Do you believe in an afterlife? What is your real evidence if you do?

Question

I'm an agnostic so I can't be too sure - but if I had to put my money on it I'd say that theres probably nothing there (like a dreamless sleep). This comforts me because if there is no consciousness after death then why should I be afraid? The element of fear will be gone.

I'm a student at NYU so I had a chance to talk with leading objective neuroscientists on this subject. They say that with recent technology (brain scans, ect.) they are getting closer to the line of death saying that when the brain is dying it is choked out of oxygen and the brain releases a chemical very similar to the hallucinogenic drug - DMT. People who are in THE PROCESS of dying but come out erronously claim that they had seen the existence of an afterlife - when in reality they had not died at all but were just hallucinating elements of their own past as the brain desperately attempts to capture its sense of 'self' (ex. your entire life 'flashing' before your eyes). So whats your evidence to believe or not?

Also many afterlife hoaxes are perpetrated by Christian Fundamentalists in a vain attempt to get people to believe in 'their' lord 'jesus christ'.

One of the most rudimentary laws of physics is that matter and energy cannot be destroyed. Since we're all composed of matter and energy, would that scientific principle lend credibility to a belief in eternal life?

In an extremely esoteric sense, yes it does; but not in the Christian sense that your "soul" will live forever in Heaven or Hell. It's quite accurate to say that the atoms composing your body will survive your death and may someday be incorporated into other lifeforms or inanimate objects. In THAT sense, you might live forever. But when most people use the phrase 'eternal life, " they generally mean "eternal consciousness" - i.e., that your current 'self' or 'ego' or "soul" will exist forever intact and will be conscious of its existence. Such a belief is in no way bolstered by the law of conservation of mass-energy.

The reason why humans and other animals experience consciousness is that they posess sense organs and, more importantly, brains to process these inflowing nervous impulses. When an organism dies, the cells that constituted its sense organs and brain die also, though the individual atoms within the cells remain essentially unaltered. If the brain and the sense organs die, and therefore cease to function entirely, then it is difficult to see, from a scientific point of reference, how "consciousness" can be maintained by this dead organism.
A good analogy is that of a computer, which is "conscious" of a few external events, such as which key you're pressing on the keyboard or whether you're clicking the mouse button. The computer thinks very rapidly, but in a reletively primative way when compared to human beings. Now if you take a huge sledgehammer and smash this computer into a thousand little pieces, all the individual atoms within the computer will indeed survive the ordeal.

But the computer will no longer function, and will no longer be conscious of keyboard activity and mouse clicks.
The point here is that a change in structure invariably brings a change in function. If human consciousness is a function of the brain and sense organs, then the death of the brain and sense organs will obviously bring a cessation of consciousness. We lose consciousness when we sleep. We lose consciousness after a blow to the head. IS IT REALLY SO ******* DIFFICULT TO ACCEPT THAT WE LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS AFTER OUR BRAINS AND BODIES ARE TOTALLY DESTROYED?
Moreover, the law of the conservation of mass-energy states that mass-energy can neither be destroyed NOR CREATED. If the life-after-death - or 'consciousness after death" - is allegedly supported by this law, then so is "consciousness before conception" since the mass-energy conservation law would PROHIBIT creation of consciousness (at birth or conception) as well as forbid its annihilation after death.

Yet the same people who believe that they will be conscious twenty years after their deaths do not simultaneously believe that they had their consciousness twenty years prior to their births. Their application of the mass-energy conservation law is a hoc. Belief in eternal life is thus unfailingly rooted in religious doctrine, rather than scientific law.
If we actually believe that eternal life is proven by the mass-energy conservation law, then logic forces us to believe that every cockroach, every gerbil, and every mosquito will also "inherit the Kingdom of Heaven" because they are, like humans, composed of mass-energy.

Answer 1

Tough question! I'm not particularly religious or spiritual, but somewhere deep in my gut "I believe". I'll blither out a bunch of incoherent thoughts here. Maybe one will catch your fancy!

1. Virtually every society and culture worships some form of God. Why? Why is there an urge to do this if there is nothing out there? Why is there an urge to reach out "spiritually" and try to understand something? Clearly mankind has some type of capacity for spiritual thought and experience. Why?

2. Most people feel connected to other life on the planet - why? Why can a human "love" a dog? Why would a dolphin save a human? Why does it hurt to watch an animal suffer? Why do we "feel" for others? Again - somehow we all feel connected.

3. There are wierd things that science can't explain. Miraculous healings, paranormal phenomena, ghosts, aliens, auras, or whatever. If these are all made up, then again - why does mankind have a need to make these things up?

4. I believe truly evil people walk the Earth. I can't fathom the evil things that some people do to others and somehow in my gut I feel there must be a day of reckoning for these people. There are also unexplainable selfless people. Why would a person give their life to save a stranger?

5. Evolution really doesn't make sense to me at all. I can believe that species adapt to their environment over generations, but I don't think Darwin's "selective generation" explains how complex bilogical systems develop. (Example: Frog that shoots poison darts. Why develop darts if there are no poison glands? Why develop poison glands if there is no physiology in the brain to target prey and shoot? Why develop specialized brain physiology if you don't have darts? Are we to believe that somehow in one generation, darts, poison glands, dart-shooting muscles and nerves, and brain physiology all appeared at once working together?) Naw, I believe that something designed the incredible variation and complexity that exists in even the simplist life form.

Again, just my musings...hope they help. My spiritual "radio" seems to have a pretty limited range, but I certainly recognize that some other people's "radios" can pick up a lot more than me...I think there is something to it all. (although I don't think organized religion has the answer) Good luck in your search!

Answer 2

Yes I am a friend of Jesus and He is Lord. I do not believe in after life at all, but I do believe in a continuation of life. Life is a continuum's when you are attached to life it's self. If you are separate from life, you are already dead spiritually, and there really isn't much going on even now, as even tomorrow is without hope. I believe that the human existence is not the beginning of your existence as the scriptures say you were formed even before the formation of the Earth. If you want to continue the journey with the creative energy you must first accept the fact there is such a thing. If you appreciate the arts then you can at least appreciate that there may be an artist that has a canvas that never ends with His creative aspect called the Christ. To me, to hang out with the best, forever and share with the creative process that goes on and on, seems like a better choice then nothingness to me. Now if that ain't true I don't have anything to loose, but if it, is I have EVERYTHING to gain.

Answer 3

Its nice to see someone on here give some real thought to a question, although I was beginning to think you were just trying to get on a soapbox. If you are open-minded and don't have your mind already made up about the subject, then consider this.

Your body, my body and every material body (meaning every organism that is known to biology) is constantly changing. Every 7 years, (for the human body) if not sooner, every cell in the body, including every brain cell, is replaced at least once. Yet, we don't feel that we are different persons every 7 years or every few years. We remain the same despite the changes of the body. This continuous current of our unchanging nature is the soul, the spirit self. The symptom of the soul is consciousness. So we are the spirit soul within the body, we are not the body. The body is just the temporary, changing vehicle we currently inhabit. So just as we see our bodies changing from babyhood, to youth to middle and old age, while we remain the same, we remain the same persons to inhabit another body after this one is worn out. Just as clothes are worn out and thrown away, we leave this body to take another one when this one is worn out.

This is of course a logical inference and not "proof" by direct sense perception. And even if someone were to tell you that he/she had lived before in another body, would you believe it? Would you not still require more proof? What would that kind of proof look like? Proof of the spiritual nature by use of material sense perception is by definition an impossibility. Its like asking for proof that the temperature outside is 80 degrees by taking a picture. A camera is the wrong tool for the job. And our faulty, blunt material senses are the wrong tools to perceive spirit.

But, as I tried to point out, logic indicates a continuum to our lives that cannot be explained by the chemical constituents of our bodies. And consciousness itself is not an element that can be created in the lab. This indicates that we are not material in nature, but spiritual, which by definition does not die with the body and mind but lives eternally.

I suggest you investigate this further by reading the second chapter of Bhagavad-gita at the following link: http://www.krishna.com/e-books

Answer 4

You are looking too deeply, just look around you. The lowly butterfly is born again from some would say an ugly caterpillar. Of course the Caterpillar really never dies, well neither does the sole. In some of your scientific circles are some who say that the sole has weight. When a person dies their is an unexplainable weight loss saying that the loss is the sole leaving the body. When one tries to prove beyond a doubt things that are not able to be proved or disproved I would suggest that one would go for the most beneficial outcome. Don't ya think?

Answer 5

Maybe a paradigm shift is needed.

All reality is one thing.

No thing is separate from any other.

This creation then is not separate from its creator but IS its creator.

That which we are is not a separate entity from its creator but an individual aspect of it.

All of the events of our lives are how creation experiences itself.

The laws put to use in this creation (Laws of physics if you will) are non negotiable

That which we call death is the transition from one form of existence to another.

Yes, that consciousness attributed to chemical activity of the brain ceases

That essence, that is a part of that which is the All, continues.

If, during your lifetime, you have attuned with this other essence
you will have your own dramatic but ineffable proof of an afterlife,

If not you may have to go through this all over again.

Answer 6

I am also an agnostic, but I would consider myself closer to a Taoist than anything, I suppose. I believe in an afterlife, but like everyone else, I have no evidence (thus the agnoistic part). I suppose the closest thing to evidence is that nothing in nature is wasted, only changed. For example, if a forest fire, burns a tree, the FORM of the tree is changed, but it is NOT wasted-It becomes heat, light, and smoke. The ash becomes nutrients that feed the next generation.

Answer 7

everything that is, was first an idea of something.
how could that not be so ?
man is the only living thing that has the true power of reason.
because he is.....i am
in the image of that something, man is a small part of eternal knowledge. the will to know...is the key

Answer 8

~HEAVEN~ my prove is in my soul, I feel it, if you take the time to pray over and over again even if you didn't think you felt anything at first, instead of trying to either disprove something or have someone help you find all the answers..... you just may start feeling the truth....seek and you shall find, read and learn, to know the Lord is to gain knowledge.

Answer 9

The Holy Bible; The Living Word of God.

Get the facts, read the (entire) Bible!

Answer 10

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/top10_missinglinks-10.html