Atheists Speak Out Against an Afterlife
I cam across this video of atheism’s refusal to accept an afterlife, thinking it would anger me. It did not. Truthfully, I have always liked certain types of atheists, the ones who are busy having a happy, fulfilling life and not worrying about what comes next. And I have never met one who does not talk to the dead privately, mentally or in a kind of prayer.
There are those, however, who are fanatically opposed to any belief in a reality outside the one of matter. Those are the ones to steer clear of. All the views expressed in the video ride on an unscientific and ignorant misinterpretation of material existence, and on the notion that when the brain dies, you die, which we know now from near-death experience research is simply not true. It should also be mentioned that when atheists refute the afterlife, they are generally refuting an afterlife as it is taught by institutional religions, versions of a judgmental afterlife that produce fear. In that sense, I am on their side.
My main criticisms of the atheist view of existence is its naivety, that the material world is the only real world which has long been disproved by science, that the notion of eternity is calculated in years, rather than what we now know that time in those dimensions does not exist, and that we, as individuals, are as insignificant as a grain of sand on a wide and long beach. From my own experience, not even a grain of sand is insignificant. And since there is no space, let alone time, in the nonlocal reality of the afterlife, there is plenty of room for us all.
httpv://youtu.be/eeMoOJpvUlU
Nevertheless, it is important to keep opposing views in mind. Besides the issues, the images in this video are quite beautiful.
Steven Raymond
2012-10-12 @ 3:22 PM
I find it easy to make room for the life-embracing atheist stance in this film. I do find many atheists seem angry and embittered, and I understand some of their reasons, but don’t vibe with them.
During my own periods of questioning, I came to this position…
If indeed, there is no Higher Creative Source in the Universe, and that Life is the simple byproduct of carbon molecules combining into amino acids, and DNA evolved as a chemical reaction and formed unicellular organisms, and over a few hundred years evolution produced hominids, and the early hominids progressed in complexity to Homo, and that the Consciousness we have now is merely a byproduct of our complex brains…
Then the mere fact that we Exist completely blows my mind…that we exist, and think and feel and imagine and love and hurt and desire and Create music and art and engineering and literature…and in a way, how much more Precious is Life then, and if this is all we have, suck the marrow from it and live fully.
And so I seek to live this way…but, the intellect is such a limited aspect of Myself for experiencing Life, and when I open up more, I experience so much more. I reject virtually all religious metaphors, and it is inconceivable to me that in a Universe of 6 trillion plus galaxies, Consciousness is irrelevant, and a Higher Vast Intelligence is not the Source from which we all emanate.
I embrace evolution, but natural selection is not a satisfactory enough explanation for the beauty and enormous complexity of ecosystems. There’s something more behind evolution that we have not yet discerned.
Julia
2012-10-12 @ 4:33 PM
Beautifully put Steve. But when I see you I will make an earnest effort to argue you out of embracing evolution!