IDoNotGetIt

Once again, I’ve got that magic question asked of me.  “So what do you believe happens to you after you die?” My knee-jerk reaction to this question is always that of aggravation because it implies that they do “know” what happens to them after they die and that it even matters.  So after taking a breath and calming myself, here was my reply in a nut-shell.

Lets talk about what I know happens to me after I die.  Assuming my lifeless body is treated in accordance with the laws; it will be buried or burned into ashes.  If I am buried, my body will decompose until eventually, centuries later, it is unrecognizable as a human body.  The atoms that made my body will be released into the environment and eventually become part of something else, possibly a rock, possibly a person, maybe even light itself.  Since, for all intents and purposes, I don’t exist without the brain that contained my memories, thoughts, desires, etc.  I will, essentially, cease to exist.

So, they basically agreed with that stuff, but then the inevitable follow up, “so you think you’re just dead, and that’s it?” (In my head, I’m screaming at this point) My reply is “Do I have some reason to believe more than that?  Everything I said is true, considering I can’t possibly know anything else without a brain, why would I presume anything else?”  Of course it is shortly after this that the end of the rational discussion comes as they spew out the obligatory “You’ve just got to have faith.”

I think it’s funny. When I start to have an argument with a theist, I begin by saying that as soon as their argument is reduced to “gotta have faith”, that is the end of the argument.  Sometimes they inadvertently say it out of force of habit and sometimes, they say it when they are just ready to give up.  I remember doing the same thing when I was a theist.