Atheists, agnostics, non- believers, can you answer these questions? I am not atheist so my understanding of?

Question

your stance is limited. 1. Do you believe there is a "hereafter" another life yet to come after death? 2. Is there such a place as heaven? 3. Is there such a place as hell? 4. Is this present day as good as it is going to get?- Have mankind's best days been lived? 5. Will there ever be an actual end of the world? If so, will nothing else ever happen again or will evolution just start all over? 6.Was there such a person as Jesus as described in the Bible? 7. Do you believe in other life forms such as life on some far away planet? 8. Do you believe in reincarnation?..if so, why? 9. What is the single one greatest thing you have that prevents you from believing in God? I know this is a lot to reply to but I am just trying to gain some understanding. Thank You

Answer 1

Wow. Long question, but I'll try to give my best answer so you can understand. Before I do answer, I'd like to warn you that all atheism is is a disbelief in God or any deity, so there's going to be a varied response. The only thing atheists share is a non-belief in God, so some might believe in other things(such as reincarnation, which you mentioned) and some might not.

Atheism isn't like other religions where you have a set way of believing, who to believe in, and how to believe in. We simply don't believe, so after that, it's up to the individual. That said, on with the answers.

1. I don't believe in an afterlife, not as religions would tell it. What comes after death, I don't know. Nobody does and nobody will. Maybe it's another world, another life, or maybe it's nothing. I don't know, nobody knows, so I don't believe in an afterlife. I do however, believe in reincarnation, which I'll address when I get to that question.

2. I don't believe heaven exists. Heaven is an "afterlife", which I stated in answer #1 that I don't believe exists as religion tells it, so no.

3. Same thing goes for Hell. Hell is an "afterlife", so like Heaven, I don't believe it exists.

4. This present day isn't as good as it's going to get. Humanity is constantly learning and improving upon itself, so things will keep getting better. Mankind's best days certainly haven't been lived, although we've had some bad days, but certainly not the worst of days and certainly not the best. We may think we've got it good, but give it another 100 years and those of the 22nd century will think we were living it rough, so who's to judge what "humanity's best" really is?

5. End of the world? Not like religion tells it, far as I'm concerned. There might be an end of the world in the sense that humankind really screws ourselves over and destroys everything, including ourselves. That counts as an end of the world. So does the end of time. I'm the sort of person who believes in natural balance, therefore, you can't have a beginning without an end. Time had to start somewhere and it'll probably end somewhere, but how and when or why is anyone's guess.

As far as things happening again or evolution starting over, it's hard to say. If it's in the case of humanity blowing itself up, probably. Nature will heal and evolution may or may not start again, depending on how damaged the world is. If it can't sustain life, probably not. But if it can or heals to the point of sustaining life again, then sure.

But for the end of time? Nope. Once time's done, my guess is probably that's it, oblivion, no evolution, no more existence, nothing.

6. Did Christ exist? Well, my thoughts are that there probably was such a person that existed in history. Did he exist as described in the Bible? Probably not. Christ was probably a simple mortal person who may have known his stuff about medicine and philosophy for his day. I don't consider him divine. Just years ahead of his time.

7. Life forms on other worlds? Possible. Not so much in the UFO conspiracy theorist manner. My thoughts on that is that this universe is so utterly huge with billions and billions of planets, stars, and systems out there that, well, I'm no expert in statistics, but even to a normal person like me, it seems hard to believe that with that many worlds, we were the only ones.

Maybe we are just a one-in-a-trillion fluke of nature, but it seems hard to believe that with as many worlds out there, that something didn't evolve elsewhere in this universe of ours.

8. Ah, the reincarnation question. Ok, yes, that I do believe in. However, that doesn't mean I can't be an atheist. Atheism is simply the non-belief in God or any deity of any kind. Reincarnation may be a religious principle, but it's not a God or belief in God, only the belief that once a person dies, their soul can be reborn in another body, another lifetime. Therefore, I can believe in reincarnation and still be an atheist, and, well, I do.

9. The single thing that keeps me from believing in God? Wow, that's admittedly tough to answer as it's more than one thing that keeps me from belief. There's Biblcal discrepancies that contradict what I know about science. There's Biblical contradictions(ie: Thou shalt not kill, yet the Israelites went and killed and conquered after they left Egypt).

There's the fact that the Bible is 2000 years old and that English(or even Latin and Greek) was not its original language. Whether it be Aramaic or some other long-lost, long-dead language, the Bible has indeed been translated. And with any translation, things get lost or misinterpreted.

There's also the fact that some passages and books have been omitted from the Bible, depending on your version. Compare a Catholic and Protestant Bible sometime, you'll see differences.

Then there's scandals that crop up that some religious people are quick to forgive or pretend don't happen. I have a hard time figuring out how some religious followers, let alone deities, would allow such horrendous things to happen and be covered up without punishment.

Finally, there's been emotional abuse that I've endured in my family that those family members who abused me hid behind religion. Sometimes religion itself was used to do the abusing to make me feel worthless or less than human.

So it's not just one thing for me, it was a lot of things. Maybe others were turned off by just one thing, but not me. Lots of things turned me away.

Hopefully this'll help you understand me at least. I can't speak for other atheists as I'm just one individual out of many, but these are at least my thoughts on your questions. Good luck! :)

Answer 2

1. Do you believe there is a "hereafter" another life yet to come after death?
Unsure and not in a rush to find out.

2. Is there such a place as heaven?
"Place" is a loaded term. It's a little too "3-dimensional".

3. Is there such a place as hell?
Have you ever been to New Jersey? Seriously, see above.

4. Is this present day as good as it is going to get?- Have mankind's best days been lived?
We have the technology to improve the world, but may not have the political will.

5. Will there ever be an actual end of the world? If so, will nothing else ever happen again or will evolution just start all over?
There are a number of potential final events.

6.Was there such a person as Jesus as described in the Bible?
It would be great to have an official Roman record as corroboration, but the contemporary Hebrew accounts are satisfactory.

7. Do you believe in other life forms such as life on some far away planet?
I suspect they're out there, but the evidence isn't in yet.

8. Do you believe in reincarnation?..if so, why?
No.

9. What is the single one greatest thing you have that prevents you from believing in God?
I did not get exposed to the idea growing up and there's no evidence of God actually doing anything since just before the Big Bang.

Answer 3

"1. Do you believe there is a "hereafter" another life yet to come after death?"

No, but this can vary from Atheist to Atheist. It will depend on whether the Atheist you talk to is a Materialist or Dualist.

I'm a materialist, so I don't believe that a supernature exists.

"2. Is there such a place as heaven?"

No. Variations will depend once again on the nature and unique beliefs each Atheist holds about supernature and specific theologies.

"3. Is there such a place as hell?"

Iibid (IE. The same answer as above).

"4. Is this present day as good as it is going to get?- Have mankind's best days been lived?"

I'm not sure... I don't know the future so I can't speculate about whether or not there will be "better times" in the future.

"5. Will there ever be an actual end of the world? If so, will nothing else ever happen again or will evolution just start all over?"

Eventually, the sun will change so much as to become unsupportive of life and thus life on Earth will die out. Whether or not a new life cycle starts will depend on whether there is another plant with the right conditions for life elsewhere and whether an Abiogenetic event occurs there...

"6.Was there such a person as Jesus as described in the Bible?"

Tough question. I tend to weave in and out of Jesus Mythicism, which is the historical position that Jesus was an ahistorical character.

I'm not exactly sure whether Jesus existed or not...

"7.Do you believe in other life forms such as life on some far away planet?"

Believe what? That they exist? They could, but without evidence of their existence... the reasonable position would be to hold an empirical skepticism and say it is unlikely that they do for the time being.

"8. Do you believe in reincarnation?..if so, why?"

No, because I am a Materialist.

"9. What is the single one greatest thing you have that prevents you from believing in God?"

Lack of evidence, coupled with Occam's Razor...

Although I've stumbled across a pretty convincing argument against the existence of any creator for the universe.

Answer 4

1. Do you believe there is a "hereafter" another life yet to come after death?

No. The concept of an afterlife is imaginary; it's only value is in comforting those afraid to die.

2. Is there such a place as heaven?

No. Wishful thinking.

3. Is there such a place as hell?

No. Hell is only an attempt to scare weak-minded people into belief.

4. Is this present day as good as it is going to get?- Have mankind's best days been lived?

Not necessarily. It depends on what we do now. There is no further room for evolution of any kind on this planet if we make it inhabitable, which we are doing now.

5. Will there ever be an actual end of the world? If so, will nothing else ever happen again or will evolution just start all over?

Who's to say? If conditions are favorable on some other planet in the extremely VAST universe, it is certainly possible. It's not up to me to predict it, and I am not going to 'believe' what anyone else predicts just because they say it's what god says.

6.Was there such a person as Jesus as described in the Bible?

There was indeed a man at that time. His name was Joshua. There is no non-Christian evidence of any miracles or resurrection. So no, there was not a Jesus as described in the Bible.

7. Do you believe in other life forms such as life on some far away planet?

I do not 'believe' in anything. If there is no evidence, I make no claim. Since we have not seen any evidence of life forms, I would say no.

8. Do you believe in reincarnation?..if so, why?

No. I do not 'believe' in anything. Once again, no evidence, no claim.

9. What is the single one greatest thing you have that prevents you from believing in God?

No evidence of god exists. There is only the writings of the different cults that have existed.

What is the single one greatest thing you have that prevents you from believing in Zeus?

Answer 5

Ok, first, will you stop using the word non-believers? It's so condescending. No, they're non-Christians. Learn to be more respectful. You'll be surprised how many people you find are more respectful to your ideas if you treat them with respect.

Now, I'm Wiccan just so you know where I'm coming from.

1. Why is this so hard to understand? There is no "place of enternal happiness". Some Wiccans will talk about a place called the "summerland" but every person goes there.

I personally don't believe in some ever loving happy ever after, after I die. I think that's an invention of fear because death is the only thing you'll never know anything about.

I do believe in ghosts, but even ghosts don't last forever.

Eventually, everyone's energy becomes part of everything together and your body is turned into food for other life so you're never really gone.

2. No, no place exists like heaven.

3. No, no place exists like hell.

4. Rofl. No, mankind has a long way to go yet. This is not as good as it gets and things are constantly changing. The days of the cowboy were different from the roaring 20's, the roaring 20's were different from the dirty 30's, the dirty 30's were different from the decade of war, the decade of war was different from the innocent 50's.. get the point?

Things are changing rapidly and people are all running to catch up.

This isn't as good as it gets. And humanity has a long way to go yet. Just because some people don't like whats happening doesn't make them any different from any previous generation that's had the same problem.

5. Of course there will be an end of the world. it's inevitable. Humankind are all horrible selfish, self centered creatures. Every last one of us. Eventually, that will get the better of us. It's only a matter of time.

What do you mean evolution will start over? Of course it will. Because there are other species on this planet that could easily develop into the next intelligent race on earth if only the nitch in life hadn't already been filled by humanity.

6. lol. Jesus existed. He was just a man. He tried to teach people to be good to each other. Too bad none of them listened. Not even his followers.

7. Yes, of course. How incredibly arrogant to believe that we are the only life existing in the universe. If we're the only life, then there's not exactly much hope for life is there? Because humanity is full of inherently nasty creatures. Just look at the things all of us do.

8. No. Seems stupid to me. Like desperate fearful people grasping at straws.

9. rofl. The fact that the bible is a joke, the followers are worse, and the god you talked about hasn't done anything in 2000 years to show that he exists. Sorry, I don't trust in fairy tales.

Answer 6

1. & 2. I don't 'believe' in a hereafter.. I acknowledge there may or may not be an afterlife.. I'll find out when I eventually die.

3. I don't believe in hell at all. I think the religious concept of hell is just a tool that uses fear to control those who believe. The only concept I use 'hell' with is psychological... everyone has situations in their lives they consider a personal 'hell'.

4. I don't think so.. to think the best is already had is a defeatist attitude. The best is yet to come and I give my best to humanity to help that along.

5. Yes there will be an end to the world.. many many years from now when the Sun dies.. it is a star afterall and it's middleaged and it will die and when it does it will take a lot of planets with it.

6. I believe Jesus of Nazareth to be an ancient human being but that is it. Just a human with all the human emotions, failings, goodness and longings we all have.

7. Yes I think there is other life in our universe.. but we may not recognize it as such.. Likely it is nothing like us.

8. Don't know.. it's another unknown that will be answered by my death.

9. There is no empirical evidence for the existence of deities.. nor is there any against it. Being an unknown I feel it is a waste of time putting that kind of energy into it when I can put it into my fellow human beings.

Answer 7

I can't talk for all atheists, but basically:
Atheists are people who say that you can't prove that there is a God, AND believe there is no God. Agnostics are those who say you can't prove there is a God, therefore don't say anything about it. I'm not sure about non-believers. I think it's just a category that put atheists and agnostics in the same bag.

So, as an atheist, I would say:
1/ No (true for every atheist)
2/ No (ditto)
3/ No (ditto)
4/ I'm not sure what you mean but I would say that human beings have an impact on life. It's up to you to take the necessary action to make things happen (of course, not everything depends on any single human being. Ex: I would like poverty to stop. I don't think I'll be able to do it on my own). As for the second question, thanks to progress, good things are happening all the time. however, technology is also destroying many things. What's more, it all depends on what part of mankind you were talking about. I'm sure slaves didn't really like their lives, whereas there masters had it way more easier. (You'll probably get different answers from different atheists)
5/ Yes, the Earth will die one day, be it only because the Sun will. I don't know about the details: you'll have to ask a scientist. I personnally believe that mankind will die way before the Earth itself, and that life will keep on evolving without humans on it (remember the times of Dinosaurs - no humans there!)
6/ Yes, Jesus existed. It's been proven. But I don't believe he was the Son of God, since I don't believe in God. I also don't believe he came back to life.
7/ I don't know if there are other forms of life on other planets. I mean, intelligent life forms. I think they found some bacterias on a planet, didn't they? That's a form of life. But I don't really think about it. We don't know much about the universe, so...
8/ No
9/Why I don't believe in God:
1/ The would-be proofs of the existence of God are not convincing at all
2/ If God existed, we should be able to see Him more, or feel Him more (and the fact that some people feel Him is not a proof of that)
3/ God is Something that we don't really understand (read the Bible or other Holy Books). So I don't see why I should explain something that we don't really understand (why are we alive? why are we the way we are? etc.) by something that's not understandable either.
4/ Evil on earth is too great: how could a God allow such evil on Earth
5/ Human beings are overall not such great creatures, you know. Why would a God create something that's so insignificant?
6/ It would be great if a God existed, because it means that there would always be someone to care about me, to forgive me for things I do wrong, that I would be able to see my father again, etc. But the fact that the idea of God and life after death is too good to be true makes me believe that... it's not true! I mean, isn't that what most people want when they think about God? That what we are doing on Earth is meaningful? etc.

Anyway. The point is, God can't be proven. Even philosophers who believe in God say it. All you can do is believe in Him or not. If you believe in Him, that's your right. And it's my right not to believe in Him. Which doesn't mean I don't have any moral!

Answer 8

1 - As far as we know, once you're dead, you're gone.
2 - There is no heaven.
3 - There is no hell.
4 - I have no idea whether the best days are ahead or behind us.
5 - The Earth will come to an end as the sun burns out. I know of no reason to believe that the Universe will end, except possibly if it comes to complete entropy. I think that some of the spontaneous appearance of matter and energy may keep that from happening.
6 - I believe that Jesus existed, though of course not as described in the Bible.
7 - I think their probably is life on other planets, but not knowing any direct evidence right now, I'd have to say our current best guess is that there is not. Yes, I'm contradicting myself. Call it "wishful thinking".
8 - I do not believe in reincarnation.
9 - I do not believe in God because there's no evidence for a god.

Answer 9

Hiya! Sure, I've got some time.

1. No. I don't believe in a "soul." No invisible part of me carries on after I die.

2. and 3. No hell below us. Above us only sky.

4, Humankinds best days are ahead of us. We continue to improve morally (slavery has vanished from the planet in the last 50 years.) We need to solve population and environmental problems tho.

5. Eventually no life will be on this earth. The sun will go boom eventually.

6. I don't know if there was a historical Jesus. I've looked into it a lot. "As described in the bible" no. He didn't come back from the dead. The NT just isn't reliable about him (even the 4 gospel accounts of the resurrection disagree on about 30 points. So it's just not trustworthy)

7. Yeah. Billions of planets. we can't be the ONLY living thing out there.

8. No to reincarnation too.

9. The single greatest thing that stops me from believing is that I haven't yet met a credible god. One that didn't conflict with reality, logic, history, nature...

Have a good day!

Answer 10

1. No
2. No
3. No
4. Who's to say? There are things that are better and worse about now as compared to the past, and there are ways things could get better or worse.
5. Stars die, so if nothing happens before then, Earth will be engulfed in the sun's expansion. Of course, it's possible we might have left Earth by then. And after destruction, as relates to my 7, it's possible for things to start over again the way they began. Just need to play the probabilities to find the right conditions.
6. I've heard people say there is evidence for a historical Jesus, but I've never looked into it since it's not that important to me.
7. I think it's fairly arrogant to assume that we would be living on the only inhabitable planet in the universe. It's very possible life could have independently developed somewhere else.
8. No.
9. The single greatest thing that prevents me from believing in God is the lack of reason to believe in a god. It sounds circular, but most atheists will tell you that this kind of belief should be brought about by a reason to believe in it, not a lack of reasons not to.

Answer 11

1. No. The mind ceases.
2. Heaven is literally a state of bliss. I find things that make me happy heaven.
3. Hell is the complete opposite of "heaven". I find things that infuriate me, yet I am forced to tolerate, hell.
4. My life is as good as I make it. The same thing applies to everyone. As a whole, I think there is much more conflict all caused by intolerance.
5. I can't predict the future, must less predict what will happen after the world allegedly ends.
6. I believe Jesus was the same as Socrates. A philosopher. His followers just took things way too far.
7. How can I possibly know that? I'm an Atheist, not an Astronaut.
8. It depends on what your definition of reincarnation. I believe my energy aids in decomposition of my body and my decomposed body becomes fertilizer.
9. Rationality.