RealmOfThePureForms said:
Anyone who claims there is nothing after this life is doing the exact definition of Nihilism. They are denying all existence. Whether you want to admit this or not, it is true.
It's not the least bit true. I can fully accept that I have a very finite existence and that the world and the universe will happily go on without me once I am dead.
I accept that what I percieve exists, and I accept that it has it's existence independent of my perception.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
I wrote a philosophical paper to challenge one of my atheist professors about nothingness and neither he or any of his colleagues could refute what I said.
That doesn't say much for your professor, then.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
For an atheist that truly believes there is no after life of any kind, there is no purpose to being here.
Not at all. The only purpose of life is to live.
This is just anthropocentrism. A need to feel that you have an important place in the universe, that the universe has a special purpose just for you.
Personally, I view it as extreme arrogance. You think that you are so special that there must be a special reason for you to exist.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
For those people, death is eternal and life is finite. Because the finite is followed by the infinite, then they never existed to begin with.
Which makes the existence of the here and now all the more precious.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
Infinite non-existence is greater than finite existence. No atheist that truly believes this finite life is the only existence would be here right now. No, instead, they would have committed suicide the very moment they truly believed this.
Quite the reverse. With the knowledge that this is all that there is, why would you think that someone would want to end it any sooner than necessary? It can give an even greater impetus to strive for a long life.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
Imagine this.
|finite existence|death|infinite non-existence------->
Nothing in the finite matters. The moment you reach death, you will never know you existed, and thus you never will have existed. It takes a very sharp philosophical mind to understand this concept but just seriously sit down and think about it for awhile and it will make sense.
No, it doesn't. Just because something ends, that does not mean that it never existed. I have no problem with the knowledge that when my life ends, it is totally over.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
If you only live for a finite amount of time, and it is followed by an infinite amount of non-existence, you truly never existed at all.
Not true. Like I said, I realize that existence is not predicated on perception. Existence is independent of it.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
Because no matter how many children you have, or how big of an impact you have on world history, one day, this finite universe will collapse. One day everything in this universe will be gone.
I'm fine with that...
RealmOfThePureForms said:
Memory is all that defines who we are.
No, our actions define who we are. Someone's memories of us is what we
were.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
If there is not some God out there with an infinite memory to know for all eternity everything which has happened to every single person, then there is no possible way for any human being to ever have existed.
By our finiteness, we have been automaitcally doomed to never have existed.
Whether you die today or in 10,000 years, upon your death you will never again know you ever existed therefor it is as if you never existed.
You are welcome to that opinion. I know that existence is not dependent upon perception, so no matter how you try to tie it up semantically. I exist, therefore, from this point foreward in time, no matter what happens to me, I will have existed. Whether or not I have any perception at that point in time is irrelevent and doesn't change the fact that I did exist.
RealmOfThePureForms said:
That is why any atheist who truly believe what they say would have killed themselves the moment they discovered it. There must be some part of every living atheist that feels the end of their life is not the infinite end, otherwise they would not be alive right now to argue atheism.
I would say that you feel that way because
you feel a need for your life to have a specific purpose, and you're trying to project that on everyone else.
I don't have a problem with my existence ending when my life does. It doesn't bring me feelings of despair, fear or dread in any way.