Could Theism simply be a human response to the instinctual fear of death?

[childofdust]

Why is the thought that this human existence on earth is the only one there is, so hard to accept?

Let me guess...

You have a comfy chair to sit in during the day in a comfy home with a comfy bed you lie on at night with a refrigerator filled with food - half of which is fake - that you enjoy stuffing in your mouth every day. You live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. You don't fear for your life when you step outside. You are not starving or bleeding to death. You have not watched your family tortured or blown to bits by a terrorist. You do not run for cover when you hear a loud sound. You have not been raped by multiple people. You have not had your most prized possessions taken from you by people more powerful than you. You are not forced to eat something different or sit somewhere different because of your clothing. You are not treated as a criminal or looked at with suspicion by people around you regardless of your actions simply because of your accent or skin color.

Is virtually the entirety of that true for you? Because it's only people like that who have the luxury and ignorance to wonder why anyone else would see the afterlife as vital or important. Travel to Syria right now...or Egypt...or Iraq...and spend some time there. Like five or six years. Really get to experience what people live like on a day to day basis and what that reality is like. Then come back and you tell me the answer. You'll know it like you do your name.

 

[Gladius]

Let me guess...

You have a comfy chair to sit in during the day in a comfy home with a comfy bed you lie on at night with a refrigerator filled with food - half of which is fake - that you enjoy stuffing in your mouth every day. You live in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. You don't fear for your life when you step outside. You are not starving or bleeding to death. You have not watched your family tortured or blown to bits by a terrorist. You do not run for cover when you hear a loud sound. You have not been raped by multiple people. You have not had your most prized possessions taken from you by people more powerful than you. You are not forced to eat something different or sit somewhere different because of your clothing. You are not treated as a criminal or looked at with suspicion by people around you regardless of your actions simply because of your accent or skin color.

Is virtually the entirety of that true for you? Because it's only people like that who have the luxury and ignorance to wonder why anyone else would see the afterlife as vital or important. Travel to Syria right now...or Egypt...or Iraq...and spend some time there. Like five or six years. Really get to experience what people live like on a day to day basis and what that reality is like. Then come back and you tell me the answer. You'll know it like you do your name.

So when a person is confronted with their own mortality, they are more afraid and hence more likely to want to believe in an after-life or eternal life?

Absolutely agree. No atheists in foxholes is an oldy but a truey.

 

[znr]

There are also atheistic beliefs that do include an afterlife.

Do tell.

 

[variant]

I wouldn't call it simple.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Do tell.

I know atheists who believe in ghosts. I was one for a time (an atheist who believed in ghosts, not a ghost, obviously).

 

[variant]

I know atheists who believe in ghosts. I was one for a time (an atheist who believed in ghosts, not a ghost, obviously).

Some Buddhists are atheists that believe in an afterlife.

 

[PsychoSarah]

Some Buddhists are atheists that believe in an afterlife.

That too

 

[variant]

Absolutely agree. No atheists in foxholes is an oldy but a truey.

It's just completely untrue.

Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers | Atheists in Foxholes, in Cockpits, and on Ships - Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers

Many atheists are people who don't feel the need to delude themselves and lie to confront the prospect of being mortal.

 

[Received]

But if there was no afterlife, what would that salvation be for?

Salvation, from "salve", "wholeness," "healing". Salvation is the process of becoming whole by (in the Christian sense) becoming one with God, i.e., doing his will.

There's no doubt that salvation has a considerable post-mortem aspect to it.

 

[jayem]

So when a person is confronted with their own mortality, they are more afraid and hence more likely to want to believe in an after-life or eternal life?

That's part of the reason why Christianity became popular in the Roman Empire. The promise of a blissful, pain-free afterlife is very attractive when this earthly life is pretty rotten, with no way out. Especially if you're a slave, or aren't a Roman citizen in one of the more well-off classes. And the particular genius of Christianity was that the way to achieve such an eternal reward is just to have faith. What could be easier?

No atheists in foxholes is an oldy but a truey.

That might have had some truth in more credulous times past. But not in the skeptical modern age.

 

[SaphireOwl]

Do tell.

Indeed. I'm all ears. (It's the little owl visuals, I know.)

 

[SaphireOwl]

Absolutely agree. No atheists in foxholes is an oldy but a truey.

That's absolutely untrue. There are plenty of atheists in foxholes. And they remain atheists come what may.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Is there a theistic religion which doesn’t include an afterlife, or other method to cheat natural death (e.g. reincarnation)?

Wasn't there a Jewish sect that didn't believe in an afterlife? I thought that I remembered reading that somewhere.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[PsychoSarah]

Salvation, from "salve", "wholeness," "healing". Salvation is the process of becoming whole by (in the Christian sense) becoming one with God, i.e., doing his will.

There's no doubt that salvation has a considerable post-mortem aspect to it.

I just want you to show me what the point of that salvation would be if there was no afterlife.

 

[Received]

I just want you to show me what the point of that salvation would be if there was no afterlife.

See the post you just quoted from. Wholeness, healing via relationship with God.

It's like asking a person with a physical disability, "what's the point of not having your disability if you're not able to extend your overall life expectancy?"

 

[Cearbhall]

No atheists in foxholes is an oldy but a truey.

No.

 

[FireDragon76]

Is virtually the entirety of that true for you? Because it's only people like that who have the luxury and ignorance to wonder why anyone else would see the afterlife as vital or important.

I'm glad somebody chimed in with some common sense on this issue. Western culture has created mobs of people that believe somehow their condition is the natural state of affairs, but often times the horror is just hidden away so they don't have to focus on it.

 

[Gladius]

For everyone who misunderstood my reference to 'no atheists in foxholes', they call this a metaphor, not an absolute statement of truth.

I used the fairly old metaphor as an example of the observed tendency for some people radically confronted with their own mortality to view the suggestion of eternal life as more attractive than their previous agreement to the 'natural' alternative.

If I offended any atheist military personnel or their supporters I apologize. I did not mean to impugn them in any way by erroneously attributing theism to all of them.

 

[Gottservant]

I think there is some truth in saying "if I believe in God and instinctually know I must die, it is God who I instinctually know must die first"

 

[Emmy]

Dear Gladius. Could that be the case when we know, and are being told of the many times, that there is a God who gives proof of His Existence? I myself,
had that happening to me, when I was younger. For a long time I believed that my dead Grandfather helped me, but now I believe that God had sent an Angel to protect me. I say this with love, Gladius. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.