This is not to offend anyone... I am thoroughly convinced that we all have souls, so what do atheists believe happen to our souls when we die? I was just wondering.
2007-02-14 15:23:38 · 30 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
i believe my soul goes into earth orbit and is subject to the laws of physics because it exists in the natural universe
2007-02-14 15:28:30 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I do not believe anything happens to our souls because I do not believe souls exist as there is no evidence for them. What is a soul? What does it look like? Where does it reside? In what part of the body can it be found? How do you know that you have a soul if it is invisible? What is the point of a body having a soul? Or, conversely, why would a soul need a body? If the soul is what keeps us alive, and it leaves when we die, why do we need a heart or a brain? Where was Terry Schiavo's soul when she fell into a coma? Did it leave when she first went unconcious, when her brain wasted away, or when she was taken off life support? Does a fetus have a soul? How about an embryo? A blastoderm? An ovum? A sperm? Do animals and plants have souls? Why or why not? How do you know? What evidence do you have for any of it?
2007-02-14 23:41:09 · answer #2 · answered by Antique Silver Buttons 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Let me see, first you need to learn a little more about atheists. Atheists do not believe that there is a soul, no matter how much you believe there is a soul. Can you comprehend that? Why is so hard for Christians to grasp that other people actually can believe something other than what Christians believe?
2007-02-14 23:44:03 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Can consciousness exist separately from the physical body?
The belief in the supernatural is the idea that a certain type of consciousness can exist without physical body. Our sensory perception has no evidence of anything conscious without body. Faith is required to make this assertion.
The separation of any living being into body and soul is identified in logic as the fallacy of the mind-body dichotomy. This fallacy is widely adopted by all faith-based philosophies.
The mind-body dichotomy gives credence to another logical fallacy: the idea that absolute purity is possible only if consciousness exists without body. Matter is impure. Only spirit is pure. The claim that consciousness can be separated from the body gives rise to the idea that consciousness can continue to live after the body dies, thus creating a whole world of afterlife conscious souls, spirits, or ghosts.
With no scientific evidence that there are supernatural forces which consciously respond to our wishing, hoping, praying, and believing, we are subject to constant delusions because, in fact, we have adopted a philosophy which has declared war on reality.
All living beings, from the simplest to the most complex, have a sensory and nervous system which provides their brain the ability to distinguish what is for their life and what is against their life. It is the most advanced animals that have a more advanced neuron-system, a more advanced brain, and a more advanced type of consciousness. The highest type of consciousness of which we have evidence is human conceptual consciousness. This is the ability of imagination and conceptualization which animals lack. This is the true soul of human beings.
A living being, animal or human, is an inseparable unit perfectly integrated of body and consciousness. In reality, you will not find a human with a cat’s consciousness and you will not find a cat with a human consciousness. You also will not find living bodies of any kind without some consciousness. An animal or a human body without consciousness is just a lifeless corpse and a consciousness still able to have memories, emotions, sensations, free will, knowledge, wisdom, beatitude, and a host of other emotions and thoughts capable of living separately from its dead body is an imaginary entity.
2007-02-14 23:34:34 · answer #4 · answered by DrEvol 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As an Atheist, I don't believe that there is anything after death. I believe that our conciousness simply ceases to exist. There is simply no evidence to the contrary. No one has ever died and come back to life (other than in the work of fiction that is the bible, which is NOT a reliable source of information).
The closest evidence that we have is near-death experiences, people seeing the "tunnel of light" and such. The problem with this is that fighter pilots under extreme g-forces that force the blood from their brains experience the same thing. It's a much more plausible and reasonable explanation that it is simply a symptom of the brain shutting down due to lack of oxygen.
Do I like this idea that there is nothing after this life? No, not particularly. I don't want life to end. I think this is one of the main reasons that religion started, and why it continues to hold a firm grip on mankind. People don't want to accept that this is it; that when you die, it's over. It's much easier to believe that after dying here, you get to go live in heaven forever.
I think athiests just accept this, that we only have but one life to live, and that we should make the most of it. Religous conservatives on the other hand waste much of their lives in church, or conducting pointless rituals. They spend so much of their time convincing themselves that they're going to have an eternity after this life, that they don't take advantage of their life now.
Maybe there is something after this life. I don't believe it, but it would be nice.
If a god wanted us to have eternal life, why didn't he just make us there in the first place?
2007-02-14 23:44:25 · answer #5 · answered by ChickenMaster27 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
As an atheist this doesn't offend me. I don't believe in souls. I see no evidence of them. So, what happens to them? Nothing. I believe that what we call a soul is just the neurons in our brain racting to chemicals creating a personality. Because people in the time when the Bible was written didn't know this, they just called it a soul. That's my opinion.
In order for me to really answer your question you would have to prove that a soul exists.
2007-02-14 23:50:12 · answer #6 · answered by Existence 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some atheists believe in a soul. I, for one, feel that the soul comes back to learn more about the universe it is in.
2007-02-14 23:33:12 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Atheists don't generally believe in souls.
Bodies are made up of energy. The energy dissipates when we die. The matter is broken down and feeds other life and so we continue as part of the cycle of life. But there is no soul to go to anywhere.
2007-02-14 23:29:46 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are assuming that because you are convinced that we "all" have souls that atheists feel the same way. Just not true.
2007-02-14 23:42:16 · answer #9 · answered by Stormilutionist Chasealogist 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
well you can not believe in god but still think something happens to you when you die. theres many beliefs.... some think that there time on earth is for learning an they die they go into a different plane of existence.. theres alot of atheists that have seen ghosts or at least believe in them, an metaphysics. just because theres no "god" doesn't mean its just lights out
2007-02-14 23:35:02 · answer #10 · answered by peeps you 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋