A Civilized Debate on Religion 2

[Hakio]

Hello, everyone. I am back again with the second installment of A Civilized Debate. Since the last one on religion went so well, I decided I would make another when the time was right. The main question of this discussion is whether or not there is an afterlife but we can go on further to discuss and debate doctrine, dogma, and the validity of scriptures. Personally, I am an agnostic atheist and an empirical rationalist, which means I do not believe in anything supernatural, paranormal, or spiritual. I do not believe in an afterlife because I have no evidence that would compel me to believe that death is anything more than the end of a biological process. Also, I have insufficient evidence to compel a belief that a person's personality, memories, thoughts, feelings are somehow transcendent of their neurological processes due to overwhelming evidence that everything we perceive, experience, or feel are all neurological processes.

What is your opinion, your thoughts, or your feelings on the matter?


Please refrain from trolling or flaming and keep this discussing civilized as it can be. Thank you for your cooperation.

[Hakio]

Also, why should I or other people believe in an afterlife?

[Soselo]

I don't know, I hope there is no afterlife.

[Calimera II]

I don't know, I hope there is no afterlife.

I hope there is.

[Soselo]

I don't know, I hope there is no afterlife.

I hope there is.

Why?

[Calimera II]

I hope there is.

Why?

Because I don't want to vanish.

[Soselo]

Why?

Because I don't want to vanish.

But you'll be making room for others.

[Hakio]

Because I don't want to vanish.

But you'll be making room for others.

Also eternity sounds like a borefest to me.

[Kainesia]

Do you think god would let us sit on a balcony with some champagne and hot angels just to taunt all the people in hell who are forced to watch during their eternal torture?

[TriStates]

But you'll be making room for others.

Also eternity sounds like a borefest to me.

Depends how you spend your eternity.

As for me, I'm Roman Catholic and so do believe in the here-after.

Do you think god would let us sit on a balcony with some champagne and hot angels just to taunt all the people in hell who are forced to watch during their eternal torture?

Thats a negatory on the last part Ghost Rider...but I don't see why not to the first

[Marcunia]

Because I don't want to vanish.

But you'll be making room for others.

And if there is a afterlife he wont be making room for other?
In any case, i dont have a opinion on the afterlife. There certainly isn't a hell or anything that the Bible would propose, but consciousness might continue after death. We don't know because we simply don't have enough facts on the matter, and in this case lack of evidence isn't proof. So the only way you cant actually know is if you die. As far as god goes i consider existence to be god. God can't be a being, because that breaks basic logic.

[Soselo]

But you'll be making room for others.

Also eternity sounds like a borefest to me.

Eternity is human nature, continuing the process of life through different individuals because as each new person lives life, life is renewed.

[Afro-Marxist Liberation]

We'll all find out soon enough, right?

[TriStates]

But you'll be making room for others.

And if there is a afterlife he wont be making room for other?
In any case, i dont have a opinion on the afterlife. There certainly isn't a hell or anything that the Bible would propose, but consciousness might continue after death. We don't know because we simply don't have enough facts on the matter, and in this case lack of evidence isn't proof. So the only way you cant actually know is if you die. As far as god goes i consider existence to be god. God can't be a being, because that breaks basic logic.

And since no one has bothered to report back to us living stiffs, it leaves us all to wonder.

That is an interesting idea of existence. But as to the second part, perhaps He encompasses something beyond our understanding? The idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun broke human logic at the time, with the exception of a few learned men, but it was proven correct hundreds of years later.

[Pope Joan]

I believe there is more to life than what we can sense or intellectually process. We may call this the other world, or Elfland, or the subconscious, but it is there.

That does not mean that religion is wonderful. However, please note that all continents at all times in history have had shamans and systems of meaning which sought to look beyond the merely material.

[Torisakia]

"Civilized"

But no, I don't believe in the afterlife. Physically impossible for anything of the such to exist.

[Soselo]

And if there is a afterlife he wont be making room for other?

That's not what I said, living forever would cause people to overcrowd themselves.

In any case, i dont have a opinion on the afterlife. There certainly isn't a hell or anything that the Bible would propose, but consciousness might continue after death.

How can you be aware of nothing?

We don't know because we simply don't have enough facts on the matter, and in this case lack of evidence isn't proof. So the only way you cant actually know is if you die.

Experience doesn't make knowledge absolute because of our blind spots.

As far as god goes i consider existence to be god. God can't be a being, because that breaks basic logic.

What makes you believe basic logic applies to God?

[Marcunia]

And if there is a afterlife he wont be making room for other?
In any case, i dont have a opinion on the afterlife. There certainly isn't a hell or anything that the Bible would propose, but consciousness might continue after death. We don't know because we simply don't have enough facts on the matter, and in this case lack of evidence isn't proof. So the only way you cant actually know is if you die. As far as god goes i consider existence to be god. God can't be a being, because that breaks basic logic.

And since no one has bothered to report back to us living stiffs, it leaves us all to wonder.

That is an interesting idea of existence. But as to the second part, perhaps He encompasses something beyond our understanding? The idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun broke human logic at the time, with the exception of a few learned men, but it was proven correct hundreds of years later.

Perhaps. There's always something we don't know that can change the way we look at things. But still, all the ideas we make now and can make now are based on facts we have now. So until we discover something new, this is all we can really say on the matter.

[Benuty]

A good friend of mine once joked that the light at the end of the tunnel during death is the beginning of the birthing process for another human being .

[Hakio]

I believe there is more to life than what we can sense or intellectually process. We may call this the other world, or Elfland, or the subconscious, but it is there.

That does not mean that religion is wonderful. However, please note that all continents at all times in history have had shamans and systems of meaning which sought to look beyond the merely material.

How do I know that these shamans are actually doing what they claim to be doing if it's immaterial?

[Hakio]

And if there is a afterlife he wont be making room for other?

That's not what I said, living forever would cause people to overcrowd themselves.

In any case, i dont have a opinion on the afterlife. There certainly isn't a hell or anything that the Bible would propose, but consciousness might continue after death.

How can you be aware of nothing?

We don't know because we simply don't have enough facts on the matter, and in this case lack of evidence isn't proof. So the only way you cant actually know is if you die.

Experience doesn't make knowledge absolute because of our blind spots.

As far as god goes i consider existence to be god. God can't be a being, because that breaks basic logic.

What makes you believe basic logic applies to God?

Because if something is not logical then it's existence is contradictory and less likely to exist. Like an all loving god that tortures people forever for not believing in him. No matter what excuses you come up with, those two qualities are mutually exclusive as one can not be all loving (i.e. loving of all) and damn his own creation which he supposedly loves so much to a fiery pit. Through these contradictions we can conclude that it is unlikely that these qualities could exist together in some being.

[The Serbian Empire]

Do you think god would let us sit on a balcony with some champagne and hot angels just to taunt all the people in hell who are forced to watch during their eternal torture?

Of course, a god would.

[Benuty]

Do you think god would let us sit on a balcony with some champagne and hot angels just to taunt all the people in hell who are forced to watch during their eternal torture?

Source?

[TriStates]

Do you think god would let us sit on a balcony with some champagne and hot angels just to taunt all the people in hell who are forced to watch during their eternal torture?

Source?

You mean besides the Bible?

[Patistan]

Muslims believe that this world is just a challenge and this world will tell Allah on who are the Hypocrites,non believers and who are the believers. The believers shall go to Jannat(heaven) and the others to Jahaanam(Hell) so overall i do belive that their is afterlife