There are no believers in God at funerals

I really like Julian Baggini's retort to the oft-heard saying, "There are no atheists in foxholes." (Meaning, in desperate situations.)

Which, by the way, isn't true. I can also affirm that there are atheists/agnostics in dentist's chairs. 

Here's what Baggini said in his book, The Ego Trick.

But third, it seems that the charge can be turned around: there are no theists at funerals. Many people say that they believe that death is not the end, but the way people behave at graveyards and crematoria suggests that they don't really believe it.

You may cry and be upset at the prospect of a long separation from someone you love. But I don't think that's how death feels to most people. The parting feels absolute and final.

...Beliefs about what follow life can alter how we respond to death, but it seems that the vast majority of human beings at all times and all places react to the deaths of loved ones in ways which only make sense if at some level they really did think that was the end.

This is perhaps a rare heartening example of the inability of obvious falsehoods to really convince, even when most people officially believe them.

Great points.

The gap between what religious believers pretend to believe is true for them -- death is just a transition to heaven or some other "better place" -- and what they quite obviously actually believe -- death is the end of a person's existence -- is huge. 

On the local evening news I frequently hear Christians saying things like this about a loved one's death: "I know he is joyful with Jesus now," "She's looking down from heaven and is still with us," "The Lord took her for a special reason."

Yet scenes of the funeral show faces of sadness. Nobody is laughing, dancing, ecstatic about the death.

(I leave open the possibility that this might happen in some other cultures with a different attitude toward dying.)

So I think Baggini has pointed out how flimsy most religious faith is. If people truly believed that a better life in heaven awaits the faithful after they die, why don't they kill themselves? Or failing that, rejoice when death befalls a loved one who shared their faith?

The reason is that religious believers aren't sure there is a God, life after death, or heavenly realms. They just hope there is. But that hope is at odds with the facts:

No evidence of God, life after death, or heavenly realms.

Thus as Baggini said, "This is perhaps a rare heartening example of the inability of obvious falsehoods to really convince, even when most people officially believe them." 

Comments

[Aileen Kaye]

Exactly.

[One Initiated]

my simple question:

"God" "Life After Death" "Heavenly Realms"

If these terms are imaginary, then the question is who imagined it ?

Could you imagine something else which you think has not ever imagined and also it is not possible to exist ?

A repeated one: Did you try imagining a new color ever ?
A new musical note ever ?

A simple psychoscientific (just thought of this word) theory is that whatever term we use, e.g. Life After Death, where there is any thought of it's existence and any imagination of how it would appear and look like.
We might have a wrong perception of how it would look like.
But, It simply not be imaginary, because we are simply not capable of imagining something which doesn't exist.

Any thoughts ?

regards,
One Initiated

[Brian Hines]

One Initiated, obviously something imagined exists as neurochemical connections within the human brain. I assume that is what you mean -- a thought of something imaginary exists within the consciousness of the person doing the imagining.

Otherwise, obviously we can imagine things that don't exist for others, or in the shared physical world.

For a long time people imagined that the Earth was flat and stood still while the Sun revolved around it. These imaginations didn't exist in external reality, just within the minds of those who believed in an Earth-centered cosmos.

[One Initiated]

Brian, exactly this is what I was trying to mention.

I would like to second that example.

In the examples you gave, clearly we have had the Earth and Sun as visible objects in front of us and were no imaginations, so what the mankind had in thoughts were not a distinctive imaginations but wrong perceptions about how the rotations and revolutions that were happening.

On the notes of Spiritual Literature:

It is really surprising to see that how granted we take the simplest of the theories so easily and think that intelligent human beings were so innovative and had great imaginative powers that they imagined the 9 numbers in the Maths and 52 distinctively sounding alphabets in the Sanskrit (Devnagri Script).
And how godly coincident is that there are 9 realms of Spirituality and there are 52 petals of Lotus each with distinctive sound (from Root Chakra to Crown).
Does it really sound like a mere coincidence ?
Well, I think it can not to a spiritual explorer.

Why human beings have been able to reach the conclusive interpretation that Earth revolves around the Sun is that they kept on trying hard in finding the truth. And they got it !

Since thousands of years, there have been numerous enlightened souls and every single one has depicted the same universal structure as: Physical World, Astral, Causal...
If it was not the case, why would every single person who by the grace of God, reached the God, has been describing the exactly same setup of realms ?

There ARE people who even right now enjoying their lives in the Spiritual realms just by closing their eyes and receiving the eternal bliss.
And only one reason is there for them to experience that is their heart is always filled with Love and Compassion. Love for the Master and Love for every living being.

This is also true that nobody can share (with proof) their spiritual experience with anyone else because the experience can not be captured in any possible ways which is presentable in this physical realm.

When asked about the success secret to a golfer of a world fame, he replied: "The more I practise, luckier I get!"

regards,
One Initiated