No Afterlife, No Forward Movement

[Sabrina]

I noticed the following signature sported by Impious:

“The soul of the unenlightened man fears casting the dice.” …

… and I was immediately struck by the following thought:

If one did not believe in an afterlife of continuing after death, would one ever take any steps to move “ahead” on the path of life … toward what would ultimately be the end of them?

Sure, we may more readily imagine that a “believer” would take risks with his life, in battle, business, politics, etc. After all, if it gets him killed, he won’t “really” be dead, he’ll still be every bit as much alive … in the afterlife. And so, thinking that to be his eventual case, so what if he dies?! And, he is more apt to take risk carrying that security blanket.

But we often don’t think of the effects of “believing” on mere living one’s life.

Take commitment itself.

Is there a correlation between those who are afraid to commit and a low amount of faith in an afterlife?

After all, who wants to commit for a lifetime, let’s say, in marriage or financial planning or anything, if one has an exacerbated fear of death but lacks an adequate faith in an afterlife? Making and keeping plans that get you thinking about the ultimate end can be easily thwarted by appeal to avoidance conditioning.

And, since we only get one shot at it, it better be perfect … and if there’s just the slightest imagined flaw in “my plan”, then, nope, not goin’ ahead with it.

Also … what about those who have put many of their life’s “unto death” aspects on hold … merely to talk about “stuff” … here.

Career procrastination, directionless, unmotivated … all because of that underlying fear of moving ahead … toward one’s ultimate end. If one doesn’t make commitments to thereby move ahead, the irrationalization goes, one will thus never move at all to reach the end … and so one will never die.

I’m not at all sure that this implication was what Impious meant by his signature – I would guess it meant something else to him.

But this is what struck me.

I’m young, and I have all the time in the world.

But I’m basically “between” activities.

I am wondering, being the unbeliever that I am, if this is an issue for me.

I am also wondering if this is an issue for others, here, and elsewhere, as well.

[Sauwelios]

@Sabrina

If one did not believe in an afterlife of continuing after death, would one ever take any steps to move “ahead” on the path of life … toward what would ultimately be the end of them?

Whether one believes in an afterlife or no, there is no way not to move ahead - in time.

[Ponty]

I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not one believes in an afterlife. I think it’s how you perceive the situation, not the situation itself.

[PieceFullthyme]

@Sabrina

I’m young, and I have all the time in the world.

All you have in the world is your life, here and now that is, " time " is
an Illusion. Everything is in present. Isn’t that fantizzltastic ?

much black love

Jewpiter

[PieceFullthyme]

@Ponty

I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with whether or not one believes in an afterlife. I think it’s how you perceive the situation, not the situation itself.

Situation itself, is How you perceive yourself in It. No One else can’t tell you
your true situation.
There is no afterlife, regardless of what One believe.
End of Life is balancing equation of birth.

much love

Jewpiter

[onlyhuman]

people who beleive in the after life take risks beleiving that there is something afterwards, people who dont beleive take risks beleiving there is nothing afterwards and that all we have is this life.

sufficent to say they are more likely to take risks for they often have no fear of the conciquences there after, and so unlike a number of beleivers they tend to take socially unconventional risks for sometimes exponential gain.

though I have no spacific examples save for lenin, and a few others that never confirmed their beliefs, such as einstine or bil gates. but not beleiving in the afterlife often makes a person drive even harder towards their goal, it’s not knowing what you beleive that is troublsome sometimes.

[PieceFullthyme]

@onlyhuman

people who beleive in the after life take risks beleiving that there is something afterwards, people who dont beleive take risks beleiving there is nothing afterwards and that all we have is this life.

sufficent to say they are more likely to take risks for they often have no fear of the conciquences there after, and so unlike a number of beleivers they tend to take socially unconventional risks for sometimes exponential gain.

though I have no spacific examples save for lenin, and a few others that never confirmed their beliefs, such as einstine or bil gates. but not beleiving in the afterlife often makes a person drive even harder towards their goal, it’s not knowing what you beleive that is troublsome sometimes.

Belief is second Human emotion, first one is physical pain.
One believe, if One don’t know. Everything you know is The truth, and
Everything you believe in, is The Lie.

There is no " We " in this life, not in " Afterlife ".
Names are only for Tombstones.

much love

Jewpiter

[Impious]

@Sabrina

I I’m not at all sure that this implication was what Impious meant by his signature – I would guess it meant something else to him.

The unenlightened man’s experiences are less the result of chance; his soul attempts to remove chance from the equation wherever possible. This is because he is at risk of developing rediculous ideas about the world (or others). The enlightened man is not in danger of doing this. Hence, his soul is less concerned with removing chance from the equation.

[unrealist42]

The believer is easily lulled into lazyness. Why be in a hurry when life does not end?

The unbeliever has no excuses, his sloth is his own.

It is easier to just believe, but far less enlightening.