The Afterlife

The common refutations of the Atheistic claim of a non-existing afterlife are based on what is known as the “Argument from Ignorance”. The conclusion reached is false, but the premise of this argument from ignorance however, is grounded in a true principal, that principal being that:

“There is no way to concretely verify the existence or nonexistence of an afterlife. The only way to truly know is if one could die and then come back to tell others if there is indeed an afterlife!”
Therefore, because of the potential impossibility of this type of empirical knowledge on the subject of afterlives, the religionist takes it an unnecessary (and irrational) step “forward” and happily assumes an existence of an afterlife to be more probable than the negation.

The rational atheist is deeply saddened by this because it appears that modern organized religion has transformed “ignorance” into a philosophy to be followed and proud of!

The issue of an afterlife is very important to religion and to the rational atheist as well. It is an important issue because basically and bluntly, one of us is wrong! There either is a literal afterlife or there is not a literal afterlife! Even the skeptical religionist who doesn’t wholeheartedly believe in the existence of heaven or hell is quickly “scared straight” because according to religion, the stakes of this disbelief are extremely high! If the rational atheist is correct that there is no god or afterlife, it is no big deal because when we die, we won’t be in existence to witness it being true! If the rational atheist is wrong about the existence of a god and afterlife, the consequences are “allegedly” very high! The skeptical religionist is easily scared back into their dogmatic beliefs because of this! (This is formally known as “Pascal’s Wager”).

It is also interesting to note that “Satan”, “Lucifer” or the “Devil” allegedly is supposed to despise “God”, but housing, punishing and torturing the very sinners who go against “God” does not seem like the actions of a “Devil” who despises “God”! Anyone using reason would see that the mechanism of going against “God” and being relegated to “Hell” does not make any logical sense. If one takes a minute to think about the scenario, one comes to the conclusion that those, who go against “God”, should from a theological standpoint be an “ally of the Devil”! Why would a “Devil” further punish those who are now an ally to him?

These are the types of things that happen when you analyze a manmade fantasy that obviously wasn’t completely thought out at its time of creation!