And that should be position, not tradition.
There is no afterlife; death is the extinguishing of the human consciousness. I shall cease to be except in whatever manner I have made a mark on other people’s consciousnesses. All I can hope for is that my mark was a good one. Oh, I’m an atheist, more or less.
Hope: pink ponies, rainbows, loved ones, lost dogs, serenity, beauty and truth
Fear: oblivion
Expectation: neither (destination unknown)
Ko,
agnostic
From day to day I can’t decide which I fear more, oblivion, or living forever (even in heaven.) I mean, staring at the abyss of oblivion is one thing. But forever is a pretty long time. Longer than Graham’s Number. Longer than Graham’s Number of WHAT? Like Cracked would say, it doeesn’t matter, because it’s fucking Graham’s number. 10 to the number of particles in the universe is nothing compared to the number of digits, nay the number of stacks of exponents in Graham’s number! And forever is even longer than that!
Thankfully, as an agnostic I don’t know which I’m getting 
Any of you atheists or agnostics have a different take? Where you sincerely believe – for whatever reason – that something DOES happen?
How could an atheist believe in anything after life besides oblivion? There is no magic, no God, no benevolent unicorn that can preserve my consciousness for the briefest instant past the expiration of my brain. Even if we could, say, copy my brain, emulate it in a computer for all eternity - that would be merely a copy. The man who sits and types these words whilst drinking a cheap red wine and petting his cat would be gone. Forever.
Consciousness after death is a forlorn hope. At best, I may enjoy a degree of agency - I may shape the world in such a way while I yet live that it may continue to act as I’d wish it, even after I’m dead. Perhaps I’ll argue before the Supreme Court, and in prevailing shape the law of the land for a hundred years after I am dead and gone. Perhaps I will be President, and lead the Union to glory and honor that men will sing of a thousand years from now.
But probably not. Almost certainly not. Life is brief, tends to end badly, and leaves but little in its wake. The very best we can do is try to accomplish some good before we die. But since that’s all we can do, it is enough - and I’m for trying.
I’ve wondered if the phrase that appears in the New Testament “sleeping in Christ” means that even the saved don’t exist after death, except perhaps in God’s memory, until such time as they’ll be recreated. So one possibility I lean to is that I don’t experience anything until we all wake up in that computer simulating the history of the universe.
The other possibility is that Eternity is something so unlike existing in time and space that it’s hard to make a meaningful comparison. Maybe one analogy would be something utterly beyond what I consider “me” looking at the pewter figurine that’s just been removed from the game table and saying “OK, time to roll some new stats”.
I’m tending toward this as even more possible than just the visible universe and its apparent physical and philosophical limitations being all that there is. That there is another “level” that neatly explains the Prime Mover problem using its own logic that we are incapable of comprehending.
Unfortunately, even if true, it still means that there almost certainly isn’t an afterlife, and when you die you just wink out. And if what we would call a deity exists in the higher level of existence, they would likely be more like Cthulhu (“incomprehensible minds from eldritch dimensions!”) than Yahweh.
When I’m dead, I’m dead forever. I think. Actually I’d like to believe in reincarnation but I can’t quite manage it. I’m an agnostic.
When this life is over, I will no longer exist . . . the same as before I existed.
When you turn out a light, where does the light go?
Atheist.
Perhaps I’m ignorant (correct me if I’m wrong), but doesn’t our consciousness arise out of a peculiar arrangement of brain cells, a portion of which may continually die and be replaced, which are themselves built on a shifting cloud of atoms that continually exchange, lose, and gain their constituent particles?
If so, that might suggest that our consciousness isn’t a singular permanent entity to begin with, but is instead a series of partial copies continually distributed over space and time.
Actually, without some sort of supernatural soul or spirit, what would your consciousness be but a collection of information, and what would the difference be between two perfect copies of that information?
I guess what I’m wondering is whether “you” are just a “state”, a particular arrangement of errant matter and energy, and if so, whether any similar-enough arrangement could again be considered “you” if it simply took a pause, a longer sleep.
How do you know you won’t wake up again?
“I” am more of a process than an arrangement of objects. Much like the house or boat that is replaced piece by piece and is still considered the “same” by some. So despite my body and its brain and its thoughts are changing all the time, I still remain me because there isn’t any one point at which I become “not me”.
However, just as if all the pieces of a boat were replaced at once, it would not still be the same boat, I would not be me if I disappeared and got reconstituted at another date. I’d think I was me but I wouldn’t be (Actually, I wouldn’t. I’d feel like I was me, but my mind would say differently because of this belief ;))
On the other hand, if you slowly replace the pieces of my mind with artificial computers that completely replicate every portion of my thinking, even at the point where my entire brain is artificial, I’d still be me.
Now, where it gets complicated is if you assume that all brain activity stops when you are in a deep coma (i’m not sure if that’s true or not, but assume it is.)
What is the difference between the same particles that start thinking again, versus different particles that start thinking, if they both represent the exact same being? Therefore, strictly conservatively speaking, if I were in a deep coma and all brain activity stops, I would say I was not me once I came out of it!
Furthermore, what if brain activity completely stops in a deep coma, and it lasts so long that your cells, in their natural physiological processes, completely replace every atom in your body with a different atom? Then at the point where you entered the coma, versus when you went out of it, you would literally represent two different pieces of substance. I feel safe saying that if these two premises are true (and I am not sure that they are,) that the you after the coma is not the same you as before.
Now it comes to the most troubling part for me. What if thought completely stops at some point during sleep? :eek:
Don’t know. If its Heaven I hope for this massive eternal reunion. If its Hell I fear eternal nothingness. It isn’t up to me so I don’t fret it ------ but I will be curious to find out.
ELCA Lutheran
Reincarnation, but not limited by linear time, and in a life/form probably connected to unfulfilled desires and/or “paths not taken” in this life.
I consider myself an agnostic, but if there is any existence beyond the purely material, that scenario is the one that makes the most sense to me. If nothing comes after, I’ll never know the difference.
Emptiness. But I wouldn’t be aware of that, being dead and all, so it’s just the end.
Which is kind of a shame. I’d like a couple of minutes, Pratchett-style, of observing the aftermath and coming to terms with it, and then finally being enlightened, before fading out gently.
When I return to the earth and decompose to my constituent parts then particles. These compounds, and molecules will migrate through the earth until the Sun expands and exploding scatters everything to the cosmos. Maybe some of my atoms may travel and be trapped in a mega cloud of dust and and gas that then condenses to form a new sun or world. Lather, rinse repeat until all energy has been expended.
Sounds great!! But although my consciousness would have ceased to exist eons before. Its still a far more incredible and beautiful prospect than that posited by religions.
Deist here. What I feel will happen is that my consciousness will cease to exist, and I will be unburdened. Oh, and I’m going to have uttered some awesome last words.
Now, what I HOPE will happen is that I’ll go to a place where everything is sunshine and roses and there’s an information booth that will give the lowdown on Bigfoot and Chupacabra, and I’ll just keep getting better and better on the guitar …
but I don’t think that’s going to happen. The best I can wish for is a dignified death.
No. I don’t know where people get that idea, unless their rabbi doesn’t have a close knowledge of Jewish tradition or something.
My atoms will be recycled. I’ll be gone the moment my brain stops telling me I’m me.
This doesn’t scare me. I’m not looking forward to the process of dying, hopefully it will be quick or in my sleep.
Atheist.
I begin my fresh, new zombie life.