Have the highest respect for anyone who believe in any form of god/higher power. I tend to follow the shintoist/buddist way of life myself. And to describe my belive (people have different believes when it comes to "their" specific religions), for me it is that Everything has an supreme power and or a will of it´s own. A rock that just lie on the ground, at first glance it doesn´t seem to have any purpose. But, eventually moss will grow upon that rock so therefor the rock most certenly have some energy within/or around it.
The japanese (where shintoism is from) call it Gaya - the way of life.

About afterlife. I think there is a place where people meet after they have fallen asleep (died/past away).

Have the highest respect for anyone who believe in any form of god/higher power. I tend to follow the shintoist/buddist way of life myself.

To echo VictorKruger, I'm impressed! Most times when anyone says "Buddhism" I tend to tune out, because it's clear they've never even heard of Sidhartha, the 'big boat' and 'little boat' sects, etc. etc. Clearly you know what you're talking about!

So here's something I've always wondered, why do humans need to believe in a higher power? Maybe there is one, or maybe there isn't, but every culture across the entire globe has come up with some sort of religion and here we are discussing the possibility of there being one. Why do we care?

Perhaps we care because deep down inside us, all of us mortals want to believe life has some meaning that is beyond the concept of "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." The WW II era Nihilists and Existentialists both believed that life had no meaning, and the best thing to do is to shoot oneself in the head and get out of it. Many did just that. Sartre, a French existentialist, even wrote a play about this idea -- "No Exit" which says "Hell is other people." Inside us is a deep seated desire to believe in something higher than ourselves. So we strive to find an answer. And those who give up the struggle to know, run the risk of losing the will to live.

Good for you. I too believe there is a place where people meet after they die and pass away. Isn't that an empowering and invigorating thought? What a thing to look forward to!!

I agree with you. There has to be a place where we all can meet once again, or else I sue someone; anyone.

I remain an atheist. Religion just doesn't do it for me.

The early chapters of the Bible were never written to provide a literal history of creation. They were written to attribute creation to one God and define the relationship between man and God and man and God. They provide truth but not of a historical kind - but no less truth.

Visit:- http://biologos.org/

Anyway, if there's an afterlife it can't be so bad. Nobody came back to complain.

That's not a good reason to not like somebody. Being vocal can be a good thing. If someone believed that all babies should be eaten alive, would you be vocal in your disagreement of that?



Those are empirical questions. Why do you believe that consciousness is outside the realm of scientific inquiry? It is most likely because of the subjective ontology of consciousness; i.e., it is experienced subjectively. However, you mustn't confuse ontology with epistemology. Consciousness is a natural phenomenon just like any other bodily process, and facts about consciousness can be discovered and evaluated objectively. Therefore, consciousness is well within the realm of scientific inquiry, and there are many scientists who are generating and testing brain-based hypotheses about consciousness today. (I happen to be in the field of cognitive neuroscience, so this is all very relevant to me and my work.)



Your first statement is false. Other animals (mainly primates) have been shown to be self-aware in behavioral experiments. For example, one study showed that when bonobo monkeys have their faces marked with a spot of white paint, and they are shown themselves in a mirror, they react with curiosity towards the paint. In other words, they are aware of this intrusion into their own body.

It might be true that humans have a greater degree of self-awareness than other species, but this has a completely naturalistic explanation. We now know that there are particular brain systems that mediate both internal and external self-awareness.

And we are most definitely not the only species capable of "thinking." As a graduate of psychology, I can tell you that "thinking" is best defined as the ability to process information from the environment and use that information to influence future behaviors. Most animals engage in some form of thinking - perhaps not the same as human thinking, but who's to say ours is special? On what basis can you make that claim? Clearly an egocentric one.

And more broadly, nothing in reality is "beyond nature" or "too special to be explained by science." That is a pure fallacy of ignorance. There are many mysteries in nature, but it is never appropriate to conclude that some mystery will never be understood. Humans have thought this way about everything at one time, and so far we have always been wrong. Our intuitions can be, and often are, wrong. They are useful, but don't rely on them for an accurate understanding of reality.