Secular Thoughts on Life after Death

"Can you be an atheist and also believe in some sort of 'after life' without having to admit to a 'higher power'? I simply cannot imagine not seeing my dogs and family again after death, even though I would call myself an atheist. It may simply be a 'weakness' -- I'm not certain."

"I see no way in which belief in the afterlife and disbelief in a god are able to exist simultaneously. There is less evidence (as I see it) for existence of an afterlife than existence of a god. Aren't wishful thinking and skepticism mutually exclusive?"

"The question is whether it is possible to be an atheist and believe in an afterlife (or the supernatural). The answer is an unequivocable 'Yes!' An atheist is a person who lacks belief in gods. Period, end of story. Belief in an afterlife or the supernatural is a separate issue that has no bearing whatsoever on being an atheist."

"The scientific part of me says when you're dead, you're dead. Game over. Your parts stop pumping and your bits stop beating and you become worm food. However, the human mind has a lot of energy in it. Perhaps when the body dies, and the mind no longer has to deal with all that control and administration, that energy is free to escape. Perhaps it could combine with other minds that passed away before it. And, perhaps, what we think of as God is merely the combined mental energy of all the humans gone before us. But that's just the imaginative side of me coming out."

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