Seems Like Young People are Less Likely to Believe in an Afterlife?

[Iron Woode]

Religion is the problem, it creates lot of divide, and some people just decide they don't want to believe in God at all. You don't need religion to be Christian, religion is just a distraction and these days it's a big one. Lot of conflict is caused by it.

Unfortunately for those who choose to not believe, the after life exists whether or not you want to, and the alternative to heaven is not pretty... The fact that it's for eternity is what makes it so horrible. Believe in God and that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins and ask him in your heart and you shall be saved. You don't need religion. When Jesus was on the cross there were two thieves beside him. One of them asked Jesus to remember him when he gets to heaven and Jesus told him he will be with him in paradise. This man had sin all his life and was a bad person but was saved at that moment as he believed who Jesus was.

I believe this has a lot to do with biology, especially genetics. We are social animals and have a strong instinctual desire to belong to a group of like minded individuals. It doesn't matter what the group is, as long as we feel wanted and a part of something.

 

[vi edit]

That is false, We do have inherent values and moral. If Humans didn't have them then we wouldn't able to form societies and live in them.

Most of us have pre-programmed responses to exposure. Those responses get more complex based upon complexity of species and in humans, age of mental maturity.

It could be as simple as touching something hot and pulling your hand away. You learn not to do that again because "it doesn't feel good". Same as complicated things such as remorse. Remorse and guilt are survival instincts to keep us from imploding as a species. It's when those emotions are overruled that things start to go sideways. There's nothing supernatural there. It's simply "We shouldn't be assholes to each other because we have to share space will 7 billion other people. It would suck if we were all assholes and we wouldn't be here long." Remorse, guilt and compassion are built in preservation protocols.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That is false, We do have inherent values and moral. If Humans didn't have them then we wouldn't able to form societies and live in them.

There are many animals who form societies and live in them.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Any value or moral you choose to assign to your god was created by… you.

Every value or moral you have was taught by someone else. Some have chosen to change or even refute those teachings. I (and many others) have chosen to follow the teachings of Jesus. That doesn't infer that Jesus is the best or only teacher worth following. It is however from outside myself.

 

[sandorski]

There are many animals who form societies and live in them.

...and those animal societies have morals and values.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

...and those animal societies have morals and values.

Just not ones acceptable to most humans.

 

[sandorski]

Just not ones acceptable to most humans.

They mourn their Dead, adopt abandoned young even of other species, understand power structures to the point of knowing how to cheat and to feel guilty doing so.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

They mourn their Dead, adopt abandoned young even of other species, understand power structures to the point of knowing how to cheat and to feel guilty doing so.

And some drive out or kill members for minor infractions decided by the strongest member or kill children for being annoying or sired by the wrong male. Some also kill other groups who find themselves in the wrong territory.

 

[Mai72]

Every value or moral you have was taught by someone else. Some have chosen to change or even refute those teachings. I (and many others) have chosen to follow the teachings of Jesus. That doesn't infer that Jesus is the best or only teacher worth following. It is however from outside myself.

Did you know that Jesus traveled to India from the age of 12- 29? They are called the unknown years. There is speculation that Jesus traveled to India and soaked in the Buddhist culture there. Learning from the monks of that time. He then took that knowledge and brought it back to the West. Buddha lived 1000 years before Christ, and many of what Jesus taught was very similar to the Buddha.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_years_of_Jesus

 

[IronWing]

Every value or moral you have was taught by someone else. Some have chosen to change or even refute those teachings. I (and many others) have chosen to follow the teachings of Jesus. That doesn't infer that Jesus is the best or only teacher worth following. It is however from outside myself.

No, your morals are your own, you own them. Just as I own mine. The difference is that I choose to accept responsibility for my moral code. I have no need to assign responsibility to others. No outside authority is required.

As far as assigning responsibility for my moral code to a god, I was never much on ventriloquists.

 

[Mai72]

Most of us have pre-programmed responses to exposure. Those responses get more complex based upon complexity of species and in humans, age of mental maturity.

It could be as simple as touching something hot and pulling your hand away. You learn not to do that again because "it doesn't feel good". Same as complicated things such as remorse. Remorse and guilt are survival instincts to keep us from imploding as a species. It's when those emotions are overruled that things start to go sideways. There's nothing supernatural there. It's simply "We shouldn't be assholes to each other because we have to share space will 7 billion other people. It would suck if we were all assholes and we wouldn't be here long." Remorse, guilt and compassion are built in preservation protocols.

Yea. Many people don't realize that most of our responses are preprogrammed. From the moment we come out of our womb the programming starts. Society conditions us to follow the rules. Much of our thoughts are preprogrammed, and they run on autopilot. The thoughts that you are having now, are the thoughts you had yesterday, the day before, etc. You think you have control of your thoughts, and that is not true. Those thoughts aren't even your thoughts.Then, add in biological impulses (sleep, sex, food), and ego gratification. That right there is the human experience in a nut shell. Hell, I will go a step further and say that we aren't even alive. We are just reacting to our environment with little conscious effort.

Why I like Buddhism is because it explains life better than other religions. I really wouldn't call Buddhism a religion though. It's more of a way of life.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

No, your morals are your own, you own them. Just as I own mine. The difference is that I choose to accept responsibility for my moral code. I have no need to assign responsibility to others. No outside authority is required.

As far as assigning responsibility for my moral code to a god, I was never much on ventriloquists.

No one stated or implied your moral code wasn't your own just, that it was learned from someone else. Unless you are claiming your moral code is unique uninfluenced by any other?

 

[IronWing]

No one stated or implied your moral code wasn't your own just, that it was learned from someone else. Unless you are claiming your moral code is unique uninfluenced by any other?

It's a matter of personal responsibility and personal authority. Assigning responsibility for one's moral code to a god is lazy. Passing authority for setting one's moral code to a god is cowardly. The purposes for assigning the origin of a moral code to a god are to dodge responsibility and to claim authority over others. Stand on your own authority as a free person.

 

[whm1974]

No one stated or implied your moral code wasn't your own just, that it was learned from someone else. Unless you are claiming your moral code is unique uninfluenced by any other?

And yet we still have to make choices on what we accept is moral, immoral, and why. BTW, Morality has nothing to do with following a list of rule or obeying some "Authority".

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

It's a matter of personal responsibility and personal authority. Assigning responsibility for one's moral code to a god is lazy. Passing authority for setting one's moral code to a god is cowardly. The purposes for assigning the origin of a moral code to a god are to dodge responsibility and to claim authority over others. Stand on your own authority as a free person.

You seem to have gone off the rails. Lazy? Cowardly? Standing on my own authority as a free person, you've lost it.

 

[sportage]

The real issue is comparing THIS physical life to the possibility of an spiritual AFTERLIFE.
With this current life humans use "sensors" to interact with our physical surroundings.
Eyes, mouth, nose, ears, skin, etc.
For example, if you took away the eyes (sight), and the ears (hearing), and the nose (smell), and even the skin (sensors), you'd basically then be dead anyway as far as ones surroundings go.
SO obviously, we currently live in a life of the physical.
But possibly there may be another life of the non-physical. The spiritual. The afterlife.
Religion certainly talks of the spiritual.
And certainly Christianity refers to spiritual throughout scripture.

All I can address is the religion of Christianity.
And if Christians do die in the physical, and go to a place in the spiritual, then the "physical" would have nothing to do with an "afterlife" per se. It would be an entirely spiritual afterlife. That "could" explain why scripture tells us that people will live "for eternity", or with death and hell scripture no where tells us that hell too will not be eternal.
When speaking of the spiritual, the teachings of Christianity only refers to as an eternity.
Both the good place and the bad place will both be an eternity according to the scripture of Christianity.

I would suggest that when in the spiritual form and while we will no longer have a physical form, yet we will still recognize others that we knew in the physical form of life who are also now spiritual.
Parents, siblings, friends, relatives, and so on.
And if you scribe to Christianity, that might explain not only why life and death are both eternal, but why life in the eternal has no death, no sickness, so suffering, none of stuff we encountered within the physical.
However, Christianity does say that those cast into hell will suffer for eternity. They will be as dead, but their existence will not end. They too will be eternal.
So who knows what the hell THAT means....?

And I guess no one really knows. Or ever will know.
It is insane crazy that humanity has spent so much time and effort on trying to grasp the concept of life and death using religion.
We enslave people over religion, murder people over religion, torcher people over religion, but really.... who the hell knows if those efforts to understand are all but wasted? Humanity killing humanity over what? Religion? A concept? A belief with absolutely no hard proof? Some guys thoughts written down of paper and then elevated as religion?
Show me one individual in history that has died and lived to tell about it?
If talking about Christianity the answer would be Jesus.
But then again, Christianity as with all religions are only the writings from then living people eons ago.
Christians think they are right, Muslims believe the Quran is the only truth.
And then you also have the Buddhist, Islam, Judaism, and I don't even know what Mormons believe....?
Plus, add in there so so many other religions throughout the world with their devoted beliefs.
Well, they all can't be right.

SO getting back to this afterlife thing, I'd simply say we have the physical that we all live in now, and possibly the spiritual as an afterlife concept completely detached from that of the physical.
Or.... maybe nothing at all.
I find it disturbing and hard to grasp that so much of life has existed before our current existence.
Watch a movie from the 1920's. People too back then were all running around and living their life and that society was dealing with great tragedy as well as great accomplishment.
AND NONE OF US WERE THERE!
We were nothing.
We didn't exist.
We had no awareness, no life, we were nothing at all. Zilch. Nada. Lights-out.
Then, considering all that life going on back in the 1920's and we here now had not a clue.
Maybe that nothingness is where we go back to once we exit this life?
Lights-out. The end. Finito.
Because, who really knows?
All we can do with being human is to imagine, and to make things up to soften the fear of the unknown.
I.e. to create our religious beliefs.
But none of us really knows what the hell is going on with life and death and the afterlife.
And should our next phase end up as back to non-existence, back to pre-birth lights-out, well.... the outcome of THAT we will never know either.

PS. If you are currently smoking weed, none of the above applies.
When you die you will go to a weed-farm.
And yes, for an eternity...

 

[ch33zw1z]

Afterlife? Which version created by humans would I adhere to? Lol...

 

[whm1974]

Afterlife? Which version created by humans would I adhere to? Lol...

Well both the Christen and Islamic Heavens and Hell are not anything I want to go to. In Christendom's Heaven you basically kiss God's ass for eternity, and in Hell you get tortured. In Islam if are a male you laid for forever and ever, their Hell well you get roasted for well you know.

Well getting laid often may not seem too bad, I can Imagine after a while this will turn rather boring. What if you find out tha all of your children and loved ones are being cooked?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Well both the Christen and Islamic Heavens and Hell are not anything I want to go to. In Christendom's Heaven you basically kiss God's ass for eternity, and in Hell you get tortured. In Islam if are a male you laid for forever and ever, their Hell well you get roasted for well you know.

Well getting laid often may not seem too bad, I can Imagine after a while this will turn rather boring. What if you find out tha all of your children and loved ones are being cooked?

It serves them right for not believing enough, and you get to point and laugh for all eternity since it's their fault. This is how religion works.

 

[whm1974]

It serves them right for not believing enough, and you get to point and laugh for all eternity since it's their fault. This is how religion works.

Personally I would refuse to serve some tyrant who sent the vast majority of Humanity to everlasting torture simply because they were not lucky enough to be born into Cultures that didn't even know that some god existed.

And Islamic Heaven really sounds like teenage boys sex fantasy.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Personally I would refuse to serve some tyrant who sent the vast majority of Humanity to everlasting torture simply because they were not lucky enough to be born into Cultures that didn't even know that some god existed.

And Islamic Heaven really sounds like teenage boys sex fantasy.

Since both are creations of man, I wouldnt choose either. Both are the way they are because it's a reflection of humans and our inherent flaws.

Its certainly interesting to see how it's a reflection of us and our societies.

Since the two main religions are so big and so influential in our societies, people those are opposed to either are sometimes very emotional about their opposition, can be very vocal about it, and don't pretend like the influence isn't there.

Supporters of these religions often try to downplay their influence, and sometimes support the influence and are brazen about it.

For example, the influence of Christianity in the USA is obvious to anyone who reviews the situation objectively and honestly.