Atheism
Atheism is a major religious view in that it is the embodiment of most everything NOT religious while impacting religious thought at nearly every turn.
Many atheists believe that when we die, our physical bodies cease to exist and become decomposed into the matter that makes up the biosphere of nature. That is a scientific view. The more comprehensive atheist view is simply, that when one dies one ceases to exist. However, even though no afterlife experience has ever been absolutely, scientifically verified, that does not mean that all atheists believe it is not possible. Most all cultures on earth, from the primitive to the modern, include the belief in a state of being that is beyond the death experience. In fact, many religions have been developed just to address and contain this innate 'intuitive feeling' that many people have in the belief in the afterlife.
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From an atheists viewpoint, the yearning for something more after death is fairly elementary. It is impossible for anyone to fully grasp the concept of "not being" simply because the experience itself is an entire lack of experience. The concept of nonexistence can be compared to the lack of existence of a human being prior to conception or being brought into the world — the universe was here before one was born and will continue to be here when one is gone — one will just be oblivious to it, because he or she will no longer exist.
Atheists do believe that when approaching death, one may experience "dreams" one's own conscious state has created. So before death, it is indeed possible to enter a sort of heaven, and that being one's final experience, may set a certain mood or feeling before one's total annihilation of 'being'; which will come without pre-existing knowledge.
Some atheist may even believe in some form of "recurrence" (such as eternal recurrence). Such beliefs entail our conscious state existing in some amount of incomprehensible time of universe birth and rebirth, or that our conscious state exists at the same point in every so called 'cycle' of the universe. The possibility of existing in an incomprehensible amount of time is an intersting concept, but most atheists find the idea troubling and near impossible to comprehend.
World-Class Religions and their views:
- Atheism
- Christian
- Catholic
- Judaism
- Islam
- Buddhist
- Zoroastrianism
- Hinduism
- Shinto
- Confucianism
- Jainism
- Taoism
- Sikhism
- Bahá'í
