Are there any religions that do not promise an afterlife?

[ukgrace]

If there are, are they really religions or are they just ways of living like Vegans?

 

[Delphiki]

I think being a vegan is no more than a dietary habit. You can even be a Christian vegan. It just means you don't eat any animal product. (bye bye, vitamin B12)

I did find this, though: The Big Religion Comparison Chart: Compare World Religions - ReligionFacts

It seems that there aren't very many religions without an afterlife. It also seems that the religions that don't relate to an afterlife, it's merely because it isn't addressed. By default, we don't think there is an afterlife until a religion is presented to us.

Seems that the reincarnation view is quite popular, leaving the paradise/hell view to the Abrahamics and polytheism for the most part. The ones without an afterlife do, in fact, seem to be lifestyles and choices like atheism and agnosticism. I think believing in god(s) is directly related to an afterlife, due to the eternal nature of such god(s). After all, how else is man supposed to enjoy this eternal god is man's body isn't eternal itself, right? Hence the "eternal soul".

 

[David69]

I never beleived in reincarnation or past lives etc but then when I thought about all these visions and ghosts that I have witnessed throughout my life, I just realised that what I have been witnessing all those years was 'Communication'

Now, my own beleifs is that we inherit features from our anscestors through our d.n.a; not just our skin, hair, dodgy nose etc but we inherrit, knowledge! (thoughts and every thing that all the anscestors saw with there own two eyes)

Now, who am I to deny that I have been reincarnated when I get visions and knowledge from anscestors? So if they are flowing through me then they are me!
So in the future, I will take a first breath again and will be brand new to this world with untainted eyes and I will probably see myself in the future and when in the future, go back to see what was! It will all be strange and will take a life time, all over again to realise the truth.

So you dont have to be religious or know religion to beleive that there is a re-birth or afterlife. I just wont be manipulated by the promise of some other fancyfull afterlife because to me, any natural afterlife is just a part of life and it comes to us all anyways. Theres no stacks of ritches that comes with broadcasting my beleif but it is just me and no manipulator of the truth!

David.

 

[Wicked Willow]

If there are, are they really religions or are they just ways of living like Vegans?

There's nothing in the common definition of religion that absolutely demands some belief in an afterlife. In fact, they don't even need to be theistic in order to qualify.

 

[xDenax]

I really don't feel like I am promised an afterlife in the more liberal streams of Judaism. Is is denied as if it couldn't be possible? No but it's definitely not a focus and I fully admit there is probably nothing conscious after this life.

And I agree with Wicked Willow.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

The nature of the afterlife is also something that differs by religion. The monotheistic afterlife in particular is explained in great detail consistently from what I know, whereas some later areas of Buddhism, particularly derived from Ch'an, Zen by association, say the afterlife is not the primary concern, that nirvana and satori by association are shifts in perspective and perception as opposed to transferring to another plane of existence.

The one religion I could think of that doesn't truly have an afterlife off the top of my head is not permitted to be spoken of, though some would debate its status as a religion.

Jainism posits a soul, so its afterlife is similar to Hinduism in some respects. I almost thought initially it didn't posit one, but I believe it does.

I would say Taoism and Confucianism don't posit an afterlife significantly and if they do it's purely incidental to their more humanistic concerns, improving people's behavior and lives in the present.

 

[Zoot]

From perspective, Buddhism and Vedanta promise the absence of an afterlife.

 

[ToHoldNothing]

Sikhism seems to suggest that the afterlife is not a plane of existence where you exist separately so much as unite with "God". So that's a potential answer

 

[razeontherock]

Which of course agrees w/ Christianity completely. Hhmmm ...

 

[ToHoldNothing]

Not by any metaphysical technicalities. Christianity promises resurrection of the body, an existence that is separate from God in identity and form, but by theological standards, still dependent and contingent upon God's will. In Sikhism, it's more along the lines of the Gita Hindu idea as I recall of uniting with the world soul, Brahma. You lose your identity in Sikh union with God. You don't lose your identity in Christian communion with God, see?

 

[Penumbra]

The Sadducees, which were a subset of Jews, apparently did not believe in an afterlife. Or at least that's what I've read. They were the Jews that focused on temple worship, so when the temple was destroyed, their practice died out. Also from reading I've found that some pagan beliefs have not included an afterlife. Such deities could provide glory in this life but offered no afterlife.

I think an afterlife is a big thing about religions that makes them popular. If you take out any form of an afterlife then the religion will likely not spread as much.

-Lyn

 

[ukgrace]

I think an afterlife is a big thing about religions that makes them popular. If you take out any form of an afterlife then the religion will likely not spread as much.

Yes if there's no afterlife on offer what reason is there to be religious? after all you don't need to be religious to lead a good life, Christians of course believe that without Jesus everyone is lost and immoral, with no afterlife all that would be of no consequence for them and they would leave in droves, that of course is not the case though they truly believe there is an afterlife so they are going to stick with it until their end.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Yes if there's no afterlife on offer what reason is there to be religious?

I can think of many reasons. Your crops need rain. Your nation needs protection against marauding invaders. Etc.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[b&wpac4]

Yes if there's no afterlife on offer what reason is there to be religious?

In the Jewish Bible, God never promises the Jews that they will have an afterlife if they follow Him. It was about being preserved as a people and the like.

 

[razeontherock]

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
He also [shall be] my salvation:" Job 13:15 He seemed to have a different idea in there somewhere.

 

[b&wpac4]

"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
He also [shall be] my salvation:" Job 13:15 He seemed to have a different idea in there somewhere.

Jewish Translation time:

15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will argue my ways before Him.
16 This also shall be my salvation, that a hypocrite cannot come before Him.


Says something different.

 

[razeontherock]

I don't see a different essence there. You still have Salvation after death, which would be a Prophetic utterance.

 

[b&wpac4]

Here is the Young's Literal Translation:
15Lo, He doth slay me -- I wait not! Only, my ways unto His face I argue.
16Also -- He [is] to me for salvation, For the profane cometh not before Him.



It is still giving the same message: I will argue my ways but I will be saved because the profane cannot come before Him.

 

[b&wpac4]

Ignore this, next question is the one I want to ask.

 

[b&wpac4]

Let me ask a better question:

Why is it whenever I am involved in a debate with a Christian, it's always a verse here, a verse there to prove things? The only chapter I ever get quoted is Isaiah 53, and, just like the verses, I'm supposed to not read what comes before or after the text quoted for the proper context or what's going on.


Let me ask you directly: What is going on in that chapter of Job? Who is speaking, who is the text addressing? What salvation is being spoken of here?

Once you read the chapter, in context, it is clear what is going on.