To the Atheists on the forum.

Zillah

Playboy wrote:

I as a being am a manifestation of energy. Who is to say that this energy is not going to reform into another type of entity that is also able to experience?

To what energy do you refer? The electrics in your brain? The heat in your body? The charged particles in your atoms?

All that energy will of course still exist after your death. But what makes you you is the system that that energy forms.

To me there is nothing other than wishful thinking that would lead me to consider any possibility of that system remaining in any form after death.

Playboy

Zillah wrote:

To what energy do you refer? The electrics in your brain? The heat in your body? The charged particles in your atoms?

All that energy will of course still exist after your death. But what makes you you is the system that that energy forms.

Yes they are all types of energy to which I'm refering. If energies such as these can arrange themselves in such a way so that I can exist as a concious being then in all likliehood at my death these energies can be incorporated into a new system that forms a different type of experience. Maybe it could have a connection to who or what I am now but you are right that is wishful thinking. But there is no harm in being wishful as long as you don't get confused that ideas such as an afterlife or reincarnation are anything more than hopeful ideas.

robindch

> in all likliehood at my death these energies can be incorporated into a new
> system that forms a different type of experience.

The study of physics, chemistry and biology all suggest that the only thing you'll be experiencing is nothing at all, since your brain will be dead. A pity, but that's the way the world seems to work. Enjoy as much as you can while you can, I say! And be nice while you're enjoying it.

> you are right that is wishful thinking. But there is no harm in being wishful as
> long as you don't get confused that ideas such as an afterlife or
> reincarnation are anything more than hopeful ideas.

Yes, you're right

5uspect

Playboy wrote:

Maybe it could have a connection to who or what I am now but you are right that is wishful thinking. But there is no harm in being wishful as long as you don't get confused that ideas such as an afterlife or reincarnation are anything more than hopeful ideas.

The only thing we know that lives on is our thoughts and ideas in the memories of family and friends, thats enough for me, and as Robin said be nice and those will be good memories.

tba

As an atheist

I do not believe death is the last hurrah, merely a system that allows what I am to become something else, the world will continue on but I won't know or care.

I do not belive there is sufficient evidence for the existance of a deity of any description. In previous eras a lack of understanding of what the sun and thunder was caused people to assume that they were gods (Ra and Thor).

In the same sense we do not yet fully understand the infancy of our universe, but filling in the gaps with an omnipotent entity is suposition based on conjecture.

I would like there to be a god, a heaven, an eternal reward, but do not belive there is one, based purely on a lack of evidence. But based on this I choose to abide by a set of rules, a code of morals, not in fear of eternal damnation from a godhead but from those people that will follow. I choose to live my life for that, not for what happens to me after that.

beans

All that energy will of course still exist after your death. But what makes you you is the system that that energy forms

When we die, it's fair to say that our matter and energy returns to the earth. Energy can't be created or destroyed right? I see all life as just a function of it's environment, we come from the earth and return to the earth when we die, leaving our mark upon the earth whatever that may be. When we die, it's back to the soil for us; i dont believe we're 'reincarnated' per se, but we never go away, our atoms just scatter to become part of the planet again, we never really go away.

In much the same way as an apple tree produces apples, the earth produces peoples. That's how I view things in a nutshell.

Zillah

Playboy wrote:

If energies such as these can arrange themselves in such a way so that I can exist as a concious being then in all likliehood at my death these energies can be incorporated into a new system that forms a different type of experience.

As robindch points out, in all likelihood they will not arrange themselves into a new system and will in fact randomnly scatter once the physical system of matter on which they are completely dependent breaks down. The last electrics in your brain make their final discharge, the atoms (and their charged particles) get absorbed by other things such as trees and bacteria, the kinetic energy dissapates into the bed on which you died, the chemical energy is usurped by opportunistic bacteria and the heat dissapates into the air and earth.

Not a pleasant picture but its the only rational conclusion.

MagnumForce

JimiTime wrote:

Do you believe death is the last horrah? If not what do you think?

Do you believe that life is the first "horrah"? Why should I believe there is something after by body begins decomposing if there was nothing before my body started being built in the womb?

JimiTime wrote:

Do you believe everything came from nothing? (I know evolutionists hate this term, but I'm stressing that an atheist does not believe in a higher power, so at somestage you have to consider a beginning, which leads to once again where that beginning came from etc etc etc. I'm not undermining the 'evidence' for evolution, I do understand that evolutionists say that they have only scrathched the surface etc.) or Are you just waiting on satisfactory evidence from science to show the beginning? or is it neither, maybe you don't really think about it, and don't want to as you feel it irrelelavent.

Why does there have to be a beginning at all? everything in this world is made of something which already existed previously, so why should I think that there was a time when there was nothing?

abetarrush

Yeah, I think when you die, you die, and live on in memory etc

This is why I'm not religious. Religion tells you that if you dont do A, B or C, which in most cases are natural things tainted by religion, that you'll go to Heaven, but if theres no Heaven, then you just missed all these good things and you can never do them again

And why do we need to know how the universe was made? We're here now, can we no just be thankful and spend our time lookin for more important answer like how to cure Aids and Cancer???

adam_ccfc

Zillah wrote:

As robindch points out, in all likelihood they will not arrange themselves into a new system and will in fact randomly scatter once the physical system of matter on which they are completely dependent breaks down. The last electrics in your brain make their final discharge, the atoms (and their charged particles) get absorbed by other things such as trees and bacteria, the kinetic energy dissipates into the bed on which you died, the chemical energy is usurped by opportunistic bacteria and the heat dissipates into the air and earth.

Not a pleasant picture but its the only rational conclusion.

I needn't bother typing up my opinions on the matter, as everything I believe is contained in this post.

"Life", as an arrangement of different atoms which use energy to carry out various functions, has a beginning and an end, but the constituents of "life" are eternal and simply return to Earth on your death.