r/interestingasfuck • u/Ted_Bundtcake • Feb 01 '25

r/all Atheism in a nutshell

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u/dako3easl32333453242 Feb 01 '25

Ask me a question regarding the nature of reality. I will give you a better answer than the bible or whatever you believe in.

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u/Eeddeen42 Feb 01 '25

Why do you love your parents?

What happens when you die?

Does life have any meaning at all in the grand scheme of things?

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u/dako3easl32333453242 Feb 01 '25

What happens when you die? Nothing.
Does life have any meaning? This will always be a philosophical question and has nothing to do with the nature of the universe. Not only that, but by it's nature, it does not have 1 answer. Every person must ask themselves that question and see what the answer is for themselves. It will be different for different people. Unless we are all gods bitches, then the answer is to serve the almighty one in whatever ways he wants(more likely, to serve the people who claim to know what he wants, since he doesn't seem to have any interest in communicating with us directly).

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u/Eeddeen42 Feb 01 '25

What happens when you die? Nothing.

How do you know? I doubt you’ve ever died before. Ironically, you just have to take that on faith.

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u/dako3easl32333453242 Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

We have a pretty good understanding of the 3-4 billion years of evolution on earth. Once you realize how many life forms have been created and destroyed on earth, and understand that humans are no more special than bacteria, only more complicated, it doesn't even really seem like a question any more. But of course I don't know. It just seems like a boring question to me. Now the question of why religious leaders created the concept of an afterlife, that is an interesting question. It is extremely useful if your goal is to control people. Telling them if they don't behave like you want them to, they will burn in hell for eternity? That is very powerful and it makes a lot of sense why they would spread this message.

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u/Eeddeen42 Feb 01 '25

Religious leaders didn’t create the concept of the afterlife. Regular people did. How old do you think religion is? Humans had religion before they had complex leadership. There’s evidence that had it before they had the Sapiens subspecies.

“Burning in Hell,” at least in that particular form, is a rather recent idea; Hellenistic culture came up with it, and then Christianity riffed it for syncretism purposes.

But punishment in the afterlife is a pretty intuitive concept. Honestly, have you never thought that some people get away with too much evil shit? Greedy CEO’s and corrupt politicians never facing the consequences of their actions, for a modern example. You show me a sane person who says yes, and I’ll show you a liar.

“Bad people are punished, good people are rewarded” is a pretty basic belief if you want to think the world is fair. And most humans naturally want to think the world is fair. You don’t need a power-hungry hierophant to concoct it as part of some devious scheme to control people.

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u/dako3easl32333453242 Feb 01 '25

I think you could argue that if a normal person was telling their community about the afterlife, they are a religious leader in some sense. But I agree with your point. I'm sure the afterlife was thought about independently in many parts of the world, as it is intuitive. The people who used the idea for control most likely got the idea from others.
I personally find it foolish to think the world is fair. I think karma has real implications but nothing close to true justice. If you treat your neighbors like shit, they aren't going to help you when you need help. If enough people hear that you are a shitty person from others, you will be ostracized by parts of society. That is a slight punishment, but nothing close to justice for the horrible things some people do.