Death And What Probably Doesn’t Come Next

Question from Sarah:
We all have to go somewhere or will happen to us when we die. If you do not think or believe in God or heaven where do you think you will go or what will happen to you when you die?

Question from Jessie:
What are you living for if nothing happens after you die?

Question from Rachel:
I know you don’t acknowledge a God, but do you believe that we have a soul or that there is some sort of afterlife?

Question from Emily:
What do you believe will happen to your soul after you die? Christians believe that we have a purpose beyond death and that our souls will be in heaven. If you’re not going anywhere but the ground what comfort can you or your family find in death?

Question from Elizabeth:
Where do you think that you’ll go after you die?

Question from Brooke:
What makes you think that God doesn`t exist, and if he doesn`t what comes next? What is there to live for?

Question from Heather:
I know you do not believe in heaven or hell, but where do you believe your soul goes after you die?

Answer by SmartLX:
Looking again at this sudden deluge of questions, I notice they all arrived within ten minutes of each other, so I reckon the questioners are in a group somewhere. Welcome to you all, and I’ll get to everyone before too long.

I’ve answered the main thrust of the above questions once before in Death: Just Curious, but as I’ve said I’m happy to retread old ground for newcomers. (Brooke, for the first part of your question, see the post immediately before this one.)

An afterlife would require something of a person’s identity, mind, memory and so forth to persist after death. All evidence indicates that these things operate entirely within the physical brain, which is completely irreparable mere minutes after it loses its supply of oxygen from the bloodstream. Even while people live, physical damage to the brain can rob them of their memories, drastically change their personalities or turn them into complete “vegetables”. A “person” does not appear to be a separate entity from the tissue and bio-electrical activity in his or her head, as suggested by the concept of a soul, so there’s no good reason to believe in souls.

That said, I have heard from a few atheists who believe in an afterlife and even in ghosts (as you can see here, on the old archive). This is not a contradiction as their explanations do not require the existence of gods; they tend to focus more around energy. I say to them just what I say to others: present the evidence.

I’ve just said that there’s no good reason to believe in souls. A not-terribly-good reason to believe in them would be that if they don’t exist, there is no comfort to take from death or nothing to live for. Even if both were true (and I’ll get to them presently), you would be reasoning that souls are real because it would be better if they were real. This is wishful thinking, and it has no power to determine what really is or isn’t. Formally, it’s known as an appeal to consequences and is recognised as a logical fallacy. More simply put, it just doesn’t follow. Fortunately, things aren’t quite so bleak.

Death is always a loss to the living. There can however be different sources of comfort in death, even tragic death, for those left behind. For those who willingly sacrificed themselves for noble causes, such as the lives of others, we can celebrate their bravery and selflessness even as we mourn. For those who led full lives, we can reflect on their legacies. For those who died with important work unfinished, we can take up a cause in their names. Most obviously, the deceased will no longer suffer whatever pain and anguish led up to their deaths, so at the very least there’s that. If horrible people die, people we wish had been punished more for their misdeeds, at least they can’t hurt anyone anymore.

As for why we would want to live if there’s no life after this, why wouldn’t we want to make the most of the one life we know we have? I’m sure you value this life too; Heaven is meant to be all that and a bag of chips, but are you all constantly wishing and hoping that any moment a car would kill you instantly and send you straight there (indicating that God’s plan had finished with you)? I doubt it. We all have things we want to do before we die – romance, kids, careers, travel, charity, art – and the possible existence of a subsequent (but likely very different) life doesn’t change that. Even the religious are in the dark about their gods’ supposed plans, so apart from doing their bit to propagate their religions, they choose their own purposes in life as well. Atheists just leave out the religious bits.

4 thoughts on “Death And What Probably Doesn’t Come Next”

  1. Question from Sarah:
    We all have to go somewhere or will happen to us when we die. If you do not think or believe in God or heaven where do you think you will go or what will happen to you when you die?

    Ans: There will not be any “I” left when I die … so “I” won’t go anywhere when I die. I’ll just die. End. Finito.
    And its the finiteness that makes things interesting in life. The knowledge of the fact that we all have a limited time.

    Question from Jessie:
    What are you living for if nothing happens after you die?

    Ans: Living for experiencing the world (physically, mentally, emotionally), understanding stuff/ how things work etc. etc. etc.
    But, something does happen when I die … the world goes on without me!

    Question from Rachel:
    I know you don’t acknowledge a God, but do you believe that we have a soul or that there is some sort of afterlife?

    Ans: No. Although some scientists and mathematicians (Roger Penrose) have postulated a quantum mechanical model for explaining how consciousness arises. Extended, this model could in theory explain a “soul” although it will be very different from what people understand a soul to be. The model’s called ORCH – OR. Look it up – its interesting.

    Question from Emily:
    What do you believe will happen to your soul after you die? Christians believe that we have a purpose beyond death and that our souls will be in heaven. If you’re not going anywhere but the ground what comfort can you or your family find in death?

    Ans: Well, I’ll get burnt when I die probably. My family will probably be pretty happy when I go though … good riddance. But more seriously, my family would find comfort in what I left for them – physically, I’d hopefully have left some wealth; mentally and emotionally, some fond memories and a lot of unpleasant ones.

    Question from Elizabeth:
    Where do you think that you’ll go after you die?

    Ans: Nowhere. There’ll be no I anymore.

    Question from Brooke:
    What makes you think that God doesn`t exist, and if he doesn`t what comes next? What is there to live for?

    Ans: There is no need to invoke the god hypothesis in order to live one’s life. Plus the hypothesis is un-testable and un-provable. So in favor of parsimony, there is no need to believe in god. Plus when one considers the harm that religion causes (narrow mindedness, credulity etc) it becomes all the more important to discard the god hypothesis.
    Without the god hypothesis, you live for yourself and for people around you, not some heavenly father in the sky.

    Question from Heather:
    I know you do not believe in heaven or hell, but where do you believe your soul goes after you die?

    Ans: No I, No soul after death.

  2. I feel the best answer I’ve got was from a gentleman. I forgot his name and blog because it was years ago. He ask the question does anyone remember life before you were born? No. That’s how he looked at life ending. We will cease to exist no memories, no anything. I can live with that. Life is hell enough to torture people with the thoughts of having to be tormented or conform in order to get to heaven.

  3. I have no comment for atheist who can’t seem to detect any intelligence in all creation I mean obviously it came from happenstance coicindence and it couldn’t possibly be that the beauty of and mathematical precision of atoms and living cells are all just a coicindence of evolutionary progress. I understand the atheists scepticism of religion and mankind’s ignorance, blind faith and lack of independent thinking but I don’t like religion either. But if your in doubt about the existence at all of a higher intelligence your level of self awareness must be in the gutter.

    1. Beauty is subjective. We’ve evolved to see beauty in the same abstract qualities that indicate health and safe environments, like symmetry, clarity, smoothness, bright colours and abundance. Therefore there’s much about the universe which we find beautiful.

      While modern living cells are very much a product of evolution, atoms aren’t as far as we know. Mathematical precision at the atomic level is in a way exactly what we do not observe, when quantum mechanics are considered. In any case one must either reconcile the unexplained qualities of the universe, or posit an additional entity for which there is no available substantive evidence, and then reconcile the unexplained qualities of that entity. There is no ultimate satisfaction in using a god as an explanation, only transference and dissociation.

      Also, this has little to do with the subject of death.

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