well is it eternal blackness and emotionless existence in the blink of an eye? is it concious aloneness in black existence? is it actually some other form of existence discluding god? is it everycolor of the rainbow happiness in the blink of an eye? i wonder what death will feel like in an athiests eyes? is it slowly going retarded as your brain slowly shuts down?of course this would feel like an instant and also forever wouldnt it because your brain would lose sense of time... right? or wrong? all you athiests, id like to know what you think is true?
135000
There is nothing.  Its the same as life was before you were conceived...no thought, no light, no heaven/hell/reincarnation...nothing.\n\nLife ends, and I don't fear this.  I DO fear dying, but not ceasing to be.  Think about it, many religions include life never-ending (with reincarnation or an afterlife), but no one knows for sure.  So, where did this information come from?  Only rumor, speculation, and assumption.  You might as well describe what life is like on Pluto...no one knows.
134626
I have never heard that at all.. in fact I have never heard a documented account of a blind person 'seing' or 'feeling' ghosts. It would more likely than not depend on what sort of blindness we were talking about here. If they had become blind during their life, then possibly it could be more to do with imagination. If they've been blind all their life, then that would be more interesting, as they would, in theory, never have seen any images of ghosts, so wouldn't know what one looked like, and would be unable to describe one, having never seen colours or shapes to describe what shapes or colours they were seeing. So I would say it would be more likely to sense or hear, not see.
666818
A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question.       "Did God create everything that exists?"\n\nA student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"\n\n"God created everything?" The professor asked.\n\n"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.\n\nThe professor answered,  "If God created everything; then God created evil.    And, since evil exists, & according to the principle that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."\n\nThe student became quiet & did not respond to the professor's hypothetical definition.   The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the religious faith was a myth.\n\nAnother student raised his hand & said,  "May I ask you a question, professor?"\n\n"Of course," replied the professor.\n\nThe student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"\n\n"What kind of question is this?  Of course it exists.  Have you never been cold?"\n\nThe other students snickered at the young man's question.   The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist.  According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat.\nEverybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, & heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy.   Absolute zero (-460F) is the total absence of heat; & all matter becomes inert &  incapable of reaction at that temperature.  Cold does not exist.  We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."\n\nThe student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"\n\nThe professor responded, "Of course it does."\n\nThe student replied , "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either.   Darkness is in reality the absence of light.   Light we can study, but not darkness.   In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors & study the various wave lengths of each color.   You cannot measure darkness.   A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness & illuminate it.   How can you know how dark a certain space is? \nYou measure the amount of light present.   Isn't this correct? \nDarkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."\n\nFinally the young man asked the professor,  "Sir, does evil exist?"\n\nNow uncertain, the professor responded,  "Of course, as I have already said.   We see it\neveryday.   It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man.   It is in the multitude of crime & violence everywhere in the world.   These manifestations are nothing else but evil.\n\nTo this the student replied,  "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself.  Evil is simply the absence of God.    It is just like darkness & cold,  a word that man has created to describe the absence of God.\nGod did not create evil.  Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart.    It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness\nthat comes when there is no light."\n\nThe professor sat down.
593927
The onset of reality.  Honestly, I just realized how much religion contradicted science.  I saw religion as an antiquated idea that tried to explain the unexplainable.  Once science got out from under the control of religion, it flourished and started to push religion back into the dark corners of "the unknown", where it continues to kick and scream for every scrap of control it can get.\n\nAnd I also couldn't accept a god that was so cruel, arbitrary and uncaring.  Reading the OT, I know that this was a god with whom I wanted nothing to do.  Even reading the NT, reading very closely, I wasn't that thrilled.  If this is what god is, I want nothing to do with him.\n\nThat, and I met someone who was unapologetically athiest.  I realized then that it was OK, I could be one too.  I realized that being an athiest doesn't make you a satan worhiper who bites of the heads of babies.  Most true athiests that I've met have been much better people than the rest.  They just choose to accept responsablity for their own lives and live without superstition.\n\nThat being said, I do enjoy studying about mythology (in which category I include all religions.)  I love the whole Jungian/Campbell view of it and what it tells us about who we are as a people.  Neat stuff.
340227
Proof is hard. Is there evidence?\nIs it easier to prove presence or absence?\n\nDo athiest have "faith" in a "Void"?
425112
The reaction of an atheist might be fear. If I were running around all my life proclaiming there is no God, I would be mighty fearful when my turn came to stand before the throne.\nMy, what a shocker that would be for Mr. atheist! To face a God that he had been saying did not exist! That is why I continue praying for such ones in spiritual blindness. I pray they might come into the light and not remain in darkness. I do not say this from a standpoint of feeling superior, but once I was in darkness until the glorious light of the Lord brought me into the light so that an unworthy wretch as myself could know my God and savior! What an awesome God!
614680
this is how i see it.  and some may disagree.  actually, most disagree.  but that is their decision.\n\nchoosing a religion is nearly impossible.  if you are going to choose one, base your decision on what you personally believe to be true.  if you cannot decide, do not choose a religion.  i have opted out of choosing a religion and decided instead to focus on spirituality; that is, a connection with god that has no direct relation to any particular church, sect, or teachings.  you do not need a church and a preacher to commune with god, for we are all creations of god and therefore are all granted the same privelages.\n\ndeath is the natural and inevitable conclusion to life.  there is no evidence to prove or disprove that death itself is final; the possibility of reincarnation or the existence of an afterlife always exists.  death should not be feared, nor should it be welcomed with open arms.  it is best to not think about death until you are directly confronted with it.  and even then, you must take it with a grain of salt so to speak.\n\npeople hate each other because, well, to put it quite bluntly, people are selfish, greedy, despicable beings.  not always, and not everyone, but most of us are, at least sometimes.  and that's okay.  the people that you love and who love you in return will show this love by putting aside their own selfish motives to allow time and caring for you, and you should be expected to allow the same courtesy to them.  racism, descrimination, etc., these are the products of ignorance and insecurity.  those who judge and stereotype do so because they do not love themselves.  and people who do not love themselves often have much difficulty in convincing others to love them.  there is nothing more frustrating than caring for someone who does not care for themselves.  these bigots are to be pitied, for they will never know true happiness, and they will never understand the divine nature of the universe.  \n\nfocus on the beautiful.  happiness is an end, not a means.  do not pursue happiness; pursue love, pursue beauty, pursue passion, vigor, inspiration, imagination; pursue those aspects of life that you admire, respect, and adore, and the elusive happiness will find you.  life is to be taken seriously, but it is also to be taken lightly; and always, always with a grain of salt.
672190
I have to disagree with a previous respondent who said, "What do you remember before you were born? Well that is exactly what it will be like after you die."  Has he been dead already?  How does he know?  I THINK -- although no one can know for sure -- that we will certainly know when we're dead.  When you ask about experiencing the world around us, you're automatically asking about the afterlife, with some interplay with religious beliefs -- there's no separating one from the other.  Because I believe there's an afterlife, I also believe that we will experience the world around us, but on another plane.  Certainly we'll be able to interact after death, but primarily and most directly with those who have already died as well.
129603
LONG POST.  Skip if want to.   I have been there once.  I am agnostic.  I am not sure how much weight that will carry in helping you but hope my few words might get the thought process in you motorizing.   Just let me talk about my personal experience.\n\nI don't worry abou the afterlife aspect.  I have pretty much made peace (tho, not 100%...more like 85% to 90%) that my soul will rot along with my body.  My soul is made purely of synapses that happen in my brain matter.\n\nYES, I do still wonder at times what death will be like, and how I might die.  Just natural curiosity and a small fear of simply "not existing" anymore.  That fear or wonderment is perfectly natural.   It is not eternal bliss or eternal damnation or reincarnation that I look forward to to establish my selfish "immortality".  (Imo, it is selfish to me)\n\nI am of the belief that it's the HERE and NOW that matters so much.  I am thinking that my self-assigned purpose is to affect as many people as I can during my --and ours-- lifetime as possible.   I have made others laugh, learn to respect humanity's differences, to be more compassionate.  I attritube some of that success to my being deaf.  In turn, perhaps SOME of them might teach others --their children?-- what they learned.   THAT is my "immortality", Heron.  THAT is my "eternal bliss".  I know in my heart and head that SOME people actually passed it on to their loved ones about being compassionate.  \n\nHeron, Love, I have already had a hard childhood and a hard life.  Part of me is actually looking forward to death as the final escape and a welcome relief from my pains and sorrows of this life.  When I am OLD, when I am OLD!!!!!  :-p  I don't want to committ suicide!  :-p  Relax, peeps!  ;-)\n\nI am also no longer as afraid of simply blinking out of existence.  It's inevitable.  The future that Star Trek espouses, I so badly want to be there, but know I may not live to see it.  I accept that reality.  I just turn my fear of the non-existence into a focus on the HERE and NOW.  I just gape in wonderment of TODAY's science and my imagination SOARS on where it may lead......\n\nA smile at a sad child at Tim Horton's can brighten her whole day.  Years later, when Child is a old woman, she may remember this friendly stranger with the loving smile long after I turned to dust.  In turn, she may return the favor to another sad child she sees at a restaurant.  It's the MEMORY of me that I know will establish my "immortality".  I am hoping in the future, my second cousins or future unborn nieces/nephews will take my poetry (1,000+ already!) and try to publish some of them.  That is also my hope for immortality---just like my beloved poet, Emily Dickinson.\n\nCivilizations come and go.  A thousand years hence, our civilization may not be here anymore.  Religions may no longer exist.   We will no longer be remembered excepting for our own pottery and "ancient items".   Heron, my love, everything comes to an end, just as everything has a beginning.   Both the good and the bad.\n\nWhat is important is to accept your fear as natural....and to gain courage from that fear to take a leap where this may lead you.  All people of faith go through this.  Who knows, Heron, I may "return" to Wicca in the future.  Or be drawn to another religion.  Unpredictability is the magic of life.  :-)   The sooner I accepted that reality, the less I was afraid.  \n\nI was wiccan.  I believed in some of the gods/goddesses.  One day, I was doing the Full Moon ritual.  A thought just popped up out of nowhere that kind of shocked me----"If you are not getting anything out of this praying, hon, STOP doing it.  You are disrespecting the "god" if you pray and don't feel anything out of it!"    After that, I stopped if I felt it would be a "hollow ritual", void of feeling.  Eventually I had to question my wiccan
340824
Friend - Whoa...I need to understand how you see emotions as gothic or satanic.  Please, read Ecclesiastics 3.  God Bless
313557
My reason for living is life itself. It's the only thing we have, or we perceive we have. As for the meaning of life, that's up to each and one of us. For me it is to make this an enjoyable place for all and that's what I'm trying to do. From a universal perspective, anything I do (or anything anyone does for that matter) is absolutely pointless, so we might as well enjoy this pointlesness that is existance. \n\n\n\nEdit, as a response to the asker's comments: \n\nWhy would my reason be weak? I mean, you basically answered your own objection in your comment. What is the point in doing good? There isn't one. But what is the point in doing anything else? What is the point in doing the wrong things, what is the point in eating ice cream, what is the point in doing anything at all? There is no point to any of them. Talking from the universal perspective. Our existance is as meaningless as the existance of a rock or a black hole. We are particles, nothing more nothing less. \n\nWhere am I going with this? Well, this absolute meaningless of existance enables us to give our lives any meaning whatsoever, as there is no pre-determined meaning, something that most religions suggest. I gave my life the meaning that I stated in my initial answer, because since there essentially is no point in anything and life in itself has no purpose, we might as well enjoy our conscious existance, since, after all, life is all we have got. And that's what I'm trying to do, make it all enjoyable for us. That's my own personal way in which I want to spend my life, at least right now. It is as pointless as anything else, however, why not be happy in all this pointlesness?
290590
Eye has not seen what God has in store for us and our simple minds cannot comprehend heaven until we experience it for ourselves.  There is no one here who can tell you what heaven will be like.
220405
I find it very depressing.  Without a God, there is no absolute moral standard.  The only morals are what people and society "feel" is right or wrong, which change with every generation.  Also, if there were no God, and after we die there is nothing...then what is the point of life?  Why not just run out and murder and rape and do whatever you feel like?  Very good question.  I'm glad I am assured that I have eternal life thanks to my Savior Jesus Christ, and that I have an absolute moral standard to live by...the Bible.
93938
I was taught the same veiw of God when I was Growing up. Namely that an omnipotent creator was watching out for us. And you're right, given the vast amount of suffering we see, it's hard not to reach the conclusion that God is non-existent, not omnipotent, or non-interventionist. I lean towards the last.\nWhen you buy a car you don't pick one that will wind up in the shop every other month, so why do people automatically assume that God would have created a "high maintenance" universe?\nYou're right there is much suffering in the world, but in the end, the pain your body feels can't really touch or effect your soul (or animating energy). Animating energy, being energy, can't really die. When our body dies, this animating enrgy leaves the body, it's not wasted or destroyed. And if there is a creator behind this, then he/she would not automatically feel the need to alter the process.\nFurther, I really believe that man is in the "image of God". And to me this means (as God is self-eternal), that we have the ability to organize our animating energy into a permanent consciousness. and towards this, it would be a mistake for God to actually intervene in the process. So I guess I see it as all animating energy will eventually have that chance.\nLao-Tzu once said that "A leader is best when the world barely knows that he exists, and when his work is done the people way say, 'lo for we did the work ourselves' ".
637099
Sorry but darkness is not a measurable thing. the absence of light however is! The absolute absence of light leaves the condition referred to as darkness. likewise cold does not exist only the absence of heat. thermal dissipation is the term I believe so I guess we could call darkness, photonic dissipation? wink wink nudge nudge.
14710
I was wondering what any of you out there thought happens when you die? happens that ur body becomes food for the worms and something rich for the soil but i can rember what it was, but plant a mango tree in a cementary and u will have the best mangos and god is just a imaginary friend for the adults.
312408
This is life as we know it.  You only get one crack at life.  Doesn't really bother me at all.  What is else is out there...?  Jimmy Hoffa's body?  Only your imagination can make it into whatever you desire.  Heaven?  Reincarnation?  Trapped in another astral plane?  Nothing?  Everything and more?  Voyager?  Seifert Galaxy?  Beyond Andromeda?  Aliens?  God?  An ice cold mug of root beer bigger the known universe?  OK, I talked me into it.