Discussion What convinced you that there is nothing after death?

[Chabrychek]

What was most convincing? Was it a philosopher? A book? Your own thoughts?

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

thoughts and books.

to me the basics of logical thinking : the only things you can believe are true :

1. if something can be observed then it's true
boggles my mind how can you believe something that you haven't seen that hasn't been observed by anyone . only that some human says they saw or it how it is. i'm not buying it.

there is no observation of any afterlife or reincarnation, no spirits soul ghosts nothing magical ever

If you cannot see, touch, measure, or interact with it using instruments, it cannot be claimed as a factual truth

2. is there a lot of reproducible evidence can an experiment or test be replicated then its' a fact

3. does it make sense reasoning from first principles.

if its not any of these then it can't be true.

this afterlife and reincarnation idea. there is no evidence , no observations, no reproducible evidence. and it doesn't make sense just from basic knowledge of how the world or reality works.

books on neuroscience and the brain like

the Brain by david Eagleman

molecular cell biology

books on logic and critical thinking

books on evolution .

books on physics . law of entropy ,

to me this concept of an afterlife is very illogical and doesn't make sense. where is the power source for a soul . where are they why are they hiding? see none of that even makes sense. how can a soul live for a trillion to the quadrillion power years how and why and where? humans can't even comprehend how long a trillion years is : what will they do all that time? i can't stand even a minute in this hell.

humans want power, influence to get attention from others or money. so they will make up all sorts of tales and lies to get these. it's very easy to make up something to say something . to show details ,proof , evidence or to show how it works then that's difficult and where these lies are exposed.

furthermore there is a lot of real evidence of how the universe works and that human is just another animal. consciousness is generated only by the brain. evolution is true humans evolved like all other animals from a single cell. a human is an animal, cells, chemical reactions, a machine, molecules, atoms. all these are understood well by science and tech so that there is no reason , room for , nor possibility for a soal


a human is just another animal . this shows bees can use tools and solve mazes and other things with only 1 million neurons. so humans have 86 billion neurons and you are going to tell me all those networks cant create the illusion of a self and the consciousness?

 

[Chabrychek]

thoughts and books.

to me the basics of logical thinking : the only things you can believe are true :

1. if something can be observed then it's true
boggles my mind how can you believe something that you haven't seen that hasn't been observed by anyone . only that some human says they saw or it how it is. i'm not buying it.

there is no observation of any afterlife or reincarnation, no spirits soul ghosts nothing magical ever

2. is there a lot of reproducible evidence can an experiment or test be replicated then its' a fact

3. does it make sense reasoning from first principles.

if its not any of these then it can't be true.

this afterlife and reincarnation idea. there is no evidence , no observations, no reproducible evidence. and it doesn't make sense just from basic knowledge of how the world or reality works.

books on neuroscience and the brain like

the Brain by david Eagleman

molecular cell biology

books on logic and critical thinking

books on evolution .

books on physics . law of entropy ,

humans want power, influence to get attention from others or money. so they will make up all sorts of tales and lies to get these. it's very easy to make up something to say something . to show details ,proof , evidence or to show how it works then that's difficult and where these lies are exposed.

But how do you feel about the fact that, still, the vast majority of people believe in something after death? How can you not doubt your own logic and facts, when the majority of other conscious beings "believe"? I don't think I'm smarter than others, so it's hard to come to terms with how it looks

 

[whorror]

I am not convinced that there is nothing after death, but I don't believe in hell nor heaven.

The general idea of hell was invented out of fear that human species won't have a moral compass without some kind of threat (being sent to hell) or reward. At least this is what I believe

 

[metrochan]

I am not convinced that there is nothing after death, but I don't believe in hell nor heaven.

The general idea of hell was invented out of fear that human species won't have a moral compass without some kind of threat (being sent to hell) or reward. At least this is what I believe

For me, this is not something to prove with logic or rationality: for those of us that yearn for a fair and better world, we WILL get rewarded for being in this painful and unjust life. There IS going to be something for us in the afterlife. I believe in that.

 

[whorror]

I really hope it will be like that. If anything, hell is here on earth. We deserve a far better world than whatever this is right now. I hope there is an afterlife and I'll meet kind people there at least.

 

[curiousbeing]

I really hope it will be like that. If anything, hell is here on earth. We deserve a far better world than whatever this is right now. I hope there is an afterlife and I'll meet kind people there at least.

Yes. We deserve something much better

 

[applepie]

Nothing ever convinced me that there would be something

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

But how do you feel about the fact that, still, the vast majority of people believe in something after death? How can you not doubt your own logic and facts, when the majority of other conscious beings "believe"? I don't think I'm smarter than others, so it's hard to come to terms with how it looks

i don't care what other humans believe. to me this shows that most humans are taught false information about afterlife and imo most things.

for example for us suicidal people we know that what most 99% of humans believe about suicide is lies. for example 99% of humans believe that most or all suicidal people are mentally ill. but we know here that is a lie . and all those other sayings we have seen here too are false. why don't other people not understand how it is to be suicidal and to want to suicide? why can't we talk about suicide or even Death? they are not smarter . they are taught to believe suicide is irrational the worst thing, that Death and Non-Existence is bad and that life is good. i don't care if 99% of humans believe those things i know what is right and true. to me Eternal Non-Existence is the best thing.

another thing people aren't taught is that a human is one day old and knows nothing . from ages 0 to 7 especialy the human is very susceptible to programming put there by adults , society , culture , media.

if a very young human 0-7 is taught that there are supernatural things like after life god reincarnation they will believe it.

 

[hughmun9]

there is no observation of any afterlife or reincarnation, no spirits soul ghosts nothing magical ever

Jim Tucker and Dr. Ian Stevenson have some pretty compelling evidence of reincarnation at least.

The afterlife itself and all of that stuff, there's evidence for it too, it's just not quite as compelling but I believe it because of some personal experiences.

 

[LakeMungoGirl]

What was most convincing? Was it a philosopher? A book? Your own thoughts?

What makes humans deserving of an afterlife while no other animal is guaranteed one? What makes us so special? Humans seem to have a really difficult time accepting they are animals too; albeit very intelligent ones, when compared to all other known species.

I have nothing to gain from believing there is nothing after death. I've often had to convince myself that reincarnation is possible so I have enough courage to CTB. But none of the arguments I've heard toward there being some kind of "life after death" have been compelling enough for me to believe in them. They just sound like cope.

Some part of me still hopes they're right, though… I know I could've been pretty good at this whole "life" thing under the right circumstances. :( Wouldn't mind giving it another shot…

 

[yotaka]

Some part of me still hopes they're right, though… I know I could've been pretty good at this whole "life" thing under the right circumstances. :( Wouldn't mind giving it another shot…

I feel this. Lately I've been comforting myself by thinking about the circumstances I wish I would have had in this life.

Like you, though, I don't find any of the arguments for any kind of afterlife convincing. Unfortunately.

 

[ElfQueens]

Phineas Gage and Henry Molaison. If evidently, your memories and personality are so tied to your physical hardware and can be changed, impaired or destroyed by damaging this hardware, then uh, it doesn't seem like there's much room for any kind of transcendent soul; everything that makes us who we are ends as the relevant parts of the brain stop functioning. - Lira

 

[mustard tiger]

why would there be?

 

[Off_Switch]

The fact that I have no recollection of anything before this life.

 

[caotic_realm]

Logic—not even my own thoughts.

Has anyone managed to return from the dead and confirm the existence of an afterlife? What sense would an afterlife make if what we experience here is merely causal, and at times even random?

There is no need to convince anyone; it is simply like gravity, the Earth's rotation, the water cycle... After death, there is nothing.

 

[defective01]

Was 10 years old parents were missionaries. Sort of just clicked that what they were telling me was made up bullshit, and that we are all going to die someday.

 

[delinquentsandwich]

cause our consciousness is just a bunch of electrical signals firing in certain ways

there's nothing left after it stops

 

[TransientEternal]

There is nothing for "you" after death, but law of conservation and an undefined amount of time will create conditions for consciousness again and will create a new blank and ignorant self ad infinitum.

 

[autisticmessiah]

Hearing about Occam's razor which states that the most simple explanation is the most likely one and how it applies to religion convinced me that the Catholicism I was raised into was most likely untrue and there's probably nothing after death. How modern scientific discoveries backed with evidence like evolution glaringly contradict the baseless 7 day creation story in Genesis contributed a lot to it as well.

The most simple explanation at least in my opinion is that the big bang created everything and we're animals that experience nothing after death, although ones that started walking on two feet which freed up our hands which become a lot more beneficial to our survival in many creative ways if our brains evolve to be far more conscious than other animals and in turn able to think about everything including mortality at least a lot more than most other ones, which is where the much intensified existential fear of death and inevitably popular religion/afterlife belief systems comes in.

If you distill religious beliefs into something far more simplistic which doesn't contradict science as much I could see it maybe being the case although the purely materialistic one is still to me the most simple. Maybe there could be some kind of deist god with no dogmas alongside it to make things more complex which starts off the big bang and could provide an afterlife and interact with the world but we don't know and probably never will. A good afterlife to me sounds a lot more comforting to me than ceasing to exist forever which terrifies me despite my hatred for life as well but I just can't get myself to believe any version of it because of the reasons stated.

 

[ravendrops]

I'm not convinced there's nothing though oblivion would be such a relief. It's just got to be better than here.

 

[Agnes Tachyon]

solipsism.

 

[Suine Kurisu]

i was never sold on the idea there even was anything to begin with. any chain of logic leading to that point cannot do so using objective reality, or invokes the god of the gaps and therefore renders it invalid in my eyes. considering that there are people in this world who still believe in bullshit like creationism it isn't a surprise that superstition permeates into our ideas of what "post-life" circumstances would look like. the prospect of an afterlife is nothing more than pabulum manufactured to allow simple minded people to come to terms with the idea of death.

i don't care if there is anything. if anything, i hope there isn't. but no matter what it can't be worse than this

 

[maggineko]

What was most convincing? Was it a philosopher? A book? Your own thoughts?

Rather lengthy thought from when I was 16 while on the toilet concerning the existence of heaven and hell; all hypothetical!!! It's a bit hard to explain, so sorry if it's difficult to understand. Apologies for how lengthy it is, I love this kind of topic.

• Pain = nervous system = human body
• Human body = mortal, vessel for life, will die
• Consciousness = living?
• Death = leave human body behind

If consciousness exits the human body and moves to a different plane of existence, then:

• No human body = no nervous system + no pain = Hell won't hurt/isn't real?
• Hell = punishment = pain
• No human body = no pain
• Must be punished + but no human body = rebirth?

If life = human body = a test on Earth before deciding your fate to heaven or hell, then rebirth disproves that/confirms futility of current suffering and joy?

Additionally, consciousness is perceived to be the thing that keeps you awake in your own body, yet simultaneously your body controls your consciousness and its ability to perceive (hormones, genetics, pain, pituitary gland, etc). If heaven = happiness, but no human body, is there really happiness? And if we do gain a new body in either heaven or hell, would that new body not still be able to feel either positive or negative emotions or get bored/used to constant suffering/joy? If ability to feel emotion is taken away, but physical stimuli is directly related to emotion, then will we really feel anything? The point of heaven or hell is to feel peace/eternal suffering, so if we don't feel anything, there's no point of having heaven or hell, and therefore, it might not exist.

Besides that, I don't think being forced to be happy forever in Heaven can mean real happiness because happiness, peace and joy is defined by its opposite: sadness, anger, suffering. Can't know one without knowing the other, can't desire happiness if you've never tasted it before.

I personally would like to believe that Heaven, or the afterlife, is a new world where you still get to experience every positive and negative emotion. Like in the movie Coco (loved that movie). And I somewhat believe in spirits. Would be okay with roaming the Earth and satisfying my curiosities and people-watching. But it would be just as okay with me if it means I completely 100% cease to exist after death, cus then it doesn't matter! ♡

Sorry if it doesnt make sense and/or is hard to follow...ｍ(｡≧Д≦｡)ｍ

 

[ThatStateOfMind]

Primarily thoughts. I was raised as a Christian but as I aged, I started to notice many inconsistencies. I'll focus primarily on the one that was the turning point for me: Noah's Ark.

First off, archaeology shows that ancient civilizations, like Egypt and Mesopotamia, lived right through the timeline traditionally attributed to Noah's flood. There is also no evidence of a global flood. If there were, there would be evidence such as a single, uniform layer of sediment. No such layer exists.

Outside of that, there's also inconsistencies in the bible itself. For example, In Genesis 7:12, it supposedly for 40 days and 40 nights. Yet, in Genesis 7:24, the waters fall upon the earth for 150 days before beginning to recede.

Lastly, it's full of circular reasoning. If someone asked "How did Noah fit millions of animals on the ark?" a common argument is "God is all powerful and made it possible." Well now that argument requires you to accept that the premise that there is an all-powerful God to prove the conclusion that the story is true. It's circular.

I know Christianity isn't the only religion, but it's the only one that I'm actually knowledgeable about and confident in discussing it.

So outside of that specific religion, there's also science that backs up that there's nothing after death. Mind and consciousness are inherently reliant on your body, as they are a byproduct of your brain. A prime example of this would be someone suffering a stroke or physical trauma, and then behaving dramatically different and essentially losing a piece of themselves. So if losing a small piece of your brain or damaging the tissue can alter your personality and memories, it's simply inconsistent to say that losing 100% of your brain through death will leave memories and personality intact

 

[suicide_grrl]

My mom died for a few seconds at 19 due to a blood disorder. She said it was just dark and calming, that there was nothing, and while it was calming it also felt like nothing.

 

[muddymud]

Seeing the amount of discourse on dying and hardly anything coming out from it other than an idea of ceasing to exist makes me believe there isn't anything after

 

[StarsAbove]

Logic—not even my own thoughts.

Has anyone managed to return from the dead and confirm the existence of an afterlife? What sense would an afterlife make if what we experience here is merely causal, and at times even random?

There is no need to convince anyone; it is simply like gravity, the Earth's rotation, the water cycle... After death, there is nothing.

Technically, yes. There are people who had near death experiences (or briefly dead beiefly before being revived) and reports lot of consistent similar experiences to one another. Not trying to convince anyone though. We all must decide for ourselves what we choose to resonate with.

 

[caotic_realm]

Technically, yes. There are people who had near death experiences (or briefly dead beiefly before being revived) and reports lot of consistent similar experiences to one another. Not trying to convince anyone though. We all must decide for ourselves what we choose to resonate with.

Near-death experiences can be explained by the action of brain chemicals and the possibility that the nervous system remains active in some way. The fact that many people report similar stories is because the vast majority of humans possess the same chemical substances; when these are activated during such events, they trigger the same or a similar experience—much like how consuming a specific food causes identical allergic symptoms in different people who are allergic to it.

Talking about being dead and coming back to life... Hmm, that sounds like a misused technical term to me; actually dying and returning to life—like the biblical story of Lazarus—is, medically speaking, impossible. That said, a person might be in a coma or have their vital functions completely shut down, yet the body retains certain residual functions. This could explain why people in such situations have similar experiences: those residual functions might create the impression of an afterlife, when in reality it could simply be like a dream. I'm sure some of us here have had similar dreams, yet those dreams don't necessarily mean we are "connected" to something or that there is a "dream world" we go to when we sleep.

 

[FuneralCry]

Non-existence is all I could ever hope for and believe in no matter what, I'll always see this torturous, futile existence as a mistake that just leads to non-existence, there is no deeper meaning or purpose behind existence rather existing truly is just suffering all for the sake of it and to suffer in this existence will always be an abomination. All that existence ever does is just torture existing beings with no limit as to how much agony one can feel, non-existence is just all I could ever see as positive, all I hope is to be permanently free from all pain and suffering.