What would this be depressing?
Atheists sleep late on Sundays and get the best tables for brunch (if they beat the church crowd).
Very good description of your concept of the universe, where nothing any living thing does actually has any meaning, because it’s all controlled by a being beyond the universe.
Yep – I find the various religious world views far more depressing, personally.
Of course there is Hell. In fact, its all over the place, about every 1/8th mile. You can identify it by the round green sign with the mermaid on it.
Naturally they’re all wandering around saying, “I can’t believe it!”
Or it could be South Park is right and the only people in Heaven are the Mormons.
Is Christianity being right totally contingent on the existence of the afterlife? Coming from a Jewish perspective, I believe in an afterlife, but that isn’t the purpose of my life or the “test” of whether my religious beliefs are accurate.
I know that Christianity is much more afterlife-based, but does that mean that if we knew for sure that there were no afterlife that Christians would give up on their religion entirely?
Christian believers in this thread – if you knew for certain that there was no afterlife, would that completely invalidate your beliefs?
Wait a while; it’ll become ironic instead of depressing.
Most religions contradict others, so many worshippers will be disappointed. :smack:
As an Atheist, I intend to enjoy this life (and not spend time and money on Churches.) 
I’ve long thought that eternal life would get tedious. I’m not even so sure about people living to be 200 years old. At some point, you get tired.
Agnostics know they are right all along: NOBODY knows if a god of any kind exists or not.
I have it on good authority that the Jews were right.
(my embolden) That theory fits in with mine, exactly. I’m from Catholic stock, with a strong history from Poland (mum’s side - dad’s was CofE), but only really my mum, who went to Catholic school is fully into worshipping; she volunteers at the church, helps families whose children are to be baptised, goes to bell ringing twice a week, organises Sunday school - the whole nine yards.
So I’m kind of a ‘Christian’ for image purposes (The Daily Show talked about that recently), but more of a spiritualist, as I’ve had an experience with the dead, as have my brother and sister (she’s had many of them). So I believe in the after-life but am living for today, 'cause in this life, things are much harder than in the afterworld. This life you’re on your own. guitar solo
Sorry, I can’t answer your question more specifically as I know there’s an afterlife
I’ve always thought it’ll be funny when we each arrive at the gate to afterlife and have to fill out the entry application form. After boxes for name, date of birth, place of birth, etc. comes one last question:
Religion (please check one): [ ] Jehovah’s Witness [ ] Other
Lotsa folks are gonna be surprised when they see that.
As an atheist, I know I’m gonna be one of the surprised too. 
Only if it turns out only one of them is right. I mean, how do we really know that all the gods don’t actually exist. What if all religions are true and you just get whatever you believe when you die?
Why is “Atheist” a code meaning “Believes humans are mortal with no chance of afterlife”?
I use it to mean “Ascribes to no system of beliefs commonly called ‘religion’”.
Would it shock you to learn of an atheist who believed in an afterlife? That only our bodies die and decay; our personalities (aka “souls”) are eternal? Such a critter is possible - and I’d love to have an intelligent conversation with that person. Assuming the beliefs are rational in origin, which leaves out most theories of eternal life.
how would you describe someone who doesn’t care either way? all I want is to avoid a long, drawn-out painful death. but what happens afterward is not anything I’ll be capable of caring about.
I imagine two people who fell off a bridge and on the way down one is praying and the other is yelling at the first for being a dumbass.
Worrying about what happens when you hit the ground is like yelling at the praying guy. All it accomplishes is making a sufficiently bad situation worse.
You should know now.
It is possible to be both certain of something and still find it depressing.
And wanting to be able to say “Told you so” has nothing to do with either.