desire for afterlife

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Just wondering, do Atheists like the idea of the afterlife? Do they wish that there was one? Or would they rather have eternal oblivion after death? This is not a troll question.

Eating ice cream every day can become a torment after a relatively short time. Singing hosannas for eternity at the foot of a self-absorbed god would be HELL.

[Alan V]

Also good to remember that for theologians, "eternal" doesn't mean "lasts forever." Eternity is outside of time -- there is no passing of time in heaven. You can't get bored.

Sorry, but they can't just define themselves as right. Their job is apologetics, remember?

[robvalue]

If there’s no passing of time, I can’t "do" anything either, I expect. I don’t understand how that works. I’m just frozen in some enforced happy state, like I’ve been pumped full of drugs?

[The Grand Nudger]

It's a rubber room, but with uppers!

[Alan V]

Eating ice cream every day can become a torment after a relatively short time. Singing hosannas for eternity at the foot of a self-absorbed god would be HELL.

Human awareness was evolved for this weird world, not for any other.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Eating ice cream every day can become a torment after a relatively short time. Singing hosannas for eternity at the foot of a self-absorbed god would be HELL.

Human awareness was evolved for this weird world, not for any other.

I wasn't aware of that.

[robvalue]

Whatever weird transitions I go through, whatever new vessel might contain me and whatever new metaphysical rules are changing my whole reality, the idea that I’m still in any way "me" lacks all credibility. I’m a weird virtual version of some sort of subjective assessment of whatever my "essence" is.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Whatever weird transitions I go through, whatever new vessel might contain me and whatever new metaphysical rules are changing my whole reality, the idea that I’m still in any way "me" lacks all credibility. I’m a weird virtual version of some sort of subjective assessment of whatever my "essence" is.

We will reboot you frequently and keep you updated.

[Brian37]

The "desire" for an afterlife is really nothing more than a primitive reflection in comic book form, of our species desire not to die. Evolution drives life to get to the point of reproduction, but evolution itself is not the product of a cognition, and even outside of biological life, the universe is incapable of caring which planets survive or which stars die. "All this" both biological life, and the universe itself, is merely an ongoing giant weather pattern in which everything is a temporary outcome.

[AFTT47]

I just realised that there’s usually the implicit assumption that an afterlife would be eternal.

I never assume that when I'm asked that question. My answer would be different if enforced immortality is part of the deal. That never made much sense to me but of course, very little of Christianity does. Like so many other Christian concepts, they just fail to think their heaven model through. I suspect most Christians deliberately avoid examining many of their concepts too closely for fear of having a loss of faith episode.