The Afterlife?

Question

Whether you beleive in an Aferlife, or Reincarnation
..or not.

Do you beleive that the idea of some form of afterlife is a very effective marketing tool for religions?

Great answers so far
--How will I pick the best?

Answer 1

i believe in energy. It is the one thing that never dies and constantly travels. It is within us and i believe that when we die, our energy passes on to something else. What exactly, we may never know, but it is the only thing that i am sure of personally.

Afterlife is an EXTREME marketing tool for religions. I believe it gets people to practice a certain faith out of nothing more than a fear of what is to come when we cease to exist on earth.

Answer 2

Absolutely. Afterlife is the motivation religions use to induce "good" behaviour. People no longer have to practice good moral judgement they just have to do what a "good" Christian/Musilim/Jew does and they are set for eternity! Heaven is the icecream promised to the 4 year old if they do their chores.

And yes, it is a very powerful marketing tool. Who doesn't want to believe in an afterlife? And who doesn't fear what that afterlife may consist of? If you are promised eternal happiness that can be a strong pull towards a religion that you may not otherwise embrace.

And yes I do believe in the afterlife, but certainly not the traditional Christian view. And it does not affect the way I live my life. I do what I believe is right because it is the moral thing to do and it hopefully benefits most and hurts none.

Answer 3

The bribe of heaven and the threat of hell are well known tools of organized religion. Consider the following:

Fact: the human race has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.

Fact: the concepts of an afterlife, of gods, spirits, etc. have only been around for a few millenia.

Fact: these concepts were invented and promulgated by ignorant barbarians as an attempt to explain the world around them, before there was a such thing as science or epistemology.

Fact: most of the books of the bible were written by people who were never there, as second- or third-hand accounts decades or even centuries after the events they claim to tell about.

Fact: the books of the bible have been heavily edited over the centuries, with passages or even whole books being re-written or omitted to fit the theological and political climates of the time.

Fact: the books of the bible have also been subject to extensive errors, misinterpretations, and differences of opinion in interpretation as they are translated from one language to another and from that to yet another language.

Knowing all this, how can ANY religion be viewed as anything BUT the invention of men? I know i cant argue against faith, faith is remarkably impervious to reason. But we atheists are nothing like what the church leaders are fond of charicaturing us as. We are freethinking individuals who are able to see the Big Picture without the blinders of religion. We do not live in despair, quite the contrary; freethought is incredibly refreshing, liberating, and empowering. We are not nihilists, but lovers of life who see it as all the more precious because there's no eternal afterlife. We do not need the bribe of heaven or the threat of hell to be good people, we believe in being good for its own sake.

Through science and reason, we know more about the true nature of the world we live in than your religion could ever hope to offer.

Answer 4

I am not in the least a religious person, yet I do believe in some afterlife or reincarnation. Obviously, not the same way as some of the religions propound this and take advantage for their own propagation.

We do know and realise quite well that we are different from our body - the body is merely a physical tool to fulfil our needs, desires and purposes. Often our purpose demands risking or torturing our body and we do so quite willingly. And in some extreme cases, we even willingly sacrifice our body for a strong purpose.

Therefore, it is absolutely clear that we are not the same as our body, we merely use this body for our purposes. Death as we know is an event whereby the body loses its physical capabilities altogether. We also know that this physical death never coincides with a complete satiation of our desires or purposes. It is therefore logical to assume that as and when our body meets with death, we are left high and dry with some purposes which can not be fulfiled in the absence of physical capabilities. It would therefore be further logical to assume that we would continue to strive to fulfill our purposes even after our body has died.

How we go about that task is not known, but it would be highly illogical to believe that we, who have the power to use a physical body, simply give up on the death of a body. The most likely explanation does lie in the imaginary scenario that we acquire another healthy body to pursue our purposes further. Whether this has to be another human body being born around that time right here on this earth (as reincarnation theory goes) need not be the only possibility. All other possibilities exist whereby a body with physical capabilities can be available or created.

In that broader sense, I do believe in reincarnation of life as a sound logical possibility of an afterlife.
That then is quite different when compared to various religious propagation which cleverly uses the stick of an afterlife scenario to bring people into its own fold and norms during their current life.

Answer 5

No. I do not believe in Afterlife or reincarnation. Who went there and came back? How can we be so sure that such state of existence ever existed when our minds, senses or any other tools of knowledge that we have are bound by a mesh of a snare woven with Time, Space and Causation? If you believe it exists, prove it, then I will share your belief.

And, to the second part of your question: Yes. Without this belief religions would not have lasted that long.

Answer 6

im an athiest so i dont really believe in an afterlife or any of that. personally i think after you die...you just become food for the worms, ants, beetles, and whatever weird animals, plants, and bugs. basically the the whole laws of nature stuff..like in the LION KING! hahaha the CIRRRRCLLLE OF LIIIIIIIIFEEE!!

and yes i do think different religions with thier ideas about the afterlife is an effective marketing tool. people are gonna die eventually, why not try to find an "answer" to life rather then being food for bugs and plants. people like to think theyre special so they think they have to end up in some SPIRITUAL place...like heaven. also "knowing" which after life your gonna go to i guess makes most people want to be more of a "good person" then they normally would be, like giving lots of money to charities and stuff like that.

Answer 7

First, we should explore, whether its a reality or a myth. Personally, I don't think its a myth since there are many instances in the history of mankind which reflect that there is afterlife. There is something which is there in each of us that does not die and that is the Self. Many works on this from the scientific point of view can be noted such as of Stevenson on cases of reincarnation, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, Helen Wambach, Raymond Mody, etc.

Secondly, its not a marketing tool of religion. Its something which has been explored since ancient times since death is the final end of the physical, so man probed into what is beyond death, is there something which remains or which does not remain. A good example of this question is raised in Kathopanishad by Nachiketas, wherein he asked the third question to Yama, that when a man dies some hold that he exists and some says he does not? This question is evaded by Yama and he tries to give boons to Nachiketa for not asking this question, but the boy persists and finally Yama gives him the reply. Hence, this Upanishad shows that from ancient time man has been trying to probe what is beyond death. Even the story of Gilgamesh in search of immortality is nothing but a search to be immortal on this earth and to transcend the fear of death.

Answer 8

I do believe that, it's not the religion that markets the idea, it's the People who exploit it as a marketable asset and prey on those who believe in the afterlife and/or reincarnation. People who prey on other Peoples belief do not truly believe in the Religion itself, but what they can take from the Parishioners.

Answer 9

Actually churches that try to use a "marketing tool" avoid talking about heaven and hell and more about happiness in this life. That is what sells! But Heaven and Hell are very real places. Heaven will be more wonderful than anything experienced on earth, and Hell worse than the most awful thing experienced on earth.

Some people have been given real visions of heaven and/or hell or experienced one of them in near death experiences. These four videos show examples. The last link is a test you can do to see where you are currently headed.

Source(s)
Bill Wiese: Vision of Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0lOxNHzTDU
Dean Braxton: visit to heaven http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGQPQ2EJVyY
Ian McCormack: A look at Eternity http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4lgvZ5MCZ4
Tony Kemp: Heaven and Hell http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z16ASpef61w
Gary Wood: Heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oablj1SwBnE

How to know if you are on your way to heaven or hell http://www.needgod.com

Answer 10

I do not believe in it but its an age old concept. Its around for a long long time and is here to stay for a longer time still. Religion is the biggest industry in the world. Zero cost, maximum turnover.