How can one reconcile with life after learning there’s no afterlife?

I’ve read plenty of stories about people’s hearts stopping and being revived, in other words dying and coming back to life, and one thing that the majority say is that they don’t remember anything after being dead. Having been raised Christian I had believed since early childhood in heaven and hell, and whenever things were going bad I would remind myself of Heaven and how great it would be. But now I’m highly skeptical, and I think about it a lot. I hate the fact that I have absolutely no way of seeing my loved ones after death, and that we ultimately have nothing to look forward to. Just to think of all the places you want be able to go, books you won’t be able to read, films you won’t be able to see, people you won’t be able to meet, after you die. Knowing that in no way will I ever see my father, grandfather, or dog again. It’s something I wouldn’t dare talk to my family about, because they’re all very Christian and would go crazy if they found out I wasn’t one. I feel as though my desires are a paradox, because I want to see the world and be a globe trotter because of this lack of belief in an afterlife, knowing I only have this life to do it. While at the same time, I’m reluctant to do this because I know that literally every vehicle in the world has a chance of killing me, and avoiding them would decrease my chances of dying significantly. I don’t think about this as much as I used to, but it still bothers me, and I feel the need to reach out for any help on the subject. I’ll probably ask similar questions later, because it’s a concept I’ve never been able to fully grasps. Any and all help is appreciated.

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Comments ( 23 )
  • ysgadksjab

    No matter what we'll never really know what happens after death, ever. you can't worry about what you can't control. However I believe that there is an afterlife after death, maybe not a heaven or a hell like most religions believe, but I think it'd be more complicated for nothing to happen than fore something to happen. The universe is so big, we are just a spec in the universe. I'm sure there's more we'll explore after death.

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  • Lestat565

    No one knows cause no one can know. I choose to believe that visions some people see is just what happens when the brain shuts down. I believe that we no longer exist after we die. How do you feel about the year 1810? Does it scare you? No cause you didn’t exist yet. That’s whit I think happens when we die. But no one really knows.

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  • raisinbran

    By realizing that you're not important. Then, dying doesn't seem so bad.

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  • nikkiclaire

    No one knows shit and those who do aren't talking. Live life to the fullest, be true to yourself and enjoy the roller coaster.

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  • cinderfloof

    The key is learning to love life. Not the promise of a heaven, but for life as it is.

    Learn to love nature. Appreciate walking outside and feeling the wind around you complimented by the sunlight, the snow, the rain, the plants, and the animals all around you. Nature is vast, nature is terrifying; but if you've ever engulfed yourself in it, you realize that it's beautiful too.

    Learn to love the people around you. Appreciate the way they have their own stories as complex as yours, the way you can make them smile with ease, the way they show emotion and complex thought like no other is capable. Meet those around you. Learn about them, appreciate them, treasure them. Decide that whether God and Angels exists or not, you will dedicate yourself to cultivating happiness.

    Learn to love the way it all ticks. From the atoms in your cells that make up your tissues and your organs that cultivate into systems and finally your body. Learn about how that all grows. Learn about how it rains, how people develop, how the universe came from a cluster of atoms to everything it is in all its glory. Recognize that you're small, but that you matter. Recognize that you may never understand, but that you've tried - that you'll discover. Find peace in that.

    But most of all, learn to love yourself. Recognize the power of being good when their may be no incentives otherwise, of loving people even when they may bare their darkest to you, of looking for the sun when nature has devastated cities and caused suffering, of forgiving yourself when you can't find the momentary strength to search but finding the courage to look again after.

    When you die with no regrets, with people recognizing the positivism you spread and a deep understanding that you've loved as deeply as you could, I figure you'll be in your own heaven. Nothingness is only an end. You'll be happy knowing you made the story as brilliant and inspiring as it could be.

    With that in mind, I'm not an atheist. I consider myself agnostic more than anything. I don't know if God is real, understand that I'll never know, and reconcile to spend my life being as good as possible for goodness sake and no other. If there's no afterlife, I'll die happily knowing so. If I reach heaven and God informs me that I must burn because I spent my time volunteering and loving rather than praying to Him, He is no God that I respect and I'll gladly burn and learn to love even that.

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    • Hubbard

      That’s literally, Un ironically, one of the best things I’ve ever read in my entire life!

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  • trent2a

    I used to have this fear and I was a Christian so I decided to really research different things and make a decision on what I thought was most likely true. After everything I felt like an eternal heaven or hell was the most likely and logical answer

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    • Alvex

      So you believe there is an afterlife? Just want to make sure I understand your comment.

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    • Lestat565

      And how is believing in a heaven or hell logical.

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  • tiedyedpillowcase

    Hm...my grandpa had a heart surgery and flatlined during it. He says that he saw the operators and his own body, lying on the table. He felt warmth on his back and he said, “I knew if I was to turn around, I’d never turn back to my life.” He returned to his body, and is living to this day. I wouldn’t let these stories damage your testimony of your church. I’ve heard people dying and not seeing anything, but I’ve also hear many stories of people seeing and feeling the afterlife.

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  • Lestat565

    Have you actually read the Bible? Cause I have and the problem with it. Is that you can pick and choose the parts that you agree with. You talk about Jews not really relying on their book. But none of the religious do. They are taught by mommy and daddy that this is right and then they believe it cause mommy and daddy can’t be wrong. If a god exist and it’s a just god than he can’t be the god from these religions.

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  • User007

    वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहाय नवानि गृह्णतिः, नरः अपराणि,
    तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णानि, अन्यानि संयाति, नवानि, देही।।

    As a human being puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.

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  • User007

    न जायते, म्रियते, वा कदाचित् न अयम्, भूत्वा, भविता वा न, भूयः
    अजः नित्यः शाश्वतः अयम्, पुराणः न, हन्यते, हन्यमाने, शरीरे।।

    The soul is never born nor dies at any time. Soul has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. Soul is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. Soul is not slain when the body is slain."

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  • I feel a lot of truth in this.

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  • Lestat565

    You do know that there are over four thousand religions in the world today right? Why is it that the religious always thinks theirs is the right one? Can you prove that your religion is anymore right than any other religion?

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  • McBean

    I just read a collection of various death experiences and there seems to be a common theme. Void, intense peacefulness, a tunnel, and lights becoming stars. Here's a link ->

    https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/people-who-clinically-died-and-came-back-to-life-describe-what-the-other-side-was-like-reddit_uk_59843e3fe4b08b75dcc64012?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_cs=xobb9GLtbiJvnY_JuwobWA

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  • Alvex

    You're right, we're all just stating our own ideas here.

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  • User007

    नैनं छिन्दन्ति, शस्त्राणि, नैनं दहति, पावकः,
    न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः।।

    The soul can never be cut to pieces by any weapon, nor burned by fire, nor moistened by water, nor withered by the wind."

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  • User007

    Follow The sanatan hindu dharma! Say ॐ!

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  • Alvex

    We do not have 100℅ solid concrete evidence of no afterlife. If we do, they may as well tear down every church and religious sanctuary in the world. The atheists have not had the final final say yet.

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    • Lestat565

      We don’t have have 100% solid evidence for or against an afterlife. So what’s your point atheist are not going to take away your religion. most of us will admit that we don’t know cause we can’t know. we only state what we believe.

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      • Alvex

        Good answer

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  • Alvex

    You say you don't doubt God's existence, but you're still scared of nothingness? I don't fully understand your answer.

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