By that I mean, it must be an inherently comforting thing to think - we inherently know this and want there to be something after death, because it feels right, or more meaningful. There’s a reason basically every civilization ever has some sort of afterlife ethos.

I realize I am basically horseshoeing my way into evangelicalism but still. Maybe life was better if we believed there was something beyond this. [edit - please note that yes, the world is shitty, things are awful and getting worse, and that is exactly my point – we get THIS SHIT, and nothing else? god that’s awful]

  • tiredofsametab
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    125 months ago

    science has probably proven there is no god / afterlife

    Well, for one, you “probably proven” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless maybe you’ve got a paper waiting on peer review confirmation. In any case, it is exceedingly difficult to definitely prove something isn’t for cases like this. Does every bit of evidence point to ‘no’? Yes. However, it’s still technically not proven to be false/absent.

    Anyway, that’s not the actual important part here. One human lifetime is generally a long time. There are lots of meaningful interactions that a person can have in that time. I would argue that, since it’s not an eternity, the pressure is on to do something better with your life. That doesn’t require gods or afterlives. Volunteer, meet up about hobbies, find a social group, etc.

    we inherently know this and want there to be something after death, because it feels right, or more meaningful

    I disagree. For one, if you get do-overs on life or an eternity to do whatever, isn’t it inherently LESS meaningful since there are no stakes? Secondarily, I personally don’t like the idea of trying to exist for an eternity; that sounds like it always ends in boring monotony… at least so much as something ‘endless’ ‘ends’ anyway (English be silly).

    • @[email protected]
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      25 months ago

      For one, if you get do-overs on life or an eternity to do whatever, isn’t it inherently LESS meaningful since there are no stakes?

      I don’t know of any religion in which you get do overs with no stakes

      • tiredofsametab
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        15 months ago

        Religions that support reincarnation is one, though most would say you get reincarnated as something more/less favorable depending upon the life lived.

        By no stakes above, I was mostly referring to an eternal amount of time to do anything, supposing a bit that one could accomplish a lot in many of the version of afterlife I’ve heard of. I wasn’t thinking of it in a ‘no morals’ or similar way, but I can see how it could be read as such.

        • @[email protected]
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          25 months ago

          In most religions I know, the afterlife is mainly to live with the consequences of what you did. It’s not just more life

    • @leftzero
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      5 months ago

      One human lifetime is generally a long time

      No it’s not. Just a mere few decades. Less than nothing. And then it ends.