My take on the afterlife

[_Scottie]

As I see it, we are complex carbon based life forms which happened to develop a brain as an evolutionary niche. Conditions were right. All the right stresses occurred in all the right places at all the right times which cause our common ape ancestor to evolve into the species known as homo sapien.

We like to believe that after we die, our spirits live on. Where does this belief end? Are there trillions of dinosaurs in the afterlife? Lions? Mosquitoes? Algae? What about the family dog? All of these are complex carbon based life forms as well. They all have a brain which isn't quite as developed as the homo sapien brain.

Why are we so arrogant as to believe that we are anything more than a complex set of chemical processes that gives us consciousness, and when we die those chemical processes simply cease to function... just like every other creature on the planet?

I realize that it gives us great comfort to think that we will see our loved ones in an afterlife, but is it reality?

[_Chap]

As I see it, we are complex carbon based life forms which happened to develop a brain as an evolutionary niche. Conditions were right. All the right stresses occurred in all the right places at all the right times which cause our common ape ancestor to evolve into the species known as homo sapien.

We like to believe that after we die, our spirits live on. Where does this belief end? Are there trillions of dinosaurs in the afterlife? Lions? Mosquitoes? Algae? What about the family dog? All of these are complex carbon based life forms as well. They all have a brain which isn't quite as developed as the homo sapien brain.

Why are we so arrogant as to believe that we are anything more than a complex set of chemical processes that gives us consciousness, and when we die those chemical processes simply cease to function... just like every other creature on the planet?

I realize that it gives us great comfort to think that we will see our loved ones in an afterlife, but is it reality?

Yup. I sure don't want to meet any immortal E. coli in any afterlife. And yet if we survive in some form analogous to our present experience, it would feel boring without plants at least. Oh well, if we can keep going without bodies, we might as well believe in a safe Disneyland-like spirit world while we are at it.

[_Some Schmo]

Why are we so arrogant as to believe that we are anything more than a complex set of chemical processes that gives us consciousness, and when we die those chemical processes simply cease to function... just like every other creature on the planet?

Ironically, our intelligence makes us stupid.

Perhaps a better way to say this is that we aren't as intelligent as we think we are, or... our cognition often leads us to jump to bad conclusions because we have an unlimited imagination. As Roger Waters once aptly wrote, "Give any one species too much rope and they'll “F” it up."

[_Buffalo]

Afterlives are indeed wishful thinking. There is not a scrap of evidence that there is such a thing as "spirit." All we know about life indicates that death really is the end of consciousness. However, it's very difficult (and scary) for conscious beings to imagine their own non-existence. Hence the imaginative mythologies about afterlives.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

This really puts things into perspective...

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

[_Some Schmo]

What I find interesting is the idea that there's a soul in the first place, and that our bodies are just a ship to zip around in. If that's the case, what's the point of having a brain? Doesn't the soul do all the thinking?

Anyone who's played a video game like chess or Scrabble (something against a computer opponent) should know that the computer can seem very life like, as though it actually is carefully considering its moves. I'm sure most of us have had occasion to curse at said opponent like it gives a crap about our reaction. But it's an illusion. A really powerful one, but an illusion all the same.

OK, now I'll wait for someone to come along and smugly tell me that computer opponents are intelligently designed and feel like they've got me cornered.

[_Scottie]

This really puts things into perspective...

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

That was cool!

Except they forgot to show where Kolob is and how it compares in size. :)

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Except they forgot to show where Kolob is and how it compares in size. :)

That's what she said...

[_Scottie]

I'm sure most of us have had occasion to curse at said opponent like it gives a crap about our reaction.

Do you ever find yourself talking in an irritated tone at the voice-recognition telephone girl?

"I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Please say your acct number."

/Irritated "THREE... SEVEN... FOUR......"

[_stemelbow]

Why are we so arrogant as to believe that we are anything more than a complex set of chemical processes that gives us consciousness, and when we die those chemical processes simply cease to function... just like every other creature on the planet?

I realize that it gives us great comfort to think that we will see our loved ones in an afterlife, but is it reality?

The why is, of course, for believers, because we truly feel God has made it known to us that we will live after this earth life. Its not about arrogance to me.