Do you believe in an afterlife because you _want_ to believe in an afterlife?

Question

Personally, I don't really have much faith that anything happens to us after we die. It seems to me that the highest probability is that the electrical signals in our brain dissipate, the chemical messages stored in our brain cells decompose, and who we are fades away as our bodies slowly become fuel energy for other forms of life along the food chain.

Now, I'm not saying that I _like_ this, or _want_ this. I'd be happy to go play a harp on a cloud or be reincarnated or whatever it is. I mean, why not? I like life.

But what I want has no effect on how things are.

My question is this: if you believe in an afterlife, is there any possibility that at least part of your belief is founded on the idea that you don't want to contemplate the alternative?

To those who said it, denying an afterlife for fear of retribution makes no sense and is a demeaning idea. Does a child of a strict parent 'deny' the existence of that parent? Does a criminal 'deny' that there are police?

I would welcome judgement by a moral and just god. I would have no problems with my soul's destiny being decided based on a _fair_ account of how I've lived. I actually wish that Christians believed that that's how it worked. In that case, I wouldn't believe in the philosophy of Christianity, but at least I'd accept it as a useful and practicable moral arbiter.

Answer 1

Hard question to answer but a very good question.

I do believe in an afterlife but it's not because I don't want to contemplate the alternative. Leaving out any spiritual or religious explanation, there are 3 reasons why I think that a fear of "no continued existance after a physical death" doesn't play a part in my believe in an afterlife.

1. No Fear!!! I read Plato's Apology at a very early age. After drinking the hemlock, Socrates tells his friends not to cry. He's not afraid or worried. He doesn't think he's done anything bad enough to go to a bad place (a hell if you will). If he's going to a "heaven", he'll find that out when he gets there. And if there's nothing after life, well then it will be like sleep and when is he most at peace but when he's asleep. (At least that's how I interpret that part of the Apology.) Reading this affected me and my thinking about death and I don't think I have feared a "total" death since then. HOWEVER, to quote Woody Allen: "I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens."

2. Have you ever seen the dead body of someone you knew? To me, there is a profound difference between my live friend or relative and their corpse. That profound difference is more than some electrical or chemical reaction no longer taking place. There is something missing from the corpse; a sense of vitality - a sense of presence. If you haven't felt this, then I'm wasting my time and yours trying to explain it. It's something you feel more than it's something you explain.

3. Both my wife and I have worked in hospitals. We have both been present when patients have died. Especially my wife who has been a RN and nurse practitioner for 20 years. My wife has sat with people as they die and provided comfort and support. She has literally held the hand of more than one patient as their body died. We have compared experiences and found them to be similar. Call it "sensitivity" or whatever you want but when you are in the presence of death, it's like you can feel the transition. You can feel a "presence" and a "lack of presence" - equate "presence" to soul if you like. All I know is you can sense and feel when someone is dying. The sense of "presence" doesn't always cease when the body does. Sometimes the sense of "presence" lingers for a while after it's obvious that all physical, electrical and chemical reactions in the body have stopped. Sometimes (and this is going to sound far out and weird) we could feel the departure of the "presence". Quite often there has been a sense of "well-being" that was imparted to us. At other times when bodies are kept alive by medical and scientific means, there is a sense that the presence isn't there or that the "soul" has been long departed. Again, this doesn't lend itself to explanation in words. It's something to be felt. Otherwise you will just think I am a crackpot.

They may not be scientific or provable but there's three reasons why I believe that my belief in an afterlife is not based in any way on a fear that there is nothing waiting for us after the death of my physical body.

By the way, I hold a degree in Geologic Engineering. Later in life I became a computer geek and IT technician - worked for IBM watching global WAN for over 10 years. I tell you this just so you don't think you ran into some wacked-out, new age, crazy. I have solid background in science. It still doesn't change what I have felt or experienced.

Answer 2

For me there is no "belief" involved.
I know I'm not my brain. (or my body for that matter)
A brain is just a body organ. It has a function like other organs of your body. It basically works like a switch board, recieves and relays messages or impulses. I'ts also a shock absorber for the body.
Not a very good one either . Too much current (body pain) and it shuts off (unconscious). Very annoying when your trying to operate a body. Also bodies don't last very long either.
The happy truth is WE do not cease to exist.
As for the "harp on a cloud " thing, or the "other place", well
I've never come across it in any of my past lives, and I certainly don't have any plans to visit in my next life... they both sound like a huge waste of time.
Life is for living ! "Death" is a sham, a trick to fool you into "believing" that YOU can actually die.
There is no alternative... you cannot and do not cease to be.
(You can end up in pretty bad shape though, so you might want to find out for yourself that you are not a "brain" if you actually believe that's what we all are )

Answer 3

Most people don't want to contemplate an afterlife, out of fear of retribution. A few (mostly children) are ambivalent. My entire faith, is based on the self-evident fact that you can't survive mortality, you have to be reborn.

I find contemplating eternal non-existance as mind-arresting, and am left with my feelings...and yes, fear is it the top of that list.

But you are wrong about one thing, what you want has a great affect on how things are. Do you think your desires are a matter of free-will, or pre-ordained? I'd say you have free-will to choose the method of getting what you want (life), but desire is out of your hands...it's part of the human package. The logical conclusion is, "give a little life, to get a little life..."

Answer 4

I won't drag you through books and beliefs I will just ask you to look around you and speculate, imagine or contemplate with this question: why we were created? were we created just live our lives to suffer or be happy, to be poor or rich, to reach the top or the bottom, there has to be a reason, sense and logic behid that. We were created in this world for a reason, not futile or usless. Though I have faith as to what we were created in this world for, however I am not here to tell you have faith cause it is you who must look around and find the inner satisfaction for the belief. However, come to our main oint of argue here, yes there is and there will be afterlife, and there shall be judgment, hell and paradise. I am not talking here about the outer suit we are wearing, which is the body, no its about the souls. Each and every soul is different and each and every one shall have its share of whatever good deeds it made and the bad ones too. The afterlife for each of us starts the moment the soul leaves the body, it will await the judgement day, but during this time it will not be free, as some people believe floating around. No, the good ones shall be in a piece of paradise and the bad ones shall be in hell, suffering their sins. We are on a journey that started for each and every one of us the moment he was born and this jeourny and life ends for each and every one the moment he dies. We are here on temporary basis, going through one big test to see who is good and who is bad, who helps and cares for others and who is a selfish. We are here to work for the afterlife.

Answer 5

Guess what I believe if you are stubborn enough your spirit still lives on in the places you lived. I also believe that anything is possible. No one knows what life is like after we die that is what is so fascinating. People can speculate about going to Hell or Heaven but there probably might not be that. Just total darkness or we could be reincarnated into animals or insects. Until someone actually dies and comes back no one will know if there is life after death.

Answer 6

I don't want to have an afterlife just because I want one. I believe in afterlife because it's the only sense of living. Also I believe what the bible says and it talks about Heaven and Hell. And the bible is the only thing that makes sense for the being of this world and all.

Answer 7

You sound exactly like me before this happened Ed. This expierience changed my tune.

Several years ago I had an unusual experience concerning an uncle, a distant relative who lived over a thousand miles away.

While driving my car I suddenly felt the unmistakable presence of this relative that I hardly even knew. He was more like someone I had heard about than someone I knew. It was very strange; it felt as though I was momentarily lifted right out of my physical body. I seemed to be suspended somehow beyond space and time, bathed in a love so intense It felt like I could have just disappear into it at any moment if It would have let me. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it seemed to last forever at the same time. I realize how crazy this must sound. The experience was so strong that at first I was afraid I was loosing my grip on reality. I finally managed to chalk it up to an over active imagination.

Three days later I got a call from my aunt telling me that this uncle we are talking about had gone into a coma and died the day I had the experience. It felt like ice water had been poured down my back when she told me this. I had lost any real ideas of God or faith and had become somewhat of an atheist. Needless to say this experience caused me to rethink some of the conclusions I had come to.

I feel blessed to now understand that even in our darkest confusion something loves us so much that it went out of its way to assist me and bring me back to a state of absolute certainty about Gods love for us.
During the experience it seemed like there was a vast amount of information that I was somehow allowed access to. One thing that I came away from this experience understanding beyond any shadow of a doubt was that any Idea that God is unhappy with us or would judge or allow us to be punished for any reason is simply impossible.

I can’t explain the love I felt with words. They simply don’t make words big enough or complete enough to do this. The only way I can begin to convey this love to you is to say that there was simply nothing else there. Nothing but love. No hint of judgment, no displeasure of any sort. It is as though God sees us as being as perfect as we were the day we were created. It is only in our confused idea of ourselves that we seem to have changed.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck. Love and blessings.

Your brother don

Answer 8

Well, having faith in afterlife has advantages. You will automatically have to believe in beforelife and there you will find all reasons for your miseries and fortunes. Atleast you will not waste time searching and find a quick justification and can go about your everyday life.

Answer 9

edsawyer,
I wanted to believe for many years. I even had a brother get saved before I did and listened to him talk and talk and talk and talk about Jesus and the End Times until I thought that my ears were going to bleed.

I wanted to believe, but I couldn't do so. I didn't want to accept the Sinners Prayer until I knew that I believed. That 's a funny thing going on in my head; I didn't want God to think I was lying to Him!!! lol

But when things got really bad, and I wanted to kill myself, I decided to give it a try as a last ditch effort. I put myself in His way. He would either crush me and kill me anyway, or He was going to let me live.

Well, He did better than let me live. He gained my trust. Not that my trust is diamond studded platinum, but he thought that it was worth something. I have grown to know Him better now and He's done pretty good by me. I've come a long way from a hyperactive orphan.

Answer 10

My dad was on the operating table for Cancer and he died on it for a while..he said he felt himself lift from his body and saw a bright light.

The surgeon misplaced something and Dad found it when he awoke..something he shouldn't have known.

So yeah, i believe in an afterlife.