Do atheists believe their spirit will continue on after death, or this life on Earth is it?

Question

I'm curious. I am a believer in God, and tolerant of all people who possess love in their being. I just want a good honest and respectful answer.

Answer 1

I know you're not aware of it but you just ran through a huge cosmic stop sign when you asked if this is it ?
THIS IS IT ???
The fact that IT exists at all is beyond huge and people often over look the obvious facts of our existence.
I don't know how many stars you can see from where you live but go out and look at the night sky and try to get a grasp of what you are actually looking at.
Light travels at 186,000 miles a second at that speed the sun is 8.3 minutes away ,
If you were to circumnavigate the Sun at a constant rate of 100mph it would take you 360 days vs 10.5 days to circumnavigate the Earth at the same speed
The nearest star Proxima Centauri is 4.22 light year away
The galaxy we all call home -The Milky Way -is 100, 000 light years across
The nearest galaxy to us -The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away
And the furthest point that the naked eye can see- The Triangulum Galaxy is 3.14 million light years away.
To put that time frame into perspective;
Light departed the Triangulum Galaxy about the same time man started to walk upright on this planet.
When you're looking at the night sky think about this there are
70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe.
While sheer numbers tell us that if life happened here , it should happen elsewhere . What if it didn't ? What if the roll of the cosmic dice only produced life in one place ? Here
If that is the case, that in that incomprehensibly vast amount of space , time and matter that we are the only life in the universe ,how can anyone so casually dismiss that fact of life with a "This is it ?"
It seems to be not enough for some people that we may be the only life in the whole universe .That doesn't seem to impress them . I find it competely incomprehensible that anyone would not be blown away and humbled by the simple facts of our existance. Yet people seem to want more and I just don't get it.
Update:
Oh yeah one more thing: Stellar evolution tells us that the universe recycles itself and that the reason we are here is because of the death of a star. We are literally made of star material, So when I look out in the night sky I see my past but I also see my future.

Answer 2

True atheist do not believe in a soul, or spirit, or afterlife, or being reborn... this is all you get, enjoy it while it lasts.

Those that are not sure about it, and will just wait until the time comes to find out are called agnotists. There is a difference. Every agnotist has different opinion on what happens after death, ranging from nothing to being reborn or finding out that there was a god after all.

Answer 3

I try (sometimes too much) to disassociate myself from any group, including atheists. However I do not believe in any kind of afterlife. When I smash a fly its carcass gets swept up into the garbage can. When I hit a deer with my car it drops and the birds peck at it until someone picks it up. When I die there will be some clause in my will using a good portion of my life insurance in constructing an obnoxiously large mausoleum in the local cemetery that should be quite the eyesore. However I do not care if people do believe in an afterlife because for the majority of people, if this is all there is, then you might as well just end yourself.

Answer 4

I believe that when you die, you are gone forever. What I think happens is that once you die, it will be just like it was before you were ever born; you don't know that you were never born, because you were never conscious, and you will never know you are dead, because you will not be conscious. You won't be able to sense, because your body will shut down. In order to see, you need your eyes, neurons, and etc., which are all housed in the body, therefore you will not sense a thing. The brain makes the mind, (much evidence to this, such as brain damage leading to mental problems), so the mind then I guess vanishes.

Answer 5

I believe that when I die, that's it, I will simply cease to exist. This thought bothers me a tremendous amount. Sometimes I jolt myself awake in terror over this realization.

But sadly, there's not much I can do about it. I might feel better if I believed otherwise, but to me, it is the most logical conclusion. I'll have to resign myself with living my life the best way I can while I'm still here.

Answer 6

As an atheist, I do not believe that humans, or any other form of life for that matter, possess spirits.

Answer 7

Most atheists probably do not believe we have a soul that lives beyond the bodies death, no. Some will. Soul and any theistic god have that immortality thing in common so it's hard to disbelieve one without disbelieving the other. And there's really no more proof of the existence of soul, to my way of seeing it, than of a theistic god.

Answer 8

I don't know if spirit is the right word. Maybe some kind of energy. I don't know. I have had an experience with what I consider a "visitation" of a loved one that had passed and I know of a couple of friends who have experieced this too.

Answer 9

God, spirits, souls are all imaginary things for believers. Atheists don't believe in those things.

Answer 10

This life is all you get, make the most of it. And what exactly is a spirit? One has never been observed, measured, encountered, or even proven to exist at all. I think it might just be more christian mythology at work.