What do Atheist think about the afterlife?

Question

I am a catholic and I have always wondered what Atheists believe is going to happen to them after they die. I think I would be pretty pissed off if I were atheist because I would think I only have about 75 years to live and then nothing after that. I respect Atheist beliefs and please dont insult my beliefs like the other times I have asked questions about atheism to Atheists. (only a few of them insulted me, not all) I respect you Atheists and please show me that same respect.

Let me rephrase. Not afterlife but just what will happen to them. I have heard some people say that they will grow into trees and stuff like that and I just want to hear some other ideas.

Answer 1

Your question has a multitude of answers but no real core meaning. It's like asking where the universe was before it was created. I was raised a Catholic but lost belief when I discovered science, art, sex and Buddhism. Now I am happy to be agnostic.

Of course I am scared, because I have evolved to be scared of death, it's the prime directive of a successful life-form.

However I believe that my consciousness is a feeble flame arising from the incredibly complex fabric of my being. A complex of understanding lit on the damp fuel of organic matter. Because paradoxically my unconsciousness is most concrete to myself, the illusion of my spirit is formed. I do not believe I can enter or leave a room without the support of my body.

My consciousness is built on organic matter but images or models all it perceives. So it mirrors the world, and images of the world also exist in every being that perceives. Before I existed the physical material of my body existed, the genetic information needed for the construction of my body and mind existed, the world existed, the cultural influences that formed me existed. They have melded together in the process of my making and will shortly dissolve.

What will be left is the components of my existence, objects and changes that I have made and myriad images of myself in the minds of everyone that I have influenced. My sense of self will go, as it does every night when I sleep.

Answer 2

What afterlife?
When you die, you die. No punishment. No questionable rewards. It's over and for that I am grateful. Death and the fears about an afterlife have been a weapon and instrument of control for the churches. The fear of damnation has empowered particularly Christianity with the means by which the church attained wealth and political power. Expectations of rewards are behind Muslim terror with the ultimate reward being 72 virgins and eternity in paradise. The "afterlife" concept is pure evil.

Answer 3

There is no afterlife, your heart stops, all thinking processes cease because the brain stops functioning, you decompose and your body nutrients enrich the soil and feed the plant life; its all a big cycle of life and death and nothing could be more natural than dying.
However, some atheists do believe in afterlife, they are spiritual but not religious, Buddhists for example.

Answer 4

Gee, what happens when your brain gets severely damaged are you still the same person after wards? So, imagine not having a brain cause worms ate it, You can't cause it's gone and nothings is there. Which brings me to the answer of your question Nothing you simply do not exist. You are a memory in someone else's life that is why you in life you should strive to be remembered as a good loving person. What happens to things that decompose they become worm food.

Answer 5

I believe nothing happens, You may be looking at it from the wrong perspective i think it's the most wonder full thought in the world. To know that now is all you have and there are no second chances. It just seems real to me. But that just me.

Answer 6

Your done. Your LEGACY may live on in your kids and how or if your family chooses to keep your MEMORY alive thru mourning and little stories, but for you personally, your troubles are over.

After you kids and possibly grandkids die, you'll just be a name on a family tree that people don't really know much about.

Answer 7

We're put in a box in the ground to rot.

I'm not pissed off about not believing in fairy tales. Atheists believe that LIFE is precious, and should be spent helping others instead of spewing nonsense.

Answer 8

There is no afterlife. When I die I'll either get cremated, buried, or donate my body to science. If I am cremated I'll let my family do what they will with it, if I'm buried I'd hope to be so naturally so I'll be able to revitalize the earth, and that is what those who claim that they'll grow into trees mean (at least I think) and if my body is donated to science, then I'll be cut up and who knows what for the betterment of mankind.

Hope this helps! ^_^

Answer 9

Even if nothing happens to you, life still goes on for other people. It is debateable but highly possible that some type of life will subsist forever. Maybe not human life, but something.

Nothing comes from nothing, and something can not go into nothing. we're here, get used to it.

Answer 10

Im not atheist but some of my best friends are. They don't believe in the soul or eternity. They just believe that when you are a gonner, you're a gonner. You'll just lay in a coffin not doing anything. I also have a non denominational friend who believes in reincarnation.