Atheism and Sadness

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Idk, it just seems sort of discouraging to me to go around thinking that when you die, you just become like a lump of dirt, or a glob of poop, and thats it . No after life.. no paradise in the sky with your dead family members and pets.. just nothing.. so sad.

I'm going to focus solely on this bit (not that it matters, as you're not going to respond to it).

A universal theme underlying all religions (and most closely associated woo doctrines) is the fear of death.  This is not always an unreasonable fear, but it is always, without exception, a childish one.  The idea of an afterlife of any sort simply reflects this fear.  If you're living your life in such a way as to get into the 'paradise in the sky' you mentioned, you've become so mind-numbingly afraid of death that you've had to invent a fantasy to cope with it. I can't imagine living with that kind of fear infecting and poisoning every aspect of my life.

When I die, the 70 trillion or so cells of my body will decay.  The almost unimaginably huge number of molecules and atoms that make up these cells will be released.  The decay products of my body will - eventually - be consumed by insects, animals and plants.  My body will, over time, become an integral part of the planet that is home to everyone I've ever known, everyone I've ever heard about.  I can't really express the level of satisfaction this gives me.  In this sense, and in this sense only, does the concept of an 'afterlife' make any kind of coherent sense.

But the chief difference between your afterlife and mine is that I'm completely accepting of the fact that my consciousness (the part of me that makes me 'me') is not immortal ('The odds of consciousness surviving the death of the brain are exactly equivalent to the odds of 70mph surviving the wreck of the car.').  And here's the BEST thing - this doesn't trouble me in the least.

Now go play with your dolly.

Boru