(2017-09-07, 05:44 PM)Leuders Wrote: [ -> ]Dante, I started this thread to ask proponents a simple question, not really the other way round. I am not really interested in philosophical mumbo jumbo myself or answering questions about an afterlife, I do not believe in an afterlife, my position is non-belief so I choose to ask proponents the questions. The burden of proof is on you guys to provide the evidence for your beliefs not the other way round.
It is clear from mainstream science that there is no afterlife. Microbes, bacteria, insects dying in nature every second every minute, nobody seems to care about those. It is human bias from religion, a perverted anthropomorphic world-view to why certain humans believe in an afterlife. Proponents of this afterlife hypothesis fear death and erroneously believe they are 'important' or above nature and somehow and deserve a magical afterlife. I do not choose to discuss the pro and cons of 'afterlife' research, would be a futile task. I was more interested in how proponents would change if they came to realise there was no afterlife.
Tim for example stated " I don't see how humans could or would be able to complete their lives satisfactorily" if they know beyond doubt death is the end. I am trying to figure out why you guys believe this? Proponents seem to strongly bank on an afterlife existing. Their belief in it seems to shape what they do in the now. That is something I do not understand.
I cannot demonstrate this statement with evidence so this one is a speculation from me, but I believe one other possible reason people believe in an afterlife is because they have not achieved much in their life. In conclusion I bottle it down to several types of people who believe in an afterlife:
1. Those brainwashed by religion or anthropomorphic belief systems
2. Those who are unhappy, ill or have not achieved much with their lives
3. Elderly people who fear death
Do you agree with any of this?
Where to begin...
I have little motivation to even respond to this, because you commit so many obvious logical and other kinds of fallacies, and make blatant blanket assertions without supporting them in any way, and on top of it you are obviously dogmatic and unmoving (which is, you know, not ideal). But... I'll give it a whirl.
Quote:Dante, I started this thread to ask proponents a simple question, not really the other way round. I am not really interested in philosophical mumbo jumbo myself or answering questions about an afterlife, I do not believe in an afterlife, my position is non-belief so I choose to ask proponents the questions. The burden of proof is on you guys to provide the evidence for your beliefs not the other way round.
And you got answers, and then you addressed my post specifically, I responded, you responded, here we are. People are providing that evidence all over this forum. Go engage in discussion on it. I directly addressed you regarding the reincarnation research, and you ran for the hills. You didn't even attempt to discuss it, even after I made a dedicated thread in the SvP subforum as you requested. The evidence is all over this forum, but you've been otherwise occupied and seem disinterested and completely uninformed about some of the "afterlife" evidence, based on your posts in the reincarnation thread and here.
Quote:It is clear from mainstream science that there is no afterlife. Microbes, bacteria, insects dying in nature every second every minute, nobody seems to care about those. It is human bias from religion, a perverted anthropomorphic world-view to why certain humans believe in an afterlife. Proponents of this afterlife hypothesis fear death and erroneously believe they are 'important' or above nature and somehow and deserve a magical afterlife. I do not choose to discuss the pro and cons of 'afterlife' research, would be a futile task. I was more interested in how proponents would change if they came to realise there was no afterlife.
This one is a doozy. What in mainstream science makes that clear? More of the same from you Leuders, assertions and statements with no support in the form of statements or evidence (this one is just point blank false). What on earth is your point about microbes, bacteria and insects? If they have consciousness in some capacity we would have no more way of knowing about its afterlife than we do our own... no idea what point you're attempting to make with that. It's not based on religion, since there are plenty of people who believe in it (many members of this forum, to one degree or another) who aren't followers of any sort of religion, including some who particularly dislike it. The "fear death" thing is just a sad excuse created by people like you to completely and outright dismiss evidence without actually engaging it. It has no merit. I, and I'm sure others here (and literally all over the place in the world) who believe in an afterlife, don't believe I'm "above nature" (whatever that means - again you're assuming nature has to be reductive) or that I deserve a "magical" (so sophisticated of you) afterlife. I believe what I believe because I'm curious about the question, as many, though apparently not you, are, and I found that the evidence is impressive and significant in my opinion. You are correct, it would be futile, because unless and until you find a way to be less utterly dogmatic and trapped in your single-dimensional worldview there's no point in discussion. You're simply not reasonable or open-minded with a statement like that, which is critical to a balanced analysis of the evidence that you aren't even familiar with.
What do you mean you were interested in how proponents would change if they came to realize (the same almighty, illuminated) knowledge that you possess? Were you expecting this thread to effectively elucidate that for you?
Quote:Tim for example stated " I don't see how humans could or would be able to complete their lives satisfactorily" if they know beyond doubt death is the end. I am trying to figure out why you guys believe this? Proponents seem to strongly bank on an afterlife existing. Their belief in it seems to shape what they do in the now. That is something I do not understand.
For starters, because it's important to actually acknowledge the implications of the worldview you presented in the OP, which you do not. That would be why many people believe that. It isn't about banking on the afterlife existing, though it's become clear that you just don't understand anything beyond basic internet skeptical debunking and cursory, uninformed dismissals of evidence (that, again, you aren't familiar with and haven't looked into - because
you already know the answer). It's odd to you that what someone believes shapes what they do? That's a novel concept?
Quote:I cannot demonstrate this statement with evidence so this one is a speculation from me, but I believe one other possible reason people believe in an afterlife is because they have not achieved much in their life. In conclusion I bottle it down to several types of people who believe in an afterlife:
1. Those brainwashed by religion or anthropomorphic belief systems
2. Those who are unhappy, ill or have not achieved much with their lives
3. Elderly people who fear death
This is the one you can't demonstrate with evidence that is speculative? Not the other 10 points you made that are completely unsupported? Alright, just checking.
Well, let's see. Like Brian (and probably a lot of others), I fit into none of those categories even remotely.
1. I'm not particularly religious, certainly not brainwashed, and am confident that I have a better of what an anthropomorphic belief system entails than you do;
2. I am beyond happy with my life and pretty much always have been, and think I've achieved quite a bit for my age;
3. Not even close.
Quote:Do you agree with any of this?
I know I just answered this, but in the event that you don't read all the way through what I wrote: no, no I don't agree with it.
Again, thank you for making crystal clear your approach to things. It's been illuminating.