Atheist, if life goes to nothing at death, how does it come to be?

Question

If life goes to nothing when it dies, how did it ever come to be in the first place?

See, I cannot understand the logic that something can derive from "nothing" AND return to "nothing." what IS nothing? Is it a place? If one GOES to nothing, then one is going somewhere, are they not?

If life is created from nothing, how? How does nothing both create and destroy when nothing, by mathematical definition, can DO nothing because it IS nothing.

As well, nothing cannot actually exist. It's technically beyond our imagination and is really nothing more then another belief, itself.

As a Buddhist, I cannot accept this nor can I accept the idea of a God because it merely makes no logical sense.

Outside of that, science has yet to prove "nothing" exists, so, how can you believe in it with all your heart when you don't even have proof? And no, the vacuum of space is not "nothing"

Hmm, I will correct the above about it not making sense to include the fact that the only way it does make logical sense is to include the other side

Hence the paradox.

Answer 1

"life goes to nothing"?

i do not think anyone believes that.

your body breaks down to the chemical and then atomic levels

what made you up does not go to nothing, it is merely
recycled in the earth and the universe

edit:

it might be important to point out that this is not a "belief" or faith, we can observe this actually happening. this is what happens when you or any other living thing dies

in contrast with believing that an invisible enitity floats away to another place in the universe or another dimension

could both be true, that the body breaks down and that a spirit remains and floats away? yes, but we only have reason to believe the former

Answer 2

Technically youre an atheist also.

"nor can I accept the idea of a God" Many atheists who arent Buddhist have this same issue that you cite and that is where you come upon what I can only think to call "spiritual atheism" which does not say this is all there is, but does not allow for God either.

As to your question, it does not derive from nothing. If you have no soul, then there is nothing to worry about. There is only the body and its parts, it takes nothing additional to make it. The body is created by the parents (Im assuming you know how) and grows with regards to food intake and all. The baby doesnt grow without pulling energy out of the mother, so there is nothing additional added, its still just a body. Same thing at death. The body is put back into the soil and destroyed to serve as food and energy for the next ones.

Basically, this is all there is. Youre putting too much though into it. Remember your pre-Greek philosophy, "nothing" and "no-thing" are not interchangable.

Answer 3

Who told you you came from nothing?

I would have thought that at the very least a spermatocyte and an oocyte merged to begin the process of your eventual derailment in to theist 'logic'.

Science has yet to prove that 'nothing' exists.

If you understood logic you'd know you can't prove a negative - like if I say there are no Unicorns in the forest, you could always say there were hiding behind a tree I didnt look at.

I think you're getting confused by the term nothing. If you think atheists are saying you become nothing then you're only getting confused by the language which has been forced to sound a certain way because of the prevailing climate of ignorance - they only mean in comparison with going somewhere after you die (whatever that can mean - since we'd notice if dead bodies vanished)

If you want to know how life is created from nothing, by which I guess you mean self-replicating organic molecules you could always look it up for yourself. Why do I suspect you don't really want to?

Answer 4

You assume there has to be something more than our physical being, which will rot and turn to dust after we die. If I don't believe in god, satan, heaven or hell, it logically follows that I don't believe in a soul, either (which I don't... some atheists do, I guess).

So.. life came from mutated cells that came to be when the matter from the big bang coalesced and became solid. There was all kinds of "stuff" on the earth. The stuff included cells... single-cells. These mutated and became life, which evolved over time into human life as we know it.

When we die, our physical bodies are buried or burned, turn to dust either way and that's the end.

Why does there HAVE to be more? I don't believe there is or that there has to be more than that. We are given this precious life to live... be good to one another, cherish what we have and what get from others. That's all there is.

And in a vacuum, matter can spontaneously appear. Science has know that for years.

Answer 5

All that talk about nothing is making everyone that reads it and you writing it confused. Nothing came from nothing. And nothing goes to nothing. What happens to a dog will happen to you. It's body rots and it goes back to the earth to become matter or some minerals which some go to make oil that we drive our cars with. Nothing is nothing is nothing. Lose the nothing.

Your present conscious sense did have a beginning, it MUST have an end. What is harder to believe is that ANYONE will live forever or will be immortal in the conscious form. That is what you actually need to make up a fantasy about to avoid the reality of death as the end.

Answer 6

Life is not created from nothing. It was, and is continuing to be, handed down to us through countless generations from some unimaginably remote time. At its most fundamental level, life is a set of chemical reactions and interactions. The first living thing self-assembled from the chemicals that were present in an early time. For example, in protected conditions, membranes that simple life would require self-assemble naturally. When an organism dies, the organism ceases to exist but its chemical constituents remain until they are broken down by decomposing organisms. The decomposers use some of the energy for their own metabolism, and the remainder escapes as heat according to the second law of thermodynamics. I'm a Zen Buddhist, and one reason I prefer Zen is that it has no doctrines such as a belief in reincarnation.

Answer 7

you really should try thinking before asking a question - it'll make you look less like an idiot

"I cannot understand the logic" - it's hardly anyone else's fault you can't understand. Try thinking about it.

"technically beyond our imagination" - beyond YOUR imagination, perhaps. Again, try harder and open your mind.

"I cannot accept this nor can I accept the idea of" - symptoms of a closed mind, which perhaps helps explain the lack of comprehension you admitted to above

"science has yet to prove "nothing" exists" - the symbol for nothing is 0 (zero). Its use dates back over 2,000 years. The existence of nothing as a mathematical, theoretical and physical constant is well established. Whether zero iyself actually exists anywhere is irrelevant because life neither comes from nothing (it comes from chemicals which make up cells) nor goes to nothing after death (it returns to chemicals).

Answer 8

We are alive because our brains are working...

I do agree that is it very confusing to think about what the beginning of the Universe must have been like...

but even so, as it appears so far that consciousness needs a physical brain, we will definitely die. ie. lose our physical awareness and break down into our component parts... sad.

An analogy to death might be when you lose consciousness...
what happened while the doctor put you under before surgery? Can you remember anything? Just think of a time that you slept, and didn't remember anything... that is what death will be like, except you will most likely never come to be aware of anything again.

Answer 9

All eukaryotes exist in two stages: haploid and diploid. The haploid has a single set of chromosomes, and the diploid has two sets of chromosomes. Fungi are unique in that both stages can live separate lives. In the rest of the eukaryotes, one stage is dominant. Protozoans normally live as a haploid, and the diploid stage is a dormant, environmentally resistant oocyst. Higher animals, on the other hand, are normally diploid, and the haploid stage exists only as gametes, that is, sperm and egg.

When humans become mature, they produce sperms and eggs, which unite to form children. You see, from diploid to haploid to diploid again. Life is continuous. The genetic material is passed from generation to generation. Life goes on forever.

Your assumption that life ends in nothing is incorrect.

Answer 10

Its called a brain.

We are the sum total of our experiences in life. Through perception and various processes formed in the brain, we craft our persona as we see fit. By labeling things with names via the use of LANGUAGE- these things become easier to understand and retain. Language also allows us to share vast amounts of information in far less time- also shaping our ability to develop traits beyond what any other animal would- such as compassion and values. All of these experiences and values and defense mechanisms and learned behaviors become what we call a "soul." The "soul" is only as fragile as the brain itself- which is why any form of destruction upon the brain (via drug use or physical damage) causes us to change drastically.

Where does LIFE come from? Uhhh... chemical combination of dna through fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell. Dude- this is covered in FOURTH GRADE SCIENCE.