Atheists- What do you believe concerning the future, the hereafter, and eternity?

Question

I get grilled about my beliefs and was wondering what is your opinion. Do you all have similiar ideas? Do you have faith or trust in anything? Just wondering what all the passion against Christianity will get you after all. Do you gain anything from this perspective?

Answer 1

The future is dependent on how humanity shapes it. Being the dominant species, assuming we are (many times I wonder about that because there is so much stupidity in this world), WE must decide which to do: preserve habitats for wildlife? Or bulldoze over it to build more expensive houses, which most people cannot afford.

If you insist on keeping god in the equation, think of it as god-given free will. You can go right over to your neighbor and shoot him in the head and your god will intervene, much less stop you. YOU made the decision to do the deed, now You must face your own bleak future.

The hereafter? Maybe there is and maybe there isn't. No one has come back to tell me about it in non-corporeal form.
However, I cannot ignore sightings of "ghosts" by very rational, objective people.

If there IS an afterlife, I hope I will be able to maintain my personality and consciousness. I hope I will FINALLY be able to find out all the answers to the mysteries of the universe. I doubt that all will be bliss.

But then again, maybe the lights simply go out and our hereafter is nothing more than the memories we leave behind in the minds of others.

Eternity: No human is really capable of fully comprehending eternity. It's like wondering what is at the end of the universe?
Very few of us can grasp the real meaning of a never-ending universe. Our brains either don't have enough brain cells, or our brain cells limit our ability to understand eternity.

Faith: Faith is an unseen and immessurable thing. I don't believe that it is necessary to adopt a "theological label." I believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. I believe in justice, equity and compassion in human relations. I would rather do my own free and responsible search for truth and meaning, instead of someone TELLING me what to think. I believe in respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

I expect nothing in return for having these beliefs or thoughts, but I get great satisfaction in knowing I have persued them or directly helped others based on them.

Compassion for one another is one's greatest asset.

Answer 2

"Passion against Christianity??" Don't flatter yourself, Sparky. In my part of the world. Christianity is about as worrisome as a cloudy day. I don't have the extra time to be passionately against the faithful. Passionate indifference, maybe. Anyway, in answer to your original question:

I believe the world will be a much better place once we abandon all mythology. But since men need ways to control other men, I don't think that will happen. So I'll settle for the world being a better place once G.W. Bush is out of office and has faded into well-deserved obscurity.

There is no hereafter. Period. This is the only life you get, and I suggest you stop wasting it while waiting for an "afterlife," which in all likelihood isn't going to happen.

I have faith in nothing. I believe in the Constitution, and the freedoms it stands for (especially the freedom FROM worship), and I believe in the rule of law.

Answer 3

I have faith in myself. I tend not to frivolously give my faith to humanity overall since it has already shown that it doesn't deserve it and even less so everyday it seems. I think that humanity will survive even if most people are killed off by our collective stupidity. I hope that they will learn their lesson but wouldn't hold my breath on that if I were around, which I most certainly will not be.

There is no 'hereafter' meaning 'afterlife', and 'eternity' is something that humanity is incapable of comprehending in its entirety. We just don't have the capacity.

My passion against religious nonsense is my meager attempt to obtain a better and more enlightened future generation and an attempt to show theists that I resist being forced into living as a Christian and will not submit to being one through legislation.

Answer 4

For man is as the beast of the field. As one dies so dies the other. From memory King Solomon, I think. It is close enough to get the message across. This is all there is. When one dies, one is dead as a dog. I have lived my life so far to the hilt. I have a great wife, good kids (due to the great wife) and I loved my work which provided enough money for wife and 5 kids. I am retired and the great wife and I have money for our needs and a little more. The future in life is unpredictable. The future in death is. There is no future. What passion against christianity? What makes you think I care about you or your religion one way or another? Do I gain anything? I can say I have had a good life and that if I die tonight I got all I could from it. I trust and have faith in my wife and in myself. Do other atheists feel the same way? I don't know and I don't care any more about their "religion" than I do yours. Will your god put me in hell if I am wrong. Assuming for the moment that he/she/it exists, perhaps so. Should I fake it? I hate fakers. I hate dishonesty. I like men who are men. Men who come to the point. Men who speak honestly. Men who will fight and kill for what is theirs. I suspect that I have spent as much time or more in bible study as over half the people who post her. Maybe three quarters. Pard, it just won't wash. I generally don't say this much in a year, let alone all at one time. I did so because you did not come across as a jerk. I also never forget that AMERICAN fighting men and women gave me this right. I never saw any diety on the middle watch.

Answer 5

Since I am agnostic, rather than atheistic, perhaps I should not attempt to answer your question, but I do think that it is interesting. Being agnostic is somewhat of a fence-sitting position, I concede. Nonetheless, whether I am nontheist or deist, I am absolutely not religious so can not discuss my position rationally with any "believers" because they regard me as damned (my concept of a god is either of my own creation or a cosmic revelation). From a nontheistic (or atheistic) point of view, is not life (consciousness) all there is? I think that my reluctance to accept that concept is the source of my agnosticism. Atheism suggests the absence of a spiritual entity within the corporeal being, does it not? It is a "belief" that one's current state of being is all that there is. I am not completely persuaded to accept that concept. To me, the cosmic possibilities seem too immense to adopt a philosophy mandating an absolute end to life at physical death.

Answer 6

The only people who actually have a passion against it are likely to be those that left the religion and have reason to feel bitter towards it.

Me, I only have a passion for being able to have my own views and get rid of the stereotypes and rudeness others spread in regard to it.

Answer 7

No one can forecast the future; no one can avoid death; and when you are dead – well, you are dead.

Eternity has to do with time and I’m not sure time is a real dimension, but it is a concept similar to infinity (and I’m not sure that I really comprehend that, either).

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open thoughts --

God does not belong in the Pledge, or anywhere else in American public life.

America’s Founding Fathers intentionally excluded God, Jesus, and Christianity from the US Constitution because they were creating the first 100% secular government in human History.

This was reaffirmed in 1797 when the following was unanimously passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President John Adams:

• “As the Government of the United States Of America IS NOT IN ANY SENSE founded on the Christian religion, …”

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/diplom...

Answer 8

Atheists are not Christians. We don't have the same ideas though many of them are similar. I have faith in my family, in my husband. I trust them. Just because you're Atheist doesn't mean you have no faith or trust in anything. Thats a religious lie. Yes, I gain something. I'm not caught in a lie and the whole world is open to me.

Answer 9

All I gain is intellectual honesty. Being a logical honest highly educated person I am left with no choice but to be an atheist.

My beliefs about the nature of reality are described in this link:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0704/0704.0646v1.pdf

Answer 10

The future is not set in stone. There doesn't appear to be any evidence for an afterlife. If there is one, great, but I'm not holding my breath. I'll make the most of this life assuming it's the only one I'm getting.