How much would humanity's vision of itself change if we knew what exactly happens after death?

> We already know, you just cease to exist.
[citation needed]

user, I give an argument in favor of what I said right after the bit you quoted.

Pssht, you'll make the brainlets very sad, they still assume that Skydaddy will magically resurrect them.

That's just uncharitable. Many very smart, very knowledgeable people believe in God and in an afterlife. It's not a matter of being dumb or ignorant.

>everything dies
>oh, I'm so afraid of dying
>let's invent a children's story about afterlife
Yes, it is pretty hard to figure that

Well, in buddhism's point of view, "you" cease to exist but the mental process (which are not yourself) do not. Your mind remains semi conscious trying to identify with the body (that doesn't exists/can't be re animated) then it starts to have visions/hallucinations until it "rebirths" in another body (with brackets because being the self illusory then nothing rebirths actually)

A good question would be if there is some "mental" activity even when the physical brain doesn't exists/works. Some monk once made a comparission between the "ghost" pain/feeling that people who lost a limb feel and what the "mind" feels after dying

Again, user, there's plenty of examples of extremely brave individuals who were/are christians, psychologizing away someone else's position is almost never the way the go when discussing.

But the ghost sensation only exists in virtue of there being a nervous system. The absence of the limb is irrelevant, because pain is never located in the limb, it's always in the brain.

You know whats the funny thing about afterlife, soul, reincarnation and the like?
There is not the slightest scientific hint to any of it and the only reason those concepts exist is humans are afraid to accept the inevitable. You die, and thats it.

You know how you have a sense of self, perception of your environment, thoughts and feelings, a sense of time, etc?

Imagine all of those gone. Each of those is created by some function of the brain. It won't be like darkness, it won't be boring, it won't feel relaxing or restful, it won't be any experience at all, because the agent that experienced all those things is quite literally dead.

Why can't humans just accept it is over? Nothing magic will happen, there won't be anything left of you, you are just gone.
>inb4, muh like is meaningless, now I must be nihilist

This. There's a reason your brain won't tell you what you secretly already know, death is the end. Some measure of self-delusion is necessary to keep humans functional, this is probably true for all animals to some degree.

What did it feel like before you were conceived? That's what it will feel like when you're gone.

While fear of death is certainly a bit draw for a religion like Kikeanity or Pisslam, there have been religions that didn't offer salvation beyond death, for example Judaism itself in its early stages had no special afterlife, the dead just went to a dismal crypt-like underworld where they sat around miserable and bored forever. Religion appeals to far more than one of our fears, it's an extremely complex phenomenon.

The whole concept of afterlife is just silly at best, something people get upset about if you dispute it because they think it's the persons fault disputing it that heaven does not exist.

What happens to sperm, a fetus, a baby, a child after death? What to the mentally handicapped? What to the senile old?
What's even so great about life after death? The thought of not existing doesn't bother me at all. It's the same as sleeping or the time before you were born.

(plus I don't want my grandma to watch me masturbate)

The concept of life after death is actually very intuitive to humans, even small children have a naturally dualist view of the world, with "things" and "minds" being separate categories. It's easy to extrapolate from sleep, where the mind seems to go to another reality while the body just lies there, and assume that the mind of the dead has gone to that other reality permanently.

>standby
>shut down
know the difference

Children also believe in magic and santa clause. Not exactly an authority as far as logic goes.
Most children simply believe what their parents tell them and that is usually something nice about an all loving god (or mean god if you want to have your children behave) and something to calm them down if a relative dies.
Think about the time before you were born and you know what it's like to be dead. Earth existed for millions of years, humans for many thousands of years.

What are you even supposed to do in the afterlife? Wonder around super happy for eternity and that's it?
Might sound edgy, but the happiest I could be with my face in a pair of tits and my nose full of coke. What kind of happy are we in heaven? What are we supposed to do there?

>Children also believe in magic and santa clause. Not exactly an authority as far as logic goes.

I said INTUITIVE, not LOGICAL. Yes, just like Santa or the solidity of matter, mind / body dualism is a spook. But mocking people for believing in things their brains have evolved to prime them to believe in is simply fedora.

I am not mocking people, but you have to admit human nature is funny, unable to accept the inevitable they come up with magic and elaborate belief systems. I guess it helps to cope with reality.

They're actually coping much better than you are, because they don't realize / won't accept that they're believing in fairy tales.

I think the world would be a better place, less religious conflicts at least.

Unless the reality is Valhalla, that might lead to a huge increase in violence.

Fuck yeah,a I'd go OODIIIIIIIIN!!!! all over you!

Y u so triggered tho

>all this samefagging
No, srsly

This is missing the point of the thread to stir replies. OP obviously means of everyone universally came to a consensus that it was x.Also OoBE directly go against conscious being entirely dependent on bodily function

You have to wonder if animals that mourn the dead like elephants are able to register that it will eventually happen to it. I think they once taught a gorilla sign language, taught it about death, and it replied something along the lines of being scared of that.

Actually, never mind, that was an Onion article. The gorilla (Koko) learned sign language and was able to recognize, express emotions, and talk about death.

> There's a reason your brain won't tell you what you secretly already know

Plenty of people have brains that tell them that, including you.

We'd see different types of explosions if we found out for certain that something happened after death, such as being born into a different realm, or being reincarnated here. Unless there's a karmic caveat, most people would joyfully stop giving a fuck.

If we're born somewhere else, never returning to Earth, there'd be general anarchy. Maybe some people would have enough fear or strong enough morals that they'd try to hide away and secure themselves for the remainder of their time here.

If we're reincarnated here (but without karma) then we'd see some chaos, but there'd be plenty of people who would reason that the place should be kept clean if we're all coming back again. It would be roughly the same logic that people use when trying to make a better life for their kids, but much stronger because it's selfish.

If there's karma? Huge increase in religious life. Terrified people desperately trying to do good and get on the right side of things. Still quite a few who give no fucks.

Why would anything happen faggot

>muh feels make me believe I'm special

Why would you be conscious at all, user?
> muh nihilism

because storing memory of friends, enemies, locations and practices was extremely beneficial to survival of animals

That explains memory, but not conscious awareness.

That is your memory being cross-referenced, you'll realize the true nature of your existence when you sustain an injury to the brain.

The thought of the void and nothingness after death terrifiese and often keeps me awake at night.

So yeah, bad idea to have everyone like that.

That dodges the question. Why would there need to be a (You) having a conscious experience of that process?

There are very interesting things that happen when the brain is modified.
Read about the corpus callosum being cut in epileptic patients, or the stroke experienced by Jill Bolte.
Read about people who have undergone neurosurgery with all brain activity stopped. Some of them report some quite interesting near death experiences.

In any case, no one yet has a clue what exactly consciousness is.

>void and nothingness
Good news, you literally cannot perceive it because the brain won't work.

I know, that's the terrifying part

>that dodges the question
No, you are nothing but your memory otherwise you are just the initial sensory input from the world and the base functions like an insect. If you were to have pieces of your memory removed you are no longer "you". To understand how easy it is to change a "you" should set clear that what you have is an over attachment to your own physical body and ego.

Have a free trippy video youtu.be/JjprErb__TE

Think back to what it was like for you during the construction of the pyramids, Caesar's conquest of Gaul, the French Revolution etc. It'll be like that.

Nice try satan

I've experienced ego death while maintaining full conscious awareness. I can tell you firsthand that "you" are not simply your body, ego or memory.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_death

Out of curiosity, have you experienced this?
If so, how did you come out of it with that belief?

This.

I smoked weed and tripped on acid and the ego died but it just became more clear, you merely have an attachment to your vessel, your brain included as the vessel, your memories. Those will fade because they are just the body, what you are is the accumulation of memory of your environment. I don't really care what other drug users may say about talking to God, that's an unfounded delusion.

>taking a metaphor literally
I think what the monk is trying to say is the limb is to the brain what the brain is to the mind

Greentext of it didn't happen

Out of all of the religions being true, those with reincarnation mixed in would be coolest. Or like the same soul is reincarnated into everyone who ever lived. So you're everyone. I'm you, you're me, we both were (or will be) literally Hitler at some point, as well as the person who got ran over at the protest.

Leary's description is better than I can probably put it, but it's eerily similar to what I mean:

> ... complete transcendence − beyond words, beyond space−time, beyond self. There are no visions, no sense of self, no thoughts. There are only pure awareness and ecstatic freedom from all game (and biological) involvements.
> ["Games" are behavioral sequences defined by roles, rules, rituals, goals, strategies, values, language, characteristic space−time locations and characteristic patterns of movement. Any behavior not having these nine features is non− game: this includes physiological reflexes, spontaneous play, and transcendent awareness.]

That "no place" where there is no spacetime, no self, zero thoughts, but there is a pure, singular awareness of... I don't know what. White light? Eternity? Infinity? It doesn't make sense to describe it with words.

>transcendence
This is immediately a warning to be skeptical of what someone is saying, he's partially on point about transcending social conventions but not biology because the consciousness is 100% biology.

You asked me if I experienced ego death but I don't think you have because it seems you can't let go of this existence. It's also worth saying that ego death is only a brief moment.

It wasn't like that for me. It felt like it lasted eons, and was just as he describes above.
There was nothing else in reality. I let go of all existence, but the fundamental awareness remained.

It could be an illusion. That would raise further questions, like: why are we wired to be able to even have such an experience? If it's the brain that creates consciousness, then how does it do so?

It may turn out to be 100% biology, but that is not proven, and there isn't even a consensus among the people that study it scientifically. You might be surprised at what some of the most respected physicists thought about it. Look into what Planck and Schrödinger had to say.

But everybody knows gnosticism is true user.

You're not seeing how irrelevant any of it would be considering that "you" still do not survive. Your memories are 100% what "you" are and without them you're nothing. Observe a loved one with alzheimer's and see the world they live in, it's like looking at a mockery of what ego-centric humans believe.
The problem is you want to bring "you" with you instead of looking at life as it is.
Every insect an amoebas have just as much a claim on an after life as any animal that just so happens to possess more memory capacity.

didn't address the questions
>why are we wired to be able to even have such an experience
Consequence of the chemical cocktail stirring in our heads where things like LSD make us trip balls, combined with the vast libraries of memories we have to be a foundation for these "visions".

>If it's the brain that creates consciousness, then how does it do so?
About the same way when a computer is fully functioning.

>You might be surprised at what some of the most respected physicists thought about it. Look into what Planck and Schrödinger had to say.
That's their belief then but as someone who accumulated enough knowledge prior to the ego death I was able to observe first hand how susceptible the human mind is to these things, understanding the nature of the ego, understanding what assembles our "personalities" and how fickle it truly is.

>Think about the time before you were born
You don't even have to do that.
Think about a moment you can't remember.
You can't, right?
Now imagine if you couldn't remember anything, not even your attempt to remember.
Welcome to death.

>you will never die in your sleep

I don't think much will happen really. There are a lot of people who know for certain nothing happens after you die, and they don't all behave like . If 50% of the population don't succumb to existential dread right now, I don't see why this would change when it becomes 100%.
On the contrary, if some religion turned out to be true something would at least change for atheists. But nothing much would change for religious people, since they already believed that stuff in the first place.

...

You can never believe what drug users tell you about their experiences, because the notion that there's some validity to their experience is all just part of the drug's effects.

Why would inanimate drugs do such a thing as that?

Why would inanimate drugs get you high? lol

>About the same way when a computer is fully functioning
>it is another the brain is only a computer episode

Because they are actually extraterrestrials.

>We'd see different types of explosions if we found out for certain that something happened after death
Suicide rates would go through the roofs for sure.

That's your belief, but as I said, it isn't backed up by any science yet.

Also, as I'm trying to explain, but can't get through to you for some reason - there is a state that you, as a singular point of awareness can exist in. There is no memory, you don't know who you are, you don't remember that you're human, etc. - but you're still conscious. It's weird. Oh well.

We do in the same sense we ~know~ the sun will rise tomorrow, we know nothing happens after brain activity ceases.

Oh boy this post sucks!
1. Don't appeal to authority. Just because a physicist chimed into a neuroscientific debate doesn't mean you have to take their belief into consideration.
2. There is not a large divide between vitalists and physicalists. Most people studying consciousness consider themselves physicalists- and are hoping to explain consciousness materially.
3. Mental configuration affects the primary aspects of consciousness. Without any mental activity (death) it is hard to see how one could be aware of anything or process any information.
4. You do not have a direct awareness of your experience- it is convoluted within a language and syntactical structure that is publically arrived at.
5. You have about as much knowledge of your inner thought as you have about your friends. Building off #4.
6. There is no "self" to be maintained afterward as self is a contingent concept arrived at by way of #4.
7. No evidence to support anything happening after death. Even if some sort of consciousness persisted, you'd be lacking the mental configuration that makes it possible to perceive it, act, and possibly even think (if thought does happen prior to consciousness and consciousness is only the perceiving of said thought with the addition of language).
8. to build on #7- given all else ceases at death, a continued consciousness would be in some sense synonymous with death, for you wouldn't be capable of perceiving a self, or any information through your senses- on top of this your brain would be dead which means thought would be non-existent as well. Hence, you wouldn't be aware you're still persisting through time, or whatever plane you're in, and this I find to be the same as death.

>If we found out for certain that nothing happens after death, the world would likely fall apart. People just wouldn't give a fuck anymore

That'd be more true if heaven or reincarnation was guarenteed, as people would stop fearing death
Death = nothing = fear/avoid at all cost is more or less the current general stance on the topic

>it's another "I'm special because I'm ME so I must be" episode

No one else is you, user.

>"everything abides by a logic and functions at the result of a joining of parts"
>"EXCEPT MEEEEEEEE"

see: ancient egypt

How do the afterlifers explain those who have died and been medically resuscitated, and experienced nothing during their time dead?

>All squares are rectangles therefore all rectangles are squares!

>heaven
>reincarnation
If your typical heaven or reincarnation were guaranteed, the opposite would happen. If you don't give a fuck and be a piece of shit your whole life, you'll either burn in hell for eternity or be reincarnated as a bacterium in some guy's ass.

I've heard Catholics say you remain dead until the Final Judgement so it makes sense not to really see anything being resuscitated a few minutes later.

Others use NDE's as evidence to the contrary.

Holy fuck this post just ignited my existential dread

But then there are plenty who did and came back knowing things about a person or place they would have never known.
NDE's are spooky.

Humans wouldn't be humans anymore for we only exist within the concept of death

>we exist in this completely absurd reality not knowing the point, how or why we came into existence

>b-but nothing can exist on the other side! Death is the end even though humans can only perceive 0.00000001% of the electromagnetic spectrum!

>How much would humanity's vision of itself change if we knew what exactly happens after death?
>If we found out for certain that nothing happens after death, the world would likely fall apart. People just wouldn't give a fuck anymore. The more extreme religious people would go apeshit. I doubt they'd buy it. Some would remain skeptical.

There's pretty good evidence for a soul which is pretty good evidence for an afterlife..

> Now, if we knew what happens (and it became a mainstream stuff like any scientific "truth") it would change completely our cosmovision as species.

Why is that? Do you need a reason to be a good person?

youtube.com/watch?v=R37BcbpvxiY

>Quantum mechanics

A thousand times this.
How people can be so secure in their belief is beyond me.
Believing that there's something on the other side is as foolish as believing that there's nothing.
Accept the fact that you do not know.
Allow for the possibility of both outcomes.
You'll find out soon enough!

STEMspergs have deluded everybody.
There is an afterlife, that is known.
Evolution does not happen.

>buying STEMsperg memes
>thinking anybody takes your STEMsperg memes
Back to /r/eddit please

>STEMspergs actually believe this

>it's a children's story because i le sed so XDD PICKLE RICK XDD

>muh STEMsperg memes say this so its true!
Letzter Mensch

You're a child. Logic is totally irrelevant and has no authority. It's a meme system made up by primitives.
Teenagers belong on teenage boards, like /b/. Go back.