Are there any religions that believe that there is a creator but that there is no afterlife? That is, we live and we die and that’s it.
I also exclude reincarnation etc.
There are some forms of liberal Judaism that don’t emphasize an afterlife, some to the point of non-belief. The ancient priestly Sadducean branch of Judaism didn’t, although there is some debate as to whether all Sadducees denied an afterlife/resurrection (if the Sadducees were more a class group than a doctrinal group).
Here is Cecil Adams’ reply to a similar question, although he says it is the wrong question anyway, splits it into two parts and answers accordingly.
Jehovah’s Witnesses views on death. Basically, after death you cease to exist, hell is the grave, and some day Jehovah is going to recreate all the faithful believers to live forever in Paradise on Earth, except for the 144,000 who will dwell with him in Heaven.
The unbelievers will simply stay non-existant.
So, that’s a “no” on JW, then.
I think you can be a perfectly good Buddhist and not believe in an afterlife or in a god.
Seems doubtful because the allure of most monotheist religions is the benefits to be reaped in the afterlife…whether it be playing harps on fluffy clouds or to be knee-deep in virgins, the punters need some goal to shoot for.
Close, but not exactly.
JWs believe that both the righteous and the unrighteous will be resurrected, some to life, and some to death. For those resurrected to and ‘sentenced’ to death, it is a permanent non-sentient death.
This is also my understanding. Buddha taught a doctrine on anatman or non-soul-ness. There is reincarnation, but the being who is incarnate isn’t particularly you. Gods are irrelevant to the doctrine.
I know you’re just being a wiseacre, but you’re grossly uninformed.
Read the book of Job, then find me the part where anyone tells the suffering Job, “Don’t worry- our time here on Earth is short, and then you’ll be happy in Heaven forever.”
Or find me the passage in Genesis where Abraham consoles himself that, even if he kills his son Isaac, it will be all right, because ISaac will be happy forever in Heaven.
It ain’t there, because ancient Jews weren’t counting on any sort of afterlife. Job figured his death was the end, and Abraham had no hopes of seeing Isaac again.
Indeed, to many ancient Jews, the idea that we’re entitled to a reward for obeying the Creator and Master of the universe would be unforgivably presumptuous.
Samsara is a central belief of buddhism. Surely reincarnation is a form of afterlife? It puportedly occurs after life.
The sufis say next to nothing about an afterlife. The ideas behind sufism mean losing the self in the awareness of “more than just our collective idea” of "“God”.
Obviously if you have attained the level of absolute devotion and loss of self awareness (in exchange for the awareness of being part of the unfolding infinite “is”), the question of your continued existance becxomes moot.
With respect
FML
Samsara is a central belief of Hinduism, not Buddhism. Some schools of Buddhism believe in reincarnation, but it’s not a necessary belief and some schools discard it all together. Buddha himself said the question of an afterlife was unimportant and a distraction from enlightenment.
It does occur after life, fair enough.
The question would be, to whom does it occur? Reincarnation in Buddhism generally does not require that the person who dies be the person who is incarnate.
The ego is considered to be a transient construct, arising due to the action of karma, and as such, the perception of an “I” or a “me” is an extremely pervasive illusion. So there isn’t a person or soul to whom this life happens, really, rather a constantly changing heap of karmic results. As such, when one dies, the karmic ‘momentum’ of one’s life results in a new being, but not the same being, any more than one is the same being at birth as one is at death, which, in Buddhism, is not much, if at all.
I was initially building on the comment by** tetranz**, however, the OP did explicitly exclude reincarnation, so I guess we’re hijacking by talking about Buddhism.
Damn, another lifetime as a scorpion for me for threadjacking.
Have I been misled by wikipedia again?
On re-reading the OP I note the explicit exclusion of reincarnation-based afterlife experiences. My apologies, but I do wonder why this distinction was made.
Because reincarnation implies a soul - or something of you that survives death - whereas I’m inquiring after religions that say that while there is a Creator, you live and you die and that’s it. No reincarnation, no resurrection at the end of time, finis.
Damn, more time as a scorpion for me. In Buddhism, reincarnation explicitly does not imply or require a soul, and Buddha rejects the concept of a soul, or any other permanent thing. However, if you don’t want to talk about reincarnation, that’s okay by me, it’s your thread. I just felt that I should clarify this point, since it is the Dope and all.
A lot of the Buddhist schools that discard belief in reincarnation, though, replace it with a system of heaven and hells.
Quite, which is why I added ‘or something of you that survives death’.
Yeah, I know. My apologies again. On re-re-reading it appears my re-reading was erroneous and my original reading was correct. In my previous post I incorrectly apologised for an earlier post that actually was addressing the OP. Or something.
I think. :o