Afterlife/reason to exist

"What reason is there to spend 80 years on earth, trying to get by, only to die."

That's exactly the same thing I've thought about people who believe in (generally) a better afterlife. Why suffer here on Earth at all if you have that much better place waiting for you? Why not either commit suicide or at least put yourself in danger of death (http://img.chan4chan.com/img/2009-09-03/1251998983020.png)? My guess is even if they don't admit it, they still are afraid that their wishes for an afterlife are ultimately wrong and therefore they don't want to put themselves in danger of losing the time they have.



"What reason is there for compassion, love, or any human emotion."

Those things you listed have evolved through ages and they are simply a byproduct of evolution working in order to make our specie* to be capable of spreading our genes more efficiently. I can suggest you a few books that outline the process how they have emerged if you wish.

*) Technically none of these emotions are not human-only but that doesn't really matter much.



"If everything that has or ever will happen is by pure chance, what is all of that for?"

How about "no reason?" :) Why there has to be a reason for anything at all? What's the reason behind a random radioactive element to decay at precisely at that moment that it does? Also, if you want to bring evolution into this then you haven't really studied it well enough. Evolution is far from random chance acting, it's very much a guided process. Guided by natural selection, not anything supernatural.

Of course there was somewhat of a random chance for abiogenesis but if you know about anthropic principle then you should understand why that doesn't matter much either. There are so many galaxies, stars and planets out there that not having life on any of them would be far greater "miracle" than having life on at least some of them.



"Is there any reason to be human at all? Or in fact, any living creature"

Life is sort of like a virus. By its very nature and because of natural selection only reason why and how it can exists is that some chemical processes are self-replicating, occasionally with errors in the copy process. Humans are simply somewhat more advanced examples of those processes working.



"Without a soul or concept of an afterlife, what is the difference between a human and being a rock?"

We simply have more complex chemistry. That really is all there is to it.



"Life on earth is no more than birth. It's just the beginning."

In what form was your "soul" before birth? At what point does it emerge?



"If you want to spend your life here without emotions, without love, without hope, the you can do so."

Why would not believing in anything supernatural translate into not having emotions? I've got plenty of them. I'd even dare say they are more "pure" than that of most religious people due to knowing life here on Earth is all I have and I MUST make the most of it. There are no second chances or eternal "life" in heaven. That empowers me to actually work hard to maximize my happiness. Part of that happiness comes from seeing my close ones happy therefore I try my best to make them happy as well. You could say that that's selfish and ultimately boils down to just making myself feel better and you'd be correct. Then again I can't see what would be wrong with that, in the end everyone would win :) It's similar to how people try to please god in hopes of getting a better chance of getting to heaven but often their religion demands them to commit all sorts of atrocities and being an ass in general (gender equality, non-heterosexual relationships, genital mutilation, hating and condemning people of other faiths, ...).

I know some religious people that live miserably and don't do anything to improve their situation as they are hoping for a better afterlife. It really saddens me that they are wasting the short amount of time they have here like that.



"But I, and the majority of the world, choose not to do so."

I know that fiction and delusions can offer comfort. It doesn't make them any more true, though. Having the majority of people believe so doesn't either. To me people telling each other there will be an afterlife is like people telling children that their parent(s) just went missing or away when in reality they died and will never return. It's evil in its purest forms and when those kids grow up and figure out the truth they'll surely be quite pissed. Only difference with afterlife is you can't go back to ask why you were lied to.


"We believe that people more than sacks of meat."

Just people or life in general? If latter then at what point do you draw the line? Do gorillas have souls? Dogs? What about frogs? Earthworms? Bacteria? Viruses? DNA or RNA itself?



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Another concept I think most religious people haven't really thought through is the afterlife itself. Most religions teach that anyone can get redeemed and can enter the good place. Let's take christianity for simplicity sake. While I say "you" here, assume it's a generalization and not you specifically. I'm sure you could act differently but I'm also certain there are plenty of people that would act as I describe.

In Christianity if you repent your sins you'll get to heaven, no matter what you've done. Now let's assume your uncle used to molest you as a child. Later in life he repented but you still can't forgive him for it. He still likes you (in non-sexual way) and wants to spend time with you as both of you are grownups. Dial forward long enough for both of you to have died and reached heaven.

Now will you and him be there together communicating for all of eternity? For the heaven to be a perfect place for you, you most certainly wouldn't want to be together with him. For it to be perfect for him, you'd need to be together against your will. Can both happen at same time?

If you don't like the molesting example replace it with extremely annoying grandfather that didn't do anything but go on and on about his war stories boring everyone.

Often religious people say that when they get to heaven they are changed in some way so that that wouldn't be an issue. Basically what that means is the very core of who they are is being overridden against their will. They are violently lobotomized. For some people the changes are surely big enough to make them entirely different persons. How is that any different from dying and ceasing to exist for eternity?



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Bonus question - if (traces of) life were to be found outside Earth what would that make you think? If the holy books of most religions are claimed to be direct words of gods how come none of them have ever mentioned that little bit of information?


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You are one of the few religious people that actually seems to be willing to try to follow my train of thought. It would make me rather happy to hear your thoughts about this wall of text and the questions I raised. Feel free to take your time and be sure to watch the video first as I hope it makes you rethink a thing or two :)