Are there any other atheists out there who don't believe in death as the end of experience? I feel like other atheists would think I was into fuzzy headed religious thinking if I told them I feel I would continue to experience things after I die but only because they don't understand what it is I believe. The natural assumption is that I think I have some kind of soul or spiritual body that goes on to live in some spiritual realm, but I have no logical reason to believe that, so I don't. What I DO have logical reasons to believe is that consciousness being an effect OF the physical body does not die like the physical body dies so long as there are other physical bodies in existence producing the same effect. No supernatural hokus pokus.. it's just logic and math.. bodies are things with quantitative value, but effects are not and do not have quantitative value and consciousness is an effect. Are there any other atheists out there who get this?
I understand your concept. After being called an agnostic atheist by someone I've given up trying to narrowily categorize myself as specifically atheist. But to my understanding being atheist is simply a lack of belief in a God and says nothing in regards to an afterlife.
I think I get what your saying. Though it has several problems. The first is probably just my confusion in trying to understand this but its about the fact that there is always an increase and decrease in populations. Where does the "new" consciousness come from when a population increases, and where does it go in a decrease? The second is from the idea that consciousness is an effect of the human body. The body functions and the effects of this function is consciousness. It is a jump to conclusions to separate the function from the effect. Its like trying to separate the motion of a car from the car.
i thought this was gonna be a thread about eastern montana [my very small town has a very large creationist museum] i like the idea of a soul that survives death but do not necessarily believe that will happen i think more believers might want to examine their thinking in the light of their desires . . .
I'm not so sure. Take for instance this sentance: consciousness being an effect OF the physical body does not die like the physical body dies It hints at consciousness being something that is excreted by the body, rather than perpetuated by it, since its being proposed that consciousness does not die at the same time. This to me is like seeing without eyeballs and hearing without ears.
Heeh: Well, you're right in seeking clearer definition, but I don't think groovecookie is saying that an individuals consciousness continues beyond the death of their body. I think he's speaking of the sense in which our consciousness is shared as a whole. What we should be doing is proposing ways we can realize this sharing as a whole. For instance, how many of us do you think (statistically speaking) have the will, and also the means to seek eachother out to alter our consciousness together and for all time? lol
The nodes acknowledging the wave, what would it mean?! lol I have no words for what I can only begin to imagine!
No, there is nothing after life except the decomposition of the biological body. The 'mind' and all that relates to it, such as memory, belief, emotion etc. cease upon death. These states of mind do not transcend death, nothing does.
Do you see things around you? Do you see death? If you see things around you and you also see death, then the statement there is nothing after death is not true on the face of it. Life transcends death. Life transcends, not life.
He was obviously talking about the life of his consciousness, not 'life' in general. We communicate, interact and affect each others lives but there is no deep conscious telekinetic connection. The idea that our brains can connect as one consciousness is pure fantasy.
maybe our consciousness is collective, or maybe like someone else said, our body is a product of consciousness. maybe our bodies aren't real. uh ohhhhhhh
I knew what he was talking about. To suggest that there is more than one experience that we can share called mind is pure fantasy. That entity called me does cannot exist in absence of the entity called you. That is, someone like me. I am the biological extension of someone like me. My personality and reputation is an extension of someone like me. We are hard wired for communication with each other. The animal homo sapiens is a common heritage. Our mind does not happen in isolation of other minds.
I have seen dead people. Does this mean I have seen death? How does seeing death mean there is something after death? You speak a lot of sense most of the time, but you do also speak a lot of mumbo jumbo. I think this is one of those times.