What afterlife? I won’t know if there is or is not an afterlife until I am dead. Either way, its existence or lack thereof does not affect how I’ll live my life today. I won’t waste time trying to imagine what it will be like. No one can provide meaningful insight into the afterlife, if it exists, and the speculation is pointless. If it does exist, I’ll figure out what to do when I get there.
I don’t think it’s pointless to examine why people yearn for an afterlife. Read my post again with that in mind.
It’s navel-gazing. I understand people do it, I understand some find comfort and even fulfillment in doing it.
I find it a waste of time.
If you don’t have meaning now, eternity is not going to give it to you. And your deeds matter even after you’re self aware - consider your favorite influential person who is now dead. Do his or her deeds that affected you count less if there is no afterlife?
If you don’t like sleep, ever been under general anesthesia? After you slip into oblivion, what would it matter to you if you never woke up? You are as out of it as anyone can be.
My advice is to stop worrying about the afterlife and start building meaning into this life.
Of cours there is Woody Allen’s counterview - “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality by not dying.” 
Perhaps we can actually find comfort and fulfillment if we better understand what we’re looking for. Is meta-navel-gazing is still navel-gazing? 
Well you are kinda of re-writing the rules there. if the afterlife was nothing but this life continuing, it would just be life
but yeah, I would probably still want it to exist regardless, a continuation of some type is a comforting thought after all!
Whose rules?
I used the wrong word then, instead of “rules”, how about:
You are re-writting the premise of what the “afterlife” is. so your question really doesn’t make any sense to me, but I tried to answer anyway!
I do appreciate your trying to answer and the word “rules” was fine. Whose rules or premise? Yours? You indicated your concept of the afterlife was somewhat different from others. You didn’t say if it was eternal or not. You did indicate that you weren’t sure if the afterlife would allow you to make sense of this life. What premise am I re-writing?
I fear I may have offended you with my questions. I truly intend no offense. I’m just exploring why people believe what they post here about an afterlife. If you don’t wish to offer any more than you have, I will not think ill of you.
There are a couple of cold moments as you grow up. There is the existential moment when you realize there is no god. At that time it is necessary to formulate a life system . You realize that life without rules and regulations of some sort will be chaotic. You find yourself developing a moral system,not an anything goes concept that many religious people say would result. When you do something wrong there is no erasing. There is just a cold reality that you have done wrong and decide not to repeat it.
Then you face death. We all do.It would be nice to think there is something after,but there is not. Every living creature dies. We bury our dogs and cats etc. Do we think they are going somewhere else. no Are we. No ,but we are going to try like hell to convince ourselves we are. It is easier that facing the truth. Just face it and live as well as you can.
Artfully put! And hard to resist… do you work in sales perhaps?
No offense taken, no worries. I use “afterlife” as a word in the classical sense, i.e. enternal, spirtual life versus the more limited earth bound one we have now.
As to why I believe that way… hard to say really. I guess part personal experience, part gut feeling, nothing to that can measured or tested.
Now who’s being insulting? (Just kidding. I am a techie that works in a marketing office and seriously out numbered by salespeople. Maybe some of that has rubbed off on me. I think I need a shower. )
Thanks. I think I can understand the comfort derived from believing in an afterlife, no matter the source of the belief. I can see eventually having answers to the great questions of life being something to hope for. I can see some attraction in an eternal afterlife where death (or even change) is no longer on the horizon. I can also understand wanting to be judged as worthy.
I hope you will indulge at least one more question. It has great potential to offend so first I’ll give a very important preface. This is really a question for anyone who’s thought about an afterlife. Dob, in no way do I want to imply you or anyone else possess this character flaw, nor that I lack it. Is there a component of greed in wanting there to be an afterlife?
Hmmm… honestly I have not thought about it in that context, but I dont think (at least for me) it’s about greed. Again, my belief comes from personal experience and gut feeling. Dont get me wrong, I am prepared to admit that what I believe is irrational, I get that.
And while my personal experience can also be attributed to a number of other factors, those other factors just dont explain it enough for me to believe in nothingness after death. There is something that I am sure of, now, is that something what I think it is? I wont know until it’s my time… and I do hope that time is a long, long, way off!
I think I do take slight umbrage with the idea that believing in a afterlife is somehow more comforting than believing in nothing. I think that no matter your belief, if that belief is strong and confident in you, you will derive comfort in it. There is as much comfort, or lack of it, in thinking that death is just the end, a dreamless sleep.
Either way it happens we both are leaving behind friends, families, loved ones, and all the trappings of life. So even if I go on to something else, I’m still leaving those things, and that’s hardly a comfort.
Fair enough. I don’t intend to change any beliefs. I’m just trying to understand their source. If the answer is simply faith then that’s about as far as I can go.
So I’ll ask other readers for their opinions: What lead us humans to develop this idea of an afterlife? Does greed play a role?
Your point is well taken. I apologize and retract those statements.
This is true.
Thank you for going along with me.
My point is this: if there is an afterlife, but you don’t take your memories with you, then ‘you’ don’t actually go there, someone else does. It’s not a statement of what the afterlife may or may not be, it’s a simple statment of logic. If I don’t remember who or what I am adn what I have done and what I know, I’m simply not me anymore.
Therefore, if there is an afterlife into which we depart (as opposed to nothing at all), then memory must be retained in order to make any sense of the statement that ‘we’ go there. That’s all.
Just a question, doesent string theory prove the existence of god? If there are infinite number of dimenions, than everything, no matter how improbable exists. Then doesent logic follow that in one of these dimensions there is an onmipotent force that understands everything?
I have no idea what string theory is or says, but logically no; if all things can exist, then an omnipotent god could exist - but in which universe? And since all things can exist, there must be universes with no omnipotent god; and if there are universes in which a god holds no power, they aren’t omnipotent anyway. So no, it doesn’t prove that.
I don’t think string theory posits any such thing and in an infinite number of throws of a six-sided die, you still can’t throw a seven. If it’s actually impossible, you won’t get it just from trying more.
I don’t see how. For one thing (from Wikipedia):
And why would infinite dimensions or even an infinite universe require everything, no matter how improbable, to exist.
Also, this argument is being put forth in at least two other threads right now.
Not so, the Casimir effect proves you wrong. Everything is connected, even the dimensions of string theory. This ultimate being would be present in one dimension, yes, and not in another. But it existence in one, means there is in fact a god.