c.i.

I understood how the table was set up I just don't understand what it means. How was the positive infinity and negative infinity and the positive one and negative one brought about?

Midnight; if I may be so bold as to offer my take:
I read -1 = slight negative reaction;
+1= slight positive response;
+infinity = everything (all important)
- infinity = nothing (of no importance)
Thus to a believer, the existence of god is all important, and the nonbeliever's opinion means little; and to a nonbeliever, the fact that a believer thinks there is a god is of absolutely no importance, and the reality, that there is none, provides only minor comfort.

Well I was brought up to believe in an afterlife (and I do) but sometimes when I think of science and things like that, I take a more Buddhist aproach, reincarnation. Einstein said that energy is never wasted, its just recycled, like the water cycle. SOO....this would mean the same thing for your soul when you die, you come back as something else. You are recycled. like the matrix lol.

Einstein also "could not believe god would play dice with the universe";
so his track record is already a bust! (either way)

Death is one of the few truths we know about. I personally don't fear death, but i'm not curious of it. What I'm indeed curious about is the process that it takes a person there & what do they do when their close to their deaths. I don't believe in an afterlife or that our "soul"(I don't believe we have souls) reincarnates. I don't need conssolations to go on with my life.

Btw, a person who does believes does takes death alot harder that an atheist or an agnostic. Probably the agnostic are the ones who take it the best way.

Actually Dux; it's the theists that have the best deal.
They believe all their lives that they will go to "heaven' when they die, and when they die - "nothing"; but, they never realize, and have to face the fact that they were wrong.
On the other hand, if we are mistaken, I, in particular have some pretty fast talking to do......

BGO, No fast talking for me; just silence. RIP c.i.