Do you believe in any kind of spirits or afterlife?

I ask this because there are many people like myself who consider themselves atheists (well not anymore for me) but believe in a few supernatural things.

I'd like to think there's an afterlife of some sort but who knows. I find life, consciousness and thought to be way to complex and amazing to just vanish after death.

I'd like to think there's an afterlife of some sort but who knows. I find life, consciousness and thought to be way to complex and amazing to just vanish after death.

Pirate700

i hope when i die i stay dead not fly up to the sky or go into the ground somewhere i just want a state of absolutely no thought no being

Nope, no reason to believe it.

I believe in jinns, which are kind of like spirits. The Qur'an describes them as invisible beings that God created from fire. Like humans, jinns have the ability to obey or to disobey God, which also means that some jinns are good and some are bad (FYI, Satan is considered a jinn in Islam; though obviously of the bad variety). I do believe in an afterlife and that humans and jinns will be sent either to Paradise or Hell after they're judged on Judgment Day.

Afterlife: Yes

Spirits: Only the ones that drunks see after one too many.

I think and hope there is something. I want to think that once we die that we don't just rot away in a box in the ground.

Aggggggggggh thinking about this s*** hurts my head.

Yes - I believe in an afterlife.

I do not, no. The concept of the afterlife to me, seems ridiculous. Not only does it defy observed phenomena (the brain stops functioning upon death), but it is philosophically unsound as well. Why do people live this life if the one after is going to be so much better? Why waste time here helping others, when one's personal salvation if the only thing worth giving a damn about? Not accepting the idea of a corporeal and extant afterlife makes one value this one and only life we truly "know" we get that much more. It also motivates one to be a better person since if one wants to enjoy this life, they have to help other people enjoy their lives as well. If we don't, then those other people trying to enjoy this life are going to do the same to us as we do to them. The question I bet everyone wants to know is, am I an atheist? Despite there being several, technical answers (depending on context and definition), I will refuse to answer because it has no relevance to my lack of acceptance of the existence of an afterlife.foxhound_fox

This flimsy argument can just as easily be reversed. Imagine how you'd feel if I said "If you don't believe that there's an afterlife, why do anything but sin? if this is the only life, you might as well live it up, so why care about others if there's no true consequence for sinning?". Do you see how it feels to have your worldview distorted into something you would never endorse in a million years? You have professed to have read the Qur'an, but when you use an argument like the one I bolded, it makes me wonder if you understood much of anything it says. It says that doing good in this life is part of serving God. Caring only about your own salvation is selfish, but you'll never find that teaching anywhere in the Qur'an.

What would you think if I said that I read the Bible and concluded, based on the scriptures, that baptism is a form of dance and that St. Paul was a spanish bullfighter? just sayin'.

I've had personal experience with ghosts so I believe in them. Don't understand why it's so hard for people to consider there's more to us than the chemicals and electricity in our heads. At the same time I don't blame anyone for not believing considering there's so little scientific evidence.

There may or may not be an afterlife, but if there is I'm sure it's different from how religion portrays it.

I believe in both the afterlife and spirits

*sips whiskey*

[QUOTE="Pirate700"]

I'd like to think there's an afterlife of some sort but who knows. I find life, consciousness and thought to be way to complex and amazing to just vanish after death.

POPEYE1716

Good responses, I feel the same way.

I believe in each human having a soul.

This flimsy argument can just as easily be reversed. Imagine how you'd feel if I said "If you don't believe that there's an afterlife, why do anything but sin? if this is the only life, you might as well live it up, so why care about others if there's no true consequence for sinning?". Do you see how it feels to have your worldview distorted into something you would never endorse in a million years? You have professed to have read the Qur'an, but when you use an argument like the one I bolded, it makes me wonder if you understood much of anything it says. It says that doing good in this life is part of serving God. Caring only about your own salvation is selfish, but you'll never find that teaching anywhere in the Qur'an. What would you think if I said that I read the Bible and concluded, based on the scriptures, that baptism is a form of dance and that St. Paul was a spanish bullfighter? just sayin'.dracula_16

No, people are born and people die just in the same way as animals, you don't hear animals banging on about religion, God and afterlife.

i have seen a ghost so.. yes.

Its just strange to consider the notion that everything would/could stop after death. Therefore, being a spiritual person, I believe in some sort of an afterlife, perhaps reincarnation, perhaps heaven, perhaps something else, but I find it hard to comprehend the fact that everything from my prespective could just disappear with death.

Yes. Palantas has died on several occasions, and I'm happy to say that there are spirits in the afterlife.

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]I do not, no. The concept of the afterlife to me, seems ridiculous. Not only does it defy observed phenomena (the brain stops functioning upon death), but it is philosophically unsound as well. Why do people live this life if the one after is going to be so much better? Why waste time here helping others, when one's personal salvation if the only thing worth giving a damn about? Not accepting the idea of a corporeal and extant afterlife makes one value this one and only life we truly "know" we get that much more. It also motivates one to be a better person since if one wants to enjoy this life, they have to help other people enjoy their lives as well. If we don't, then those other people trying to enjoy this life are going to do the same to us as we do to them. The question I bet everyone wants to know is, am I an atheist? Despite there being several, technical answers (depending on context and definition), I will refuse to answer because it has no relevance to my lack of acceptance of the existence of an afterlife.dracula_16

This flimsy argument can just as easily be reversed. Imagine how you'd feel if I said "If you don't believe that there's an afterlife, why do anything but sin? if this is the only life, you might as well live it up, so why care about others if there's no true consequence for sinning?". Do you see how it feels to have your worldview distorted into something you would never endorse in a million years? You have professed to have read the Qur'an, but when you use an argument like the one I bolded, it makes me wonder if you understood much of anything it says. It says that doing good in this life is part of serving God. Caring only about your own salvation is selfish, but you'll never find that teaching anywhere in the Qur'an.

What would you think if I said that I read the Bible and concluded, based on the scriptures, that baptism is a form of dance and that St. Paul was a spanish bullfighter? just sayin'.

first off, when you say sins do you mean making victims of other people, or do you include those behaviors that are the business of no one but the individual?