The mystery of death is not to be told. It is something to be experienced. We all know one thing for sure: we are all going to die one day. And when we do die, we may not get the opportunity to come back and explain our experience.
Many religions believe in life after death. It is said the soul goes out of the body to live a new life in the spiritual realm. A wicked person is sent to hell to be tormented by a blazing fire, while a righteous person is sent to heaven to live an eternal and joyful life.
However, scientists believe that this religious interpretation of death is just a mythology. Some researchers have therefore devoted themselves to unravelling this mystery. The starting point: establish that there is some sort of life after death.
At the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, researchers have confirmed in a new study that there is indeed life after death. The study has been published in the online journal Resuscitation.
The study is said to be the largest ever medical study into near-death and out-of-body experiences. The study revealed that some awareness may continue even after the brain has shut down completely. A human being is pronounced clinically dead if the heart stops beating and the brain shuts down. The condition can also be called cardiac arrest.
According to the researchers, they spent four years examining more than 2,000 people who suffered cardiac arrests at 15 hospitals in the United Kingdom, the United States and Austria. They found that nearly 40 percent of people who survived their resuscitation, described some kind of awareness during the time when they were clinically dead.
Of the 2,060 cardiac arrest patients studied, 330 survived and of 140 surveyed, 39 percent said they had experienced some kind of awareness while being resuscitated. Although many of them could not recall specific details, some themes emerged. One in five said they had felt an unusual sense of peacefulness, while nearly one third said time had slowed down or speeded up.
Some recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun shining. Others recounted feelings of fear, drowning or being dragged through deep water. 13 percent said they had felt separated from their bodies, and the same number said their senses had been heightened.
A 57-year-old man from Southampton, who was pronounced dead for three minutes, said he left his body entirely, watching his resuscitation from the corner of the room. He was able to accurately recount the actions of the nursing staff and the sound of the machines used in his resuscitation process.
Lead researcher of the study, Dr Sam Parnia said the study accurately revealed that people experience some awareness after death.
Dr Parnia was quoted as saying: “We know the brain can’t function when the heart has stopped beating. But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn’t beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped. The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experience lasted for. He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened.”
Dr Parnia also added that many more people may have experiences when they are close to death, but the drugs or sedatives used in the process of resuscitation may stop them remembering.
“Estimates have suggested that millions of people have had vivid experiences in relation to death but the scientific evidence has been ambiguous at best. Many people have assumed that these were hallucinations or illusions but they do seem to corresponded to actual events. And a higher proportion of people may have vivid death experiences, but do not recall them due to the effects of brain injury or sedative drugs on memory circuits. These experiences warrant further investigation,” Dr Parnia said.
Commenting on the study, the editor-in-chief of the journal Resuscitation, Dr Jerry Nolan said Dr Parnia and his colleagues are to be congratulated on the completion of a fascinating study that will open the door to more extensive research into what happens when we die.
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I can not think of a more depressing thought that to think that this life is all there is, this world; this reality is all there is. There is so much hate, violence, pain and depression in this world. I have never understood how atheists could live with themselves, with the thought that this is all there is to life. That would be terrible to believe.
I live with myself quite fine and the answer to the thought of this makes us want to live our lives to the fullest and experience everything the world and its people have to offer, for one day its too late for that, when our bodies expire. I rather pity those who never got the chance to experience anything.
As an atheist I can tell you that life is just as extraordinary from a scientific point of view as it is from a religious one: Every atom in the human body, every atom in every living animal, plant, tree, all came from stars billions of light years away. The energy inside us was created by the big bang and, as energy cannot stop or die, it will continue to flow through the universe until the end of time itself. When a human dies, that energy will never ever die. It will be reused by other animals, other planets, other stars.
s far as I know most atheists will argue that since they can’t hear, see or feel God then He doesn’t exist.
There are many things that we cannot hear (we do not hear ultrasound, yet we use it to examine the baby in mother’s womb), see (we do not see the x-rays and yet we use it to diagnose a fractured limb) or feel (we do not feel magnetism, yet we use it in MRI to diagnose a cancer or brain aneurism). We do not see, hear or feel oxygen and we cant live without it. And yet they exist and are the products of science, not religion. Then how is it possible for you to see,hear or feel god the creator,which is the supreme power, the source of energy and everything. Theres even things in our lives if you feel, you will die such as electricity. Use your brain, he gave it to you for a reason. Muslim point of view
That sir is a completely irrelevant analogy, those things can all be observed by scientific analytical techniques. A magical mystery man in the sky cannot
Point taken but don’t you think the Muslim (or whatever) point of view is sexist in calling (from their view) the one and only God a He?
Oxygen etc. is not a product of science btw., and we do feel it with every breath we take. Oxygen can be studied and verified by science though, which is how we know it exists. As of yet modern science has no evidence of God yet.
in the Arabic language, everything is given a gender. the male gender is refered as “hu, huwa” the female is “hi, hiya” this male or female attribute in writing is given to inanimate objects as well. such as rocks, stars, city, etc. and in the arabic text, the word “God” is a musculine word, while the word “soul” is a feminine word. in the muslim point of view we humans cannot imagine God in any form, gender, race or material. we believe that God is out of this world and human beings cannot imagine God. as God said in His revelation to His messenger, “say, there is nothing, that is like him” . that means the momment we say God is an old man in the skies, we have imagine God as a man, because we know man, we can imagine man, same as we can imagine statues of animals and man ppl refer to as gods. to say there is no God, one must know the definition of God
Beautifully stated. Thank you.
If soul remains anywhere in the body dr or scientist can find .but this wold is dream .real world faced after death
Well it is depressing, but that’s beside the point, because atheism is not about believe. Most atheists care about truth, and what matters to a lot of people is what’s true or not.
if you think it’s depressing that the life we live is the only life there is.. then do something to make it better not just sit there whining on the computer about how you think atheists are so depressing, at least those who believe that this life is all there is do something to make their life and the lives of those people around them better instead of hoping that the hollow promises they were given by a deity that refuses to prove it’s existence is true
As long as one species is consuming another species to stay alive, there is nothing of value in this reality.
not really, it makes you appreciate the time you have more, we have everything to live for and nothing to die for. we were nothing of our lives before we were born, we have no memory of it and the same thing will happen after we die its actually a rather pleasant thought. eternal peace.
we dont beleive in all the god and heaven or hell bullshit but i personaly do believe there is more to our existance than this. it doesnt neccecarily have to indicate a god or angels or pearly gates. perhaps we join with our other selves on alternate plains or planets! mbe this life is just a starting point to a different realm of existance. ive had the out of body experience for about 30 seconds and although it was very weird i didnt see any angels or family or br
ight light etc
I’m an atheist and believe nothing happens when we die. There is no afterlife. The brain just shuts down and it all ends. Our bodies then becomes a feast for maggots, insects and worms. That’s it really.
Atheists live with themselves just like religious people do, except instead of blaming a ‘god’ for the problems with our world, we blame the responsible parties (who, unfortunately, are often doing those horrendous acts in the name of their ‘god’). We take credit for the good, and responsibility for the bad, and know that in order to change our path we need to work hard to achieve it instead of asking someone else to hand it to us.
As for an ‘afterlife’, that isn’t strictly tied to religion, it either happens or it doesn’t. Religious texts generally document it as another means to keep their followers in line, however atheists have no religious texts (obviously) stating their belief or disbelief in an after-life or reincarnation, or anything else for that matter.
Being an atheist does not mean that you don’t believe in certain kind of life after death. It just means that you don’t believe in any religion. The rest is up to the individual.
It’s simple really we’re just not so weak minded that we have to resort to comforting ourselves with lies. Sure it helps to ease the pain of this bullshit world we live in. But in the end it’s still a lie and I’d rather tell myself that this is as good as it gets and truly enjoy the fantastic moments in my life than tell myself that there is something waiting for me beyond death that is way better. Because there’s nothing there…….
Atheist realize the real world we live in were it is mostly violence and tragedy. Atheist don’t just think about negativity all the time, that is complete ignorance when people say that. Not all Atheist are the same, because they fall into no specific category.
You may be right, however have you ever heard the sentence “life is the way you want it to be”, people that believe in life after death usually don’t get to worry about it so much because they “know” they will have more oportunities, lovers, happy moments, smiles, families, goals or whatever they “know” will come after death. I’m not saying there is not such a thing, certainly I don’t know, although I refuse to think about life all the time as gloomy or painfull, because as I said, I don’t know what’s coming next, so it’s a good idea to enjoy the good things that life has for me, and actually TO LIVE!
@righteous
Facing reality is hard most of the time.
But accepting that “this reality is all there is” opens the mind to other ways of thinking and feeling too.
first and foremost, one is motivated to live life to its fullest
Funny I cannot think anything more depressing bdkieving that there is an afterlife.
.
Unrighteous if you believe there is another life for you and find your current one so depressing what is stopping you from killing yourself?
Thats right you know deep down you have just the one life
@David
The bible tells us that suicide is a sin. The fear of committing a sin and robbing yourself of a chance in heaven prevents many religious people from committing suicide and actually keeps them alive.
You argue from the standpoint that suicide breaks one of the commandments: “You shall not murder”
However,
“Suicide is NOT Self-Murder. Over 90 percent of the people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death. They die by suicide because they ARE NOT thinking clearly and are suffering from excruciating emotional pain.”
“the word “murder” implies a very evil intent to bring the most severe harm imaginable upon another person. But with suicide there is NO evil intent and NO desire to bring harm upon another person.”
http://www.suicide.org/suicide-is-not-self-murder.html
So how is this a sin? There is also no proof that the Bible, the way you seem to interpret it, has actually ever kept a severely mentally ill person from harming themselves.
I did not say that you said that.
“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.” Corinthians 3:16-17 –
@righteous You’re really quoting text from your fairy tale book to tell people what’s moral or not? – Which makes no sense in the first place because that’s not gonna stop a mentally ill person from harming themselves. There are more than enough mentally ill people who are extremely religious and who have harmed themselves (or in worse cases others.)If anything religion often exacerbates mental illnes.
Well here’s some morals for you from your fantasy book:
Killing homosexuals:
““If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives.” (Leviticus 20:13 NAB)”
Stoning unruly children to death:
““If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.(Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 89)”
Endorsement of slavery:
“9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.(Titus 2:9-10 (NIV))”
Cursing someones innocent wife and all innocent future generations of offspring, just because they told a lie:
“1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my
praise;
2 For the mouth of the wicked and
the mouth of the deceitful are
opened against me: they have spoken
against me with a lying tongue.
…
9 Let his children be fatherless, and
his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually
vagabonds, and beg: let them seek
their bread also out of their desolate
places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that
he hath; and let the strangers spoil
his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend
mercy unto him: neither let there be
any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off; and
in the generation following let their
name be blotted out.(Psalm 109 (KJB))
And the list goes on and on. It’s probably the most immoral book ever written from a modern standpoint.. and you want to use that to teach people morality? Really? Ever tried reason..? – or basic humanism to figure out what’s moral or not instead of relying on a book which was written by (most presumably drunk) desert people thousands of years ago?
@righteous
I cannot understand how theists can combine their cognition of a “benevolent deity”
with all that is wrong in this world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#Logical_problem_of_evil
@Michel
It is not unique to Catholicism or any religion for that matter. Good things happen and bad things happen, this is just a fact. Evil is the personification, or rationale for why bad things happen. There is light and dark in Wicca, there is Yin and Yang, Good and Evil – so on and so forth. Just an explanation for why bad things occur in the world across several different religions is all.
“There is light and dark in Wicca…”
And what light and dark is that? If there’s any dualism in Wicca it’s because there is a God as well as a Goddess. Wicca isn’t inherently concerned with light and darkness as forms of good and evil.
“… Yin and Yang.”
Again, Yin and Yang aren’t reflections or representations of good and evil but of dualism (male and female or expanding and contracting for example). You try to bring morality into religions that aren’t for the main part concerned with morality.
There is black magic and white magic in Wicca
@righteous : If you actually new anything about Magick or Wicca you would know that it is spelled Magick, with a K at the end. The most used definition of Magick is “The Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will” by Aleister Crowley, yes, the guy who was friends with Gerald Gardner, the founder of Wicca, who was also a member of Crowley’s Magickal Order, the O.T.O. (Crowley is one of Wicca’s big early influences)
Because Magick is a Science (and an Art), calling Magick either black, or white, is just as ignorant as calling physics black or white, or math black or white, or architecture black or white. Sounds pretty stupid right? Black architecture. Just like architecture (which too is a Science and an Art) Magick isn’t concerned with morality. So no, your black Wicca and white Wicca are just as much a fantasy as the books you read.
Just because someone is an atheist does not mean they don’t believe in life after death; they just may not believe the version(s) of life after death religions purport.
As an Atheist, the world of reality as we live in today is only a stage in process of building the Heaven that which you believe in – the only difference is that ours are real and yours are an imagination, but don’t worry you are welcome in here with us when you understand.
This Article: It makes sense that the brain continues to progress in a astral-like state after “death”. It’s black and white to say that a person is dead, any intellectual person knows the world isn’t black and white. Sounds like a DMT trip.
I don’t think atheists believe in finality of death;
more so the disagreement with religion and the interpretations of those religions. Or maybe I am more an agnostic. I just cheer along with the atheist arguments as the world has boiled it down to the two basic labels, atheist or religious.
I can see why the religious are so terrified of death that they take solace in comforting fantasies… but I don’t think life is so terrible or ugly that it makes sense to do that in hope of some better one, later, instead of living this life, the one we know we have. The only one we know we have.
Atheists don’t believe in a God. It states nothing about an afterlife. For example, Buddhists are Atheistic religion that believes in an afterlife. Atheists aren’t concerned an afterlife. Especially not one that judges you on the amount of “sins” you have or how good you’ve been. We care about making a difference in the world of the living, making it a more livable place for those of the future in the time we have here. This article really proves nothing other than a guy who was dead for 3 minutes, was brought back and told people he saw things. That’s not a very reliable source. People are free to believe what they want.
If you’re talking about secular Buddhism, fine, but this relatively new and Western thing. But original Eastern Buddhism is not an atheistic religion in and of itself and has many Deities. Some Buddhist schools ignore these Gods and other schools worship them, but all schools (to my knowledge)acknowledge them.
The article also doesn’t talk about just one guy but about 50 people (whitin a group) who had some kind of experience. Considering they were braindead and their brains couldn’t have been active, this is quite extraordinary and pretty exciting evidence. I agree that this should be researched further though. But I can’t see why these researchers would want to risk their reputation though and science is keeping an open mind.
Also, keep in mind that there are also hardcore atheists who have had near dead experiences. If you want me to back that up feel free to let me know.
It sure is depressing if one hasn’t lived their life doing what they love. The fact that this is our only life, doesn’t that just make it more motivating to do something with your life? It just means it’s that much more important that we take care of our planet and nature, and that much more important to have friends and people by your side.
The hate and violence comes from abuse, people abusing each other and the system for money and control, using that to make more money and control, that’s how they get what THEY want while they make the rest suffer. It’s all very corrupt, and the world is in a pretty depressing state, but we’re many enough to stop it, we outnumber them millions over, we just need to stand up.
I don’t think it’s very depressing at all. The reality of the matter is that none of us know what will happen when we die. I choose to believe based on my idea of rationality that I will just cease to exist like before I was born, and nothing about that scares or bothers me. Because no one knows what will happen is why it’s called faith. Faith isn’t knowing, it’s believing so whole heartedly that you are willing to place all you bets on that idea.
Actually i am an atheist and it’s not terrible at all. I just live my life normally.Yes this world is cruel but believing in something you don’t even know or seen before is not the solution. (For me atleast). I don’t think that someone will ever come to change this world. I think that believing in god is a false hope. Even if we come to discover proof that god is real,why doesn’t he save people like he did in the bible for example.
Life is meant to be hard, a challenge and a struggle – to put us to the test; to maintain the faith. Heaven is your reward for having lived your life the right way, as a good person.
I have heard of going to heaven described as a harvest for example. At the time of harvest crops are inspected and some are discarded, some accepted. Your death is essentially the harvest. You grew throughout your lifetime on Earth. God is growing should for his harvest, his kingdom in heaven. Not all souls pass the test, some must be discarded. To a religious person, heaven is everything this world is not. There is no pain, no tragedy, only happiness. Not everyone is “worthy” to inherit heaven.
We as an individual are in control of our outcome. Everyone on Earth knows the word of God, has access to the bible. Everyone has known of God for thousands of years, there is no excuse. As a religious person you have free will, you have a choice – live by the words of God or not.
I will not lie, it is a comfort to believe that there is a place much better than this in heaven, I certainly hope so.
God does still help people, though he does not speak to people like he did in the old testament. After son of man killed his son (jesus) preachers will tell you God stopped talking with son of man. Even Islam states Muhammad was the last prophet of God. So God is still involved in everyday affairs, though he no longer speaks to people directly, if that makes sense? Hope that answers your question
“I have heard of going to heaven described as a harvest for example. At the time of harvest crops are inspected and some are discarded, some accepted. Your death is essentially the harvest. You grew throughout your lifetime on Earth. God is growing should for his harvest, his kingdom in heaven. Not all souls pass the test, some must be discarded. To a religious person, heaven is everything this world is not. There is no pain, no tragedy, only happiness. Not everyone is “worthy” to inherit heaven.”
That sounds more like you’re describing Hitler than any God I would feel comfortable with. If you do live up to his standards you get to be part of the Third Reich and if you don’t live up to his standards he’ll put you through some holocaust. Talk about depressing.
” Everyone on Earth knows the word of God, has access to the bible.”
No, not everyone on Earth has access to the Bible. The Bible is forbidden (or at least somewhere between being frowned upon and it can cost you your live to own one) in large areas of the world and what about the many tribes who live isolated from the rest of us?
I don’t feed the trolls
@righteous Well how convenient it must be to wiggle yourself out of a discussion by calling the other party a troll when confronted with too much of the truth for you to be able to bear. What did you seriously expect when you placed your first comment here? People would all come running with tears in their eyes and without any opposition at all and full of guilt about how “wrong” they were because of not buying into your sicko, or in the words of Richard Dawkins (because I couldn’t say it better myself) “jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully” of a God, and then you would be the one who would have saved us all from everlasting torture in the flames of hell?
We don’t need saving. We’re already saved – from just this kind of ignorance which some people just don’t seem to be able rid themselves of (even though it is 2016 and we don’t live in a world wide webless isolated superstitious desert tribe)
If you’re worried about feeding the trolls, then you better explain to the people here how, if your God is real, how exactly it is that you’re not feeding the biggest Troll in the universe everytime you kneel down (or not) and say a prayer.
Someone is delusional, self-righteous… I hope you can bear that about yourself, and much more we didn’t discover yet.
There is something more depressing….that there is even more hate and violence still to come in this world and the next..(every world is evil and unjust)
Atheists don’t believe in god, that doesn’t mean they don’t believe in life after death.
Deep down many of them put their faith in evolution and hope that aliens are their creators or at least that they exist and that we can further evolve when we meet them and explore the universe and beyond. Many scientists accept the fact that there are other dimensions besides our own… so aliens that created us… and other “supernatural” (beyond our natural, physical, materialistic reality) dimensions… How is that any different from regular religion and beliefs? It’s not, but they don’t like to admit that they have spiritual-like beliefs or that fact they believe in an all powerful force (evolution) and supernatural interdimensional beings or extraterrestrial beings (aliens) which created them which would be their “gods”.
Righteous, I completely agree about how depressing the thought is. Keep in mind though, there is a difference between the belief in a God and the belief in an afterlife. There are plenty of atheists that, by definition, don’t believe in a God, but DO believe that this world is not all there is. Just a thought. 🙂
Why is believing this is all we have so terrible? I think that makes our time here all the more precious, enjoy it while it last because it may, or may not be the only time we have so live it to the fullest!
This is true. When I say this though I think of the cancer patients, the homeless, the children who are kidnapped and raped in Africa, the children who are born into Wars in the Middle East – people like this who have committed no crime, but are subject to the worst atrocities in the world. This is what I mean. While some people, for example in western culture can surround themselves with luxuries,have nice things and a fairly nice life, there are equally as many people who have no choice but to endure hardship
And your (not really existing) dictator God allows this to happen. It’s like saying either you turn the other cheek and allow yourself to be raped and get to heaven or you kill the one who tries to rape you and go to hell. Either way you’re fucked. Or wait.. you can ask forgiveness for your sins right? Which means I can do whatever I want because as long as I confess and ask for forgiveness I go to heaven anyways. I think you have to be either extremely naive or extremely drunk to believe all this, exactly like the people who wrote the bible.
Before I worked my way down to this response one I tried to take you seriously. Now I understand you are just belligerent troll trying to ruin what was actually, for the most part, a nice conversation on social media – for once.
So, this is for you, from the book you despise so much….
“Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the good sense of your words” PROVERBS 23:9
“A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing their opinion” PROVERBS 18:2
@ righteous I don’t despise the Bible just as I don’t despise Harry Potter. And yeh, I’m a fool and also people can walk on water, or live in the belly of a wale, the first woman was created from the rib of a man, millions of animals would fit on an ark, and snakes and burning bushes can talk. So go on and quote from your fantasy book, but just don’t expect anyone to take your drunken talk seriously.
@righteous
“righteous says:
May 26, 2016 at 4:52 am
… I have never UNDERSTOOD how atheists could live with themselves, with the thought that this is all there is to life. …”
righteous says:
May 27, 2016 at 5:21 pm
… ““A fool takes no pleasure in UNDERSTANDING, but only in expressing their opinion” PROVERBS 18:2 ”
Don’t you feel like a hypocrite today… If only you didn’t believe everything you read in works of fiction, right?
I agree 100%
Yeah it’s sucky, but hey – the world is like it is because of us, Humans. To be honest the sad part is that we have to hope there is something at the end of the light so that all the suffering was worth it. I mean no offense but religion is like a global depression defense mechanism, doing in large what our brain does to protect us from bad thoughts.
“”Religion is the opium of the people” — Karl Marx
A counter-point: What a sad thought to live ones entire life waiting for “a better place”, not realizing that the world also has a lot of love, peace and happiness in it. The thought that this life is all we have isn’t terrible; it’s beautiful. You have to enjoy it as much as you can and be the best person possible – not because you fear damnation or any kind of divine punishment, but because you yourself wish to be kind to others.
I respect your opinion, I just disagree.
Couldn’t have said it better.
It’s worse to see people believe in stuff just because they feel options otherwise are depressing.
How’d you guess?? 🙂 xD It has its benefits though.
Well, I’m an atheist and I am intrigued about the mechanism of awareness of a living being (usually human). It has been shown that just by collecting information we can change the way things behave (double-slit experiment in quantum physics). There have been attempts, however, to use some quantum physics discoveries to (try to) prove the existence of afterlife, however those attempts usually never end up explaining how the topics being talked about actually prove there is an afterlife. It’s just a bunch of facts with some relation between them but nothing that would let anyone draw a logical and objective conclusion about afterlife actually being real.
When it comes to eyewitness accounts, I remain skeptical. People can tell pretty much anything for any reason (and that’s OK), which doesn’t really make for a very reliable method of research.
About my beliefs – I guess I am an agnostic of afterlife. I would like to believe in afterlife, but only when such belief has objective foundation.
However, if there actually is an afterlife based in physics, not religion, and we manage to find and prove it, then what would be stopping a mass suicide of the entire humanity besides an instinct?
I very much believe in the law of attraction. The belief that by thinking/believing positive or negative thoughts, you manifest real world results. It is a philosophy I largely associate with the core principals of Buddhism which I have high regard for. If you have not read more on this, I suggest you look it up.
Buddhism, by summing up what I know, is basically a belief that one shouldn’t do things that may have cause negativity (anger, sadness, for self or others, etc, anything that leads to suffering). Pretty much a religion about being a good human with kindness towards others, making it a religion that I respect the most (or perhaps the only one that I truly respect).
I’m not sure that positive/negative thoughts will have a direct effect on the physical world. I do believe, though, that they change the way you feel, setting your mood to a better/worse one and your actions then reflect your mood, meaning that the positive/negative thoughts have had an indirect impact on your life (the physical world), through your actions.
it is probably a comforting notion to believe that there is nothing after you die therefor allowing yourself to do whatever terrible thing that comes to mind and then not having to worry about any consequences.
I personally found the philosophy behind Pascal’s Wager to be solid advice if there is indeed some form of afterlife.
Be a good person for some 50-90 years and then dont spend an eternity in whatever awaits the assholes of this world.
Read again.
And so The Bible was written.
As an atheist, I can tell you that yes, The idiocy and pain that surrounds me is highly depressing. However, instead of saying, I’ll just go to a better place and there it won’t be so bad, I say; hey, you’re depressed, you’re suicidal, that asshole hurt you? Ok talk to me and lemme help. Instead of saying this life sucks, MAKE IT BETTER. Go help someone, actually help them, physically. Dont go pray for them and only pray. If someone has cancer, donate to help them pay for medical bills. If someone is disabled, has if you can help them reach something. Go out of your way to physically help someone and the world will be a better place. We don’t care what your religion is. Buddhist, hindu, Catholic, whatever. If it makes you happy, youre not hurting anyone and you’re being a productive member of society and a kind human being, we don’t care. Worship a rock for all we care. Just don’t throw it at me and we’ll be all set
I’m here lmao cuz I’ve read one comment from someone like you that’s religious and believes in the afterlife,which I do too but I scroll down and I’ve read at least ten or more comments from atheists! I just think it’s hilarious that this is an article of how scientists prove there’s an afterlife and the majority of people that are reading it is people that don’t believe!ironic to say the least!seems to me that they want to believe or they just wanna shit on all the religious cats lol either way it’s funny. I’m not gon to debate an atheist cuz they can die and be resuscitated meet God in heaven and come back down and still tell you there’s no afterlife!lol
Unfortunately, human reports are unreliable when it comes to research. They haven’t proved anything. This isn’t an experiment one can reproduce under any degree of controlled conditions and get identical results. That is because we don’t even know what conditions to control. I’m not talking just about causing cardiac arrest (if that was the only condition responsible, there’d be 100% of survivors reporting the afterlife). 39% isn’t really assuring.
Let’s wait till quantum physics has something to say about this (and not fall for some random facts that have little to no connection between them and in no way actually prove afterlife).
I think your reply is mostly very reasoned. But 46% (see the actual study: http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572%2814%2900739-4/abstract) is actually quite a lot. That’s almost half. Even 2% who “described awareness with explicit recall of ‘seeing’ and ‘hearing’ actual events related to their resuscitation.” is quite a lot. Thats 2 people in a 100 who are aware of things they couldn’t have been aware of with brains which shouldn’t be able to function at the time. If these results can be replicated (and I see no technical reason why they couldn’t) that would be pretty astonishing.
And yes I see a lot of people who complain about there not being any physical evidence, and I agree that physical evidence would be preferable, but there seems nothing wrong with the way this study was conducted. It’s a behavioral study which happens in psychology (a soft science) all the time.
As a physics student, I’ll choose to remain skeptical until an experiment that even I could perform, provided I have all the tools to control the necessary conditions, is designed. Interviews do not count.
In theory, it would be possible to conduct an experiment to see what’s going on during a cardiac arrest, but such an experiment would obviously be very dangerous and ethically controversial (since it effectively requires killing someone). It would very probably yield very useful information, but getting to the bottom of the “afterlife” problem would very likely require the experiment to be repeated multiple times.
I’m sure that a (more) complete understanding of how our brains work would be very helpful, it would help eliminate much more variables. Some financial support to whoever would be dedicating their time to get to the bottom of this would help as well.
@DZHEX Okay I can see where you are coming from and I certainly agree with a lot of what you say. And it is good to remain critical. The problem of not having any controls is a big one, but not one which is necessarily insurmountable. Soft scientific research does often lead to the discovery of hard facts, and while I feel the above study might still leave a thing or two to be desired, I think it’s an important first step and the results of the study certainly merit further research.
But I don’t think it would require killing people. CA is pretty common so it’s not that there’s a lack of research subjects. What’s more difficult is again controls because in an emergency situation it’s not always possible to connect someone to an EEG for example and see what’s happening. But yes, I think research can and should be done with whatever methods available, but I don’t think that we have to kill people, or that the soft sciences aren’t good enough to find out more about these phenomena.
Sensei, by “effectively killing someone” I mean that a CA is a near-death experience, and one cannot guarantee that whoever the CA will be induced upon will be successfully brought back to life. Therefore, you will need test subjects that are practically willing to die for the cause. As you mentioned, the problem with a random test subject that just happened to get a CA, is the randomness. In order to work this around there must be a protocol that any doctor whose patient has a CA, rigs him up to EEG or whatever device is necessary for testing. That, obviously, isn’t the doctor’s priority and it shouldn’t be (since the doc has a life to save).
The soft sciences (and I thought acoustics was a soft science) can give a very rough insight on what is being researched, which can be quite a long way from actually understanding it (probably a bad example, but – mistaking a galaxy for a star).
I try to live with the idea in my mind that everything serves a purpose, otherwise it shouldn’t exist (since it had no reason to come to be). Psychology is quite an evolved “science”, so there is a lot of valid research on it. However it doesn’t usually state exactly why things happen, outside the scope of psychology. Before I kill myself in hopes of getting into afterlife, I wish to know for sure that I will end up there and why is such assumption valid. And I will need something more than “the guy(s) with CA said so”. (I am not suicidal, do not worry about that)
So, I agree that this study might be valid, but without deeper understanding of it, it will be just plain luck. I am not trying to invalidate afterlife or the research (well, ok, maybe the research a little bit 😀 ), I mean to say that I personally do not trust the research and further research (hopefully from a more exact point of view) is required.
On a side note, I just love your quotes from the “fairy tale book” in the morality context (from a different “discussion” with righteous), and the fact you spent the time to find them. I wonder what righteous will respond to try to defend his book. Probably something about symbolism and about the bad just having to be punished by not necessarily stoning to death.
Theism is worshipping someone or something and going to church for them in order to go to a dimension to live after death. I am not personally full atheist, as I am not fully closed to the idea that someone all-knowing and all powerful is looking down on us, but instead I am agnostic. I have never seen any proof to determine or debunk that the man in the sky, god is real.
From my personal atheist point of view, the ‘miracle’ of life is more impressive than the ‘miracle’ of life from a religious point of view. For me to exist it required one particular sperm from my father (out of the 500 odd billion that he produced in his life) with one particular egg from my mother. For each of them to have been born it required the same from their parents. This can trace back to the beginning of life of this planet. One single change to this exact sequence then I would fail to exist. Looking at the paradox of the virtual impossibility of existing and the inevitability of ‘someone’ existing is truly amazing
There is no life after death. Since its a cardiac arrest, peoples brains are still alive for a short period of time. IN this time they enter some kind of end-life DMT hormone outbreak that causes people to see hallucinations like extremely bright light or a dark tunnel.
When the brain shuts down and doesn’t function people shouldn’t be able to have hallucinations. If consciousness relies solely on the brain people shouldn’t be able to be conscious when the brain has shut down. It’s like you can’t game on your computer when it’s about to shut down. You would first have to revive it again.
“Brain death can occur when the blood and/or oxygen supply to the brain is stopped. This can be caused by: cardiac arrest – when the heart stops beating and the brain is starved of oxygen.”
Without enough blood and oxygen in your brain you shouldn’t be able to be conscious, regardless of hormones or psychedelic substances being present or not.
Anecdotal accounts of what happens while the brain is in the process of shutting down is far from empirical evidence. This proves nothing.
http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572%2814%2900739-4/abstract
There’s life after death, just not yours. The distinction is the difference between clinical death and biological death. Clinical death is akin to cardiac arrest, or drowning and is reversible. Biological death is game over. So, yes, I believe people have experiences during clinical death, peaceful sensations due to extremely high CO2 levels, referred to as CO2 narcosis. But to assert there is life after death is folly
This is sheer bonk, they no more proved life after death than proved there is a god. And don’t worry us atheist are happy in the thought we lived a full life and if there’s nothing else we won’t be missing out on anything. What has been proven with lab tests is that brain doesn’t die when the heart stops in fact it continues for more than three minutes, three minutes in your mind can seem like a lifetime. So is there life after death, yes three minutes worth where your brain will protect you from the reality of dying. So take solace in that, create some happy memories so you may have no regrets in the end.
There’s not an option for intelligent people in the modern world to belive in a god, because there are absolutely no signs that there is a god.
Precisely my thoughts!
Also, life after dead might be just as depressing, so atheist or not we might as well just get on with it and make the best of it while we are here. I can’t really see how believing in life after dead would make life less depressing. Even if there would be life after dead, there would still be hate, violence, pain and depression in this world. Being dead and unconscious or alive in some other world isn’t really gonna change that, the difference being if your consciousness is gone at least you won’t be aware of the hate and violence etc. in this world.
It was not us atheists who enslaved people and made their lives a misery and fed them with the lie that not having any fun in this life was somehow a good thing because you go somewhere better when you die.It’s not us killing for more wealth and power.Religion is the scourge of the world, and there will be no peace until people wake up and rid themselves of this poison.
I thought this post wasn’t about religion… Afterlife does introduce a religious context, but, when it comes to “the unknown”, one must keep one’s mind open. I’m an atheist myself, but I would like to believe in some form of afterlife, provided there is objective evidence. However, if the existence of afterlife would be proved from a physical standpoint, what would stop humanity from leaping into it besides an instinct?
I do agree, that religion has more to take from than to give to humanity, so I hope one day objective views of reality will have suppressed any religious rejection of knowledge.
Atheism doesnt prevent belief in life after death. Atheism is not believing in gods of any sort.
The best way to describe it is if a god would be like a TV channel, atheism would be the TV Off button.
I’m an atheist and i don’t really care for what Life gives me After Death. I just try to make myself as happy as i can! So i don’t really need to be afraid of Death. which makes me even more happy and gives me the confidence and the ability to follow my dreams. because if i don’t now i never will..
But if i did believe in life After Death i probably would like to go to valhalla,
That place sounds badass!
All it is, is the brain shutting down.
Righteous, what a name. much christian such wow
NOTHING REAL CAN BE THREATENED
NOTHING UNREAL EXISTS
HERE IN LIES THE PEACE OF GOD
(QUOTE FROM A COURSE IN MIRACLES)
Any Idea of fear or threat is a concept held in the mind. And, because our thought SEEM to come from you or I we claim them & misidentify ourselves as what the mind says we are. (Thought creates)
Amy Mystic will tell you to ask the question -“WHO AM I” OR to be STILL.
Another way to put it is to investigate who or what Notices thoughts feelings and experiences?
The ONLY possible answer is the undefined eternal changeless YOU that had never been separated from ANYTHING. What GOOD NEWS!!
Jung, Potmann, Sherrington, Eccles, Penfield etc believed that the human mind is more than the sum physical parts of the brain.
I’ll be back … as someone else :-))))
I was in a car wreck when I was 18, a friend was riding along. We were both thrown from the car and sustained substantial injuries. I recall the impact, i recall standing over my friend and asking her if she was ok and i remember waking up, gasping for air,unable to move. How was I able to walk over to her and ask her if she was ok? My pelvis and sacrum were both broke. I’ve not talked to her since the wreck. But, It would be interesting to know if I she recalls the events.
That’s to get the best out of it.
I am in no doubt there is life after death.2 much has happened 2me 2even have the slightest doubt x
If you came back, you were not dead!
There is no fairy tales after death. Your processor shuts down. Your body heat is released to the environment.
THE END!
The mind is not attached to brain matter. It’s beyond obvious there is life after death
I can not think of a more depressing thought that to think that there is more than this life,. I have never understood how religious people could believe in a supernatural sky daddy particularly with all the atrocities he has admitted to in the holy books and there being ample proof that even if he could intervene in the evil in this would he wouldn’t. That would be terrible to believe. I don’t need a magic man in the sky to tell me when I’m doing right or wrong and if I didn’t follow his fucked up way he would send me to hell. What a douchnozzle he would have to be to threaten me in order to get me to do what he wanted.
Apart from the first sentence of your comment (I don’t know if an afterlife would be more depressing or not than this life. It’s hard to say if you never fully experienced it), and maybe the first part of the second (I do understand it, they are brainwashed… What I find harder to understand is how they keep it up in this age of information. Stockholm syndrome maybe?),
Thumbs up…
Someone said Atheists are only interested in truth and that that is why they cannot accept comforting “fairy tales” about an afterlife and God.But most posts did not proffer satisfactory contrary explanation for the findings of the reported scientific research. One gets the impression that people have made up their minds what to believe and consciously or unconsciously ignore evidence or arguments that do not support their positions.
The absolute terms used by most Atheists would not strike a neutral observer as consistent with having an open mind.Yes, one can fault specific images or conceptions canvassed by Theists but to rule out in perpetuity any possibility of a better, truer conception of God that would be compatible with logic appears dogmatic and presumptuous. Again, many Atheists have made a religion out of science by insisting that only what science is able to validate can be true.
But there is nothing in the Philosophy of Science or its methodology that confers a monopoly of knowledge on it.As at today only 5% of the observable Universe can be studied by current scientific methods.The other 95% consisting of dark matter and dark energy cannot be directly observed.
To quote Dr Stephen Lampe in his book Thinking about God,Reflections on conceptions and Misconceptions, “…to ask if a person believes in God is meaningless without a clear elaboration of the nature and attributes of God the questioner has in mind..” Many people assume that the conception portrayed in the scriptures is the only one there is. This is not so.In fact the usual conceptions implied by the prevalent religious interpretations are full of so many contradictions and inconsistencies that make them impossible for free minds to accept. I think the Atheists and Theists alike should keep open minds in their honest quest for the truth and not hold on rigidly to their present understanding.
@tMichael
Yes, but many people don’t have a reason to believe in God, whatever this God is or isn’t. Should we keep an open mind for the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? And I’m not talking about accepting the whole Pastafarian doctrine, which maybe contradictory or inconsistent. I just want to find out whether their God, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, is real or not. I mean, it could be real right? Science should keep an open mind right?
So basically I can come up with any God or being or invisible imaginary friend, and tell people they should believe in it (like the Prophets of old seem to have done) without providing them with any evidence (but some of my scribbles in my lunatic diary, which isn’t really proof) And if I concentrate my efforts on the most gullible among us, they will eventually begin to communicate with and have dreams and visions about my imaginary friend, and spread the word. It’s like little children writing letters to and dreaming about, or having visions of Santa Claus, trying to convince themselves and others he is real. And suddenly my (maybe sincere, or maybe not so sincere) delusions have become contagious and turned into mass psychosis. And if by that time the more sober among us haven’t been forced to accept the believes of the delusional masses, they will observe this spectacle and cannot see it for anything other than what it is… borderline psychotic grown-ups believing in imaginary hogwash.
Unless of course you can provide solid proof, or methods through which they can find solid proof for the existence of your imaginary friends, there is no reason to believe in it. Can you blame them? Have you ever observed someone who is paranoid schizophrenic? Their wild claims are often very consistent and without contradictions, and I think it’s a good thing to keep an open mind about their claims too (because what if someone is really after them), but what many atheist object to is blind acceptance or blind faith if you will, even though there is no proof.
So what you are telling me is I should keep an open mind about Santa Claus, or The Flying Spaghetti monster, or whatever magical being devoid of contradictions and inconsistencies you have in mind. And I tell you fine, I’m open minded, and now it’s up to you to provide me either with evidence or with methods consistent with the scientific method through which I can get evidence about the existence of such a being. And if you don’t have any, I just don’t see no reason whatsoever to believe in your wild claims.
I still really liked your comment though. I noticed the same thing yesterday and it needed to be said.
Cardiac arrest and brain death and two very different things.
Life after death cannot be proven as once brain death occurs resuscitation is no longer possible.
The clickbate this site is now producing is getting ridiculous and for that reason, I’m out.
The actual study
http://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572%2814%2900739-4/abstract
I have experienced out-of-body experience when under anesthesia (gas) and IV injection which puts me to sleep. What happened afterwards – I immediately saw Jesus. He smiled at me and got up, stretched his hand forth and a black shadow engulfs me completely then I woke up. That’s it.
Im also an atheist, i believe in that there is something there after we die, i also believe that alien’s are real to, an that they hold the answer to what we should know
Believe it or not God is very real he might not have been called Jesus. And yes the Shakespeare did help write the king james version. But yes there’s a heaven and a hell idk about you guys but I have truly felt the power of the Lord.i know I sound crazy but I went to a Benny Hinn crusade and that was the first time I realized there is someone or another force that truly knows the beginning and the end. I know what I felt because the force knocked me of my feet no magic tricks.trust me if you ever could meet god face to face I bet you would die because the anointing is just that strong far as you non believers god still loves yall because your lost.theres no chance there’s no luck but the power of the Lord.
Too bad there’s not a edit button for those who want to get technical
you are soooooooooooo right god is the only way I don’t think this is the only life
Look at all the athiests being butthurt over this.
There is nothing new here. Death IS the end there is no afterlife and no proof of its existence anywhere. Everything that makes us up, our atoms for example will simply be reused elsewhere.
After all is said and God remains faithful and life after death….. I believe There is life after death.
What I would also like to add to this discussion, is that research done in the field of Lucid Dreams, Out of Body Experiences and Near Death Experiences seems to indicate that the only people whose experiences turn into religious experiences are either religious, or haven’t gotten rid of their religious baggage (they grew up as stringent Christians or in a dominant religious culture for example)
So if these experiences would tell us something about the existence of an afterlife (and they might), what’s sure is that your only chance of ending up in hell is if you haven’t gotten rid of your religious baggage.
And let it be noted that I’m talking about particulars here which only exist in one religion or a group of similar religions (Judeo-Christian-Islamic for example) i.e. Christians who see Jesus and/or a heaven or a hell, Muslims see the angel Gabriel and 7-heavens or the Prophet etc. Things like weightlessness (being able to fly while out of body) or the seeing experiencing of spirit guides, which are (according to the research) often experienced in out of body states aren’t particular to any one religion and do therefore not count as religious experiences (but rather as non-religious hallucinations or non-religious spiritual experiences, depending on the mindset of the researcher)
Some people who have researched this (and who you might want to look into if you want to find out more about this) are:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Monroe (not a scientist, but he wrote the most popular books on OBE’s and his experiences while out of body)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_LaBerge (a psychophysiologist, who through his research is believed to be the first to provide scientific evidence for the existence of lucid dreams, although Keith Hearne was probably earlier, as I only just discovered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Hearne)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Blackmore (parapsychologist, skeptic and atheist)