Thank you for your respectful response, I honestly don't see a lot of that here when I mention being atheist.
While I think it can be a choice for some people, I think it's more of a feeling for others. For me I grew up loosely catholic, never really went to church but my dad taught me to believe the things he believed and he was raised Roman catholic. Then about ten years ago I just didn't feel it any more. It wasn't a conscious choice so much as a realization, and a crushing one.
What I can say, is that I've seen evil. Pure evil. Evil in our government, evil in our schools, evil with our children. Where there is evil,
I don't think there needs to be a God to believe there is "evil" and the capacity for some to be truly monsterus. I definitely believe there are and have been people who are evil personified, like Hitler, but for me these examples go more against the possibility of a God than prove one exists. But I'm not here to change your mind so I'll leave it at that.
I didn't want to live thinking that after I die, I would be in a void.
Honestly, I don't either. But it's not something I can control. And that's why I am not offended by people who do have a faith, I understand what the bottom line they are hoping for is. I am almost jealous of that peace of mind.
I would like to clarify something that I see a lot of people stating.
There is no "you in a void." There would be no you. You will, most likely, simply stop, just like when you go unconscious when you sleep but before you dream. That gap in your memory, that time-skip, that nothing.
You can't "experience" nothing, or a void, because you aren't there.
My best answer to the question "what do you believe happens when you die" is "you are dead." If there is anything else, we will find out, for sure, then, if there's even an "us" afterward.
It's not preaching atheism, it's telling people who ask, or blindly assert, that there is no such thing as death, and that our consciousness exists without a biological, material framework.
We literally have no way to test that, to either corroborate or disprove that idea. Anything we can say about it, aside from the annihilation of a material based consciousness, is pure speculation or wishful thinking.
Note that I am talking about people who directly confront you about it, not going up and proselytizing to random folks.
Thank you for your respectful response, I honestly don't see a lot of that here when I mention being atheist.
While I think it can be a choice for some people, I think it's more of a feeling for others. For me I grew up loosely catholic, never really went to church but my dad taught me to believe the things he believed and he was raised Roman catholic. Then about ten years ago I just didn't feel it any more. It wasn't a conscious choice so much as a realization, and a crushing one.
I don't think there needs to be a God to believe there is "evil" and the capacity for some to be truly monsterus. I definitely believe there are and have been people who are evil personified, like Hitler, but for me these examples go more against the possibility of a God than prove one exists. But I'm not here to change your mind so I'll leave it at that.
Honestly, I don't either. But it's not something I can control. And that's why I am not offended by people who do have a faith, I understand what the bottom line they are hoping for is. I am almost jealous of that peace of mind.
I would like to clarify something that I see a lot of people stating.
There is no "you in a void." There would be no you. You will, most likely, simply stop, just like when you go unconscious when you sleep but before you dream. That gap in your memory, that time-skip, that nothing.
You can't "experience" nothing, or a void, because you aren't there.
My best answer to the question "what do you believe happens when you die" is "you are dead." If there is anything else, we will find out, for sure, then, if there's even an "us" afterward.
That is true, I would have said that, but I didn't want to seem like I was trying to preach atheisum.
It's not preaching atheism, it's telling people who ask, or blindly assert, that there is no such thing as death, and that our consciousness exists without a biological, material framework.
We literally have no way to test that, to either corroborate or disprove that idea. Anything we can say about it, aside from the annihilation of a material based consciousness, is pure speculation or wishful thinking.
Note that I am talking about people who directly confront you about it, not going up and proselytizing to random folks.
I didn't say it was, I said I didn't want to seem like I was.