Current Events > What if an afterlife exists, but it's horrible for everyone?

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I generally consider myself an atheist, but I'm continually haunted by the idea that there could be something unknowable and horrible that happens after we die. If there is a spirit world, maybe it is all horrible or there are beings that judge and punish basically everyone using criteria that is alien to our way of thinking. Or if our universe really is a simulation, why were we placed in it and what is the real world like? Assuming, of course, that our consciousness is not a product of the simulation and we leave it upon death.

And if there is a world beyond death, does the manner in which we die matter? Is a natural death different from suicide? From assisted suicide? If you die of a heart attack, are you in a much better position after death than someone who died of a gunshot wound to the head or dementia? Like, does brain damage have a chance to damage the "real" you?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zWehxXZ9pic

This reminds me of a Stephen King novel. Can't say which one without giving it away.

Wouldn't really surprise me given how shit life is. Wouldn't surprise me either if "God" is like one of those Hellraiser demon things that just love to torture people.

Given that we can't prove a god or an afterlife, it's as likely as anything else.

Shablagoo posted...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zWehxXZ9pic

Thanks for the video. So far, I've only seen a few minutes. I'm not entirely sure I agree with the idea that, if people have souls, they chose to come here. At what point is the soul inserted into the body? Who volunteers to be a starving villager in Africa with AIDS? Or suppose it's just a random lottery, with the only guarantee being that you get to be human. For most of human history living conditions were brutal. Even kings didn't lead pleasant lives. Why come to this world instead of someplace more pleasant and advanced? And what happens to the birth rate if nobody from the outside wants to be a human?

I need any evidence what so ever. Theres none.

Yeah, this theory was discussed in a King novel. It was pretty interesting

to think only humans have consciousness but claim humans are just like everything else is kinda a paradoxical view tbh

yet it is religion that claims humans have it because only they have a soul

so what I am saying is, you may cease to be a human when you die, but whatever part of you is conscious goes somewhere else. in the ground, into the air, used as energy. At the very least, your brain stores your memories so you shouldn't have those anymore.

...what if this is the afterlife from some other life?

Questionmarktarius posted...

...what if this is the afterlife from some other life?

is it punishment or reward?

What if its like Dark Souls and you awaken at the place of your birth, but in a strange hostile version of the world. Then you have to travel to the place of your death and try and reclaim your soul for the next life.

WingsOfGood posted...

is it punishment or reward?

I don't think Elon Musk is getting punished.

What if afterlife exists, but it's horrible for everyone?

How horrible?

Like Bosch levels of inhumane treatment for all eternity until your mind permanently collapses in on itself and then you spend the rest of it in an abstract state of semi-consciousness in bewilderment & confusion as your perception of reality spirals out of control and you are completely helpless, unable to do anything about it? Like no matter what? Like, hook your brain up to a laptop, open up your stomach, and replace your tendons with puppet strings levels of horrible?

Or, like, just mildly annoying?

What type of horrifying we talking here?

I think, presumably, on a long enough time scale... There becomes no difference either way

WingsOfGood posted...

to think only humans have consciousness but claim humans are just like everything else is kinda a paradoxical view tbh

No, not really. We got lucky through evolution to be the first species on our planet to evolve to this point, but with enough time and us not interfering, others would too.