Believers in the afterlife

[Super Cynic]

Hi,

In The God Delusion, Dawklns says (though I can't remember it word-for-word) that a someone who believes in hell can never be fully "deconverted."

Is he saying that people who believe in hell will always believe in it or at least worry that it might exist?

That's the gist of it, yes. After years of constant indoctrination and affirmation in a young and impressionable mind, it's a fear that'd be very hard to dispel. Much religious practice, I suspect, is motivated by a sort of subconscious Pascal's Wager consideration in the mind of the believer. Even I, as an atheist raised in a pretty secular household, sometimes worry what would happen if it turned out there was a hell. According to Dante, I'd be in the sixth circle, as a 'heretic'. Unless, that is, atheism counts as a betrayal of God, in which case it's the lowest circle of hell, where I'll be chewed up by one of Lucifer's three mouths, while having my body constantly torn apart and mangled. My one consolation would be that fortune tellers were in the eighth circle.

Does this mean that, going by the definition that if you can't shake off the irrational fear of eternal punishment, you're not a true atheist, you're not a true atheist yourself? Can someone please clarify?

---

This statement expresses my feelings exactly. I still have a niggling fear of hell, which stems from my religious past. I joined these forums to try to destroy these fears and I would appreciate it if you good people would read my struggle and offer any support or advice you can. Here is a link to my story.

http://atheistforums.org/thread-4171.html

Look at it like this: in the extremely unlikely event that hell turns out to be real, all the interesting people will be there, whereas heaven will be overwhelmingly populated by smug evangelists. So, an eternity in heaven is probably the most mind-numbingly dull and frustrating thing that could be devised for an atheist. Hell is where all the cool people would go.

On a serious note, I can imagine that it must be very hard to shake off your old indoctrination and deeply ingrained fears. All the available evidence, though, points to the obliteration of the self at death. Our emotions, thoughts, etc. can all be tracked to various brain states, so once the brain ceases to function, the logical conclusion would be that there's no more consciousness. Even if there were an existence after death, the chances that it's existence as described by Bible-bashing nutters is slimmer than a stick insect emulating Victoria Beckham.

May I also point out something here. I am not defending the concept of hell in the slightest, and I have great confidence in myself when I say it's load of 'balony'- but the idea of hell, heaven, religon etc is that it can't be proven by science, and, whatever science may say, it cannot disprove an afterlife, god etc. Now while this is obviously a cop-out, going on this basis, your scientific point, while true, may not convince a Christian.